Any Which Way

Louisville-Duke isn't just a toss-up game.  It's an "any which way" game.  Just about anything could happen.  I could see a close game, or either team getting blown out.  We've seen both teams get way down in games this year.  Louisville has had more success on the comeback trail than Duke, witnessed in the Big East Championship game against Syracuse.

The common narrative for a Duke win is for Louisville's guards to get in foul trouble.  Siva is very foul prone, as we saw in the Oregon game where he picked up two quick ones and spent most of the first half on the bench.  The other side of the coin with Louisville foul trouble is all the free-throws Duke will shoot.  And if Louisville is down late in the game trying to foul to get back in it, we can pretty much circle Duke's name in our brackets.

As for the Louisville narrative, it involves high pressure defense forcing a lot of turnovers.  Can Cook handle the pressure?  Also, another key is Louisville's bench wearing Duke down in the second half.  And, Louisville does have a pair of quality free-throw shooters in Smith and Siva.

I've seen a ton of these blockbuster match-ups over the years and the only thing I've learned is you never know how they're going to turn out.  After the game, all the pundits will prattle on about how the result was a foregone conclusion.  But the reality is, at this level it's all about guys having career nights, and other guys having bad games at the worst time.  The greatness of sports is an unknown outcome and watching the results play out on the court.

Wichita Ho!

The best part was the scene after the game, watching the Wichita State celebration.  I was glad CBS's announcers turned off their microphones and just let us see the images of a rare mid-major celebrating advancing to the Final Four.  As much as everyone loved Florida Gulf-Coast, it's still a marvel to see a team like Wichita State advance to the promised land of college basketball.

And the best part is, who can say they don't have a chance to actually win it all?  The motto of this year and this tournament should be "Everyone has a shot."

The Games...

Louisville had its first real test of the NCAA Tournament tonight from a good Oregon team.  Oregon's guards were impressive. They mostly neutralized Louisville's turn-them-over-score-in-transition offense, and the Cardinals had to rely on trips to the line to escape.

The Ducks should rise up to elite level next season. I haven't gone over the box scores, but I'm willing to wager tonight's game represented the first time this year Louisville turned the ball over more than their opponent.

If I'm wrong, I'm just another Digger making bad predictions.

Speaking of Digger, I heard he was 0-4 in his predictions for tonight's games.  Digger is like that old man at the track who tells you he just hit a $1,000 exacta, when he lost $8,000 the rest of the day betting.

I've doubted Trey Burke all year.  Every time I happened to turn on a Michigan game, they lost, and he looked bad.  It's not really my fault.  Except I guess I should have watched more of the Wolverines.

I will doubt Burke no longer.  What he did late in the game against Kansas tonight was special.  Most players not named Chitwood don't want the ball late in the game.  Burke, unlike Johnson on KU's side, demanded the ball.

Where does tonight's choke rate in Kansas Jayhawks choking history?  It's probably not in the Top 5.  I'm still wondering how Kansas escaped last week's fate of becoming the first #1 seed to lose to a #16.

Florida looked awful for the first 15 minutes of their game against the other Florida.  But then they turned it up, turned the scoreboard around, and coasted to victory.  I still don't think Florida is as good as their hype all year long.  They capitalized on a very weak SEC.  The Gators are probably the weakest Elite 8 team.

Duke looked soft in the Michigan State game.  But hot 3-point shooting early in the 2nd half set them up for a victory.  How many easy layups did Plumlee miss?  What will he do when he goes up against Louisville's Dieng, a shot-blocker who missed the first meeting between the two schools?  I guess a player looks slightly better getting their junk rejected than if they flat out miss a bunch of point-blank shots.

Kellogg and Nantz Just Don't Get It

After listening to tonight's late-game dialog between Nantz and Kellogg in the Duke-Michigan State game, I'm starting to wonder if the two announcers understand that referees decide when to call fouls, not players.

With about 1:30 left on the clock, down 7, Izzo instructed his team to play defense and try to get a stop.  Kellogg was already in disagreement.  But as the possession played out, one of the refs decided a Spartan player was getting a little too physical with defense, and blew the whistle.

