Tournament Thoughts - Sweet 16 Thursday

For all the talk about how bad the play in college basketball has become, Wichita State and Notre Dame play a good game with passing and shooting.

Fred Vanvleet is a fun player with a fun name. Though if he were my friend I would call him Derf.

Zach Auguste got himself a fresh new haircut during the days off.

I am totally against the kill the ball with a lead strategy (I called it the Jim Boeheim Memorial No Points Offense because it kills him all the time) but with a 14 point lead and 3 minutes to go, it seems the prudent approach.

Tokoto sounds like an Indian tribe.

I know I said this last year but Traevon Jackson is the son of Jimmy Jackson and looks just like him.

Wisconsin won this game during that brief stretch when they were down 7, then came back with 6 quick. Not allowing the game to get out of hand makes a huge strategical difference in how the game is played.

Great try by Marcus Paige. Almost single-handedly kept them in the game late.

That noise you hear is a bunch of Daminos cheering. Not only are Damino's and Big Kev's alma maters still in it, North Carolina is not.

Also, I really didn't think Big Kev was old enough to go to college yet.

I love L.A. Aaron Rodgers and Olivia Munn in the crowd rooting on Wisconsin.

Fresh pair of kicks worn by an unnamed North Carolina player. They're brand Jordan so it isn't a big surprise but the Ram on the side is pretty cool.

Kentucky vs. West Virginia is one of the biggest dominations in the history of the tournament. You expect to see a 16 seed get beaten like this in the first round. Not a 5 seed from a major conference in the Sweet 16.

West Virginia scored 18 points in the first half, and 1 for the first 8 minutes of the second.

Just an absolute slaughter.

Billy wants to add Billy Dee Williams to his all-name team.

I make fun of Matt Stainbrook's appearance, but he actually is a pretty good player. But I think his lack of conditioning slows Xavier down at times.

He also did the funniest flop when he got whacked in the face.

Good game between Arizona and Xavier, Arizona just made a couple more plays down the stretch.

I hate to see plays like the one that really ended this game, Davis drives into the lane with no intention to do anything other than draw a foul. He just tried to run into Hollis-Jefferson and hope for the best, when he backed off Davis was in no position to even put up a shot. Draw a play, run something, set some screens, don't count on the refs to bail you out.

Some good games tonight, nothing spectacular and all four favorites (by seeding not spread) won their games. We may see some more upheaval tomorrow night. I hope so because I have Michigan State beating Oklahoma.

I'd Hate to Be the Person Who Made This Mistake

I often criticize the Associated Press for occasional dumb shit, but for the most part they do an incredibly hard job, very well.
Not this time.
Here is the write through for the arrest of Robert Durst:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A Louisiana State Police trooper says millionaire Robert Durst has been booked on weapons charges in that state – on top of a first-degree murder charge lodged by Los Angeles authorities. Trooper Melissa Matey told the Associated Press that an arrest warrant was issued for the former Limp Bizkit frontman and he was rebooked in the Orleans Parish Jail on Monday under two new charges.

Here is the subsequent correction:

In the second item of the California 10th NewsMinute sent March 16 to users of the state broadcast wire, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Robert Durst is a member of a band. He is a real estate heir; Fred Durst is the former frontman of Limp Bizkit.

Farewell to the GOAT of Crooked Fingers

Philadelphia Eagles legend Chuck Bednarik died this week at the age of 89.
He is known for three things:
1) he was the last player to play both offense and defense regularly in the NFL
2) he knocked out Frank Gifford, causing Gifford to miss a year and a half, and then stood over his stiff body

3) he was generally a tough son of a bitch. He is Godfather of the mangled finger. Anthony Munoz, Charles Mann, Alan Page and our own beloved Billy have Bednarik to thank for the glory he brought to hideously unaligned fingers.

Song of the Week

"Grazing in the Grass" - Friends of Distinction
Mrs. Poop was incredulous that there was a song about grazing in the grass but it's true and there's good reason for it. The song was first an instrumental by Jazz great Hugh Masekela (who also plays the flugelhorn, making him a flugelhornist according to his Wikipedia), and the father of Sal Masekela whom you may have seen on ESPN over the years, and whose Wikipedia says he lived in Staten Island for part of his youth.
But back to the song, a year after Masekela released it, the Friends of Distinction got a hold of it added some lyrics, trying to keep with the theme, similar to what the Sugar Hill Gang did with "Apache" (SOTW, 8/22/2007).

A Man After My Own Heart

If you've ever covered a sporting event (very few of you have) you would know that reporters are furnished with a sheet of quotes from the postgame press conference. So who compiles those quotes? A courtroom style stenographer.
Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes decided to have some fun with her.
In response to the first question he said “Before I answer that question, I would like to say a few words: cattywampus, onomatopoeia and antidisestablishmentarianism. Now, back to your question.”
When asked why he did that Hayes responded “She [the stenographer] does an amazing job of typing words, sometimes if words are not in her dictionary, maybe if I say soliloquy right now, she may have to work a little bit harder to type that word, or quandary, zephyr, xylophone, things like that, that make her job really interesting.”
Apparently Hayes, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker were fascinated with the stenographer and her machine from the previous day.

Funny thing is, none of this would have gotten out, if not for the stenographer.

