Song of the Week

"I Miss You" - Aaron Hall

Bracket Breakdown

Let's start off with the number one seeds. The committee got three of them correct. Louisville is the best team, Gonzaga and Indiana also very deserving of their spots. I do quibble with Kansas over Duke though. They both had 5 losses. They both played murderous non-conference schedules but Duke's was a little tougher. They both played in good but weaker than normal conferences, but again Duke's was better. They both have a lot of good wins and a couple bad losses. But Duke lost to Virginia, Kansas lost to TCU. Other than "playing better lately" or "winning the conference tournament" I can't see any area where you compare these teams and say Kansas was more deserving.

I think the committee gave the Pac-12 the lack of respect it deserves in regard to seeding but it still got 5 teams in.

If any conference got underseeded it was the Mountain West. You do realize it was the second-toughest conference this season? Everyone of its teams should have been a line higher, including New Mexico, which even as a 3 seed is a serious Final Four threat. It drives me nuts that the committee would put the only non-power conference top 3 seeds in the same region, to avoid two of them getting to the Final Four. I hate conspiracy theories but there is so much evidence that the committee does that shit that it almost has to be true.

For instance, pairing Boise State versus LaSalle in a play-in game. And Middle Tennessee State versus St. Mary's in the other.

And why wasn't Cal in a play-in game? If they are one of the last teams in and got a 12, why do two 11s have to play against each other. Why not give MTS a game against Cal instead of SMC?

And why not give Akron the chance to knock off Oklahoma State or Wisconsin? Why put them against VCU?

I'm not one of these mid-major apologists. I like the big schools with the tradition and the fans and the best players. But don't stack the deck against the small schools.

At least they let Middle Tennessee get in. I was sure they were going to be left out despite a fantastic record and a good RPI. I understand they didn't beat anyone except Ole Miss, but 3 of their 5 losses were to excellent teams (Belmont, Florida and Akron). If MTS didn't get in, you're basically telling the really small schools that they have to play a tough non-conference schedule, win a couple of those games and/or be perfect in their conference. Too tall an order especially when compared to 12-loss teams from the bigger conferences.

Let's stick with Belmont for a second. They're going to beat Arizona in the first round. And they might not be the only 11 over 6. Minnesota has an excellent chance to beat UCLA.

But I'm not going to bury the Pac-12. I'm going to give Oregon the coveted 5/12 upset slot. This is basically a vote against Oklahoma State because I like VCU, UNLV and Wisconsin to all advance.

Now to find the 2 seed that will lose in the second round. I will say that I have an incredible record at this. I'd say I get it right 50% of the time. Unfortunately, I almost never get the right team doing it. I am confident about Ohio State and Georgetown so it's down to Miami and Duke. I loved Miami at the beginning of the year, hated them late and really am not sold on them. But I really don't like Duke and think the Creighton matchup is bad for them. So I will go with Duke missing the Sweet 16 as a 2 seed for the second straight year.

The committee did do a good job of matching big conferences and mid-majors in the 8/9 and 7/10 games though. 5 games like that among those and I will guarantee the mid-majors win at least three of those.

In order to see my Final Four picks and champion you need to join my Tournament Challenge group on espn.com. The group name is of course, The Poop.

Two more notes: the stupidest thing in the world is people who complain about things like Syracuse going to California despite being part of the West region. A few years ago the committee changed their rules. The region names only refer to the site of the regional semis and finals. For the first weekend teams from any region can go anywhere with the preference to give the higher seeds close proximity to home. Like it or not those are the rules. Stop complaining about it. Stop making snarky remarks. Deal with it.

The second stupidest thing is the branding attempt to call the the four play-in games the first round. They are play-in games. Call them such. The games that begin on Thursday will always be the first round to me, on this blog, until they expand the tournament to 96 teams like Jim Boeheim wants.

