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For those wondering, the opening round game was Day 0.
Happy birthday to gpellamjr, Daniel Zappala, and my niece Genny!
The games dwindle down to just eight. All times PT.
11:10 am - #7 West Virginia vs #2 Duke in Washington (West). The early game on Saturday traditionally runs without any other games going on. So everybody gets to see loveable underdog Duke take on West Virginia coached by the warm and cuddly Bob Huggins.
1:20 pm - #11 Kansas State vs #3 Wisconsin in Omaha (Midwest). The Wildcats have a lot of young talent that you may never see in college basketball. Wisconsin has a lot of guys who will likely be back, and yet you will never remember their names.
about 1:40 pm - #6 Purdue vs #3 Xavier in Washington (West) - Did you know Purdue went 15-3 in the Big 10? Did you know Xavier won the Atlantic 10 regular season title? If you didn't, now you do. Purdue is in West Lafayette, Indiana, but does anyone care about Lafayette, Indiana? The latter has more people in it. I want respect for Lafayette.
3:40 pm - #5 Notre Dame vs #4 Washington State in Denver (East) - Expect to hear the words "underrated" and "overachievers" to be used a lot during this game.
3:45 pm - #6 Marquette vs #3 Stanford in Anaheim (South) - A matchup between two schools that I have visited in person! What are the odds?
about 3:50 pm - #8 UNLV vs #1 Kansas in Omaha (Midwest) - Why is UNLV called the Runnin' Rebels when the state of Nevada was created during the Civil War to give the Republicans two more votes in the Senate? Then again, why is my mom's high school in St. Louis, an all girls Catholic school called Notre Dame, called the Rebels as well?
about 6:10 pm - #5 Michigan State vs #4 Pittsburgh in Denver (South) - Expect lots of fouls to be called in this game. If not, expect a lot of guys to be on the floor with injuries. Another matchup between two schools that I have visited in person. What are the odds? For today, I guess it's one in four.
about 6:15 pm - #9 Texas A&M vs #1 UCLA in Anaheim (West) - The last time these two teams met was last season. And it was in Anaheim. UCLA has played a team from Texas three times in the NCAA tournament, beating Houston twice and losing to Texas Tech. A&M has never played a team from California in the NCAA tournament.
Los Longhorns leads the bracket contest with 25 winners out of the first 32, but his forecasted runnerup, Connecticut, is out, so he's likely not going to win. 12 entries are one point behind.
In the world of baseball, at the Tokyo Dome, Boston beat Hanshin 6-5 and Oakland beat Yomiuri 4-3.
Also today, the Division III men's final tip off at 1 pm and it will feature Amherst and Washington. That game will be played in Salem, VA. Messiah will play Howard Payne in the D-III women's final in Holland, MI at 3 pm.
Messiah has been known to have good comeback qualities this time of year.
And thanks for the info about the spelling. My grandmother believed that the spelling had been changed to make it easier for Americans to pronounce.
[groan]
Marquette closed its bookstore before I could get in and buy a t-shirt. So instead I went and bought some souvenirs at the college Golda Meir attended.
You may be alright after all!
Alright?
Quandry.
A heart attack is more likely.
Nice, they did exactly as I said. That's what happens when you spurn UCLA, Singler!
Maybe they can bring in Taylor King.
As long as there are guys in black and white striped shirts, Duke is not finished.
A declining great power that flames out early in the tournament.
It's couch burning time in Morgantown!
Thankfully, they do not run the same system.
Localizing athletics will lead to better rivalries and more parity.
So in this regional battle between UCLA and USC who gets Fairfax High?
The latter.
After work, I'm picking up a bunch of scholarship applications. I'm going to being reading essays, looking at high school accomplishments, letters of recommendation, etc.
What's the best way to make sure that:
1) I don't overrate the first ones I read
2) I don't underrate the first ones I read.
I've found that there is an initial "wow" factor, but then it becomes hard to slot everyone to where they should go. I have to rank the candidates.
Re-read them.
I've never had a rubric. We do get a scoresheet with a point scale.
No one would go to Oak Hill if they were forced to go to a school in Virginia.
College basketball is better when Kansas State is good.
What about international players?
K State really needs to go back to the mismatched purple jerseys and shorts.
http://tinyurl.com/yppw6m
We never can quite get Trajan Langdon out of our collective consciousness, can we?