Story suggested by Billy

What an Embarrassment

Syracuse's run in the NCAA tournament ended in bitter defeat against the Gamecocks of South Carolina, on the Cocks home floor.
They were just bigger, faster and better.
But the Orange gave a valiant effort, especially Alexis Peterson who followed up her 24 points against Nebraska in the first round with 23 more, most of them coming on reckless drives to the basket against South Carolina's bigger front line.
The Orange have played their hearts out and ended a great season with a loss to a great team, a serious title contender.
And they conduct themselves like true student-athletes, no failed drug tests, no fabricated grades, no booster at the YWCA (to my knowledge) while constantly showing great effort and emotion.
The women's program (unlike the men's) is improving every year and given the prominence of the ACC, they will get opportunities to draw top recruits and consistently compete against the best teams in the country.
And a lot of this has to do with Coach Quentin Hillsman who is a good coach, and you can tell he cares deeply about his players.
So what is embarrassing about that?
Nothing, except this shirt:

Ok, so it doesn't look that bad with the jacket on, but trust me, once he took the jacket off, it was terrible.

Tournament Thoughts: Second Round Sunday

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between good defense and horrible shooting. I actually think we've had equal helpings of both from Virginia and Michigan State.

Also the referees have done a poor job. The game has been very physical, at some points they allowed a lot of it, then at other times they whistled everything.

Someone needs to school these guys about the 18-foot jump shot. It is the worst shot in basketball. So inefficient. You don't make it with the consistency of dunks and layups, and you don't get as many points as you would if you moved back 2 feet.

Both teams going huge stretches without a field goal. Not only bad offense, but the fact that every time someone goes to shoot, they refs call a foul, some of which really were fouls.

Trice got carried away with himself. Made a huge 3, then took a long 2 with his feet on the line (worst shot) and 20 seconds left on the shot clock. There's no need for it.

And that is why I always pick Michigan State. They have a great tournament history. They're the anti-Villanova.

Also historically I have a tremendous record in selecting the correct #2 seed to lose in the second round. It happens almost every year and very often I'm right on it, but too often I have the wrong team beating them.

Dominant performance by Duke. I really think they're a different team this year. They have athletes and big men, and they were fast-breaking whenever possible.

Ron Baker is not making Mrs. Poop's All-Hair team but she concedes is current style is a big improvement over what he was rocking in high school.

If you're going to pull off a big upset you need to shoot the ball well. Wichita St. hit so many 3s I thought they were playing Syracuse.

Kansas was just driving recklessly and hoping for fouls/rebounds/lucky rolls, while the Shockers were passing the ball around and shooting the lights out.

As you know I hate storylines that have nothing to do with the game. So you can bet I am already sick of the narrative that says Wichita St. beat Kansas fueled by the disrespect of the Jayhawks refusing to play them.

The Kansas cheerleaders got into this Sunflower State showdown, rocking sunflowers in their hair.

I understand this was the biggest game in the history of the state of Kansas. But really, was there much competition for that title.

Speaking of storylines I'm sick of, Dayton, home court advantage, and even Archie Miller. I think his wife rubbed me the wrong way last year when they beat Syracuse. To repeat, I don't think the home state advantage had too much impact on the game (more so against Boise State than against Providence) but I think the NCAA should have avoided it just for the sake of appearances.

I really like Buddy Hield aka Buddy Love. Good player and fun guy.

I wonder if Archie will go watch Arizona. I know their dad will.

I wonder where Kevin Pangos ranks on Billy's list of favorite Gonaga players. Probably behind Richie Frahm and ahead of Blake Stepp. ANd way ahead of Adam Morrison, who is in last.

Doug Gottlieb said some unpleasant things about the city of Syracuse, but I can't really disagree with him.

Notice how Oregon's program has gotten so much better since Ernie Kent got fired.

Bo Ryan always looks so angry. He should cheer up. He was a good team. They could really be on collision course for 3 tough games in a row if they can win the first two, UNC, Arizona and then Kentucky. If they win those they might actually catch a softer opponent in the National Final.

If Louisville is shooting 50% against you, you aren't playing good enough defense.

Maryland vs. West Virginia an old fashioned ACC-Big East matchup. A new fangled Big Ten-Big XII matchup.

Maryland's Richaud Pack dyed his hair blonde last week. His aunt died, and she was a lifelong blonde, so to honor her Pack and other family members went blonde. A local sportscaster joined the Pack family.

A real shame that Melo Trimble got rocked two times in the second half. Hard to put a kid back in there after two possibly concussive incidents. But its hard to beat a team like West Virginia without your point guard.

So I picked 4 upsets in the first round, Buffalo over West Virginia, Wofford over Arkansas, Texas over Butler and UC-Irvine over Louisville. Not only did I get all 4 of those wrong, 3 of those teams won their second game and went to the Sweet 16 completely screwing me.

Louisville looked much better than I had seen them all season. Maybe Pitino is like Tom Izzo, knows how to get his teams to win in the tournament.

Disappointing ending to a fun first weekend.

Here's what I'm looking forward to next week: some real challenges for Kentucky. A Wisconsin-Arizona matchup, as well as Duke-Gonzaga, hope they both happen. I would also love to see NC State and Michigan State in the regional. No matter who gets there, it should be fun.

Tournament Thoughts: Second Round Saturday

To repeat: this is the second round. Those first four games are not the first round, I do not care what the committee tries to sell me.

Billie must not have been watching UCLA very much recently or he surely would have remarked on the awesome uniform patches commemorating Wooden and his Pyramid of Success. But he died 5 years ago, how long are they going to honor him?

Now we get to hear about how UCLA proved their critics wrong, which is bullshit because 1) people weren't saying they weren't good enough to win, just that they didn't deserve a bid based on their regular season performance 2) they got a lucky call against SMU 3) they got a favorable draw against UAB and 4) the tournament is a total crapshoot.

If there were momentum that ferocious dunk by Willie Cauley-Stein could have shifted it. He just demolished the poor dude that got in his way.