Going Out on Top, Almost

You've heard the testimonials all week, everyone who loves college basketball is saddened by the demise of the Big East. But instead of being sad, I decided to celebrate it. Billy and I made a vow to each other that we would not miss our last chance to see Syracuse play at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament. Everything was going smoothly early in the season, it seemed like a lock that SU would earn a top 4 seed and a double bye, guaranteeing a Thursday game, but the late season slide messed all that up. But still we took our chances and once the seedings were finalized we bought our tickets to Thursday's afternoon session. We got the tickets on Vividseats.com which is just like stubhub, but it is the official secondary market ticket partner of the Big East Tournament. The tickets were $67, not bad considering the face value was $70, but once we paid the fees and shipping (FedEx), they were $87 each.



We had to sweat out a Wednesday victory over Seton Hall, which earned Syracuse a game against Pittsburgh Wednesday at 2pm. Papa Poop arrived at the game on time but Billy and his dad were late while looking for NYC parking. The first game was a blowout by Georgetown of Cincinnati. Very unremarkable game. And then the SU-Pitt game started. Here's the vantage point from our seats:



Not great, very high up, behind the basket, and in the reconfigured Garden there was a section or a suite above and in front of us so we had no view of the scoreboard. But we did have high-definition monitors right in front of us for score checks and replays.



I decided to wear my Kirby Puckett jersey to honor him on what would have been his 53rd birthday. And the late great Puck brought us some luck. SU got our to an early lead thanks to some great shooting by James Southerland (a pattern), but gave it up in the second half (also a pattern), but managed to hold on for a victory.

So I decided to do it again the next night. Master Bates got free tickets so he invited me and Nails and off we went. I left work a little early and parked my car on 38th and 8th at 6:47. The area was restricted parking until 7, so I hung around, check for parking police and took off at 6:52, taking my chances. I got away with it, luckily, and we arrived at our seats just in time for tip. Our seats were much better than the previous day. The Georgetown student section was right behind the basket and we were in the section facing them on the side.



The game followed a similar pattern as the previous day, Syracuse built a big lead thanks to hot shooting by James Southerland (and even more surprisingly, Trevor Cooney) but blew the lead in the second half when Boeheim slowed the offense down and it went stagnant. Some dubious fouls helped Georgetown tie the game and force overtime, but Syracuse held on for the win.

This game was amazing because James Southerland had 13, so did Baye Keita who made 7 of 7 free throws (I was there, and I watched the entire game again on DVR the next day, and I still went to espn.com to check that stat because it was so hard to believe) and Trevor Cooney had 10. Michael Carter-Williams and CJ Fair combined for 9 points on 4 of 23 shooting.

But Fair did throw down this monster jam in the overtime to help seal it.



This win was particularly satisfying because of the obnoxious Georgetown students in front of us. But also because of the sour taste in our mouths after the huge beatdown in the final regular season meeting. This one was a classic, on the biggest stage for the Big East, and it got a large measure of revenge in the rivalry, which is now officially closed.

And I got to wear my "Your Mother's a Hoya" t-shirt one more time.



Now I suppose I have to talked about the Big East Final, a game which I thankfully had the good sense not to attend. SU got off to another hot start and when James Southerland canned a 3 to make it 45-29 with 16 minutes to go, it seemed like SU would certainly blow the lead, but still be able to hold on. What happened next was a total collapse by Syracuse. James Southerland went out with his 4th foul, and the Orange went about 10 minutes without a field goal. Louisville went on a 44-10 run in that span, turning blowout loss into blowout win in record time.

A few reasons I'm not that upset about the loss:
1) The tangible stakes were very low. SU was only playing for seeding. It got a 4, which is what the team deserved, and may not have gotten a 3 even with a win, though probably would have.
2) It had been a good run. I feel the team rebounded from it's late season slide, found its offense again and has renewed confidence going into the tournament that really matters, even though they got blown out in the second half.
3) Better to get an epic collapse out of the way, and hopefully learn something from it. Like take Southerland out when he had 2 fouls late in the second, and continue to be aggressive on offense even with a lead (more from the previous two games than the one against Louisville.)

