Continue reading »]]> 11/16 9:25 PM – This will be it for me. I slept for five hours, and will have slated a total of 20 basketball watching hours over the last 25 or so. MSU is finishing up over South Carolina. State has played sloppy over the past 10 minutes, coasting to a win. I will finish up the night by watching the end of San Diego State vs Gonzaga. It’s been fun watching and twittering with a few of you out there. The season is officially here. I have basketball on the brain and I cannot help it. Good talk fellas.

11/16 5:52 PM – I’ve been able to watch three teams UNLV will play non-con this year: Louisville, Tulsa, and Kansas State. I think UNLV will be able to hang with Louisville. Should beat Tulsa, and will probably get owned by Kansas State. Butler looking pretty brutal without #toobigyo. Howard just get into foul trouble and everything rests on Mack’s shoulders to carry the team now. Michigan State coming up next, then Gonzaga and SDSU.

11/16 5:31 PM – Butler playing their same game. Louisville now plays in the house that Kentucky Fried Chicken built. There are people in the stands wearing empty chicken buckets as hats. I am winding down again, all this watching basketball takes a lot out of you.

11/16 4:39 PM – It has been an ejoyable afternoon of basketball watching. Kansas State won a highly contested game vs Virginia Tech. Don’t let the score fool you. After, I have had the exciting prospect to watch Ohio State and Florida play. Gag me. Ohio State looks really good though. 69-63 8:55 2H.

11/16 1:12 PM – Watched LaSalle and Baylor, wasn’t a bad game overall. Baylor is athletic and they are in Waco, which looks like a dusty town. Now, I have Bobby Knight calling the game between Va Tech and Kansas State. Jacob Pullen has two early fouls, and Wally Judge is hurt. It’s ok though, as both teams are shooting a ton of bad 3′s early.

11/16 10:15 AM – I am back. UNLV will be playing Tulsa in the 76 Classic next week. They look pretty good, even tho they did lose to App. St. Oral Roberts had a giant bird mascot and will consume your soul. Big white kid for Tulsa looks pretty solid.

11/16 4:05 AM – Out like a thief in the night. (Seeing that I woke up at 6AM local time, it is obvious I could have gone for the full 24 hours straight. However, that would have put me in a bad spot to have my wits about me for the evening games with have MSU playing South Carolina, and Gonzaga against SDSU. So I made a decision to bail for a few hours of sleep.)

11/16 3:13 AM – 5.9 seconds left and Hawaii has the ball, up 1. Looks decent for the Rainbow Warriors to send Central packing. Bring me a new game and a meal that won’t make me sluggish. I have much more to go. 21 hours up. 15 to go.

11/16 3:07 AM – Rainbow Warriors up 1 with 1:30 left and headed to the line. They’ll shoot the ft’s as I type this. I’m so tired of this crap game and these guys jerking off Trey Ziegler. It’s horrible. Hawaii split the free throws and its a two point lead, Central ball. The suspense is killing me, I’m going to go get a mini cheese out of the fridge.

11/16 2:42 AM – Central Michigan vs Hawaii is the worst basketball game of all time. Tre Ziegler had his boys try to start a fight, and they collected a bunch of indian casino money. Hawaii is up 3 right now. I am hoping they extend this lead and send the MAC’s gangster program back on their turbo prop airplane back to the farmland of Michigan to lose 15 MAC games this year.

11/16 1:43 AM – Central Michigan is horrible at basketball, and this is against a horrible Hawaii team. Tre Ziegler is not the answer, and now he lives in an indian casino town. good choice bucko. Hawaii should play in an open air basketball arena. Hawaii 25, Central Michigan 28. WTF?

11/16 1:14 AM – SMC is going to pull this out. Lavin will bring the Johnnies back, just not this year. 63-53 with 1:05 left. Next game on tap is Central Michigan at Hawaii. Go Warriors.

11/16 12:43 AM – This guy from down under that plays for St. Mary’s has six 3′s tonight. You’d think Lavin would tell somebody to guard him. Dwayne Polee is really good, and I think he may be Natural Polee. The Gaels play on a volleyball court. This weird guy in a green shirt is trying to sell me on not drinking anymore. He looks like he fell off the Hale Bop comet. More to come.

