Thursday bullets

Thursday bullets:

- Minnie Pearl's alma mater (as if that's significant), Belmont (of Nashville), is playing as a 15 seed against might Duke. Reading this article makes me like them: "The university may prefer to be known for its consistent grade point average of better than 3.0 for athletes, including the men’s basketball team, which only a handful of teams in the final 64 could claim. The Bruins won 25 of 33 games this season, led by their senior guard, Justin Hare, from Cleveland, Tenn., who was fifth in the nation in free-throw shooting, making 91.5 percent — and was a first-team academic all-American. Still, I am fascinated that the university’s signature alum is a woman known for the price tag on her straw bonnet."

- Cornell will get trounced by Stanford (imagine the combined IQ in that game), but you gotta like them. The New York Times followed them for awhile and had a great story (Ivy Back-to-Backs: Basketball and Bonding, Checking Schoolwork and Scores) with a collection of pictures of life on the road about this smart, tough team. A new piece in today's NYT - For Cornell, a Connection Was Made in the Hospital

- Two pieces that feature West Virginia and Huggy-Bear...I think he's probably an ass, but interesting nonetheless:

Coaches With Something to Prove Can coaches such as Bob Huggins of West Virginia show that they're the type tournament coaches who can still lead a team in March.

West Virginia Adjusts to New Coaching Style : Since hiring Bob Huggins and adopting his rugged man-to-man defense, West Virginia has switched from one philosophical extreme to another.

- One Chance to Shine: The N.C.A.A. tournament first round features a key freshman matchup: O.J. Mayo of Southern California vs. Kansas State's Michael Beasley. Mark my words - O.J. Mayo will be a bust in the NBA.

- Tip-off has occurred...I'm going into a cave now for awhile...

Cal advances in first round of, um, the OTHER tournament

Cal beat New Mexico last night to advance to the second round of the NIT. I know that no one cares, but I'm happy for them. As Cal forward Eric Viernheisel said:

"I just want to keep playing," Vierneisel said. "It's survive and advance. That's what it's all about for me right now."

Good for him and for the Bears - that's what it's all about. But look at this pic above - there's no one at Haas, and apparently it was the worst crowd of the season. And the next game is against Ohio State who won't be playing in their own arena because they're getting bumped by a Bruce Springsteen concert. I mean, he IS The Boss, but it's also the Buckeyes...sheesh.

30 Minutes...

...until the first tip-offs. Anyone have any ideas what I can do with my nervous energy? Oh, I know...I'll watch last years' "One Shining Moment" montage again.

Life does, in fact, have a purpose

I'll admit it...I'm crying a lot these days. First it was about three months solid of crying while Cal muddled through the Pac-10 season. Then it was when I visited Santa Clara to watch them beat USF and I thought Eddie Sutton had finally died (in fact, that's just how he coached - eyes closed, head tilted back, limp body). Then of course, the NCAA releases the finest tome ever created (Official 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Records Book ...damn, here I go again with the waterworks), and now it's this beautifully-written piece that nicely summarizes why we obsessively focus on March Madness every year - America’s Tournament: Buttoned down, by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports. Here's a sample:


As advances in technology go, the internet’s ability to broadcast NCAA tournament games has to rank up there with Johannes Gutenberg’s moveable type, Heinrich Hertz’s Electromagnetic Theory of Light and the genius who figured out how to put bottled beer taste in a can.


Just last year American businesses lost an estimated $1.2 billion in worker productivity during the NCAA tournament, mostly during its first two days. And that was before the internet feed was as widely available or as high of quality as it will be this year.

What the NCAA never wants to admit is that much of the tournament’s popularity is due to gambling and not just in legal Las Vegas sports books that are overloaded this weekend. It’s the office pools that serve as a great equalizer when Maria from human resources gets the better of all those CSTV junkies because her dominant state flower formula magically predicts the 12-over-5 upsets.


We illegally wager the GNP of a small country on this tournament. But no one ever seems to do anything about it, probably because at this very moment inside the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, home of the FBI itself, a bracket is getting passed around.


And if Belmont gets up on Duke or Austin Peay puts a scare into Texas you can bet there will be muffled cheers from their federal cubicles just like in every other office.


That’s the magic of America’s Tournament.



