Your 2006-2007 Grand Forks Modo Ramal

Our city league team, Modo Ramal (a team name I never would've agreed to had I known that it was secretly Lamar Odom backwards.) Bottom row: Ricky Shiu, Michael Boser (you may know him as Keanu Reeves,) myself, and Matt Abentroth. Top row: Dan Sondreal, Randy Mo-, um, Ryan Hazzard, and Tony Plathe. I am proud that this team went 6-8 in the top division, overcoming the fact that our tallest guy was 6'4'', and I was the power forward at all of 6'2''.

Texas trip this weekend. Tonight in Minneapolis, Friday in Corpus Christi, Saturday in San Antonio, Sunday in Dallas. Goals for the weekend: get shitfaced, go to the beach, don't get arrested, watch KU get a 1 seed with Wisconsin as the 2 and Memphis as the 3 in their bracket. Hope everyone has a happy Selection Sunday. Peace.

Odds And Ends And Elbows

To borrow a line from Tupac (sort of): FUCK DUKE AS A STAFF, A BASKETBALL TEAM, AND AS A MUTHA FUCKIN' CREW. And if you want to be down with Duke, then fuck you too. The more I hear about the Henderson/Hansbrough incident, and the more times I see the replay and see how blatant that was, the more angry I get. As if enough people didn't hate Duke already. And anyone who plays that card, "Everyone is only saying it's intentional because they hate Duke" can go fist themself. There isn't a person on the planet (Coach Gay included) that honestly thinks that. I think Simmons made an excellent point when he stated what he thinks would happen if the roles were reversed. Coach Gay would have had Hansbrough banned from all of college fucking basketball. Plus, this whole shebangabang reminded me of when Christian Laettner stomped on the Kentucky player in '92. Fucking A. Duke is a bunch of queers. How could anyone cheer for those faggots? OK I'm done. For now.

Simmons also has said he thinks KU is going to win the title, which in no way makes me feel good. I know that he has recently made his foray into college basketball, but watching a bunch of Texas games and TIVOing whatever other major game is on ESPN or CBS does not mean that you know anything about college hoops. As much as I love Simmons, I would rather he not be on board the KU bandwagon. Who punched his ticket to get on, anyway?

With that said, here is a mini-breakdown of some of the top 10:

SCARE THE HELL OUT OF ME:

North Carolina: An already very good team just had their toughness factor bumped into the red. The one knock I had on them was their play in crunch time. Hansbrough, who I have thought looks soft at times, is going to absolutely fuck people up now. He's fucking pissed.

Florida: Anyone who thinks they are done because they lost a couple of games in one of the toughest conferences in America (Simmons) can eat shit. This team was built in the Contending For National Titles Factory.

Texas A&M: Probably the mentally toughest team in America, which goes a long way in the tourney.

DOESN'T SCARE ME AS MUCH AS THEY PROBABLY SHOULD:

Ohio St.: Simply for the fact that teams that live and die by the 3 usually don't make it in the tourney. But if they get hot for 6 games, they will roll to the title.

UCLA: I don't exactly know why. Maybe it's the Midwest bias. They're deep, but it never seems like everyone shows up at once. If their entire rotation all came to play for one game, they would be even more amazing.

Georgetown: I have no idea what to do with this team. A couple of weeks ago I had them pegged as my sleeper Final 4 team. Watching a little more of them lately, now I kinda think that they just stink of early-round upset. Gotta love college hoops.

CAN THEY BE A 2 SEED IN KU'S BRACKET, PLEASE?:

Memphis: Here are six words to remember when filling out your bracket: Memphis sucks. Memphis sucks. Memphis sucks. Don't let anyone tell you differently. I already knew that they hadn't played anyone, but I decided to double check to avoid sounding like an asshole, and what I found astounded me. Look at their list of wins: Jackson St., Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas St., Manhattan, Marshall, Ole Miss, Austin Peay, M. Tenn. St., Lamar, Cincinnati, Houston, So. Miss, UAB, E. Carolina, Tulsa, So. Miss, Central Florida, SMU, UAB, Tulane, Tulsa, Gonzaga (by 1), Rice, Houston, UTEP, SMU. Possibly the worst #5 team in the history of the top 25.

Wisconsin: Wildly overrated all year long. Plus I'd rather watch a middle school girls' game than one of theirs.

Nevada: Also hasn't played much of anyone, and I think Fazekas will get killed by a smaller, more athletic forward.

Some other teams that have me mildly nervous thinking about playing them in the Sweet 16: Louisville, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, and Indiana. Texas was in this category, but now after what they did in the first half at a rowdy Phog Allen Fieldhouse, they have been moved into the category of "Give Me A Couple Valium Before Tip-off."

In a completely unrelated story, Sausage Egg McMuffins have replaced Breakfast Burritos as my go-to choice for hangover food.

*I apologize for the amount of profanity. Duke makes me angry, and it is reflected throughout today's post.

At Least It's March

As we are in the midst of a two-foot snowfall, the only thing that makes me happy is that it is March. College basketball conference tourneys are starting, spring training is underway, and the greatest day of the year is just two short weeks away. The game between Texas and Texas A&M last night was game of the year so far. Acie Law is absolutely terrifying in the clutch. The shot he hit over Durant with 1.4 left was insane. They had to clean the paint from the rafters off the ball before overtime. Even though they ended up losing, I don't know how I am gonna pick against A&M in the tourney. They're scary good. A win against Texas on Saturday = Big 12 title for KU. Excited to see Durant match up on either Julian or Arthur. Also a big F-U to Georgetown, Florida, Michigan St., North Carolina, and every other team on a hot streak that decided to shit the bed once we laid money on them. Speaking of gambling, I'm resurrecting the pool this year after a two-year hiatus due to spring break trips. Details soon.

Props to everyone who came to the impromptu noon-ball banquet at Royal Fork buffet; those senior citizens didn't know what hit them. I know I got my $7.91 worth in broasted chicken alone. Blogger is being gay and not posting the picture of the destruction we did to their food supply.

Watched Stranger Than Fiction and School For Scoundrels this week and was disappointed by both. We will look back on the years 2002-2005 as the glory days for comedies.

That's all for now; tax returns are piling up, it is starting to snow again, and I'm gonna go sharpen my pencil so that it actually penetrates the skin and into my juggular this time.