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By Rhett, March 17, 2010 9:15 pm

Down the stretch we come.

It goes by so fast, doesn’t it?

This isn’t some cheezzzy Lord of the Rings movie ending. This is the end to an investment. This is the end to another season that has come full circle.

4/5ths of the tourney trip crew is taking on a drive through Canada, will stay through the night, and pick me up in Toronto about 7AM tomorrow morning. From there, it is back across the boarder, and into Buffalo. We will be checked in to the hotel, have our bags dropped off, and sitting in front of a fine television with a nice pint by the time noon rolls around, which should have us ready to watch BYU lose to gangster florida.

I have a problem with that. Any grown man who calls himself Billy is an odd one. He never wears a suit coat. HAS to be a bit slimy. But I have to root for him, as there’s no way I can stomach a BYU Sweet 16 t-shirt being sold to anybody. Jimmer is hitting the big stage, and you know he’s going to pull out all his super sweet body contortion moves. I just hope the ref’s aren’t blinded by his sheer whiteness.

I’m also looking forward to the Rebels playing tomorrow. Northern Iowa is a tough matchup. They have size, and, anybody who’s watched UNLV play Utah this year, knows Vegas struggles against a big man with any sort of skill. I think they have the athletes to run circles around these farm boys though. Probably be a close game.

A ton of people have had confusing conversations with me over the past couple days. It seems that Las Vegas is some sort of Mecca for the tourney, in and of itself. I’ve never really noticed, because I’m  never here for the tourney. Gambling doesn’t interest me. I barely want to fill out a bracket. These games are the swan song of a season. I don’t think dropping a few dimes on somebody to cover does what these teams do any justice. It’s fun to say you know more than somebody else, but in the end, it is done and settled on the court, not in some sports book with all you can eat stripper chicken wings. I guess I have a disconnect every random Las Vegan.

More to come.

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By Rhett, March 16, 2010 6:47 pm

A couple of years ago, during the long summer of non basketball related activities, I was stumbling around ebay on a Sunday afternoon with not a lot to do. Las Vegas is not a baseball city, it’s really hot, and you often find yourself reading a Sunday away, taking a nap in nice air conditioned splender, or taking a 45 minute drive to the mountains to escape summer’s harsh rays.

It was on one of these afternoons I found a patch. A simple patch. It instantly reminded me of the 80’s. It was yellow and blue or black (I can never tell which). It was a patch that was used to create a CBS sportscaster’s wardrobe item. It was perfect.

I purchased this patch, and a cheap suitcoat on ebay and created the ultimate form of tourney trip clothing. The Tourney Coat.

The Tourney Coat has been revamped with a proper fitting coat, including sleeves that are the correct length. The coat also smells normal, and not like something from some old lady’s basement.

It is ready to go. So am I.

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By Rhett, March 15, 2010 5:03 pm

A year ago, the five member Tourney Trip selection committee chose Buffalo, NY as the site which would play host to our yearly trek to the NCAA tournament. Yesterday, the brackets were released, and our patience was rewarded with actual basketball teams to watch play at this site. Here is who we will see this weekend, battle for the honor to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

1. Syracuse vs 16. Vermont – Personally, this is a cool game. I have never seen Syracuse, and really enjoy their hoops team. On the other hand, Vermont lives in the hearts of the underdogs, after the Catamounts knocked off the Orangemen in 2005, a very classic upset. Does this mean it will happen this year as well? Hell no. The fabled 16 seed over a 1 seed will probably never happen. However, there are a few things to take note of this year:

1. Syracuse is on a two game losing streak
2. The rock of their front court, Arinze Onuaku, is hurt, and may not play.
3. Sibling rivalry’s never die. Kris Joseph of the ‘Cuse will face off against Maurice Joseph of Vermont. This is the same Marucie Joseph who transfered from Michigan State a few years ago. He’s a senior now. This could be his last game. I will root for him as a former Spartan.

So, yeah. I’ll say right now that I won’t get my hopes up. I’m sure that won’t be the case when this thing tips off on Friday.

8. Gonzaga vs 9. Florida State – I’ve seen both teams play, but fellow trip members have not. Gonzaga is classic little guy who’s now a big guy. Florida State seems kind of gangster. I don’t really know much about their team. I’m sure the dog pound from Washington state will roll through pretty hard and make me root for Florida State.

2. West Virginia vs 15. Morgan State – Thuggins. Groan. I hope he decides to put on a goddam suit at least once. I am thinking we should find the team hotel and yell things at him, or something. Da’Sean Butler is my namesake, and has a pretty sweet basketball skillset. Morgan State only lost a single conference game, and beat Arkansas, at Arkansas. Gotta love when you collect a paycheck to make the trip, then slay the home team. I’m calling for Reggie Holmes to drop 30.

7. Clemson vs 10. Missouri – Somehow, someway, I’ve ended up with a Clemson basketball t-shirt in my travels. Can’t tell you how, or why. Missouri is super gangster, and will be rooted against heavily by this trip committee. I will watch the game because it’s a game, and whoever wins will automatically gain my following, should Thuggins knock off Reggie Holmes and company.