Fresh off of being ejected in the last game, Octavius Ellis didn't let that curtail his instigating ways. He actually drew a technical from one of the Harrisons who gave him a bump and a shove.

But Kentucky is just too good. Their defense is good but Cincinnati also kept their own score down by holding the ball.

I really think they have a better than 75% chance of going 40-0 and becoming an all-time great team.

I didn't watch any of Arizona's first game versus Texas Southern because it was such a blowout, but you can see why people are picking them to upset Kentucky. They certainly have the talent.

Xavier has Miles Davis. I bet he's cool. And if he has to play ball in Europe after graduation, I wonder if they will call him Kilometers Davis.

Coach Hunter is certainly taking advantage of his moment in the sun. Upset victory, unusual injury, son on the team. He is not turning down any interviews.

But RJ Hunter can play.

Matt Stainbrook looks like the fat kid at summer camp who has to play just cuz he's the biggest kid. He's got the doughy physique, the t-shirt under his uniform, the glasses, just looks dorky and unathletic. But he has a really cool story. He graduated in four years, so this year he is taking classes towards his MBA. His brother is also on the team and somehow Matt gave up his scholarship so Tim could have it. Apparently graduate school only costs 1/3 what Tim would have to pay for undergrad.

And since he's not on scholarship, Matt can get a job. So he drives for Uber. He said at some point he was doing 20 to 25 hours a week.

But he's reportedly down about 30 pounds (and some hair) from when he arrived at Xavier.

Speaking of hair, Mrs. Poop put TJ Shipes on her real All-Hair team.

So long Ron Hunter's stool/knee scooter. We hardly knew ye.

Villanova has a horrible recent history in the tournament. They have made the tournament 5 of the past 6 years and haven't made the Sweet 16. After going to the Final Four in 2010, they lost as a 2 seed in the second round twice, and a one seed in the second round now. Plus two times in the first round 8/9 game. That is just putrid.

Cat Barbour is really good. So skinny and quick, but wiry and strong.

What a great game by Malik Abu. Thank you come again. (I know it's really Apu, but it's funny.)

Who can watch Utah play and not think of My Cousin Vinny?

I loved the pace of the Arkansas-North Carolina game. Apparently the refs got too tired after the first half so they decided to slow the game down in the second. They called a foul on anything that event looked like contact. Ruined a potentially great game.

Marcus Paige played awesome. He's a true point guard. Sets everyone else up but when it comes to winning time he takes the shots for himself.

Bobby Portis looks like a poor man's Chris Bosh.

There were 5 teams from Indiana in this tournament. All of them ended up in the same bracket. Indiana, Valpo and Purdue all lost, so it's Butler and Notre Dame for bragging rights.

Chase picked Butler because he likes Bertram the Butler from "Jessie." Julian picked Butler because they have the "butt" sound in their name.

Pat Conaughton's father is sitting right behind Jerome Bettis. And a couple row in front of Harvey Grant. Where Jerami at? (I know he's with the 76ers and actually playing pretty well.

I know it's a tough call to make at the end of a game, but Auguste absolutely double dribbled that ball. It was so blatantly obvious it had ot be called.

How do you leave two shooters wide open in the corner? You know that's their safety valve. I'd sooner leave a guy open at the top of the key. Terrible late game defense by Butler, but great execution by Notre Dame. You still gotta make the shots. Add the driving layup by Jerian Grant and they got 8 points in 3 possessions while simultaneously using a lot of time.

Great way to end the night with an overtime thriller.

Tournament Thoughts: Late Friday

We start the evening session off with a nice piece of cheese for Duke. Absolutely dominating Robert Morris.

But at least we got a new addition to Mrs. Poop's All-Hair team. Robert Morris's Andre Frederick.

Don't need to watch the second half of this one though.

Oklahoma State vs Oregon is really showing off the color capabilities of my TV.

Oregon gives the Pac-12 a perfect opening round, Arizona, UCLA and Utah all won.

Terrible opening round for the Big 12 though. Oklahoma St., Texas, Baylor and Iowa State all out in Round 1.

Total domination by Iowa. I only picked them because I thought too many people were picking Davidson based solely on the fact that Steph Curry went there. But even he couldn't have helped them tonight. Ok, maybe he could have.

Not sure why they have a camera in the living room of Peter Hooley's family home. Why not bring them to where the cameras are? They couldn't travel to Columbus, Ohio? I know his mom recently passed, but I don't understand why they're at the game. And why they chose to sent a camera crew to record his sister's reactions.

Frank Kaminsky is excellent. I really want to see the matchup between him and Kentucky's bigs in the a national semifinal.

San Diego State's Malik Pope made Billy's All-Hair Team.

St. John's gave it a great effort and man did they push the pace, they just couldn't make enough shots, or hold San Diego State long enough to really cut the lead to a threatening number.

If Gonzaga is the West Coast mid-major version of Duke, then Kevin Pangos is JJ Reddick.

Sir'Dominic Pointer is on every All-Name team. And his sister's name is Miz'Unique.

And speaking of names, Dayton has Bobby Wehrli (rhymes with Hurley) and Scoochie Smith (real name: Dayshon).

It's the Flyers vs. the Friars. I wonder if there are two other teams whose names rhyme. We know Syracuse will never play in such a game.

Providence coach Ed Cooley lost more than 100 pounds after getting bariatric surgery a couple years ago. He doesn't even look like the same guy, except for the weird hair thing.

Why would the committee do this? I still can't understand how they can send Dayton to Dayton, isn't there a rule saying you can't play a tournament game on a court where you hosted at least 3 games during the regular season? Why is Dayton exempt. And then send them to Columbus for the first round. I don't believe the home court advantage matters that much, but why open yourself up to the criticism?

