And so here we are: Kansas vs Memphis for the national championship in San Antonio, tipping off at 6:21 pm. (I get to watch starting at 3:21 pm!).
I would write more, but I have composed this by BlackBerry, an inefficient mode for typing a lot. Or accurately.
The big battle tonight is for the Bracket contest. If the Jayhawks win, Ham Fighter Nation takes the prize. If the Tigers win, Bama Yankee takes the prize. The prizes won't be sent out until I get back home, but the sidebar will be changed as soon as I possibly can.
Expect Billy Packer to say "MOP" a lot tonight. And he'll point out that the team behind is running its offense wrong.
Remember, only one team gets to finish its a season with a win, the NCAA champ. That team and the NIT champ (Ohio State) and the CBI champ (Tulsa) and some teams in the Ivy League.
Last call for concessions! It's not too late to just give up, Bama Yankee (and Marty, too, since he'd finish one point ahead of me if Memphis wins). Think about it. . .
Also, no matter which team wins tonight, I'll have picked the winner of more games during this tournament than anyone else. Which, if you really think about it, is the way this game should be scored, isn't it? I mean, if I picked 49 winners, and Bama Yankee only picked 47, is it really fair to give him the prize?
Go Memphis! Baby needs a new pair of shoes, or cleats.
(Have Memphis going all the way in two of my pools, but in only one of them - not the Toaster one - do I actually win it all if they win. Woo hoo! Which means Kansas will win of course.)
When UCLA was beaten by Memphis, Billy Packer said ad nauseam that the Bruins were really hurting themselves by not getting the ball into Kevin Love. I got complaints from my neighbors because I was shouting at the television, "They're trying! Memphis is playing great defense!"
I bring this up because there is Packer--a pompous blowhard who never, ever was a head coach in his life--and there is this analysis from Phil Jackson in today's LAT.
"I felt sorry for Ben [Howland] because he couldn't get the ball in to [Kevin] Love at all," Jackson said. "They just kept fronting him and putting a defender behind him so he couldn't get the ball inside. That changed UCLA's game a lot."
The thing is, Packer actually does know a lot about basketball. His four main problems are:
1) A single-minded obsession with the ACC.
2) An inablility to consider that he might be wrong about anything. Ever. Or that there might be a legitimate point of view other than his.
3) He's an insufferable, pompous a-hole and doesn't care who knows it.
4) He has zero sense of humor and seems to resent those who do.
Packer also doesn't think much of women who play sports.
Will Packer congratulate Dick Vitale for getting inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame? What other announcers have been inducted beside Chick Hearn and Curt Gowdy? Is Gowdy a member?
when I was picking my bracket winners, I remember thinking, "man, I could pick Memphis/ Kansas in the final, would be a great game to watch."
So, even though I stink at picking winners, I'm still pretty pleased with the outcome. Mostly because I was already aware that I stink at picking winners.
For the record, Memphis is nowhere close to my Top 10 of NCAA finalists I've disliked.
I think there are four Duke teams and two Florida squads on the list.
I'm kind of hoping Kansas wins, and then Bill Self bolts for Stillwater and his giant burlap sack full of Boone Pickens money. And yes, I fully expect there to be a burlap sack at the press conference. Preferably with a big dollar sign and cash overflowing from the top.
if this game isn't big enough for you, the Powerade Intramural Championship is on CBS College Sports Chanel. Texas State fell to Texas, while Houston beat North Texas in the final four. So now it's Texas vs. Houston. The game is in San Antonio. Something tells me this isn't exactly a nation wide competition.
So is there a prize for finishing 8th? I think I finish 8th if Memphis wins. Do I get a tootsie pop or something?
More importantly, if Memphis wins, I get a good amount of money from another pool I was in.
Hey is there anyone else in the Bay Area having trouble getting CBS via Comcast? (Channel 5 here) It's been choppy and blurry all game and of course channels 1-4, 6-600 are fine.
this is exactly the kind of game I expected. It is thoroughly enjoyable.
Except for the crowd noise. I now hate the Final Four for being played in a football stadium. This should be the most charged atmosphere of the year, but instead it feels like they're playing with the sports equivalent of a laugh track.