The trip starts on Wednesday at 3PM Eastern. I board a plan to Toronto 11:30 PM Pacific. Bring your drinking hats.

More to come.

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By Nate, March 8, 2010 6:45 pm

Coach Jimmy and his boys pulled out Allen Park’s first district playoffs win in seven years with a double overtime thriller over the mighty Crestwood Chargers. This means that our own Coach Jimmy now has a better post-season record than Bo Ryan.

UPDATE #1: Well, Coach Jimmy and his crew rolled into the District Semi’s – Dios mio, man – and faced Dearborn High.  Now, some of our faithful readers might not know that Coach Jimmy’s troops lost on a last second 3/4 length shot to Dearborn during the regular season, but it happened and this game was a fitting sequel to that tilt.

The game was back and forth but the Jags opened up an 11 point lead late in the 3rd quarter.  But Dearborn came back – fueled by some questionable calls – the Jags had a chance at the end of regulation but had to settle for an even score.  The teams went back and forth in the first OT and after an extra four minutes the Jags went to double overtime for the second time in as many games.  The score was tied with 2 tics left in the second OT and wouldn’t you know those pesky Dearborn kids got a last second miracle to win with no time left.  It was heartbreaking.  But Coach Jimmy kept his guys’ heads up and has a lot to be proud of – they fought hard and started to build the foundation for future success.

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, the “Tourney Trip APHS Boys Hoops Booster Club” is proud of our own Coach Jimmy.

UPDATE #2: EMU dropped a tough double OT game of their own in the MAC Quarterfinals about an hour ago.  It was a tough one and it looked like the Eagles had a win in the waning seconds of the first OT but Akron pulled a shot out of it’s rearend and EMU ran out of gas in the second OT.  The game ended ugly and Charles Ramsey was ejected but he went down in grand meltdown style and really had some pretty legitimate beefs with an officiating crew that lost control of the game.  Oh well, maybe the Eagles at 17-15 are CBI bound?  Hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

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By Nate, March 8, 2010 1:26 pm

Just a quick note of acknowledgement to MSU and the back-to-back Big Ten Championship that was secured last night. It has been an interesting season in East Lansing. Some high-points and some low-points that all seemed to come in bunches. MSU finished the regular season on a high-point and sent Raymar Morgan, Isaiah Dahlman and Jon Crandall out winners and BT Champs. Raymar played the way you hope a senior does in his last game – it was special, and part of what makes MSU Hoops special – Coach Izzo got a little teary eyed as the Seniors kissed the S and the trophy celebration ensued.

The Big Ten Tourney is next and MSU is jockeying for seeding in the top four lines. A good showing could mean a solid 3 seed and depending on what happens elsewhere a BTT Title could lead to another 2 seed (MSU is 10-1 as a 2 seed in the Tourney). I cannot wait for Thursday to get here – in the meantime I guess I’ll just have to get my fill of all the other Conference Tournaments and Championship games.

Now – a quick word why this was just a short note: In a few moments I will be heading to Historic Fordson High School in Dearborn to watch our own Coach Jimmy engage his battle tested Allen Park Jaguars in his first High School Playoff game as HC of the hometown Jags. Sam is meeting me there and we will rep the “Tourney Trip APHS Boys Hoops Booster Club” in Coach Jimmy’s first District game. It’s March – even for Jimmy – Go Jags!

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By Rhett, March 7, 2010 2:58 pm

Here we sit, a week from selection Sunday. A week from knowing who we draw in Buffalo, NY. While it is mostly about the games, there are a few perks for doing this trip. One of them is seeing a few of the great cities of this country. Buffalo has a ton to offer five randoms who love watching hoops, drinking the special, and making fun of chud’s. Here’s what we have in store:

5. Niagara Falls – While not located in Buffalo, NY, Buffalo is the closest major city to Niagara Falls. I’m not sure if we will get the chance to see this. I believe a few guys of the trip have already seen Niagara Falls, but I have not. Even if we do a drive by on the way into town, it’d be pretty neat.

4. Rick James – Yes, everybody’s favorite David Chapelle parody, Rick James, was born in Buffalo, NY. Some other no talent ass clowns were as well, including the Goo Goo Dolls (wtf?), and 4790324,84032 Maniacs. This is actually a pretty crappy #4 out of a top five. I wanted to put that Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as president after William McKinley was shot, but that’s kind of messed up too. We’ll skip number 4 with the advisory that Buffalo is a working class city, and is not very showy, which means all of the TMZ celebrity bullshit that would make up a random Top Five list doesn’t really make it’s way into town. That’s a good thing for five beer drinking will be weary travelers like ourselves.

3. SPORTZ – Buffalo, NY is home to the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, the NHL’s Buffalo Sabers, and to Division 1 Canisius. I once tried to play Canisius in a Playstation 2 basketball dynasty when we lived in the stink house. It was too hard to figure out how to shoot, and the dynasty was quickly scrapped. The Griffin on the home floor is really large, and equally as sweet.