Kellog went nuts.  He just couldn't understand why they decided to foul with 7 seconds left, after running down most of the shot clock.

Here's a clue for you, Clark.  Michigan State didn't decide to foul.  They decided to play tough, straight up, hard-nosed Big Ten style defense.  And the referee, not Izzo or the Spartans players, decided to call a foul.

I'm sure if Izzo knew the ref was going to call a foul with 7 seconds left on the clock he'd have gone ahead and instructed his player to try to foul right away.  But Izzo had no way of knowing.  In Izzo's mind, he was hoping for a shot-clock violation, a turnover, or a bad/missed shot and Spartan rebound.

It just didn't work out in this case.

But please, Kellog, stop trying to sell to me the idea that Izzo didn't decide to foul at 35 seconds left on the shot clock, then suddenly decided to foul with 7 seconds left.  Not only does that strategy make no sense, but suggesting it was Izzo's plan is an insult to Izzo's intelligence.  And we're talking about one of the great basketball minds in the game today.

Bottom line, Nantz and Kellogg just don't understand what's going on with basketball.  Nantz is a golf guy, and Kellogg played the game but he's just not that sharp at strategy.  Clearly.

Bitter Loss for Hoosier Fans...

Syracuse is an interesting team.  They were ranked in the Top 10 most of the year until they had a very late season slump.  They recovered somewhat in the Big East Tournament, and have now rolled on to the Elite 8, in a run reminiscent of Louisville's last season.

At the end of the day, I think we all knew IU didn't have the toughness to beat a team like Syracuse.  It's a bitter, bitter defeat for Hoosier fans who will now have to wait -- who knows how long -- to win another Championship.

Arizona had to pay back one of the wins earlier in the year they pulled from out of nowhere.

I really hate games like Wichita State vs. LaSalle.  Fans love the David vs. Goliath match-ups, like Wichita State-Ohio State on Saturday.  Fans can tolerate watching a Goliath vs. Goliath match-up, like when Duke plays Michigan State tomorrow.  But I think everyone can agree, the worst match-up of them all is David vs. David.  No one wanted to see Wichita State take on LaSalle.  It's no fun watching two little engines that could, when only one of them can.

Minnesota, UCLA Up Against It...

Both are now coachless, rudderless, and Shakaless.

Where did they go wrong?

I'm not sure I'd pull the trigger at a high-profile job (UCLA) or against a high-profile coach (Tubby) without holding a replacement in the bag.

Neither school had someone lined up.  Now they have to sweat it out.  And both may have to settle for a mediocre candidate worse than who they sent packing.

In the distant past, no coach could pass up the opportunity to go to an elite school like UCLA.  But today, coaches can prosper in the hinterlands.  They can get on TV, they can recruit, and they can reach the NCAA Tournament.  Most importantly, if they have a sub-par season, they can have some job security.

Ask Ben Howland about job security.  He took UCLA to the Final Four three times and they sent him to the unemployment time.  Tubby won a National Championship.  But even recently, he had won an NCAA Tournament game and was still eliminated from employment shortly after his team was eliminated from the Big Dance.

When guys like Shaka Smart, Mark Few, and Brad Stevens look at the carnage of contemporary's careers, they have to pause and wonder if the grass is really greener at big time programs.  Why not enjoy life as a big fish in a small pond?  No one will fire Shaka if VCU misses the NCAA Tournament next year.  At UCLA, you never know how itchy the trigger finger is.

Meanwhile, UCLA and Minnesota are now stuck looking at retreads and barely average candidates.  Other powerhouse teams, take note!

2,000 Yards for Dez?

I can't imagine worse news for Dallas Cowboys fans hoping to rebound from last year's bizarre season.

A wide receiver who wants the ball during crunch time is admirable.  But a wide receiver who demands the ball constantly to help back up his trash talking?

Dez Bryant said he can haul in 2,000 yards receiving. Now he has to back his bragging up or face the ridicule of his peers. 

