The students seen here mimicking the tenacious D that propelled Butler into tonight’s Final identify themselves as Kyle Holsinger and Joshua Burt on Facebook – it’s probable that these two are engaging in heavy amounts of nerd hassling directed at the Duke fanbase in the parking lot of Lucas Oil Stadium as we speak.
Regardless of how demented the NCAA tournament gets played out, one prediction holds true, year in and year out – bad predictions. Thankfully, most of them were spoken in hushed tones – I can’t even seem to track down who Dick Vitale picked.
However, with the Final Four set to tip in two days, the time to come clean is now.
Cornell is not all they’re cracked up to be, and everyone should be considering Temple for the Sweet-16 rather than picking Cornell to upset, because Evan Rodriguez is the real deal and Ryan Wittman is just a garden-variety nerd.
Cornell of course were exactly what they were cracked up to be – many a non-genius picked them to go to the Sweet-16. And that nerd Wittman’s NCAA tourney showing included a 20 point showing in their win over Temple, and 24 in their win over Wisconsin. As for Evan Rodriguez, if you do a search, your more likely to find Chi Chi Rodriguez highlights during tournament week. I’d be lying if I said that prediction was based on more on basketball knowledge, and less on just trying to to be a contrarian.
For all others willing to swallow your pride, and cop to poor NCAA tourney conjectures, leave it in the comments below.
His bracket was perfect through to the Sweet-16. He was 0-4 with his Final Four picks. Still, I can’t really give Alex Herrmann – the 17-year old autistic kid from Chicago – a hard time, I only got one Final Four pick – and it was Duke coming out of the Cupcake Region.
It’s sad to see it end for Alex, but I think I speak for everyone who went roughly 4 for 16 on the first day when I say you had a good run.
And where’s the other bracket boy’s bracket? The Lunardologist has been awful quiet this tourney season.
Here’s the photo of what was once an amazing bracket.
The NCAA tournament is roughly 50 hours away – viva la rampant speculation!
I personally did 10 minutes for my peers on how Cornell is not all they’re cracked up to be, and everyone should be considering Temple for the Sweet-16 rather than picking Cornell to upset, because Evan Rodriguez is the real deal and Ryan Wittman is just a garden-variety nerd, thus…
It goes on. Nobody had a good time.
Fact is your friends and office mates want to condone your pontificating as much as they want to blow the whistle on the rampant gambling and implicate themselves.
But we can’t go completely silent, can we?
Therefore, I enlisted a few members of the sports blog intelligentsia to breakdown each region, only stipulation: brevity: get to a Final Four pick – and slip in a few madball Sweet-16ers (Notre Dame) – in 100 words or less.
That said…
East (Jameson LaMarca, Steady Burn):
With guys like John Wall & Demarcus Cousins playing out of their minds, I pick Kentucky going to the Elite 8 after knocking off Texas and Wisconsin. Across from them is Big East Champs West Virginia, who will mow through Morgan State, Clemson, and a tough Marquette.
Who’s in the Final Four? Here’s a big hint: it’s not a #1 seed. While Calipari’s boys have had a phenomenal season, I don’t see them playing on April 3rd. Da’Sean Butler is a beast inside and I think will be too much for the Ashley Judd cheering section.
Consider the Midwest one of the hardest brackets in recent NCAA tourney history. In Kansas you have the overall #1 seed in the tournament and the best team in the country this year. In Ohio State, Georgetown, and MSU you have 3 teams who have been ranked in the top 10 several times this season. In Maryland, you have arguably one of the best players in the country in Greivis Vasquez. Look for Kansas to get to the Final Four, although, a tough rematch of last year’s Sweet 16 looms with MSU and coach Tom Izzo.
There are three teams with a shot: Syracuse, Pitt, Kansas St.
Kansas St. is just the wrong Kansas.
As for the other two, Syracuse won’t go 1 for 13 from three-point again against Pitt nor commit 19 second-half fouls.
Onuaku’s knee be damned; Syracuse is too good. Syracuse over Pitt.
Side note: Is it just me or have the past two years been really dull for making picks? I just don’t see any upsets. The NCAA is making it too easy for people who don’t follow college basketball to have a shot at winning their office pools.
South (Mike Hayes, Steady Burn):
My pick: Duke, sickening, because I’ll watch three Big East teams fall – penance for screaming “You’re a Klingon!” at Singler, heard mostly by a 10-year-old boy – at Madison Square Garden earlier this year.
Duke beats [insert play-in winner], walkover Louisville, then foil Texas A&M, not there yet under Mark Turgeon.
A melee in the Sweet-16 between Villanova and Notre Dame. A beating, but the opposite type Duke handed, for argument’s sake, Winthrop. Victor, throttled.
Prediction: Duke over worn-down Villanova, advances to Indianapolis. Big East fans who loath Huggins wrestle with rooting on West Virginia.
Earlier this week, I exchanged a few emails with my old boss Steve, at one point him asking: Is this the worst team in the history of Fordham basketball….or was last year’s the worst?