2. Food – Food, and specifically, buffalo wings. Wings were created in this city. As far as we can tell, they were originated at The Anchor Bar, in Buffalo. Their website talks a lot about it, and I guess that it’s pretty important. All I care is they have like 10 Tv’s and a dozen of their special creation so we can watch basketball. Trip traveling organization has us arriving in town on Thursday, hopefully sometime in the early afternoon. We may be tracking this place down sooner or later. Note should be made that Buffalo has a lot riding on its shoulders as a city after the letdown of Philly, and its gross bunmeat sandwich. The website has a bunch of dumb motor cycles and signs on it, so I’m not going to get my hopes up too far.

1. THE TOURNAMENT – Fucking Duh. 1st and 2nd rounds, Friday and Sunday. I’m flying across the country. We’re going through another country. Buffalo, NY will house us for 5 days. Decent odds on seeing a few teams we follow. BYU is off the list due to the Friday / Sunday configuration. It’s the first weekend of the tournament, and we’ll be on the town with a handfull of duckets, and stars in our eyes. The Tourney Coat is being cleaned, the Colonel’s suit will be pressed and bagged.

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By Rhett, February 28, 2010 10:22 am

This week I had one game, Wednesday, TCU at UNLV. UNLV dispatched these clowns in easy fasion, just as they have the couple of scrubs they’ve played recently (besides Utah). Final Score was 78-62, but it wasn’t even that close. It was a 30+ point game in the second half with 11 minutes left. Take it for what it’s worth. Game 22 of 50 for me. 50 looking quite difficult. Still going to give it the ol college try though.

Good news on the ticket front this week as well. Some randoms from Buffalo, NY sent over a few tickets for us to attend some hoops games, the same ones we’ve been talking about. So that’s good news:

I also managed to track down my set of Final Four tickets:

So now we can get into these places we’ve spoken about so much. The Final Four tickets were pretty hard to track down. The wonderful people at the NCAA ticket office did not change my mailing address, even though I sent the proper information to them, and even received conformation back that it was. It’s all good though, as it worked out in the end.

Wyoming @ UNLV for the last Rebel game of the year is next Saturday. I will also be at the WCC tournament at the Rhett’s Basketball viewing arena, AKA, the Orleans Arena. That starts on Friday.

Currently watching Richmond @ Xavier (dynasty). Looking forward to some USA hockey, and MSU @ Purdue. Things are rounding into shape nicely. They should be, tomorrow is March, and it is MY month.

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By Nate, February 22, 2010 10:41 am

Well just about every prediction I made for Sunday’s game was just horribly off:

- Evan Turner didn’t play well and OSU still won

- MSU’s depth was a non-issue (even with OSU’s lone bench player fouling out) as the team seemingly did their own thing in the first half going against the game plan of run-run-run and if it’s not there pound the ball in the post (post-ups and drives) and what resulted was a 13 point deficit and OSU controlling tempo.

- Raymar played with good effort, and was the only player praised by Coach Izzo in the post-game, but was not too crisp. He made some plays and left it all on the court but was again limited by a few silly fouls. For the rest of the season – and his career – I just expect a good effort out of Ray and if he does that good things will happen. Ray can’t compensate for the lack of a true presence in the middle (cough – we really miss G – cough) or when the wings decide they know more than Izzo – So, from now on I’m Ray’s biggest supporter and as long as the effort is there I got his back (and thank him for a fine career in the Green and White).

Joe Rexrode at the Lansing State Journal has a very interesting blog post about the state of the team:

\”Hey Joe\” MSU LCD Issues

These “LCD” issues explain a lot about the last three weeks (and have been mentioned before, but no one pays attention to these things when the team is winning) so too does Kalin’s injury and of course the expectations factor discounting the loss of Walton, Suton, Gray and Ibok.

So, where does this team go from here? The discussion will focus on the Purdue game and the how far this team can go in the Tourney. And a lot of judgments about the latter will be based on the performance in the former. However, I still would not read too much into what happens next Sunday – and I still think a rested and prepared Spartan Team can win in West Laffy (as a matter of fact the Flintstones began to build their legacy one cold Indiana winter night back in 1998 at Mackey Arena – maybe Kalin, Raymar and DayDay can re-build their own legacy there too… but I digress) – as certainly the Big Ten regular season hangs in the balance but MSU has built its program based on the NCAA Tournament not the Big Ten regular season (don’t get me wrong I like BT Championships as much as the next guy but banners hung in the center rafters with Final Four logos are more important than banners hung on the side rafters that say BT Champ). And I still think this team has a Tourney run in them. They’ll have to work out the “LCD” issues and it’s a good thing Tom Izzo is there to guide that process. If they can do that in time for the 3rd weekend in March this team can play for more than two games in the Dance. Of course, based on my last post I wouldn’t go wagering the house on my predictions.