But here's the deal.  Receivers are 100% reliant on quarterbacks for "touches."  Kind of like how centers have to rely on point guards to get them the ball in the NBA.

The team concept already seems out the window in Dallas, and training camp is still months away.  I don't know how you foster a team concept when a guy is busy working on his stats, and blatantly bellowing it to the media during the off-season.

I'm glad J.R. Ewing isn't alive to see this.

Tubby Time Over?

Minnesota fired Tubby Smith today, and I admit feeling surprised.  I didn't see his ouster coming.  

On one hand, I get it.  He's coached at Minnesota awhile and hasn't really thrilled the fans with many big wins.  Tubby's final season started out promising and it gradually went downhill to oblivion.

But I have to ask the question.  Or really, two questions.  Minnesota fired a coach for not making the Sweet 16?  Who do they think they are?

To think, just a few years ago, the coaches were begging for a 128-team field with the hopes of gaining some job security.  Fast-forward to today, when UCLA fired Ben Howland after he led the Bruins to multiple Final Fours.  And then Tubby, who actually won an NCAA Tournament game.  This year.

I have to wonder what exactly the expectations are for the little Gopher program.  The whole reason Tubby went to Minnesota was in hopes of dodging the win at all costs machine.  Look what he ran into.  Maybe Tubby's next stop should reside in the SEC where they only care about football.

The moral to the story is, win big, go deep in the Tournament, or face the unemployment line.  Maybe it's not fair, but it's the reality coaches live in these days.

Louisville Will Never Beat Oregon...

... at one thing.  As long as Oregon has Powell's they have the National Champion of used bookstores.  It's a formidable advantage that two half-priced books in the Greater Louisville Area is not going to address.

Announcers Don't Pay Attention

Never was the announcers' lack of attention to the actual game more apparent than at the OSU-Iowa State game.  OSU's Scott excessively, blatantly trash-talked an Iowa State player.  The cameras followed him along his path as he meandered from in the face of the ISU player, to walking past the referee who T'ed him up.  How much of the drama did Nantz and Kellogg pick up on?

Zilch.

The two announcers were the last to realize, and report to the fans, what happened.  I'm not just saying they were the last in the stadium to figure it out.  They were the last in the world.  I could clearly see all of the action developing but Nantz continued reporting events that didn't happen and I started thinking I must be crazy or half blind.

But it turned out just the way I saw it, Scott trash talked and got a technical.

The entire role of the announcer is to report what they see, and especially what the fans can't see.  I don't know why Nantz and Kellogg are at games. They certainly aren't in attendance to do an announcer's job.

Don't Put Dirt on the Big East Just Yet...

Not only is Louisville still alive, but the league managed to place two other teams in the Sweet 16.  The dying conference had several failures in the first two rounds, but I think placing three in the Sweet 16 has to get categorized as success.  Especially when the top team is still alive and in the hunt for the championship.

Louisville's game today was one of the weirdest I've seen statistically.  CSU was shooting an amazing percent, especially from 3-point range, going into halftime.  I think CSU's field goal percent was above 60%.  And they were down 14-points.  I've never seen a team shoot so well, down so much at the break.

UCLA losing to Minnesota represented the most obvious pick of the Round of 64.  Gonzaga failing in the Round of 32 was today's most obvious pick.  Gonzaga wasn't a true #1 seed, and it showed. At best, they were dead-even with the #9 seed, Wichita State.

Another cliche' I'm Tired of Hearing

As mundane as milk.

After a player takes a shot and misses it, the announcer declares emphatically, "This place would have gone crazy!"

The announcers always think they have their finger on the pulse of the fan base.  But today, when Verne said it after a routine missed 3-pointer, the declaration seemed especially cliche'.  I didn't feel like the crowd had sufficient buzz to get raucous over a made basket.

It just wasn't that kind of crowd.

The neutral court crowds tend to react tepidly, especially when heavily divided among the attending teams.

Anyway, "This place would have gone crazy!" has officially graduated into the world of cliche' sports announcer crutches. Unfortunately, that means we'll probably hear more of it, not less.