This year’s F.U. Rams men’s basketball team is abysmal – 2-20 (0-10) thus far, last in the Atlantic-10. And last year’s team was likewise atrocious (3-25 (1-15). In fact, it translates to a .111 winning percentage over the last two season. However, in all the years I’ve followed Fordham basketball, I’ll always associate the 2002-03 team (my freshman year at Fordham) as the worst team I rooted for – 4-24 overall; two wins courtesy of a St. Bonaventure recruiting scandal.
An anecdote from the first game I attended…
Bob Hill (former NBA coach of the Knicks, Pacers, Spurs) was still the coach that year, and during a late January loss against Xavier some kid started a FIRE BOB HILL! chant that resulted in an altercation between the incisive fan and the moms of the Fordham players. A few months later, Fordham and Hill “agreed to amicably part ways.”
Truth be told, I was mainly there to see David West dominate for Xavier, but I’ve stuck by Fordham’s team ever since!
…
Anyone think they can top this level of lackluster? Chime in and let me know what worst team you ever rooted for was?
If your head did not explode from reading the title of this post, I suspect you are probably laughing or are confused as to what the hell the Beanpot is. In the grand scheme of sporting events, yes, comparing the two is bombastic. It’d be like comparing, ladies and gentlemen, sex with a model to that first awkward drunken make-out/groping session you had freshman year of college.
While the Super Bowl is the grandaddy of all American sporting events (so grandaddy-licious this year that it’s the most watched broadcast event in history), the Beanpot is a tournament involving Boston’s 4 big schools: Harvard, Northeastern, Boston College, and my alma mater, Boston University. Each year, the 4 schools are paired off for a 2 week tournament for the coveted Beanpot trophy. More importantly, these four schools play for pride and bragging rights…and yes, ads do not cost $3 million for 30 seconds.
If you watched BC’s 4-3 Beanpot victory on Monday night at a local sports bar, it made for an unbelievably satisfying sports dessert to The Big Game’s main course. As a BU alum, it was disappointing to lose, especially to our hated rival (Thank god for $1 dollar draft Mondays at Third & Long) and I was not exactly thrilled wake up and watch ESPN’s Top 10 yesterday morning. What was the #1 play you ask? Chris Kreider, BC’s 18 year old freshman, deking out BU freshman Max Nicastro and finishing with a fluid backhander past BU goalie Kieran Millan to put BC up 3-1 during the Beanpot.
Now, I can drunkenly berate the other 3 BC goals (and believe me, I did) but none of us could argue this was a helluva play. Oddly enough, I quickly changed my tune since, if you watched the game, you’d know BU’s David Warsofsky had an equally amazing top-shelf backhander later on. Surprisingly, I was happy. I was happy that college hockey, a sport that doesn’t get nearly enough recognition and is the pride of the BU faithful, was getting it’s due on Sportscenter. Hopefully next year, we’ll reclaim the trophy for a tournament that’s continually ours (29 titles and running). Until then…
What? You didn’t think I’d really end this on a sad note and praising the enemy, did you? GO B.U.
That goofy looking dude’s name is Rotnei Clarke, sophomore shooting guard at Arkansas. He’s ice cold. South Florida coach Stan Heath once saw Clarke hit 94 of 100 three-pointers on a recruitment trip when he was at Arkansas.
Leading up to this past weekend’s inception of the 2009-10 NFL season, I polled the sports blogosphere on What’s the Greatest Sports Day of the Year. Thought we’d get a top-10 out of it, but it turns out everybody sort of likes the same days with a few wild cards thrown in. (Actually, just The Indy 500 sort of puzzles me.)
Therefore, here’s my highly arbitrary Top-5 based on the sports blog intelligentsia’s feedback.
Don’t forget to vote at the bottom…
NFL Opening Sunday
Hanging out in a bar or ensconced on a couch with onion dip for 8-12 hours on a Sunday watching pro football is a truly iconic American experience. We wait all Summer for that experience, the whole time left to believe that sort of behavior is inappropriate and lethargic. Then, on a faithful Sunday in September – no matter what level of balmy Indian Summer weather we’re having – all your dreams come true, sloth. And, it’s not just one day, but the start of 5+ months of Sundays like this.
Here is Adam Best’s (Fansided.com) take on NFL opening day…
Not only is the NFL the professional sports league with the best product, it’s the sports league with the best presentation. After waiting for over half a year for the real thing, you get a taste of actual NFL regular season action on opening Thursday. That just wets your appetite for the 13 games on the Sunday slate. From tailgating to fantasy football, there isn’t a sports day that offers this much from start to finish. Christmas in September. Watching the Red Zone Channel for almost 7 hours before you switch over to NBC for the encore, and ESPN and the NFLN for the nightcap recap. From 8 AM until Midnight it’s all NFL. You can’t get non-stop action and highlights like that anywhere else.
The Kentucky Derby
I’ll take the sights at the local OTB on the day of the Kentucky Derby over any exploding fireworks spectacular. If they put an OTB there, even Mayberry would look like public squalor on Derby day. Utterly, fantastic.
But, to quote something The Cincinnati Kid Steve McQueen might have said – it’s not just the gambling, it’s also the drinking. You can muddle fruit everyday of the year, and it’ll never taste as well muddled as in a julep on Derby Day.