I believe Freud wrote about the Trajan Langdon Effect.
2. I have had to do what you are doing Bob. I did it by pulling 10 at random, going over them several times to make a ranking I was very confident with, then slotting the rest in on a single read.
3. I'm tied for second?
In 1981 there were a lot of upsets in the first two rounds and then once the tournament got to the Sweet Sixteen, almost all the games were blowouts with the exception of the one day in my life I rooted for Danny Ainge.
Thesis, organization, supporting evidence, etc.
There is also a section for "gumption."
The Scenario Generator has the correct standings.
110 North to 101 South to 10 East to 605 North and then back to the 210 West.
I'm not going that way.
Javy Lopez has retired several times. I can just reuse an old post.
He only likes Butler, Indiana State, Evansville, and, of course, IUPUI.
Greg Brock likes Ball State because it's in Muncie. And Greg Brock is a Muncie man!
What about Valparaiso?
No need to use the SAT tiebreaker in lieu of overtime for that one.
The Griddle is loaded with Wazzu fans.
I'm still waiting for one to identify himself. Or for anyone to give me positive proof that they've been in Pullman, Washington.
I will watch at home, though I am supposed to be going to a 21st birthday party. I may show up to that late.
Please don't blow it this year, Stanford.
Wazzu is a pretty good defensive team and I would think Notre Dame isn't used to their style.
I had to look up what Zankou chicken.
That is what I was wondering. I assume they do.
Time to adjust my dinner schedule.
I just read a lot of very negative comments in this thread about Stanford. They must have done something right.
Hey, no commenting! You have to bond with your son. Don't make me dust off the Harry Chapin songs!
There's ALWAYS something to bet on.
p.s. i'm late to the party, but hearty congratulations on your latest little one!!!
I would assume not much of one.
Chris Douglas-Roberts has "Tina" tattooed on his neck. I wonder if Tina is still around?
Mario Chalmers has "$1" tattoed on his shoulder.
It will be very interesting to see Baynes and Cowgill against Hansbrough and Thompson.
Maybe he really likes cocaine.
He's even seen a team play with just four guys on the court because one guy forgot he was in the game.
(Last week I'd posted a 1.5 over-under for Trent Johnson technical fouls in the NCAA Tournament.)
Over-under for points scored by UCLA and ATM: 122.
Of course, I'm just making that up. I have no idea what the real number is. But it will be a low-scoring affair.
The latest over/under I found is 126.5
My UT alum friend at work has wished me well for the A&M game. For a woman who is very calm, very rational, very erudite, she hates A&M with a passion that is quite surprising.
Could have sworn I bet on UNLV during last years March Madness while I was in Vegas but I wouldn't bet on it.
That was a heck of a shot by Brook Lopez to win the game. Stanford had two nice comebacks and I was glad to see the backup coach got the win.
Hoping for Pitt to give me a reason to continue visiting here.
Can't wait to watch Curry tomorrow.
0-2 against the unnameds, 1-1 against UCLA, and 1-0 against both Cal and Stanford.
Stanford had three technicals fouls during the season according to the wire service report, although they didn't specify if they were all on Johnson.
I got a 1/4 chicken, dark meat. It came with garlic sauce, hummus, tomatoes, some pickled vegetable thingees, two peppers, and two pitas.
If you get a half chicken you don't get the hummus or the pickled vegetable thingees. You can also get shawarma or kabob.
Bob, I've put that chicken place on my list of things to try when I visit LA in April. Problem is that my list is getting very long. Like I never visited the Norton Simon museum! I need to go there. Also the Huntington Library, the Getty, and I need to take my son to the Peterson Automotive museum. A Dodger game ... dim sum ... El Cholo ... too many places to get to.
They better win it all this year since those two are not going to be here next year.
Now I can relax until next Thursday.
Josh, you better start shooting again when you get back to UCLA
And yes, I'll be up all night.
Oh, the cat's in the cradle with the silver spoon...
Then they faced Indiana in the regional final.
That didn't end well.
When will get a new TV, Dad?
As soon as my blog gets more ads,
as soon as my blog gets more ads.
But that's only because it's the one team I remember from that movie.
As much as I hate Aggy, I was rooting for them to win because that would have completely cleared the boards in the west. It would have been pretty sweet to see San Diego or Western Kentucky in the Final Four.
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