Enterprise Rent-A-New-Commercial

I propose a new rule: No ads from the previous year.  I'm pretty sure I saw the Enterprise ad with their employees telling us what sports they played in college about 1,000 times during last year's NCAA Tournament.  This year, it's up to 500 and we're not even fully to the Sweet 16 yet.

I don't care anymore whether they are actors pretending they are Enterprise Employees.
I don't care anymore whether they played sports in college.

Just make them go away.  Please.

Show some creativity, Enterprise.  Make a new commercial for next year.

Serendipity Madness

I never saw the John Cusack vehicle, Serendipity.  I know nothing of the movie's story line. I can only imagine the plot resembled the winding road I'm about to describe.

Once upon a time, Rick Pitino left the University of Kentucky in pursuit of one thing, and one thing only: The Tim Duncan lottery ball.

He didn't get it.

He still took the Celtics job and eventually meandered off into mediocrity and beyond.  He eventually left Boston, went to coach at Louisville, and went to some Final Fours.

Today Pitino is the coach of the overall #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and most analysts favor Pitino's team to win it all.

But imagine if the ping-pong balls had floated in Pitino's favor.  Had he won Tim Duncan, he'd still coach the Celtics today, and he'd have a few NBA Championships under his belt like that guy Popovich who lucked into a Hall of Fame caliber career as the result of the floating ping-pong balls.

A used car salesman could have coached Tim Duncan to a couple championships in the 1990's and 2000's.  That's just the way the NBA works.

If Pitino had stayed in Boston, who'd have ended up coaching Louisville?

Probably Larry Eustachy.  He was on the short-list of rumored coaching candidates at the time.

Tomorrow Pitino will coach Louisville against Eustachy's Colorado State Rams.

Is it serendipity?  Will John Cusack play Rick Pitino in the ESPN movie about tomorrow's game?  I don't know the answers to these questions, but we'll begin to learn them Saturday, after 5:15pm Eastern Time.

To Whom It May Concern

Dear Georgetown:

Welcome to The Club!

Sincerely,
Duke, Missouri, Iowa State, South Carolina, Arizona, and Syracuse

Immediately after the Georgetown game ended, I clicked "refresh" on Wikipedia's Tournament Upsets, #2/#15 page.  The newest upset was added immediately.  I can only assume an enterprising Florida Gulf Coast fan edited and saved the page as time expired in the game.  Way to stay on top of the important things!

Burden of the Bigs

I can't imagine any worse fate than receiving a #1 or #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Why?

Because in this age of parity, not much difference exists between the top seeds and the dregs.  Maybe a shot blocker or Player of the Year candidate.  But how much better are the best of the best, really?  Anthony Davis should be a Sophomore and John Wall a Senior.  Instead, our best players are guys like Otto Porter and Trey Burke.  Good players, but neither can approach the phenomenal greatness of Davis.

Teams like Georgetown, K-State, and Kansas stormed the court like a glacier facing Global Warming.

All three should have gone home losers.  Kansas survived only because of the pathetic ineptitude of Western Kentucky's offense in the second half.  Otherwise, the only slim difference between the teams was probably Withy's shot blocking prowess.  Just enough to get by for the Jayhawks, a laughable choice for a #1 seed and yet the only logical choice available.

A surviving #1 and #2 seed breathes a sigh of relief after surviving the brutal games of the past two days.  What else can they do?  Survive and advance is the cliche' and 7 of them moved on.

But the ones who scraped by aren't celebrating.  They are exposed as pretenders and are fresh food waiting for another "Cinderella" to harvest.  Only the teams that dominated against the #15/#16 might rest easy tonight.  And it's not like they have an easy path on Saturday or Sunday, because the margin of talent advantage they enjoy just went from thin to razor thin.

Maybe It's Just Me...

It seems like years ago, a day of NCAA Tournament basketball had tons more action than what I witnessed today.  A few close games, a few upsets, but not much that was very compelling.  Maybe it's because we can finally watch any of the four 1st round games we want to, so nothing is hidden away in mystery.  In the past, we just had CBS and we'd get frantic look-ins on games, like a titillating tease.

