The Fun Storm Troopers
That-a-boy, Vandy. Like hopefully every other warm-blooded American out there in internetmerica, I applauded Vanderbilt’s fans for rushing the court in their victory over Florida this weekend. Don’t pay that $25,000 fine either, Vandy. Who’s going to make you pay it, the Fun Police?
Since when did storming the court become so demonized? If you’re an unranked team and you can take out the number one seed, I think your rights as a college hoops fan have been violated if you can’t rush onto the court and celebrate.
I’m and American. I want my toothpaste in my carry-on, I want both my swords with me in the Capital building, and I want to rush the court when my team beats Florida. America!
If we let these conference commissioners like Mike Slive take away our fun in the name of “security and protection” then what do we have?
A bunch of frightened people calmly and unemotionally leaving a gymnasium, that’s what. If you want to do that, get Celtics tickets. But if you want to be a true American hero of a sports fan, get college basketball tickets at StubHub.com.
It’s the Hall of Fame, Baby!
In other news… Dick Vitale might be headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Dickie V was up for the award last year, but wasn’t enough of a PTPer to make it.
Whether this time next year Vitale will be a Diaper Dandy in Springfield, Massachusetts is still unclear. He faces competition from Phil Jackson, who was a much better coach, and Chris Mullen, who was a much more serendipitous player.
Dick will have to rely solely on his catch phrases and excitability to make it into the Hall, and considering what he’s up against it’s going to be a Maalox Masher of a competition.
No, sir. It wont be any dipsy-doo dunkeroo slam-jam-bam, baby. He’s going to have to catch fire, but not like his Dukies are now.
If you think that maybe the exclamation “Baby!” should be inducted instead, get NCAA basketball tickets at StubHub.com.
Bubble Thoughts
One team that’s been turning heads and taking names in the past few weeks is Rick Patino’s Louisville Cardinals. A huge win over Big East big fish Pittsburgh gave the injury-ridden team hope, and the Selection Committee something to think about in a few weeks.
The Cardinals have had their ups and their downs this season, and until lately it was a wonder which team would show up on any given game day. Pat Forde likes what he sees in the team that’s suddenly getting healthy at just the right time, but even still, they’re just on … the Bubble.
The Bubble is as dangerous a place to be, and is a little like being Prince. You don’t know whether you’re in or out.
But it’s also an exciting place to be. For bracketeers that like to pick underdogs, Louisville is a team you might want to consider penciling in to the later rounds.
Louisville will have to keep on track in the Big East Championship Tournament, and if it does, expect the unexpected come tourney time.
There won’t be any bracket cheat sheets, but you can find all the Louisville tickets you need at StubHub.com.
Some Thoughts on Vampires and Florida Hoops
Florida tends to get down early in games, as it did with Alabama last night, starting out with a 22-4 deficit. They came back, though, as they often do. Now the Gators are on a 17-game win streak and far and away considered the best team in the country.
But the Gators have a bigger weakness than their tendency to come out of the gates in an uninspired manner. Yes, the sunshine state team actually fears the sunshine.
They will also have a hard time closing out tourney teams that can produce garlic, crosses, wooden steaks, and beautiful mortals who ironically are the one chosen Slayer.
Said pretty boy Joakim Noah after the game: “We’re a team that we taste blood. When the blood is out we’re like vampires. We’re going to get that. And I think that’s our mentality. We taste blood, and when we taste blood, that’s when it’s scary.”
Creepers, that was a scary comment. That was like a quote from an Anne Rice novel as paraphrased by George W. Bush. Yeah, scary.
So if you like your vampires with a pony tail like Tom Cruise and Joakim Noah, get Gators tickets at StubHub.com.
Honestly, What Do You Expect?
Bob Knight got slapped with a reprimand by the Big 12 the other day for his comments about the refereeing in his double overtime loss to Oklahoma State. According to Knight, a critical charging call made by the officials was “horrendous” and “as bad a call as I’ve ever seen.”
I really don’t get the logic of the Big 12. If, say, I had a pet Taradactyl, and I caught it getting up on the bed when he’s not supposed to, I wouldn’t beat it with a rolled up newspaper. You’ve got to let some things go when you’ve got a ferocious beast like Bobby cooped up all day.
Why give the guy a “reprimand?” You think that’s going to cool Bobby Knight down? Honestly? You’re going to wake the sleeping Texas Menace over this?
The Big 12 has to start picking its battles, or Bobby’s going to really let loose once March rolls around. Now you’ve just made him angry.
Knight had a “no comment” about the reprimand, and that’s the scary part, because when Bobby stops using his words he starts using his fists and his fold-up chairs.
Let Knight have his comments. It was a bad call anyways. Just don’t make him angry. You wouldn’t really like him when he’s angry.
