I’m in the Uproxx Pool of Awesome. The Intentional Foul pool. A pool at work. Another pool that a buddy just invited me too. Plus, I refrained from entering two others. Here’s the hitch: one bracket though – only smart way to do it, right?
At 12:20 today – with the tip of BYU vs. Florida – you’re officially out of time. I want to hear how invested everyone got this year. Let me know how many pools you’re in (leave a comment or shoot me an @ reply).
Anyone who entered more than ten pools gets a signed B/W 8 X 10 photo of me eating the bacon explosion – after I win it in the IF pool.
Pictured above, that’s my 2010 NCAA Champ pick.
UPDATE: This might be the worst bracket I have ever filled out. And not going to lie there have been some real dogs in the past. (Friday, Mar. 19 2:41 pm ET)
We’re moving offices tomorrow. My day job, that is. The Steady Burn offices remain intact – we’re going to do a few more rounds of funding before we explore further capital gains, probably after we see if the world exists after 2012.
On the short list of wants for my new office is one of those Nerf basketball hoops that you hang over the door. Something subtle like this…
I figure it will impress my clients, as well as make the Fresh Direct delivery guys want to be me. While I peruse e-commerce for the perfect hoop, check out these Top 8 Moments in Nerf BasketballHistory…
The meticulous scribe of this article felt the need to clarify that O’Neal is an american basketball star and that his nickname is Shaq, leaving me to believe that The Big World Renowned is not one that we should so quickly add to O’neal’s stable of The Big nomenclature.
The real story here, is that since challenging Obama in person (roundball meets round-table on a healthcare reform) didn’t go so well the other day, Shaq resorted to the old standby to challenge David Beckham to a game of “soccerball.” It goes on…
And to entice Beckham on the show, O’Neal has decided to post a series of “tweets” calling on the England footballer to take up the challenge.
“Dear david beckham,” tweets Shaq. “I kno u heard about my Shaq Vs show, anyway u will never score a goal on me, I challenge you lil man.”
But Beckham failed to respond to the tweet, prompting another tweet from O’Neal: “David beckham I kno u hear me, dnt be scared, dnt make me call u out, u will never score a goal on me.”
O’Neal’s most recent tweet to Beckham read: “Dnt make me tweet to 2 million people that your scared of shaq, u betta respond, if u scared get a dog.”
There it is. The blow-by-blow on twitter, as reported by newspaperman. In related twitter news, Ocho Cinco doesn’t know what Levitra is.
Obama gave the commencement key note at the Notre Dame Graduation on Saturday, and not everyone there was psyched about it. I’ll start this one about 4:20 in, you’ll see why…
They probably limited the students to 2-4 tickets for the family, and some kid had the audacity to invite his/her limo driver. Unreal.
As if he almost predicted the outburst, Obama went were he needed to go to calm the ND crowd – the playing field. But what angle do you choose when you’re dealing with the fact that the once dominant Notre Dame legacy has been reduced to a middling Basketball team and a middling football team? Well, guys, you’ve still got the largest outdoor 5-on-5 tournament in the World. (Did I mention I had the Tarheels come over my house the other day?)
Had Jeeves heard Hallelujah Holla Back roll off Barack’s tongue? Agreed, he still would shouted obscenities from the Upper Deck.
The “repeat the three-peat” wins of the NBA finals of ‘96, ‘97, and ‘98 created a cadre of basketball superstars and characters and set the bar at a new high for the next generation of players. Now a little piece of that victory is up on the auction block. In a testament to the far reach of the recession, former Bulls guard and assistant coach to the Sacramento Kings, Randy Brown, has declared bankruptcy, and his three championship rings will be for sale to the highest bidder via online auction at WestAuction.com.
Auction is set to start May 19, bid for a ring starts at $19,000.
Wow, that is truly unfortunate news.
I haven’t worked as hard, and definitely never will, for anything in my life as hard as that guy probably worked to get three NBA titles. Would love to see this story play out where a 90′s era Bulls PR guy or Accounts Payable guy who snagged a ring by being part of the association turns one over to Brown.