The Gonzaga near-upset was compelling but I just didn't feel the tension I might have in the past.  I believe a #1 seed is going to fall to a #16 seed eventually so the barrier seems fake and temporary rather than a rule of sports law.  In the final 4 minutes I felt Southern and Gonzaga were dead even and either team could seize the victory.  Gonzaga just happened to pull off the win.

Maybe the lack of spark from the 1st round has to do with the exodus of talent to the NBA with the "one-and-done" rule in full effect for many years.  Teams play basketball at a lower level than in the past before the NBA rule.

If the Tournament continues on its present course we may have to change the name to March Mundaneness.

Day Two of NIT Ushered In With Dull Roar.

Somehow, Day Two NIT games like Charlotte-Providence didn't generate the same kind of buzz as last night's Kentucky game.  Why?  Everyone tuned in yesterday to rubberneck an accident.

In case anyone's interested, the CBI and CIT Tournaments also resumed play tonight.  The mighty Boilermakers of Purdue triumphed in their gladiator battle with Western Illinois.  Texas was eliminated.  The show goes on for the Anteaters of UC Irvine.

I wonder who Obama has winning in his CBI Bracket?

Talk of the SEC seceding from the NIT is overblown.  Everyone but Kentucky needs the NIT.  Many SEC teams could go a decade or more between NCAA Tournament bids.  Those teams need the NIT to maintain some kind of post-season action and keep their programs on life support.

The Mighty Brought Down Low

Dear John Calipari,

The Championship Honeymoon is now over.

Sincerely,
#BBN

For Calipari's sake, those incoming freshmen better play like a 6-pack of Anthony Davis's (Anthony Davii?)

I have to wonder.  If Kentucky's game tonight against Robert Morris garnered the highest NIT ratings ever, will ESPN conspire with the NCAA behind closed doors to relegate Kentucky to the NIT -- forever?

If the NCAA really wants to make up some new rules, maybe they should mandate all schools like Kentucky have to play one true road game a year at a school like Robert Morris. Pairing up a bunch of David -v- Goliath match-ups might revive the downward trending sport.

Bracket Thoughts

I'm looking forward to the "Metro Conference" Sweet 16.  Former conference teams Louisville taking on St. Louis, and Cincinnati versus Memphis.  It's a true 70's retro throwback!

Three teams to avoid in your brackets: Florida, Indiana, and Michigan.  The first two showed soft play against more physical, desperate teams.  Burke has struggled with decision-making in the final minutes of games when forced to play a half court game.

Two middle seeds to embrace in your brackets: Villanova and Oregon.  Oregon is great when healthy.  Nova was the giant killer of the regular season, and I think they have one more Goliath to knock off.

Louisville's defense is the best in the country -- maybe ever.  If the Cardinals play their best game, they are unbeatable.

Upset Special: South Dakota State over Michigan.  I'm just not a believer in the Wolverines.

Without Further Ado...

Okay, maybe a slight ado.  Like never before, I feel like this NCAA Tournament is wide open.

In the past, I'd cringe at the mere suggestion of picking a #16 seed over a #1, in spite of the fact I watched the legendary Harvard-Stanford women's game for the ages.  That game was even on Stanford's home floor.  I also vividly remember Purdue's near debacle when the Boilermakers were not in control of their own destiny on the final shot of their game against the #16 seed.

But I digress.  And slight ado is turning into prolonged ado.

If the Tournament is as wide open as I believe, why not flip a coin to pick winners?  I did just that.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the much anticipated,

"COIN FLIP BRACKET"

Yes, I took a quarter and flipped it 67 times.  The results?  Read on!  Round winners are listed below.

Midwest

1st Round: Liberty, Middle Tennessee State.
2nd Round: Louisville, Colorado State, Oregon, St. Louis, Middle Tennessee State, Michigan State, Cincinnati, and Albany.
Sweet 16: Colorado State (sorry, Louisville fans, The Quarter was unkind), Oregon (QUACK!), Michigan State, and Albany.
Final 8: Colorado State, Michigan St.
Final 4: Colorado State.