If you can keep your mouth good and shut around the bench, try getting Texas Tech tickets at StubHub.com.
First the Good News…
Good news came for Illini hoops fans today. Brian Carlwell and Jamar Smith, who were injured in a car accident earlier in the week, are both expected to make full recoveries. Smith was not seriously injured, but Carlwell had been in intensive care until yesterday. Doctors expect the freshman center to be discharged in a few days.
Bad news came today for the other school with an automobile-related story. Gonzaga’s Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis were arrested on drug charges after a traffic stop earlier in the week, and now the evidence is being taken to … the crime lab!
Crime labs have historically either been the laughing stock of the police force in cinema, or the coolest new spin-off drama on television.
Either way, the whole crime laboratory persona is both entertaining and envious. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of the project to test the exact hallucinogen-icity of those Washington mushrooms?
If you get out of the crime lab early, you might want to check out StubHub.com for NCAA basketball tickets to see if Illinois can rebound from tragedy, and if Gonzaga can face the lab results.
BC’s Studley Jared Dudley
As Conference Championships Week nears, Player of the Year for the ACC is up for grabs. The ACC has a few contenders of the title, including Sean Singletary and Jared Dudley.
Dudley’s performance this season for the Boston College Eagles has been nothing less than stellar. He’s been averaging 20 points and 9 boards per game on a foot that suffered a stress fracture not too long ago.
With the Eagles poised to take the ACC Championship, it would be hard to convince anybody that BC could have done it without their senior floor leader.
The Eagles take on the floundering, trifling Duke Blue Devils tonight in New England. It’s anybody’s guess if Duke will try to make a game of it, but one sure thing is that Dudley will be taking it to the sniffling Josh McRoberts early and often.
Get Eagles tickets at StubHub.com to watch Dudley put the Devils further back in the PRI and ACC.
A Call for Partisanship
Taking a quick look down the AP and ESPN/USA Today Polls, one notices that they are remarkably similar.
As of Tuesday evening, the top four are set: Florida, Ohio State, Wisconscin, and North Carolina, after that, it seems like the two main polls differ by pretty much only one number ranking for most teams.
Example: Memphis is 8 in the AP, 9 in ESPN. Kansas is 9 in the AP, 8 in ESPN. Nevada: 11 and 10, Marquette: 12 and 13. Are these guys copying from each other, or do they just see things so similarly that there ceases to be any need for two polls?
Why are our hard-earned tax payer dollars and the innocent lives of millions going to fund and support two polls that say pretty much the exact same thing and lead people to debate a measly one number ranking?
Please. Let’s see some partisanship in America!
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Countdown to Tourneytown
“We’re in crunch time now,” said UCLA Coach Brad Howland, referring to the end of the Bruins’ regular season. UCLA faces Arizona State and Arizona before the Pac-10 Championship Tournament.
They’re in a tight race with Washington State, and things are tighter still for Howland, knowing that his sophomore guard Darren Collison, who was averaging 13 points per game, will at best be a game time decision Thursday.
The Bruins, who recently suffered a loss to West Virginia, dropped out of the top four in most polls. How humiliating. But there’s no time to think about that now, not with the stacked Pac-10 breathing down their neck, and the fear of a disastrous Conference Tournament performance sinking them even lower in the eyes of the Selection Sunday committee.
My take: rest Collison and make sure he’s ready for the Big Dance, not the little Sun Devils.
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‘Zags ‘Shroom in Vroom-Vroom
The Fall from Grace is a tale as old as Dickey V. Young small towner makes it to the big time in a rush of success, and then fame catches up. She always does.
Gozaga was the darling boy of the NCAA hoops world, a perpetual underdog, ever the Cinderella who gets through the tourney with able guards and a little bit of luck. But old mother Fame caught up to the Zags in a whirl of red and blue lights, boy did she.
The Bulldogs haven’t been America’s team in a while. They’re the favorites now, expected to make it deeper and deeper into the tourney every year. And when they couldn’t, they lost track of what got them so much fame in the first place: perceived middle-American soberness.
Soon, Gonzaga found itself messed up in a world of misdemeanor marijuana charges, mind-altering psychedelic ‘shrooms, and thinking they could drive their cars around at night with no headlights because they don’t even need them, man.
But like most falls from grace, this one was a long time coming.
If you didn’t see the uncovering of drug-use in the Gonzaga future, then take a good, hard look at Adam Morrison. Tell me he’s not hallucinating when he goes to the mirror every morning and decides not to shave his ‘stache.
But then again, this latest news might just be music to the ears of Coach Mark Few, who suddenly finds his team as an underdog once again, just hoping to make it to the dance. They always did their best work when the expectations were the lowest.
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