I'm almost positive that you are correct. They had games there this year, and in Houston, and I found them equally displeasing. I wish that the NCAA weren't such money grubbing whores that they could actually deign to play basketball in basketball arenas.
35 But they used to be played in regular basketball arenas. I went to the UNLV/ Duke- Kansas/ North Carolina Final Four in Denver in 91 (the Hank Gathers tourney). That's all I'm asking for.
no way. Florida had a good story and a cute nickname and stupid Jo Noah Hair. No one from Memphis (or Kansas) would attend the draft in a seersucker suit.
they should just share the title .... its the kindler, gentler thing to do ... its the kind of thing that we as Americans need to show the rest of the world .... that we aren't overbearing know-it-alls?
74 I would've split it with my dad since we shared two sheets in a pool for the school district he consults for. $10 each, X 25 people = 250. Which I'd already spent mentally in my head.
Ah well. At least I had a shot in this one. Last year I entered a pool which had about 700 people in it, I did farely well and still didn't finish in top 50. Forget that.
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Also, no matter which team wins tonight, I'll have picked the winner of more games during this tournament than anyone else. Which, if you really think about it, is the way this game should be scored, isn't it? I mean, if I picked 49 winners, and Bama Yankee only picked 47, is it really fair to give him the prize?
(Have Memphis going all the way in two of my pools, but in only one of them - not the Toaster one - do I actually win it all if they win. Woo hoo! Which means Kansas will win of course.)
Also independents. And some teams from conferences like the Big East where not every team makes the conference tournament.
I say again--seeing your name on the sidebar is very, very cool. I'll miss it.
I'm hearing that Billy Packer might be calling his last final four? God doesn't like me that much, does he?
When UCLA was beaten by Memphis, Billy Packer said ad nauseam that the Bruins were really hurting themselves by not getting the ball into Kevin Love. I got complaints from my neighbors because I was shouting at the television, "They're trying! Memphis is playing great defense!"
I bring this up because there is Packer--a pompous blowhard who never, ever was a head coach in his life--and there is this analysis from Phil Jackson in today's LAT.
"I felt sorry for Ben [Howland] because he couldn't get the ball in to [Kevin] Love at all," Jackson said. "They just kept fronting him and putting a defender behind him so he couldn't get the ball inside. That changed UCLA's game a lot."
1) A single-minded obsession with the ACC.
2) An inablility to consider that he might be wrong about anything. Ever. Or that there might be a legitimate point of view other than his.
3) He's an insufferable, pompous a-hole and doesn't care who knows it.
4) He has zero sense of humor and seems to resent those who do.
Other than that, he's terrific.
Will Packer congratulate Dick Vitale for getting inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame? What other announcers have been inducted beside Chick Hearn and Curt Gowdy? Is Gowdy a member?
So, even though I stink at picking winners, I'm still pretty pleased with the outcome. Mostly because I was already aware that I stink at picking winners.
This despite me picking USC and Duke to be in the final four.
If only I'd picked the teams that everyone else picked! I'd have an Oregon State T-Shirt locked up!
I think there are four Duke teams and two Florida squads on the list.
And it wasn't the Andrew LeClerq Gators either.
Oklahoma State has been waiting a while.
I'd love to see both these coaches bolt - Self for T. Boone and all his coin, Cal to the Knicks.
More importantly, if Memphis wins, I get a good amount of money from another pool I was in.
Hey is there anyone else in the Bay Area having trouble getting CBS via Comcast? (Channel 5 here) It's been choppy and blurry all game and of course channels 1-4, 6-600 are fine.
Except for the crowd noise. I now hate the Final Four for being played in a football stadium. This should be the most charged atmosphere of the year, but instead it feels like they're playing with the sports equivalent of a laugh track.
This comment has nothing to do with how much I despise Packer, nothing at all.
And I still hate Christian Laettner.
That close.
Hawk Harrelson.
First team to lead by four or more wins!
In the last OT championship, the unnameds won without making a FG.
thanks billy!
(shrug)
At least, there is one thing still right in this world.
On the sidebar for a year. Congratulations.
Ah well. At least I had a shot in this one. Last year I entered a pool which had about 700 people in it, I did farely well and still didn't finish in top 50. Forget that.
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