11/15 11:53 PM – My dream is to upper deck a toilet in Provo, Utah. Johnnies up by a bucket early. Funner game to watch than the 1st. Bruno i sfreaking out right now.

11/15 11:32 PM – Memphis wins a snail game late with FT’s and such. Now it’s onto Saint Mary’s vs Saint Johns. Dwayne Polee plays for Steve Lavin and he should be playing for Lon Kruger. Dew #2 is coming up.

11/15 10:30 PM – Memphis comes out in the second half on a mission. Miami shooting a ton of deep three’s that aren’t going in. My wife just went to bed and my dog is dreaming of running through a forest chasing rabbits or something.

11/15 9:57 PM – Nobody can shoot it seems. Miami hanging around, getting after it in the paint on both sides. Headed to halftime, Memphis up 1, 38-37. About to hit my 1st Mountain Dew.

11/15 9:33 PM – The Raft is just great. Seriously. Talking about people leaving their underwear on the floor. I love it. Memphis vs Miami. Memphis has a guy who looks like a 50 year old heroin pusher (Garcia) playing the pivot, and two brothers who are running all over the place, and playing quite well. Miami has an athletic team of headband wearers and they’ve done nothing to stand out in a good way (Barton brothers) or bad (Garcia looking odd).

Continue reading »]]> So the NCAA shut down our hate down with their long reach. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to still hate on jerks it will just have to be more insidious to make it past the long reach of the evil cabal in Indianapolis.

What I’m thinking about right now though is that we have games finally tipping off tonight all over the country. I’ve got my eye on East Lansing for Michigan State and Eastern Michigan although strangely I’ll be in Oxford, Mississippi watching Ole Miss square off with Arkansas State. A real border war to be sure. Being outside of my college hoops comfort zone for the first time ever is an interesting experience. Hopefully watching Ole Miss and Memphis games will give me at least some level of enjoyment because I am really going to miss watching MAC and Big Ten games during the bleak Michigan winters. Oh well that is part of the trade off when relocating.

Here is what I am rooting for this year:

1. Michigan State to put it all together and get Izzo his 2nd national championship. Hang every banner possible and silence all the chirpers who think Michigan State is a notch below the blue bloods and on the same level with Purdue and Wisconsin. Time to just lay waste to everyone!

2. Ole Miss to make the tournament finally. It won’t take much to have the best era of hoops ever at the school. Here is hoping I am around to witness it. Win 23 games and be the 11 seed its not that unreasonable of an expectation.

3. The further decline of North Carolina and UCLA. Over indulged fan bases with rosters full of blue chip talent falling apart and finishing way down in their conferences put a smile on my face. I especially like it when their secondary rivals pass them up. Watching North Carolina lose to Sid Lowe and the NC State Wolfpack and Howland loss to Cal is a sweet sweet thing.

4. Memphis to emerge as the gangsters paradise of the Deep South and start making tournament runs again. Good facility, passionate fans, complete disregard for rules and convention, and close proximity to me make this a must. Pastner is like Al Pacino in the first Godfather. I can’t wait for him to become a full fledged gangster and run this thing proper. I’m going to buy a Memphis jersey that has a dollar sign instead of a number and sit in the front row while they murder Tulsa by 45 points.

5. Kentucky to start being the focus of NCAA investigators. Can we at least make it uncomfortable for Kentucky’s rampant cheating? Can we at least get somebody in Indy to rustle a few papers before they play a big game and make the old blue coats nervous? The NY Times piece on Bledsoe has wetted my appetite and it looks like Turkish millionare Enes Kanter being ruled permanently ineligible gives me reason to hope this could be a trend. The fact that Tennessee and Florida have become the good guys in the SEC shows just how far out of balance things have gotten since Cal rolled in to town.

6. The shit show that is Michigan basketball to fall completely apart and be historically bad. Their roster is complete garbage and they should start losing games by big numbers again soon. I’d like to see the Gayze Rage half empty while Illinois is beating them by 45 points after the first media time out in the 2nd half. I don’t expect a return to the glory days of Brian Elerbe but at least an homage to the Avery Queen era would be nice.

