Cinderella Will Miss the Ball

Random thoughts from the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament…

• Not sure where you stand on this, but I love the fact that all #1, #2 and #3 teams have made it to the round of 16.  The media loves to hype “Cinderella stories,” I like watching good basketball teams play.  Honestly, would you want to watch LSU or UNC play Gonzaga?  Unless you live in Baton Rouge, you say UNC.  UNC is better and more fun to watch. 
• I’m really glad that Jim Calhoun is okay after his one-night stay in the hospital.  But, is anyone really surprised that a guy, who is rumored to be a guy who likes to have a vodka tonic or ten, was put in the hospital for dehydration?  Come on, Coach, you have to keep a Gatorade by your bed when you pass out… I mean go to sleep.
• BobWicket sent me two texts on Thursday.  One was, “Vision. Roy boy goes down.”  Of course, he was talking about UNC’s Roy Williams.  Of course, Roy Boy and UNC won by about 40.  The second was, “I’ll bet a thousand Calhoun does not win today.”  Even though Jim Calhoun wasn’t there for the Huskies’ game, he is credited for the win.  I’ll take that $1000 whenever.
• My favorite big man in the country, Brian Williams, took a charge on Friday against Oklahoma State.  It was the third charge he had taken in the last four games.  He is 6’10” and weighs about 275 lbs.  If he keeps that kind of Charge Per Game ratio next year, he’ll be like a black Shane Battier.
• Arizona State may have only made it to the second round of The Dance, but if you saw their cheerleaders you know that every male at ASU wins every day when they go to class.
• There was a 90 minute stretch on Friday afternoon where there was no game on at all.  Sixteen games were played on Friday and not one was played from 5:30-7PM.  If I hadn’t already drank 58 beers by that point, I would have been more upset.
• If you wake up on Friday evening in your bed, with a mattress on top of you (and slept that way for a while), you’ve had one hell of a day so far.  If you still find a way to go out afterwards, you are a man amongst boys.
• Ty Lawson’s toe looked okay in the 2nd half of the UNC/LSU game on Saturday.  Also, the SEC was as bad as most pundits said it was.
• For any of you all who don’t live in Kentucky, you don’t know the magic of the Sweet 16 (KY’s basketball state tournament, in which there are no classes).  2SL, BobWicket and I all went down to Rupp on Saturday morning for the semifinals.  None of the four schools that played on Saturday morning come from “big schools” and it was still a magical event.  15,000 people were in Rupp watching kids play their asses off all for the chance to win THE state championship.  If there were six state championships awarded, it wouldn’t be as special.  By the way, Covington Holmes won it all on Saturday night in a double overtime thriller against Louisville Central in the best championship game played in the last five years.
• Duke, amazingly, still gets the benefit of the doubt on 50-50 calls.  Scheyer looked to be out of bounds when he threw that crazy behind-the-back pass.  Then, the loose ball foul call was just inane.  Granted, if UT had rebounded the basketball, they would have had a shot to tie it, but they got hosed nonetheless.
• In the past two seasons, Western Kentucky has 3 wins in the NCAA Tournament.  UK has 0.
• Pitt giving up 49 points in the first half to Oklahoma State yesterday was about as likely to happen as TGC remembering anything after 8PM on Friday night.
• For anyone that cares, Bru is leading the APIAS Bracket Challenge.  BobW is third, yours truly is 6th and TGC is 7th… of 7.
• Finally, the funniest show on TV, Eastbound & Down had its season finale last night.  First off, it sucked that the season was only six episodes.  Hopefully, HBO was just trying to see if the show caught on before they put a lot of resources into the show.  Everyone I know who has watched it has loved it, so hopefully they’ll have a full slate of shows next time around.  My main point has to do with the opening scene in last night’s finale.  Those were absolutely not Katy Mixon’s boobies.  As sexy as she is and as glorious as those boobies were, there was a reason they didn’t show a face with the boobies.  But, let me repeat again.  Katy Mixon is sexy and those boobies (whoever’s they were) were fantastic.