So we end the day with only even minor upset. That tends to happen after a big day of upsets on day 1. But it does set us up for some good games on Sunday. Looking forward to it.

Tournament Thoughts - Early Friday

We start day 2 with Kansas and New Mexico State. Kansas is the two seed a lot of people think is ripe for an upset. But I think they're good, just played a tough schedule.

Not much to comment on from Kansas's blowout.

Sim Bhullar's brother, Tanveer is 7'3" 355 lbs and hardly plays. He did make both his shots.

Every year I pick Michigan State. Some years they let me down, but they usually always play well and Coach Izzo always makes good decisions late in games. Ok, not always, but they had a big enough lead to hold on.

A couple of Michigan State players have nice sneakers, kind of remind me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Wyoming has Larry Nance Jr. that's a sure sign of aging, when you start to watch the kids of players you used to watch.

Northern Iowa looks good. Lots of guys who can knock down shots. Have I mentioned I picked them to make the Final Four? Go make me proud Panthers.

Great run by Wyoming to cut a 21-point deficit. UNI helped them out by shooting quick 3s. Larry Nance Jr got hot. He's 6'8" and can shoot. Maybe he'll get a luck from an NBA team.

Kurt Warner representing Northern Iowa!

In the Christian Laettner 30 for 30 Bobby Hurley was 18 and he looked 10. Now he's about 40 and looks like 50.

So there will be no 12-5 upset this year, despite a couple close calls.

Buffalo had so many chances but could just never seize the lead. That's why size matters, WVU got that huge offensive rebound that gave them another possession, which turned into the back-breaking 3-pointer.

So Belmont couldn't pull off the upset but they did give us one of those nice moments where an underdog makes a run and they showed the guys in the bench in warmups going nuts.

The winner of this year's Coach Memorial You Can't Teach Height Award is UC-Irvine's 7-foot-6 center Mamadou Ndaiye. There used to be a guy of the same name who played at Auburn and briefly in the NBA.

Terrible end of game performance for UC Irvine. Wasted an entire possession with a tie game, committed a dumb foul in the corner and then couldn't even get a shot to tie the game.

It's just crazy that practically every single close game goes against the team I picked.
Purdue, Buffalo, Wofford, UC Irvine, LSU, SMU. All of them had good chances to win, and I lost every single one of those games.

Maryland holds off Valpo. Drews are now 0-2 in this tournament.

All the 4s and 5s survived, pretty sure that has never happened before. Now onto the final session of the best two days of the years.

Tournament Thoughts - Late Thursday

That battle of Pennsylvania never materialized. Villanova took it to Lafayette. And they looked good doing it. But those of us who have Nova exiting early shouldn't panic. Plenty of teams dominated in round 1, and lost in round 2.

Note: Until they got to 96 teams I will not call the playing games the first round. I'm becoming an old fart. Or I resist shill marketing. You make up your own mind.

Utah is coached by Larry Krystowiak, one of The Concierge's favorite players.

Basil Smotherman definitely leading the all-name team so far this tournament.

Octavius Ellis ejected for Cincinnati. Deservedly so. Brutal cheapshot forearm under the chin of AJ Hammons.

Purdue picked a good time to get hot from 3. Started 1-18, hit 3 of next 4.

But once again no such thing as momentum. Quick basket for Cincy, a turnover on a ball batted off the fingertips and reversed on review, then a hard take to the basket for an and-1. But you have to just get out of the way there. A 2-point lead and the ball with 39 seconds left is pretty strong. Can't risk fouling, especially because the shot could miss.

No whistles at the end of this game. But I like the no call. I don't like rewarding an offensive player for running recklessly into a defender.

Damn that was an exciting shot. Buzzer off, shot up, rolling around the rim. It actually took long enough to process all that. Another overtime game.

Exciting overtime considering no one could make a shot, lent itself to some up and down action though. In games this close those little things that happen throughout the course of the game, the missed free throws, the bad passes, the defensive lapses, determine the winner and loser.

I really enjoy watching the Ivy League teams play. The always give a solid effort. And they usually keep it close through ball movement and good outside shooting.

I really enjoy Andrew Catalon as an announcer. He does the Olympic curling but is getting more high profile assignments.

Wow, what a finish. North Carolina just made the plays to hold off Harvard. A great game though, both teams played well and made plays instead of some other games that stayed close because of ineptitude.

Ty Charles of Stephen F Austin made Mrs. Poop's All-Hair team.

She also likes their neon shoes.

Valiant effort by Stephen F. Austin but good job by Utah to hold them off.

If I were friends with Thomas Walkup I would call him 5th floor.

Average height of Kentucky starters: 6'9"
Average height of Hampton starters: 6'3"

They look like men vs. boys out there.

Chase picked NC State to the make the Final Four because their red S looks like Syracuse's orange one. I actually changed his bracket and put Providence in the Final Four instead. He's going to be so happy in the morning.

Great comeback attempt by NC State. They fell in love with the 3 just a little too much but LSU absolutely handed the game to them by missing 6 free throws in a row. This is the distinction I make between a great game and a close, exciting one. This was not a good game, poorly played, miscues galore, but a thrilling finish.

I guarantee LSU's players will be thinking about that one for a while.

Ok, now on to Wofford, one my of 2 12 over 5 picks this year. They just look like a spunky underdog. And they seem to have quite a bit of support in Jacksonville. That is only about 5 hours from campus. And if you're a Wofford alum you probably don't get a better chance to see your team in the tournament.