West

1st Round: LaSalle
2nd Round: Suthern University (!), Wichita State, Wisconsin, LaSalle, Arizona, New Mexico, Iowa State, Ohio State.
Sweet 16: Round: Wichita State, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Ohio State.
Final 8: Wisconsin, Ohio State
Final 4:  Ohio State

South
1st Round: No play-ins
2nd Round: Kansas, Villanova, VCU, Michigan, UCLA, Florida, Oklahoma, Florida Gulf Coast
Sweet 16:Villanova, Michigan, Florida, Oklahoma
Final 8: Villanova, Oklahoma
Final 4: Oklahoma

East
1st Round: LIU Brooklyn
2nd Round: LIU Brooklyn (!), N.C. State, UNLV, Syracuse, Bucknell, Davidson, Colorado, Miami
Sweet 16: LIU Brooklyn (!), UNLV, Bucknell, Miami
Final 8: LIU Brooklyn (!), Miami
Final 4: Miamia (Sorry, Brooklyn)

The Final Four
Miami over Oklahoma
Ohio State over Colorado State

Ohio State over Miami.

I had to flip The Quarter and go by alphabetical order for the final pick, since they were seeded the same.

Well, there you have it.  The First and probably Last Annual Coin Flip Bracket.  Guaranteed to perform just as randomly as many brackets picked with skill!

Beware the Idiots of March

College basketball's zany, winding road of a season led to today's brackets.  As crazy as the year was, the analysts on CBS and ESPN seemed to expect everything to turn out in an orderly fashion once the NCAA Tournament kicks off. 

Do they really believe any region will hold to form, THIS year, of all years?

No team was able to hold onto the #1 ranking for long, and teams tended to launch on losing streaks once they rose up into the Top 5.  The only consistency was inconsistent play from week to week.  Every time the media was ready to anoint a team as the favorite to win it all, that favored son would embarrass its father with an image burning loss.  Gonzaga backed into the #1 ranking in the last few polls, and kept it by default.

I didn't listen to all commentary wire-to-wire on the selection shows, but I don't remember hearing anyone pick Wichita State to make the Final Four.  Yet WuShock has as good of a chance as anyone to make it to the Promised Land.  This Tournament is wide open, and a coin flip is as good of a method as any to pick winners.

In fact, I plan to pick a bracket by coin-flip.  I will post my results soon.

College basketball's weirdness isn't going to end at the gates of the play-in games.  Shocks that will set the sport on its ear are on the way.  We know all the #1 seeds won't miss the Final Four just because Digger predicted that outcome.  Just about anything else goes.

Championship Sunday

I didn't stick around for the ending, but I wonder if Miami's players launched into a series of 360-degree dunks in the final 30 seconds against North Carolina.  You know, just because they can.

I'm not sure why Florida is so soft, I'm only sure that they are.

I was glad CBS decided to show the A-10 Championship game in its entirety, unlike the C-USA Final the day before.  But I had my keyboard at the ready to hit their website just in case.  Fool me once...

All year long we were told the Big Ten (B1G) was the best conference in the land.  All the statistics backed it up.  Too bad the Big Ten (B1G) Championship game didn't live up to the hype.  A final score of 50-42, really?  Not basketball played at its highest level.

Cliche' Sunday

As I sit here on a rainy Sunday morning awaiting the Holiest of Holy for college basketball fans, the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, I wonder, is black smoke coming out of the chimney at Selection HQ?

And are Papal chimney jokes now too cliche' and over-used?

Speaking of over-used cliche's, on this Day of Days, what could challenge the following:

"Nobody wants to play us!"

Without exception, until beaten, the fans of 68 teams will utter that phrase with chest-thumping self-assurance for the next three weeks.

Underdogs?  Nobody wants to play us.
Top seeds?  Nobody wants to play us.
Mid-Majors? Nobody wants to play us.
Conference Champions?  Nobody wants to play us.