Two reasons I am upset about the loss:
1) It would have been nice to have the final Big East Tournament title. It would have been very memorable.
2) James Southerland didn't win Most Outstanding Player. He averaged 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds but more importantly, he made 19 out of 33 3s. Taking nothing away from Peyton Siva, who had a fine tournament and had been in a good player in his 7 years at Louisville, but it is called the Most "Outstanding" Player. Not valuable, not best on winning time, outstanding. Will anyone remember what Siva did in this tournament? No. Are people going to remember the shooting clinic Southerland put on? Yes! 57% from behind the line, on 8 attempts per game. That will stand out in people's minds. Stand out, outstanding, get it?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my two favorite Irish Jews

My Pet Peeve

I like to send people e-mails. When I see a story or a video that I think someone might be interested in, maybe it's about their college, their favorite actor or their hometown, I e-mail that person. All too often the response is "I saw that."
I know I am not the only person who is plugged in and following stories on the internet, and I don't mean to come off that way, but don't you have something more interesting to say than "I saw that?".
Why do you feel the need to let me know that I am not the first person who told you something. And so what? Sorry, you've heard it before, but can't you pretend you didn't and have a conversation with me about it?

He Hates Jack-King Off

2004 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Greg Raymer was arrested in a prostitution sting in Wake Forest, NC. The men were lured to the hotel by an ad on a website often used by hookers.



We don't have anymore info about how it all went down, but I assume it was something like we see on "To Catch a Predator." The guys set up a date online with someone they believed to be a hooker (of age) and when they got there, cops were waiting for them.

Raymer, also known as Fossilman, won $5M in the first Main Event after the poker boom, and finished 25th the next year, which is quite an accomplishment, with the help of his goofy holographic glasses.



I did a Zillow search for his house. He paid $1.539M for a 6,500 sq ft home in Raleigh. Looks like it is right on a golf course.

Mrs. Poop's Evening Workout

Mrs. Poop normally works out in the mornings so that I have to take care of the little monsters and get them off to school. But on Monday night she is going to be at the gym in the evening.



The sign says a reality show is being shot at the gym, Retro Fitness, and if you want to work out during that time you have to sign a release. She is convinced it's Undercover Boss because Retro Fitness is a big chain and the show's usual gimmick is to tell the employees they're filming a competition show and the winner will be awarded a franchise.
I think the most likely thing is some small production company is shooting some dumb reality show it hopes will get picked up. But it could also be something like Real Housewives of NJ or Snooki and JWowww where they just need a 15-second gym scene.
Not sure what to think, but I hope whatever it is, they feature the gym's baby-sitting service because that's where Chase and Julian will be while Mrs. Poop mugs for the cameras.

Don't Just Stand There, Grab a Mop

One of the sneaky-popular posts in Poop history is this frame-by-frame photo montage of someone slipping on ice. People like watching other people slip and fall. Which brings me to the idiots on the North Platte Community College Girls Basketball team. They decided to celebrate a win by dousing the coach with Gatorade/water. While this is a bad idea on a football field, at least the turf absorbs the liquid. That doesn't work so well on a basketball court.



The first time I saw this video I chuckled but didn't pay much attention. But then I watched it again, more closely, and noticed, not only did the coach fall down, some good Samaritan from the bleachers also wiped out and fell on his ass.

Christian Laettner and 31 Other Guys

The overly pretentious Bill Simmons website, grantland.com, is running a bracket-style tournament to pick the most hated college basketball player of the past 30 years. The players are broken up into 4 regions: 80s, 90s, 00s and Duke.



I agree that Duke should have its own region, having 8 hated guys (and another 8 who could have made it) is the ultimate compliment.
That's why I'm glad to see Syracuse is one of the few schools with 3 players in the bracket, Derrick Coleman, Sherman Douglas and Eric Devendorf. I wouldn't have thought people hated Sherman Douglas that much.
A lot of these players don't even seem that hateable to me. I loved Marcus Camby, Allen Iverson and Larry Johnson.
I would pick Reggie Miller from the 80s bracket (can't separate his NBA days), Eric Montross from the 90s and Adam Morrison for the 2000s (he'll never live down the crying).
And though I know, and everyone else including the people at grantland who came up with the idea knows Christian Laettner is going to win (lose?), I would still pick Shane Battier. I hate that prick, especially because of the undue attention he gets.
I remember a game Dick Vitale was broadcasting when his play-by-play partner said Shane Battier would be joining them. Vitale's response ("Shane Battier! We're going to talk to Shane Battier?!") is an enduring signal of my hatred for that alien-headed jerk.