Just think of that...over $1.2 billion wasted in office productivity because of office pools, and you're contributing to it. God bless you.

Five Types of Bracketologists

ESPN Magazine has a rundown of the fives types of bracketologists:

As you begin dutifully filling out your bracket for your office pool today, beware of these five types of bracketologists. Oh, and if you can't think of anyone in the office that fits one of these descriptions … it's you.

1) Overus-Analaticus
He comes into work with a manilla folder overflowing with cheat sheets and can tell you every team's RPI and offensive and defensive efficiency. Every year he thinks he's chosen the perfect bracket. Every year he's wrong.
Famous Quotes:
"I've got teams in my sweet sixteen you've never even heard of."
"13 over 4 is the new 12 over 5—bank on it."
"Who fills out brackets AFTER selection Sunday? That's practically cheating."

2) Safe-Pickia Non-Riskitus
Why pick upsets when they are so hard to predict? Slow and steady wins the race! At least until the #1 seeds start getting picked off.
Famous Quotes:
"Hey, I pick upsets. Look at this 9 over 8 right here!"
"Well excuse me for trusting the Tournament Committee's rankings."
"For the final score tiebreaker I'm just going to enter in a tie."

3) Homer-Maximus
Why pick with your brain when you can pick with your heart! And unless you're office pool is filled with people who went to UNC, you want this person in your pool.
Famous Quotes:
"Did you guys see the play-in game? We got robbed."
"We're still number one in my heart."
"Anyone down for an NIT pool?"

4) Buy-in Bummia
His picks are solid. He's good for that $20. He's going to win, anyway. He doesn't. Then you don't see him at work for the next few weeks.
Famous Quotes:
"I forgot to hit up the ATM, sorry."
"You sure I didn't pay you already?"
"I'm moving to Russia."

5) Guesstimatus-Randomia
He's never really watched college basketball, but he does have three minutes to spare, so he'll fill out a bracket based on which schools sound familiar. Also, he usually takes home the grand prize.
Famous Quotes:
"Oh they won? Did I have them?"
"Who's the Blue team?"
"Just leave my winnings on my desk."

Tuesday Bullets

- Unknown and Eclectic, American Has Arrived: great profile of the American Eagles. Watch out for them. Seriously. Well, not in the real world, that would be preposterous. But they'll make the first round interesting.

- Having Fun, Fun, Fun as a Freshman at U.C.L.A.: There are a lot of people who have man-love for Kevin Love. That's not for me, as I prefer my UCLA facial hair to be more like Baron Davis'. But I may be close...Love is so much fun to watch and he is the kind of player that young players should watch and try to emulate while they practice at the schoolyard...or, when their parents drive them to an air-conditioned gym on a 70-degree day.

- A Strong Early Schedule Is a Key to Getting In: maybe, but that's not really true. But worth reading about it.

- Such Madness: a GREAT overview of why we do this every March....covers both the Men's and Women's tournaments.

Essential guides to making your picks

This is precisely the kind of brain-power I expect from The Lou faithful - an ESPN guide to picking teams based on the following criteria:

- Best Unis

- Fight between mascots

- Celebrity alums

- Inverse graduation rate

- Coach appearance (it's a shame that Cal didn't make the tourney - Ben Braun is a sharp-dressed man)

- Collegiate beers

- Street cred + Religious creed

- Cheesy slogans

- Non-hoops jocks

I'm not messing around here - ignore this guide at your own peril.

The Man has no idea

Wow...we always talk about wasting The Man's time here at the Lou, but holy crumpets, this is mind-boggling. ESPN has a video preview of EACH of the 65 teams in the tourney...this means you can sit at your desk for hours and do nothing but scout teams and plan your brackets. Do you realize what this means? I mean, that's just pure basketball and in the form of highlight clips! This is nothing short of pure genius, and something to which I will waste no time in pledging my allegiance to.

BracketMaster

This is one of the more interesting tools (Brent Musberger is also a tool, but he's not very interesting) to help you make your picks. If you're a huge nerd, that is: BracketMaster . This one comes courtesy of BracketScience's Peter Tiernan, and as with most of his stuff, I find it impressive and useful.

Bracket Science

I have no idea whether or not Pete Tiernan's Bracket Science will make you a smarter bracketologist, but I like what he's done here, and I like even more that Pete has a full-time job and puts this much effort into March Madness. His BracketMaster tool alone will keep you busy for hours, and as always, I like anything that takes your time away from working for The Man.