7. Duke to lose a home game in the midst of a week long ESPN slurp fest. Nothing will be as obnoxious as watching Duke on ESPN this season. I just hope that they lose one to Virginia or Maryland in a game where ESPN used it as a vehicle to promote another more high profile Duke game, and filled pre game and halftime with stupid puff pieces of Kyle Singler riding a fucking unicycle and dorks camping out for tickets.

Thats all I need out of my college hoops season this year.

Continue reading »]]> Check out the right side colum for a list of our tourney sites, and a new update about our trip from this last weekend. Or, you can just click here.

Working on headed to Glendale, AZ this weekend for a probable UConn vs Memphis game, which should hold me over until the following weekend, and my flight to Detroit.

Looking forward to watching Michigan State later this week. Goran Suton is putting on his game face.

Continue reading »]]> This has been a great year of College Basketball. I can’t remember a time when there has been as much parity in the game. No clear cut two or three teams threatening to run away with everything. Last year we saw all four #1 seeds advance to the Final Four. It is certainly possible this year, however, I feel there are a pool of 8 potential serious contenders to cut down the nets in front of me in Detroit next month. (In no particular order you homers)

1. Connecticut:  Why they will –  All world big man Hasheem Thabeet will always give them a chance. A coach and program who’s been there before and knows how to get it done in March. Balanced scoring with four players averaging 13ppg. Why they won’t – One of those players is Jerome Dyson, who isn’t about to sniff a pair of sneakers for the rest of the year. Oh,  they can’t beat Pittsburgh either.

2. Pittsburgh:  Why they will - Best big man in the country hands down. DeJuan Blair is an animal who plays with fire, wants to be the best and has shown he can be against anybody in the nation. Why they won’t – Lost three road games this year, two that should have been won easily IMO, (@ Villanova, @ Providence). This shows me they are prone to overlook teams. Haven’t been there before.

3. Oklahoma: Why they will – Blake Griffin is a monster. Enough said. Why they won’t – The Sooners have stumbled as of late, with and without Blake.

4. Michigan State: Why they will – Battle tested coach who’s gotten it done before. Younger talented players have learned a lot with bad losses this season (I hope). Peaking at the right time. Why they won’t – The Spartans have been horribly inconsistent all year. No killer instinct. Young players tend to show their true colors in pressure situations.

5. Louisville: Why they will – Terrence Williams. Guy does it all, and Rick Pitino should write this guy into his will. Deep team with shooters off the bench (Jerry Smith, Andre McGee) provide a lift when often maligned Edgar Sosa wants to dribble the ball off his foot 50 times a game. Why they won’t – Any team that gets blown out by Notre Dame by 30+ points has to have something wrong with its head. That, and Pitino won’t be wearing his white suit until the Kentucky Derby.

6. North Carolina: Why they will – They play an amazing brand of basketball based solely on being faster than everybody else, and less on true talent. Roy Williams has asked God and the following day he found a quarter in his shoe. Why they won’t – Ty Lawson’s toes are falling off. The walking pelvic gyration that is Tyler Hansbrough is a hot head.

7. Memphis: Why they will – Freakishly athletic. Abnormal. They could seriously be aliens. Tyreke Evans is a beast. How do you guard this guy? He’s closer to being a power forward than a center. Calapari is a good coach, you just wonder how long he’ll be able to stay in CUSA with these bottom feeders. He’s made a mockery of the conference. Why they won’t - Haven’t played with the big boys since the start of the season. That Gonzaga win in Spokane was nice, but hardly like running through a Big East or Big Ten schedule.

8. Kansas: Why they will – Sherron Collins. Guy is lightning in a bottle. Plays fast and hard for 40 mins. Clutch (as shown several times this year). Watching him play you can tell he enjoys his roll on this team. Why they won’t – Inexperienced and young. You have to put in your dues before you gain the success. Two of these players even played last year for Kansas. Oh, Bill Self hasn’t tithed enough this year. For Shame!