Great exchange, Qualls throws down a monster dunk to give Arkansas a 1-point lead. Before he can even mean mug for the cameras, Wofford nails a 3 to retake the lead. Dunks, no matter how loud, ferocious or spectacular are still only worth 2 points.

The only reason Wofford did not pull off that upset is because they shot too may 3s, and missed the last 6 they took in the game. They needed to try to get the ball to the basket especially those possessions where they had a 1 or 2 or 3 point lead. And that last possession they basically held for a 3 to tie. I know Arkansas played good D on them, but they should have tried to get a bucket and foul.

Georgetown has a guy named Mikael Hopkins. I feel like I have mentioned this before. But it doesn't seem I did.

A great first day of games with some monumental upsets, two overtime games, and 5 games deciding by exactly 1 point, a new single day tournament record.

Days like this are the reason I love the Big Dance. Even though I can't pick a bracket for shit.

Tournament Thoughts - Early Thursday

It's very rare you see Notre Dame being the more athletic team on the floor. Usually they just have a bunch of slow white guys who can shoot.

I don't have a lot of confidence in Northeastern after hearing their coach fell off the Al Skinner coaching tree.

UAB just seems nervous. Shooting terribly, dropping passes. They likely won't be able to come back if they fall into a huge hole against Iowa St.

Fred Hoiberg doesn't age.

UAB did withstand that initial punch from Iowa State and got back into the game by grabbing a lot of offensive rebounds, which is easier when you miss a ton of shots.

The downside of Greg Anthony's prostitution arrest: all the announce teams got shuffled, Verne and Raf got separated so did Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel. Eagle and Spanarkel were the longest running team, at 17 years.

I hate cliches like "they wanted it more" but UAB is trying a lot harder, running faster, boxing out more than Iowa State.

Terrible late game strategy by Notre Dame. Up 6 under 3 to go and Jerian Grant holds the ball for 30 seconds and chucks up a bad three. Then they fall asleep on defense and allow Northeastern an easy backdoor bucket. The luck of the Irish certainly with them. They tried to blow this game. Why throw an 80-foot pass? Someone come to the ball! But they played great defense in the final possession with a 2-point lead and that was good enough to hold on.

When Niang passes and gets other people involved Iowa State's offense works great. When he gets the ball and shoots it without passing, it doesn't work for them. He doesn't have the hot hand in this game, other teammates particularly Thomas do, but he doesn't seem to recognize that. He finished 4-15 from the field (pitiful considering most were within 10 ft) with 3 turnovers.

So that's the first big upset of the tournament. A lot of people had Iowa State going to the Final Four. I had them losing to SMU on Saturday so this actually works out pretty well for me.

Georgia State's coach looks so silly rolling along the sideline on a stool.

I have no idea why Georgia State chose to slow the pace. They had the ball up 1, slowed it down and it all went to shit. They were pressuring Baylor and forcing turnovers and then they stopped, and Baylor went on a 10-0 run.

Georgia State has Kevin Ware. Surely you remember his gruesome injury from when he was with Louisville 2 years ago.

Funny thing, when Baylor got the lead, they tried to sit on it, and GSU went off, especially the coach's son.

And bang, there you have it. The first big ONIONS!!!!! moment of the tournament. Incredible shot by Hunter, the coach's son, knocking dad off his stool. Incredible. If he hadn't hurt himself after the conference title game he would have done it after this one. Amazing. That's why we love the tournament.

Two No. 14 seeds won in the same tournament only twice, in 1986 (Arkansas-Little Rock over Notre Dame, Cleveland State over Indiana) and 1995 (Weber State over Michigan State, Old Dominion over Villanova).

This Butler-Texas game seems to me to be one of those overachieving hard-working teams that plays good basketball against an undisciplined underachieving team with lots of talent. But I prefer talent which is why I have Texas winning this one.

Larry Brown is going to die on the sideline. He does not look well. He's only three years older than Boeheim. Is that what we have to look forward to in year 3? A decrepit corpse on the sideline?

What a comeback by SMU! That little guy Nick Moore was awesome. 19-0 run!

I never believe in momentum and these games often prove it. Teams get their doors blown off for a few minutes, then hit a couple shots and of the sudden they have all the "momentum." If it's that transient it probably doesn't mean anything at all.

Bryce Alford on fire. It is a good day to be a coach's son.

Oh what a terrible ending to a great game. Very hard to say but I don't think that was goaltending. What a terrible finish to a very exciting game. SMU was in this cage of their own creation though, with a very bad turnover when they should have been sealing the victory.

It always figures that the team everyone is criticizing about their bid is the one that wins a game, and now they have a very good chance to make the Sweet 16.

It seems like D'Angelo Russell is going to be a very high pick in the NBA. And he certainly is a very good player but it seems to me a lot of these athletic wings types have been busts in the NBA.

That was a vicious elbow to Russell's face. It should have been a flagrant 1, excessive contact, but because it wasn't intentional it didn't rise to the level of a flagrant 2. They got one right, huge turn of events.

VCU gave that game away. Way too many mistakes, bad turnovers, ill-advised shots.

But an overtime game was an exciting way to end the first session of games.

I'll Believe It When I See It

Jim Boeheim announced this morning that he will retire in 3 years.
That seems like a really long transition period to me. Maybe he can say he didn't want his hand-picked predecessor Mike Hopkins to take over amidst the turmoil and sanctions from the NCAA.
But this also gives Boeheim way too much time to change his mind.
I do not trust him but I guess this gives him time to remove the stain of this latest ugly incident from being the last thing people remember about him.
But if he didn't want it to appear as if he were forced out, why not wait a year or two to announce this?
This doesn't give him enough time to recoup the 108 wins he lost, so he will never get to 1,000.