Everyone logically presents an argument for why nobody wants to play their team.  But the arguments are just as cliche' as the big cliche'.

No easy outs exist in college basketball's Big Dance.  It's a fallacy to say "Nobody wants to play us" because the next question is, well, who do they want to play, then?

In reality, the opposite of the cliche' is true.

Broadway's Demise?

Broadway survived the close of Cats.  It'll survive the close of the Big East.

Louisville earned the overall #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament tonight with their epic victory over Syracuse.  Whether the Selection Committee will grant the Cardinals what they've earned remains to be seen.

Why is it, when I listened to Bill Walton and his serious-minded co-announcer doing PAC-12 games, it felt like I was listening to the announcers from the movie, Best In Show?

I shouldn't project anger toward CBS for taking away my enjoyment of the final seconds of a hotly contested C-USA Championship on Saturday morning. 

Is it CBS's fault that the NCAA added all kinds of rules allowing for game stoppages and official reviews? 

Perhaps in the future, CBS could preface games with a warning that they don't plan to show the ending if it overlaps one of the "real" conferences like the B1G.  How hard is it to throw a message on the bottom ticker as a public service announcement, "we're switching away from the exciting conclusion of the C-USA Championship in order to run a long string of commercials before the tip-off of the B1G semi-final game.  You may want to hit our webpage where we're broadcasting the ending of the C-USA Title Game."

CBS's behavior in not showing the conclusion of the game was Heidi-esque.  And every time I run into networks robbing away game endings, it trains me to like sports less and less.

Move It Or Lose It

Tonight, Kentucky fans were packed like sardines in Nashville's Bridgestone Arena for the Kentucky-Vanderbilt game.  Sardines, swimming in a sea of Blue.  Watching a horrible version of Wildcat Basketball playing a horrible version of Commodore Basketball.

Contrast tonight's fan turnout with what we witnessed for most other SEC Tournament games not featuring the Wildcats. 

This year's iteration of INXS pulls in bigger crowds.

As a result, I've come to a tentative conclusion.  I believe the time has come to move the SEC Tournament to Lexington, Kentucky.  Permanently.

Play Kentucky's SEC Tournament games in Rupp Arena.  All non-Kentucky games get played in dinky Memorial Coliseum.  Chances are they still won't sell out but attendance will look better on television.

Sure, a move to Lexington for the SEC Tourney grants Kentucky with a formidable, likely unassailable advantage.  But who cares?

Clearly, no one.  Except for the Big Blue Faithful. 

The fans of other SEC schools don't care about SEC basketball in any significant way.  Let Kentucky fans host the Tournament since they're the only ones who care.  Continuing to play the SEC Tournament on a neutral floor is a farce since no one but Big Blue will ever show up.

The turnstiles have spoken.  

The Grand Finale

Syracuse.  Georgetown.

I'm not a fan of either team.  Far from it.  But I'll miss the rivalry.  Not as much as I miss Kansas-Missouri, but close.

Friday night, football money terminates one of the greatest rivalries in college basketball.  So I say, cancel the rest of the Big East Tournament.  Award the Big East championship to the winner between the historic foes.

How could anyone complain?  

Madison Square Garden has housed many great dramas.  But any actor on Broadway will declare an encore of Louisville or Notre Dame versus the winner of Georgetown and Syracuse as anti-climactic.  Kind of like the movie, Return of the Jedi.

Shut the league down on the right note.  Trumpet the end with Syracuse vs. Georgetown.

If Truly Pressed...

...I'd have to go out on a limb and declare Cincinnati's pants were the biggest eyesore of the day in Big East competition, with Notre Dame's neon shoes and socks a close second. A brave new world?


Images courtesy of Yahoo.com.

Today's Big Story

Today's winning story out-shined Anquan Boldin's trade to the team he just finished beating up on in the Super Bowl.

The big story isn't Boldin's trade, it's his location when he found out about the trade.

Boldin was on a charity mission in Senegal, where he'll work to restore farmland.