Song of the Week

"So Many Tears" - 2Pac

Once More, With Feeling

I am saddened by the end of Syracuse's tenure in the Big East but even more disheartened by the way it ended, 4 losses in the final 5 games (though all four against teams in the top 12 RPI) culminating in an embarrassing 61-39 loss to Georgetown. I've written before about the conference realignment, and I continue to be sad about Syracuse leaving the Big East, but I understand it was needed and I will enjoy our new opponents in the ACC.
But Syracuse will never be to UNC or Duke what it is to Connecticut and especially Georgetown. Having Georgetown as a foil is part of what made me such a devoted Syracuse fan at such a young age. The details of the early 80s games escape me (though I've seen the Pearl Washington game several times on classic) but I do remember being a young kid and needing to go shopping for a suit for someone's Bar Mitzvah. So I set the VCR to record the Syracuse-Georgetown game. But I was a rookie at this sort of thing and only recorded 2 hours, missing the end of the game.
It was this rivalry with Georgetown that encouraged me to march into Manny's as a freshman and buy a "Your Mother's a Hoya" t-shirt. Still fits!



And it was my first SU-Georgetown game that is still my fondest memory. February 1997, Otis Hill and Etan Thomas both in foul trouble, they'd foul out eventually. And a 6-foot-2, seldom-used guard comes off the bench to score 10 points and grab 6 rebounds (4 offensive), in only 19 minutes. That guard also happened to be the football team's star quarterback, Donovan McNabb, which added to the mystique of the game.



A year later in the last regular season game SU beat Georgetown and we stormed the court. In the picture of the fracas you can see my friend EZE, in the right side of the picture, with the green hat.



After John Thompson and Allen Iverson left Georgetown wasn't a consistent national power again as it had been in the 80s, but those games always meant a little something extra to the fans and according to this oral history from the Washington Post, to the players and coaches as well.

Note: this video is only diminished by the lack of rights to video for rebroadcast on the internet.



I'm hopeful SU can keep the rivalry against Georgetown alive, because those games always provided a chance for SU to be in the national spotlight.
But even if they never play again, your mother's still a Hoya!

Baby Mama Drama

Dr. Amy Dunbar, a St. Louis OBGYN is in trouble for posting this on her Facebook page.



I really don't blame Dr. Dunbar for posting this. If the patients truly has been this late, this often, then Dr. Dunbar is justifiably angry and venting her anger in what should be a safe place, her own Facebook page. Her mistake here was accepting a friend request from the person who shared this. Your Facebook friends should be people who don't want to see you hurt or embarrassed, not people who will take one comment they don't like and make it public to the world.
The patient is an asshole too. Yes you are paying the doctor for her time and service, but that doesn't mean she works for you, serving at your pleasure. I've occasionally seen people throwing fits in doctors' offices, being jerks, and I've always wondered why they don't tell that person to go find another doctor. I used to sit near this really nasty woman at my old job, and when her daughter had the sniffles she would call and berate (this same woman once spelled that word "barrade" in an e-mail) the staff. I wondered why people put up with this shit.
So maybe not doing that was Dr. Dunbar's second mistake. But I don't think she violated this patient's privacy. No one reading that post would have any idea who the patient is. Therefore her privacy is protected. Unless you hear about a woman whose OB showed up late to her delivery.

I Knew This Instinctively

Doyle Brunson is one of the greatest poker players of all-time and he mostly does it on instinct. He almost always makes the mathematically correct move, without ever hardly considering the mathematics of the situation. One math whiz player conjectures that Doyle naturally came upon the best strategy without thinking about it, and his years of experience confirmed it. That's what happened to me.
The folks at Business Insider decided to compare how much filling was inside a burrito compared to a burrito bowl. And they found out what I instinctively stumbled upon, there is more food in a burrito bowl, for the same price.



71% more food. So business insider suggests you order a burrito bowl with the tortilla on the side. I suggest you listen to me when it comes to food-related matters.