So he turns the program over to Mike Hopkins who has been on the staff for 20 years, and been the designated coach-in-waiting for at least the last five.
I am not sure what kind of coach Hopkins will be. Will he just be a Boeheim clone and do everything exactly the same? Will he try to put his own stamp on the program? Will he follow his mentor and teach one defense and employ one strategy no matter the circumstances? Or will he be a real coach who prepares his players for different opponents and adapts his scheme to the strength of his team.

I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

In three years.

Hopefully after Boeheim goes out on a high note of back-to-back-to-back National Championships.

Song of the Week

"Both Sides Now" - Carly Rae Jepsen
I can't believe my favorite Canadian pop cutie did a cover of one of my favorite songs ever, and I never knew about it. Maybe because her version isn't that great. It certainly doesn't measure up to Neil Diamond's (SOTW, 12/27/06).
It's hard to make the same song SOTW twice, but this is so worth it.

The Other Orange

For those of you Syracuse fans who are disenchanted by the NCAA Tournament this year because Syracuse isn't it, I have some advice for you: watch the women! Women are people too!
Under the guidance of Coach Quentin Hillsman the program has made great strides towards respectability, earning its first tournament win last year and threatening to earning its higher seed ever until a first round loss to 13-20 Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament.
That loss knocked Syracuse down to a number 8 seed and a first round matchup with Nebraska on Friday at 7:30 PM ET.
If Syracuse wins they'll likely earn a rematch with South Carolina and superfrosh A'ja Wilson. The teams played in November in the Bahamas and SU narrowly lost (one of 6 losses to top 15 teams). But this time because of the women's tournament structure, it will be a home game for the Gamecocks.
But as a true fan of the Orange I hope you all will support the women's team as they try to carry the banner for the school this year.

Bracket Breakdown

The overriding theme of this year's tournament is Kentucky. Will they win the tournament, go 40-0 and stake their claim as the best team ever? The answer is yes. Kentucky is going to win. If this tournament were run in a billion different Universes concurrently I like Kentucky to win 80% of those. So when filling out your bracket you have to ask yourself if you want to take a big chance, and go for the win, or do you want pick Kentucky and battle it out with everyone else on the other 57 games.

I will be picking Kentucky!

Now on to the other teams that might have a chance if Kentucky falters.

I like Duke a little better this year. They have interior toughness this time and in a crapshoot like the tournament can be, I don't expect them to get knocked out early for the third time in 4 years.

This is the best Gonzaga team possibly ever. Their arc started as a Cinderella, and then when they finally got high seedings they never reached those expectations. This is their year to make the Final Four, beating Duke in a thrilling regional final.

Wisconsin is the only other team I could see beating Kentucky. Watching Kaminsky go against Towns and Cauley-Stein in the Final Four will be awesome, and probably the de facto National Championship.

I think the East regional (going through the Carrier Dome) is the most wide open. I don't have much faith in Villanova or Virginia and I could definitely see that one going to a surprise team like Northern Iowa or even Michigan State.

I think Kansas got royally screwed by getting lumped in with Kentucky. I think they are better than Virginia, and playing the nation's toughest schedule should count for something. They went 9-5 against top 30 teams for heaven's sake, including a loss to Kentucky. I think a 2 seed is right for them, but I don't think they were 8th best.

Now to the bottom of the bracket. Texas and UCLA should not have made the tournament. Temple and Richmond were more deserving. Temple was the last team left out according to head of the committee. Texas I can forgive because they play in what is toughest conference in the country but the Pac-12 is putrid and UCLA beat no one all year.
And to compound the issue, each of those teams got a free pass to the first round. And poor Boise State gets screwed again having to play Dayton on its home floor. The committee could have avoided two controversies by swapping Dayton and UCLA here.

Now on to some upsets. A lot of people are picking Stephen F. Austin but Cinderellas rarely do it two years in a row. I don't see Northern Iowa getting upset in the first round. So for a 5/12 upset it's either Wofford over Arkansas or Buffalo over West Virginia. I would tend to pick against the team from the weaker conference but I haven't made up my mind.

I'm also watching Cal-Irvine over Louisville as a first round upset.

I'm really looking forward to all the 7-10 games this year especially VCU vs. Ohio State as some of these teams are very live dogs in the second round.

More thoughts coming throughout the week. Stay tuned and please join the tournament challenge group on ESPN.com, The Poop, as always. And maybe we'll all do better than we did last year.

Song of the Week

"Post To Be" - Omarion featuring Chris Brown and Jhene Aiko
This song has two strikes against it 1) it features woman-batterer Chris Brown and 2) it changes "supposed to be" into "post to be", but it also has a lot going for it 1) Omarion of B2K fame and 2) a sample of reggae classic "Murder She Wrote."

Near-Death Experience

There's an old joke about the baseball player who said he missed a home run by an inch. The listener asks "oh it hit the top of the fence" and the ballplayer replies "no, it missed my bat by an inch."
Similarly, I missed death or serious injury by an inch or two on the way to work a couple weeks ago.
The road wasn't particularly damp and I don't think it was raining or snowing at the time, but I came upon some sudden traffic, and the car in front of me braked suddenly, and I did the same, not jamming my brakes, and not getting anywhere near the car in front of me, when I hear a horrible screeching sound behind me. I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a van skidding towards me (on a 3-lane road I was in the left, he was skidding between left and center, and the center laners were moving to the right lane to avoid him.)
I watched and listened and braced for impact, but he finally came to a stop, at a 20 degree angle, in both lanes, inches from my rear bumper.
Strange feeling sitting there watching a potentially serious accident come skidding towards you with nothing to do but wait and hope.
Thankfully it worked out fine, but my heart was beating pretty fast for the next few minutes.