I checked out of last night’s NCAA Championship game about ten minutes in (North Carolina already up by double digits, on pace to score 60 in the first half) and flipped on what would prove to be a lukewarm episode of 24 (only reason we endured that much of the game was so we could rifle through the commercials).
Then, I felt like a timing genius when we tuned back in just in time to see this nonsense in the stands…
I thought seeing HaShades Thabeet making time with his best girl would be the highlight of the show. But, wrong. Should have waited to see this.
Did the In Loving Memory Of guy at the end write this jam? Because I’m gonna feel like a big d if he did after saying this: that song was absurd and preposterous. Preposterousness at it’s finest though. Because I’m sure that made the Hansbrough family weep, and the rest of us cut-up, just like during one of Hansbrough’s E-trade commercials…
Hat’s off to Hansbrough for his tourney performance – you’re a tough mofo who plays an ugly version of basketball that we don’t see too often anymore. But your pro career is going to fledgling, and I’ll never stop making fun of people who have or will inevitably be getting a ton of money they do not deserve.
H/T to Brahsome for first posting this year’s opus One Shining Moment.
Yesterday, I gave a quick rundown of some of the more unorthodox NCAA Tournament bracket pools that are going on this year. And if you care at all about the maintenance of my pork consumption, you’ll be rooting for this whole every five years UCONN gets the No. 1 seed in the West Region and takes home the trophy scenario to pan out as it has been written.
Something else cool that we’re doing this year is the newly launched March Madness Blogger Fantasy League, which I’m lucky enough to be participating in with some of the most elite sports bloggers on the interwebs.
Basically, each of us gets to pick five players whose stats we’ll tally throughout the whole tourney. After the Final Four, the blogger with the highest sum total of points, rebounds, and assists from their five players is crowned champion.
Today I woke up to learn that this thing is probably over for me before it even starts. One of my guys, North Carolina PG Ty Lawson, is out today against Radford (exact wording actually was, “huge probability” he won’t play; yeah, he’s not going play). They better win today, and Toe Stiffness Lawson better respond in game two in a big way. I’m now hedging my bets that UCONN does make that run, and A.J. Price goes buck.
Here’s A.J., Lawson, and the rest of my horses along with their stats from the regular season…
If last year at this time you had told me that next year at this time (which is this time in space right here right now, Will Robinson) I’d be entering an NCAA tournament bracket pool where to the victor went a collection of no less than five variations of pork product, consolidated in edible log/explosion form…man, I’d go ahead and call. You. Wacky. But I’d befriend you immediately.
Also worth checking out, The Locker Room Alumni Bracket Contest – a tournament that’s pitting celebrity alumni from the schools in the Mountain West Conference. If for no other reason, go cast a vote Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Air Force Alum, duh).
The Business of Sports threw up a post today championing the twitter usage of the Worldwide Leader. As much as I’d like to tear it down, and say they’re just using it as a megalo-rss feed, I can’t really do that (BLAST!) As BofS points out, ESPN is actually engaging it’s audience kindof on twitter. For example, Both the PTI and the Around The Horn twitter handles are inviting viewers to ask questions via the platform. For instance, @PTIshow put up a post yesterday asking viewers to suggest a guest for today’s show. Additionally, ESPN Regional Television created @Big12Network for fans to get updates on conference tournament happening – I badly wish The Big East was doing this.
Without letting them get off scott free, of the seven twitter IDs that Business of Sports highlights (minus the true ESPN.com feeder ID @ESPN) the follower to following ratio is about 10 to 1. And I hate, hate, hate to admit it, but Plaschke is the one doing the best job of joining in the fray (1,419 followers; following 1186). So, hop to Reali and fantasy guy Matthew Berry! (Fantasy Guy Matthew Berry gets special commendation for setting his location as Sadly, CT.)
I might get defriended for this, but I think more than just his 5,001 Facebook friends should know that former UCONN Husky/ soon-to-be former Golden State Warrior Marcus Williams isn’t afraid to throw one out for you to ponder…
Personally, I think the Ghostface said it best with So after the laughter, I guess comes the tearz. Of course, his NBA contract wasn’t bought out yesterday.