Return to the Scene

After causing a near panic at the casino by suggesting a group of old men and I would burn down the place with a pair of hot dice, I had stayed away from Foxwoods for more than 7 years.
But Mrs. Poop found a weekend with nothing to do so we planned a romantic getaway into the Connecticut tribal lands. We left the kids with Mem and Poppy and landed at Foxwoods at about 2pm Saturday. We checked in but were told our room wouldn't be available for an hour, so we gave the front desk our phone number and gave the bellman our baggage and walked away. We didn't get far before the phone rang, our room was ready. Kind of annoying, but nice to get into our room early. Though I had to pay the bellman a dollar to hold our bags for literally 2 minutes.
Mrs. Poop had a spa treatment (if you want to know about her pedicure you'll have to send a separate e-mail) so I had about three hours to play poker. I saw Paul Pierce putting his name on the list, later on I would see James Woods, the actor. Both apparently frequent the Foxwoods Poker room. At my table, I got an unfortunate seat draw and sat on the direct right of a really good player with a huge chip stack. He kept bullying me and my tight style encouraged this. I did get him for a couple small pots, and eventually got one big pot when I hit trip kings on the turn. I may have overbet the river costing me some value but at one point I had more than doubled my $200 buy-in. I lost most of that in a hand with the bully, I played it right until the river when he raised me, I should have folded, but I paid him an extra $55.
I still booked a $40 win, not bad.



Then I went back to the room to get ready for dinner at Cedars steakhouse. We had to wait 20 minutes after our reservation time before we got seated. But when we finally did we were taken to a lovely table in a backroom right next to a knob that controlled the volume of the background music. I was very tempted to blast it up to ten and see what happens, but as I found out, loudness is not tolerated well at this restaurant.



I had a delightful bowl of lobster bisque and a great surf n turf. Mrs. Poop enjoyed the french onion soup and the baked stuff shrimp.



As we were finishing our meal a group of 6 or 7 women, ages spanning the 30s and 40s, came into this little area which contained two large tables and two tables for 2. The women were being very loud, bickering with each other, and arguing with the wait staff, complaining the waitress read the specials too quietly and too quickly. And some of them were clearly intoxicated. So drunk, in fact, that one of them stumbled into the manager on her way into the restaurant. At that point the manager decreed that at least two of the women should not be served alcohol. When they were told this they freaked out. If they were loud before, now they were screaming demanding to see the manager. He told them it was his decision and it would not change, they stormed out but not before saying "we were going to spend 500 dawllors!" On the way out one of the older, more mature members of the party asked us "how bad were they?" We said "pretty loud" and she apologized and left. But she had to come back not once, but twice more because the drunkest, loudest, most obnoxious woman had lost her eyeglasses, which were eventually found under the table. Embarrassing to storm out of a restaurant then have to come back to retrieve your lost property.
The wait staff and the manager apologized profusely to us (didn't discount our bill, it really wasn't that bad) and we told them they did the right thing and then we got the hell out of there because we were meeting friends anyway.
Mrs. Poop went off to play slots with her friend, and I went to play poker with her husband. We actually got seats at the same table with only one very chatty guy in between us. The first hand I guess I was rushed and opened my hand sloppily and he saw my hole cards. He told me that he saw them and made a big deal out of how nice a guy he is but if he sees him again he's not going to tell me. I only get one warning. I was more careful after that but he still insisted he could see my cards. Now, I don't doubt that I am not super careful about peeking at my hand but for him to have seen it he had to be looking for it. Anyway, he didn't beat me a pot the whole time so it didn't much matter. I won a huge pot with the nuts, but I misread the board and called the river, instead of raising, technically against the rules. I also made a straight flush, my first ever in live poker, but couldn't get any action. I got chastised for not checking it, but thought my opponent was more likely to call a bet than to make one himself. For the session I booked another small profit.
At one point a very hot girl in a very short dress was over by the cashout window. Chatty Guy kept talking about her, even making our female dealer very uncomfortable, though she tried to fit in by saying "I like looking at pretty things." This prompted Chatty Guy to compare this hot chick to a car "I like going to the showroom but I always go back to my car. She's got a few dents and scratches but I love her. Plus cars like that require a lot of maintenance."
Later as I was explaining Chatty Guy and the hot chick to Mrs. Poop and her friend, that hot chick walked right by us. And Mrs. Poop agreed she was hot, dressed slutty and probably a lot of work and money to maintain.
We walked around played slots and I even got in on a craps table. I had a decent roll going until the pit boss coolered me. He told me to make sure the dice hit the back wall. I did, it bounced oddly and I sevened out. Not before booking a small win. See a pattern?
The next morning I woke up early played in a poker tournament, $60 buyin, about 50 players total, I had good cards early, nothing late, blinds rose very quickly so I had to push all in with top pair (queens) and a weak kicker and got called by a Queen with a better kicker and that was that.
But it was still early so I decided to hit a $5 craps table. Bad idea, lost a little over $100. Which for the weekend put us down a little less than $100 which isn't bad considering how much fun we had. No crazy gambling stories, no threats to burn down the casino. Just a nice quiet weekend with my wife.