World's Oldest Person Curse

This is Misao Okawa. She is about to fall victim to a curse worse than the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.

At 117 she is now the world's oldest person. That's because the previous world's oldest person died. Same thing happened to the one before that, and the one before that and you get the picture. Being named the world's oldest person is a curse. They're dropping like flies, usually within a short period after getting the title, they pass it on the next poor schlub who should being writing a will.

Here are some facts about her:
She was born in 1898
She has 3 kids, 4 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren
Her son is in his 90s
She has been a widow for nearly 84 years

Upon Further Review

I was able to find out more about the charges against Syracuse and Jim Boeheim that lead to some serious penalties.
And I haven't changed my mind one bit.
There are three majors things here:
1) A rogue employee of the YMCA had tremendous access to the players and there is good reason to believe he paid them, but at the very least they got credit for internships they didn't fulfill, and the University didn't take enough steps to make sure they did
2) Players had work done for them. One example says a player wrote a paper which fell short of the class requirements, but eventually handed in one that met those requirements, and that paper was found on the computer of a tutor
3) Players failed drug tests and nothing was done about it

That is a gross over-simplificiation but I figure if you cared enough you have already read this comprehensive summary and if you don't care enough, my above bullets are enough to get you to understand.

Based on those findings I understand why the NCAA had to deem players ineligible and dock the scholarships, but what is standing out to some people is the unprecedented 9-game suspension of head coach Jim Boeheim.

"...in his interview the head basketball coach acknowledged that he had student-athletes test positive and rather than call the student-athletes' parents, he brought the student-athletes in and talked to them. When questioned why he did not call the parents, the head basketball coach responded that the director of athletics did not require him to follow the policy and, in at least in some instances, "it would have been fruitless." At the hearing, the head basketball coach also admitted that he did not call the parents because his director of athletics told him he did not have to and he did not know that failing to follow the policy violated NCAA rules."

Here is what I gather and it seems totally plausible to me: Coach Boeheim didn't like the rules, he didn't follow the rules, he didn't think he needed to follow the rules and when questioned about it he said he didn't even know what he did violated the rules.

And he probably was rude and dismissive to the investigators.

If you're the NCAA, and you're going to bother playing whack-a-mole with this kind of stuff, you have to come down hard on Syracuse and Coach Boeheim. If you don't you look even more feckless than most people thought you were.

In summary, Syracuse committed a long list of violations over an extended period of time. They tried to blame it on outside individuals and dismissed former employees, but the University, the athletic department and especially Coach Boeheim showed little or no inclination to follow the rules, so how else to make them (and all the other schools doing the same thing) take the rules more seriously in the future, but him them with severe penalities?

Syracuse Gets Whacked

The NCAA finally coming down hard on Syracuse after a lengthy investigation into alleged infractions dating back more than 10 years.

Jim Boeheim will be suspended for the first 9 conference games of next season
The team will lose 12 scholarships over several years
SU must return money earned for participating in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 NCAA tournaments
SU has to vacate 108 wins for using ineligible players

That last one is the biggie. That really hurts Boeheim and adds and extra 4 years (at least) to his quest for 1,000 wins.

The violations included academic misconduct, extra benefits, failure to follow the drug-testing policy, and impermissible booster activity.

Other violations included impermissible academic assistance and services, Boeheim's failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance and monitor his staff, and the school's lack of control over its athletics program.

Do I believe that? Absolutely I do. It is not hard to imagine Boeheim sitting in his office and being above it all instead of monitoring what's going on. It's the same thing Joe Paterno did and Penn State and Pete Carroll did at USC. It's better not to know, and frankly they don't care. They just hope they don't get caught.

I hate Jim Boeheim because I don't think he is a good coach, and more importantly because I think he acts like an arrogant asshole. It sucks that school, the current players and the fans will be punished because a few individuals didn't do their jobs.

Hopefully this will hasten Boeheim's retirement instead of lengthen his career in pursuit of a milestone accomplishment.

Why I Created the "Typical Yankees Fan" Tag

Curt Schilling tweeted congratulations to his daughter Gabby for getting accepted to Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island where she will be playing softball.

As usual, the trolls had to chime in, two in particular. Hollywood (@primetime227) and The Sports Guru (@Nagels_Bagels) went back in forth with a series of vile tweets about her.

"Teach me your knuckleball technique so I can shove my first in your daughter."

"I'm sure she can fit a nice Easton in there as well for some DP."

"Curt bleeds more from his sock than Gabby does from her pussy when she's on her period."

"Curt rocked the mullet- business in front, part in back...Gabby prefers the party in the back. #ButtStuff2015"

Even though the last one is kind of funny, those are still terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad things to say -- about someone's daughter -- in a public forum -- fully intending for the target of the comments to read them.

To Schilling's credit he posted the entire thing on his blog and really went after them.

And in the end, he taught them an important lessons about trolling and consequences.

Adam Nagel has been suspended by Brookdale Community College.

"Hollywood" Sean MacDonald was a part-time ticket seller for the Yankees. He isn't anymore. The Yankees fired him immediately saying they "have zero tolerance for anything like this."

Song of the Week

"Touching Me" - The Ovations
Lead singer Louis Williams may be the one person who is a bigger Sam Cooke fan than I am. Williams clearly modeled his vocal style after Cooke's so much so that the first time I ever heard this song I thought for sure this was an unknown Cooke b-side I had never heard before.
The Ovations biggest hit was a remake of Cooke's "Having a Party."
Also the vamp at the beginning of this song sounds a lot like the one in Cooke's "Good Times."