Also, you can wear a seersucker suit or a hat shaped like an extra large Triple Meat Italiano from Pizza Hut every day of the year, and people will always look at you with vague condescension, but at least on Derby Day they’ll have formulated an explanation as to why you’re dressed like a doofus.
The NBA Draft
I got more responses that read I know it sounds crazy, but I really enjoy the NBA Draft. Why so ashamed?
Two rounds, five minutes a pick (two minutes in the second round even), and all the wardrobe audacity that you could ask for in under three hours. I don’t think ESPN could get a more efficient display of unintentional comedy if they got Keyshawn, Kruk and Lou Holtz to tri-anchor SportsCenter live from Pamplona at the Running of the Bulls.
Opening Day
Answer: The first day when teams play each other in this sport is commonly referred to as Opening Day.
What is baseball, Alex. This would be a $200 dollar question in Jeopardy round. Under the category: Sports, amateur hour.
There’s a reason it’s Opening Day, and not Opening Sunday in the norms of society. And, the explanation might be that this is actually the greatest sports day of the year.
Hope springs eternal. Dads with their sons playing hookie from school and work, your first smells of the fresh cut infield and outfield grass, grilled ballpark franks, batting practice and ice cold beer…and then you go home that night to watch march madness…perfection.
The first or second day of the NCAA Tournament:
I used to work with a guy who took Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament off every year, and went to Vegas with his buddies for the first round of the tournament. In a world where most of us lose vacation time do to sinister company policies, he’s an inspiration.
Interchangeably known as the least productive day of the corporate year, sports fans might actually be at their best and brightest these two days. There are 13 games on NFL Opening Sunday, and due to mitigating circumstances (spreads, fantasy players, food comas) you’re bound to let the outcome of one or two slip until Sport Center, Monday morning. Also, due to occurrences like Opening Day: Kansas City at Baltimore, you’re likely to not care about the full MLB slate on April 1. 32 teams play on each of the first two days of the tournament, and you will know the fate of every single one (and you won’t need to reference a fistful of sports book tickets to conjure up this knowledge).
Hit the poll to vote for the greatest sports day out of these five, and check out some other bloggers’ takes below…
1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. Opening Day Baseball
3. Game 7 ( MLB or NBA )
4. NFL Championship Sunday NFC AFC
5. The Big Dance Day 1
6. The Big Dance Final 4
7. The Big Dance Sweet 16
8. First Saturday of NCAA Football
The best sports day of the year for me is New Year’s day. I love college football and having it to watch from 11:00 in the morning until after midnight engrooses me every single year. The first two days of the NCAA Basketball Tourney run a close second, and baseball opening day is third.
This is going to sound ridiculous, but one of my favorite days has always been the NBA All-Star game day/weekend. My birthday always happens to fall on that same weekend so I get to celebrate my bday along with my favorite sport’s all-star festivities.
Enter a Chick-fil-A this Labor Day wearing anything from a mesh Little League cap to a USC song girl outfit, and your chicken sandwich is on the house.
Chick-fil-A Inc. will give away a free chicken sandwich on Labor Day to anyone showing team spirit at one of the fast-food chain’s locations nationwide.
Anyone who wears any sports-related apparel on Sept. 7 at a participating Chick-fil-A restaurant will receive a free chicken sandwich in celebration of the second annual Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta, which will take place Saturday night with Alabama playing Virginia Tech.
According to the Chick-fil-A locator, the only store in NYC is in a New York University food court. Sadly, my resources to gain access to New York college eateries is limited to nonexistent at this juncture. But hey, at least an eatery exists in the city (looking at you, Sonic jerks).
However, if you’re in Atlanta, the birthplace of Chick-fil-a and the site of the annual Chick-fil-A Bowl, you won’t have to bum rush the Georgia Tech or Spelman dining halls to take advantage of the promotion . To quote the restaurant locator, “there are 63 Chick-Fil-A’s near you.” I recommend you to try the buttermilk ranch sauce, Falcons fans.
After The Wheedle debacle of 2008, I didn’t think we would deal with another mascot fiasco so soon, and yet…
William & Mary College, of Williamsburg, VA, known as the Harvard of regional historical societies, has been asked to change their mascot – once the Indians, and for the time being the Tribe. The W&M populus is taking the process seriously – with over 400 suggestions. At the same time, you could argue they are not at all taking this seriously, with nomination like Asparagus being counted and apparently, considered?
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is looking for a mascot and ideas have ranged from a feathered horse to an asparagus stalk…The asparagus stalk supporter notes that if served with cheese, the vegetable represents the school colors. (William & Mary mascot ideas include an asparagus)
Asparagus retains a certain undeniable cachet. You grill up a nice medium rare London broil, serve it with aparagus, maybe some coriander. Wash it all down with some brown beer. I get it. However, plant life – diuretic properties or not- should never be a mascot.
Even after seeing this – asparagus beef bacon wraps w/ some sort of mushroom cheesewiz glaze- my feelings on that are unwavering. I don’t even think herbivores should be considered.