See you next year: Duke, Villanova, Wake forest, and anybody from the Pac-10. You’re all garbage. Especially Duke. No true big man front court player. Everybody takes charges too often. I don’t see it happening. I love Villanova, but they just don’t have the horses to run with the guys on the list.

Continue reading »]]> Championship Week is coming, Selection Sunday is coming, and The 8th Annual Tourney Trip is just a few weeks away. Tickets have been secured, hotel rooms reserved, vacation time scheduled, airplane tickets bought, and a car decided on. Philadelphia is not only the destination for 8 deserving college basketball programs, but for a knowledgeablegroup of 5 basketball fans making a trip to a great city to watch what are hopefully some good games. The possabilities are wide open for what teams might make the trip with us, and there is still hope for a few of our favorites to play in front of us next month.

Here is who I would like to see:

UConn. Given the location we have chosen it seem inevitable that we get these Big East monsters, so I chose to embrace it. I have never seen them play and look forward to seeing one of the great powers of my era live and in person for the first time.Since you can’t have a #1 seed without the #16 Seed I’ll take whoever they give us there and like it. Due to our location I would bet we get the MEAC champs.  I am one of the few people in our group that likes to see a 1/16 matchup. Probably because I am one of the few who remembers the excitement of Holy Cross/Kansas. At some point a 16 will beat a 1 and I want to be there for that.

The other benefit of having the 1 seed at your site is that you get the 8/9 game which opens up a world of possabilities. My preference for this would be Dayton and either LSU, Kentucky, Tennessee, or some other SEC squad that can play its way in but not up the field. My feeling is that the A10 is really a hidden gem in college hoops and is consistently under appreciated and under rated. I would like to see what kind of damage a well coached team like Dayton could do against an SEC team with an inflated record, and possibly against a power like UConn.

For the other pod I would hope to get a 3/14 and a 6/11. The 2/15, 7/10 is to similar to the 1/16, 8/9, and 4/13, 5/12 seems like under achievers against upset specials that never quite happen when we are there. So I’ll take the 3/14, 6/11 for not only its upset potenital but because that 11 seed is usually reserved for some of the last at larges in the field. That is where I would like to see either Maryland or UNLV. UNLV is an obvious choice because it would be great for Rhett to have a chance to follow his team all the way into the NCAA tournament, and if we get UNLV it would also prevent us from getting BYU and their roster of 28 year old goof balls. UNLV is also a tradition rich program who has been resurgent in recent years under a great coach. Maryland would also be great since Gary Williams is a classic character, their fans are cool people that hate Duke, and I can make lots of inappropriate Len Bias cocaine jokes. The 6 seed counterpart has to Syracuse. I have been an admirer of the Cuse for a long time but have never had the privilege to see them in person. Magoo is a great coach, I love that big orange mascot, the 2-3 zone, and would like to buy Gerry McNamara a beer if he is in town.

In our 3/14 game I want to see Memphis and Cornell.The cerebral Ivy League approach against the running and gunning style that Calapari has established at Memphis would be fun and I love that Memphis is a powerhouse in a non BCS league, and that the Ivy League doesn’t’ play a conference tournament. And once again I’ve never seen either team.

For the record I always want to see Western Michigan, Michigan State, Eastern Michigan, Oakland, and Georgetown. I’d be happy with all of them at our site every year. However we are 0-7 trying to see Michigan State and it looks like this year they will be a #2 either in Dayton or Minneapolis, and the other 4 have almost no chance at making the field so I am trying to be realistic.

Continue reading »]]> Xavier is refered to as X is refered to as dynasty and you put your hands in the air to let them know. While they have lost a few familiar players you’ve grown to love over the past few years (D. Lavender), they played well with Derek Brown in foul trouble early and largely a non factor overall. Memphis still demonstrates they cannot shoot free throws and dunk a lot. Fun game to watch this early in the season. Memphis has freak athletes. Could be aliens.

I knew Indiana was going to be bad, but had no idea just how bad. I love Creen there, and appretiate the tradition and the striped pants. Here’s to hoping its a quick turn around.

Anybody know where I can buy an O’Reilly auto parts t shirt?