College Basketball Thoughts

During the longest three days of the year...

>> I'm pretty disappointed that BYU suspended the dude who was banging his girlfriend. Stupid honor code. I wanted to see my boy Jimmer make a run to the Final Four this year, and now they have little or no shot without Davies. Even though that whole Southeast region is rubbish.

>> I couldn't tell you the name of the woman who has season tickets next to ours at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, but I can confidently tell you the two things she hates the most in this world:

1. The Rock Chalk Dancers
2. Tyshawn Taylor

>> Ben Hansbrough? I thought we were done with the Hansbrough family. And he somehow managed to be a bigger douche than Tyler! The one thing I can say positive about Psycho T is that he didn't carry himself like he knew he was awesome. He was kind of unassuming in his douchebaggery. But you can tell that Ben is just convinced that he's awesome. I really hope KU gets a shot at him in the Elite 8. Brady will show him how a white starting guard should carry himself.

>> Kentucky's Terrence Jones is a decent NBA prospect, but I'm pretty convinced he's incapable of dribbling with his right hand. As a lefty myself, I'm reminded of a line from Chappelle Show where Chappelle, talking about Mark Fuhrman, says "Take it from somebody who says 'nigga' a lot....that nigga says 'nigga' ALL THE TIME!" In this case, take it from somebody who goes left a lot...Terrence Jones goes left ALL THE TIME!

>> Question of the Day: if your college basketball coach left tomorrow, who would you want to replace him? I enjoy this game because back when Ol' Roy was waffling on the Carolina job, I had my eye on Bill Self, and sure enough, that's who we got, and he's been amazing. Now, if Self were to leave (God forbid) I would want Jay Wright from Villanova.

>> It was nice to see Duke not get a cakewalk to the Final Four like they usually do. The bottom half of their bracket is weak, but Texas as a 4 seed is brutal. And Ohio St. got the KU treatment from last year, where the #1 overall seed gets the hardest region. That potential Sweet Sixteen is bruuuutally good (Ohio St., Kentucky, Syracuse, North Carolina.) While we're here, other teams seeded way too high are Florida, KState, Cincinnati, and West Virginia. Seeded too low: Utah St., Richmond, Kentucky, and Old Dominion.

>> For the first time in many years, I love love love KU's bracket. Notre Dame doesn't scare me, the 8-9 game doesn't feature a scary Northern Iowa type (during the selection show last year, as soon as I saw UNI in the 8-9 game opposite KU, I let fly a stream of F-bombs. This year I was smiling and clapping.) Louisville should be tough-- but usually a Bill Self team destroys full court pressure (just ask Missouri.) Really the only team that scares me is Purdue. Originally I was going to pick KU to lose in the early rounds, thought they were prime for an upset, but between the draw they got and the way they just crushed the Big 12 tourney, I might pick them to go to Houston after all. Similar to Syracuse last year, I don't necessarily think that KU is the best team in the country, but I think their 'A' game is better than anyone else's 'A' game. If they their best game, nobody else is beating them. Unfortunately, whether or not KU brings it every game has been their main problem this year.

In any event, this could be one of the more wide-open tournaments of my lifetime. If Duke had Kyrie Irving, they'd be head and shoulders above everyone else, but without him, they're no better than a handful of other teams. I put a small bet down on Ohio St. to win it all at the beginning of the season, so I'll dance with the one that brung me. Hopefully I'm wrong. Rock chalk.

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Tomorrow I head up to Fargo to watch the first two rounds with the old crew. Culligan reunion with Fundy, Noles, Horp, and Godfread, plus Bergman, Schneweis, Morley, and whoever else shows up over the course of the weekend. Four full days and nights of watching basketball, gambling, boozing, chewing, gambling, causing shenanigans, and gambling? I'll be looking like Mojo the helper monkey at the end of this trip.