Song of the Week

"So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" - Boyz II Men

The Only Thing Worse Than Being Behind a Bus Or a Student Driver

A bus with a student driver sign on the back! I have never seen anything move this slowly. I could have pushed this bus faster.
Two clarifying points:
1) It was not unsafe to take this picture while driving because behind this bus was analogous to being stopped at a red light.
2) There was actually another car in between the bus and me. But that car was turning right where I normally do. So in order to get this shot, I followed the bus another block down the road.

The Rapper Next Door

Rapper Jim Jones was charged with disorderly conduct and hindering apprehension by the Fair Lawn Police Department. Jones, a Fair Lawn resident whose real name is Joseph G. Jones, 37, was arrested in the morning on Feb. 13 after he was questioned by police about a vehicle on Ward Street.
Police say Jones's car was ticketed on February 6th for a parking violation, and it had not been moved in the days following the big snowstorm on February 8th. This obviously creates a problem for snow removal. Since the officer thought the car to be abandoned, he was in the process of having it towed.
That's when Jones came out, he agreed to move the vehicle and pay the towing fee. The officer did a background on Jones and found two outstanding warrants, one for $43 for failure to remove snow from the sidewalk and a $150 warrant for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.
Jones got angry when questioned about the warrants and attempted to flee while being arrested.
Just a typical day in Fair Lawn. Actually, I'm glad the police arrested this hoodlum. In 10 years as a Fair Lawn resident it's the first time I've heard of the police doing anything other than sitting behind a work site with their lights flashing. Not criticizing the FLPD, just saying it's a pretty boring and quiet town.

Now back to Jones for a second, he is the the leader of the rap collective, The Diplomats or Dipset, with his friend Cam'ron.

His biggest hit was "We Fly High."



But I like this newer jam, "Mary's Prayer."


Story suggested by Pa Beers

We Prepared You For the Week in Pop Culture

Like most of you I agree the "Fred Sanford" is a much better dance craze than "The Bernie," which as slept the Oakland area.
Now one of Oakland's most prominent athletes, Stephen Curry, demonstrated the Bernie while running back down court after hitting the 10th of his 11 3-pointers against the Knicks in a 54-point tour de force performance.



But that wasn't the only time the Universe brought us a "Weekend at Bernie's" reference this week. There was also a very clever open to the latest episode of "How I Met Your Mother". The link isn't working so I will just set up the premise for you if you missed it. In Barney's Playbook of ways to get laid, there was a gambit called "Weekend at Barney's" with Barney playing the role of Bernie and Ted and Marshall as Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy.

Song of the Week

"Groove With You" - Isley Brothers
I don't have enough Isley Brothers songs as SOTWs. Of the more than 300, this is only the second Isley Brothers jam.

Waste of Money

President Obama is proposing $50 billion in new infrastructure spending, according to the New York Times "$40 billion of that amount would be directed to work on the highways, bridges, transit systems..."
But he seems to be forgetting something:



"Roads, where we're going we don't need roads."
They were going to 2015. Only two years form now we won't even need roads. So why waste $40 billion fixing them? Unless you are telling me Doc Brown was wrong.