In God's Hands

Former Knicks forward Anthony Mason passed away this morning from congestive heart failure.
Mason was a mainstay on the great Knicks teams from the early-90s, where along with Charles Oakley he ushered in a bruising style of defense to the NBA.
He was best known for having phrases shaved into his hair including "In God's Hands."

He was also immortalized in the 1994 rallying song "Go NY Go NY Go" "oh rebounds if that's the case we put Oakley and Mase in your face!"

Song of the Week

"Doo Doo" - Troy Ave
I like this upbeat ditty but I worked that people will pronounce it like DOOdoo (as in poop) as opposed to two separate happy notes. Although based on the lyrics maybe the title is intended to have a double meaning.

Two Big Reasons to Watch Dancing With the Stars This Season

Model Charlotte McKinney who was billed by some as the heir apparent to Kate Upton (it's apparent why) is headlining the latest Dancing with the Stars cast. I trust double-sided tape will be prominently involved.



Here are the other 10 "stars" she will be competing against, and I use that term loosely.

Suzanne Somers
Patti LaBelle
Michael Sam
Nastia Liukin
Robert Herjavec
Willow Shields
Rumer Willis
Redfoo
Riker Lynch
Noah Galloway
Charlotte McKinney

I'm Cured

Several years ago I was diagnosed with a peanut allergy, but I continued to eat peanuts, and only occasionally did I experience even a mild reaction. And even that hasn't happened in many years of eating Snickers and peanut M&Ms.
I have told Mrs. Poop and Poppy that I think I cured myself by slowly introducing small amounts to my system and they said I was nuts (pun intended). Basically that's what allergy shots do, give you a small dose of the allergen so your system can deal with it.
Maybe I am not as crazy as you thought. A new article in the Wall Street Journal says a new study contradicts everything we've been told about when to introduce peanuts to children. In fact, the study says, delaying exposure to peanuts may actually lead to those kids developing peanut allergies.

"The new study...found that 17.2% of the children who avoided peanuts until age 5 ended up with a peanut allergy compared with 3.2% of those who regularly ate peanuts..."

I strongly recommend reading the entire article to understand the study's methodology and how 14% of kids who initially showed no reaction to peanuts on the prick test (no that's not a JLeary test, different kind of prick) developed a peanut allergy when all they did was avoid eating peanuts.

Note: I am not a doctor and even if I were I wouldn't recommend force-feeding your infant a jar of peanut butter because in rare cases it could result in death by anaphylaxis.

Superman That --- OH!!!

The Superman punch is a rarely used technique in MMA. It starts as a sort of fake kick, and morphs into an overhand punch that seldom works. But it worked to perfection for Matt Dwyer who used to it KTFO William Macario.



You know the guy is out when he falls face first to the mat. Very slow stoppage by the ref, exposing Macario to four or five extra punches, punches Dwyer seemed reluctant to throw.

This one definitely goes down as one of my favorites in UFC history.

3000 Words

An old man finds giant 6-foot spiderweb in front of his garage. Claims spider did it overnight.

Dirtiest car ever?

Note: this was actually in the parking lot at my office. I thought someone was pulling a Costanza and pretending to sleep at the office, but there were no fliers under the windshield wipers.

I had to try the old hooded-sweatshirt popcorn holder gag.

Song of the Week

"Three Little Birds" - Bob Marley
I guess I never thought about it too much, but I just learned the song's real title.

What Do You Give Me For? Chase and Leon Spinks

Chase got head-butted by Diesel jarring out what was already a very loose front tooth. That image, along with the hooded sweatshirt he was wearing called to mind this famous picture.

Now You Can See Hannah Davis's Pussy

After all the controversy because we could almost see Hannah Davis's pussy on her Sports Illustrated cover, now we can. Building off the success of their Rob Lowe campaign DirecTV hired 3 models to star in their own version of the ads.

Here's hot, normal Hannah Davis

And now here's Cat Lady Hannah Davis

Now I doubt they knew there would be a huge controversy over Davis's "cat" when they shot this ad campaign, but it certainly is a happy coincidence.

Here's Chrissy Teigen

And Mom Jeans Chrissy Teigen

And finally, Nina Agdal

And Lunch Lady Nina Agdal

I like how they kept fidelity to the original pose and just changed everything else to make the pictures incredibly different.

I won't even bother with a WYB? on these because I know the answers are still 3 resounding yeses but in order of preference, I still think Mom Jeans Chrissy is kind of hot, Cat Lady Hannah is a little scary but Lunch Lady Nina is the worst.

Song of the Week

"Come On Down" - Crystal Waters
I was trying to find a song that samples "The Price is Right" theme and believe it or not there were quite a few to choose from.

Did Hannah Davis Fire a Shot at Kate Upton?

The incredibly hot Hannah Davis has had to spend the past few days answering questions about the photo of her on the cover of the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue where she is pulling her bikini bottom down so low, her clit is practically poking out.

After being pelted with questions about her almost-showing vagina, Davis came up with a pat answer "I think SI always tries to do something a little different every year, and I think this year, it’s the year of the torso.”

So this year is about torsos, and that's different than the last few years?

I think Davis might be subtly pointing out that Kate Upton is all boobs and her stomach is not flat, at least by bikini model standards.

Maybe she is jealous of Upton's ample blessings (not that Davis is flat-chested by any means) and the success she gotten because of them.

Maybe she just meant SI was going in a different direction, just to be different.

Or maybe I am reading too much into this. But I kind of like the idea of a Davis-Upton catfight.