What?  He wasn't in Africa calling people a flashlight and himself a star?  He wasn't stamping on a West Africa country's logo?  He wasn't making illegal U-turns and bumping Senegal natives with his Lexus?

With all due respect to Anquan Boldin, his charitable work has tarnished the legacy of fellow wide receivers Keyshawn, T.O., and Randy Moss.

Don't worry, Anquan.  You've dropped the figurative ball, but I'm sure someone else will work hard during the off-season to restore the legacy of the greats.  

I wonder what Dez Bryant is up to?

I've Heard It All Before...

Conference Tournaments are all about the money.
Conference Tournament automatic bids make the regular season meaningless.
Twenty-loss teams water down the NCAA field.

It's all hogwash. And here's why.

Currently, we have 347 Division I programs. Around 337 schools (Sorry, Independents and UCONN) have a last-ditch chance to make it to the NCAA Tournament through Conference Tournaments.

They may not deserve it.
They may not have earned it in some people'e eyes.

But take away the automatic bids in Conference Tournaments and guess what we'll see?

Months of meaningless basketball for most.

What's an 0-10 team supposed to do at mid-season?

Try as hard as they can?
Put every ounce of energy into working on their free-throws?
Work harder and harder with their eye on getting better for next year?

They should do all of those things. But they wouldn't. They'd coast. And why not? With no miracle prize to dream about, there's no incentive to work hard and get better every day. And why play as hard as possible in a blowout game? The season's over in January.

With the automatic bid, fans have hope, too. Georgia fans can continue following the Bulldogs looking for signs of improvement, hoping to see the team get hot at the end of the year, like what happened in the SEC Tournament for Georgia a few years ago. Without the automatic bid, why would a Georgia fan follow their team? To see how well they play out the string?

Having an automatic bid to shoot for at the end of the year forces all teams to work hard, aiming to play their absolute best when it counts -- In March. The incentive works for 28-win teams and 28-loss teams. Everyone has a chance at the end, so everyone has incentive to improve every game regardless of the team's record.

When only the top third of schools are still in contention in January, the other two-thirds play for pride. And that's just not enough in the Big Sky Conference when you're 3-17 going into the last few weeks of the regular season.

In short, taking away the automatic bids represents the ruination of college basketball. Why ruin what works so well?

Go West, Young Man

More specifically, go Mountain West time zone all the way up to PAC-12 territory.

Teams in the Mountain time zone region aren't always softer than their East Coast equivalents. But over the long run, their early demise happens with great regularity. Witness last season's New Mexico team. Their home court, The Pit, is famous as a rowdy environment. The Lobos brought a lofty 27-6 record into the NCAA Tournament. Out East, 27-wins leads to 1-seed talk. A Mountain time zone denizen receives a #5 seed and an eventual date with a bruiser team like Louisville. And an early trip home with a loss.

Move onward to last year's BYU team. They survived their play-in first round game but Marquette brutally disposed of them in the second round -- really the first round to Tournament purists. BYU's 30-win team from the year before couldn't even make it out of the Sweet 16 once they faced an Eastern power in Florida. Does anyone remember the 2002 Wyoming Cowboys? Head coach Steve "Don't call me John" McClain let W-Y-O into the NCAA Tournament for a rare trip -- and a first weekend exit.

I could go on and on.

It's not every team. Every dog has its day. Utah had some good teams with NBA talent under Rick Majerus. UNLV was a power program under Jerry Tarkanian. But over the long haul, I don't see a lot of Final Four teams from this region. Not since "Lou-Do" left New Mexico State for the tougher Big Ten. I can't easily explain the regular failures of Mountain time zone teams. Once you travel past Michigan and the last vestiges of the Big 12 into the Rocky Mountain area, teams seem soft. Is it the lack of physical play? The lack of talent? Not often playing in front of manic, large crowds like you'd find out East? Maybe a combination of the above. One thing I'm sure of -- if you're picking brackets, don't advance the bloated-record Mountain time zone teams too far. Their early exit destiny awaits.