I may never have to leave my house again

This has become an annual ritual that is right up there with watching Greg Gumbel announce the brackets (although, all things being equal, I wish it was someone other than Greg Gumbel who enters my home every March for an extended stay). It's when the NCAA releases it's Tournament record book for the year - I'm not even kidding, this thing brings tears to my eyes. It's 440 pages of nothing but tournament statistics, rankings, arcane facts and pictures from years gone by. Most people are already wasting an inordinate amount of time this week just on their brackets and reading what Bill Simmons has to say, but this tome will keep you ensconced in a way that nothing can.

Just to whet your appetite, let me cull some tids for your pleasure:

- Highest Scoring Offense - Loyola Marymount in '90 (122.4)
- Top Scoring Defense - Oklahoma State in '48 (32.5)
- Highest Points-Per-Game Average for the Tournament in 1984 - Joe Jakublick (Akron), 30.1PPG

Have fun with this...I'm printing mine as I write this: Official 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Records Book

Madness has been unleashed...

St. Patrick's Day AND the beginning of March Madness?!? Are you kidding me? Have I died and gone to heaven? I know that I first had to make a pit-stop through purgatory to watch Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas argue about the significance of the RPI statistic (the result is that Digger thinks he trumps everyone's knowledge because, well, darnit, he used to coach!...Jay Bilas likes to shoot back something about how he has a degree in Economics from Duke of all places! Wow, such talent all in the same studio...I think we provide them each with a switchblade and let them figure it out back behind the barn over the course of the next few weeks to spare us all their nonsense...I mean, Digger didn't actually coach...his teams ran a zone in the 70's, which is basically the same thing as coaching first-graders in the 21st century).

Here's the best bracket: http://assets.espn.go.com/i/ncaa/08mens_bracket.pdf

ESPN.com will probably be the best overall site to follow, although the New York Times does a great job (barring the comments of Peter Thamel, who is about 12 years old).

This years' lineups look really strong, and for the first time in awhile, the Pac-10 got some serious respect (six teams in it). The overrated Big East is also well-represented with eight teams going to the dance. The #1 seeds are ALL going to be tough to beat, and as for Cinderellas, I gotta go with St. Mary's and Oral Roberts.

Cal wins in Pac-10 first round

It's so hard to be a Cal fan...you live in a world of psychological layers where you come to intimately know the creed of the parent of an addict: "You can't want it more for them than they want it for themselves". I've come to a happy place with Ben Braun - he's not my ideal coach, but he's a gentleman and he's a respectable representative for my alma mater. But I just can't figure out these teams - I run around telling people, "Forgive them...they know not what they do".

But that said, they get another shot at UCLA in the Pac-10 tournament, and that makes me happy. I think Cal got screwed in that last game against the Bruins, but teams get screwed all the time - as my father would say, "That's why they call it basketball".

Portland State is in

From the NYT, and today it's not about Elliot Spitzer:

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Deonte Huff scored 17 points to lead Portland State to a 67-51 victory over Northern Arizona, and its first trip to the NCAA tournament, in the championship game of the Big Sky Conference on Wednesday night.

Kyle Coston added 14 points for PSU (23-9), which won its 14th straight Big Sky game, and Andre Murray had 13 points. Jeremiah Dominguez chipped in nine points and six assists.
Nate Geiser led Northern Arizona (21-11) with 13 points and Kyle Landry had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Lumberjacks.

Portland State, the top seed as regular season Big Sky champions, closed the first half with an 18-4 run that put the Vikings ahead 34-20. They maintained their lead in the second half and led by as many as 17 points late in the game. Northern Arizona closed to within nine but did not challenge down the stretch...

Couple things to ponder:

- Portland State is coached by Ken Bone, who is part of the Pacific Northwest Basketball Coaching Mafia. I don't know if there really is such a thing, but that region is woefully under-rated when it comes to hoops talent, especially in coaching. So many coaches from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska and the surrounding area remain there, but seem to do a dance around the various small DI and DII schools.
- The Portland State women's team is playing for the Big Sky quarterfinals tonight
- Why is the Northern Arizona mascot the Lumberjack?