The Yellow Stripe

Following up on my 2007 Men’s NCAA Tournament - What to Watch For post.

I started with Five Points

( 2007 Men's NCAA - Week 1 )

Bracket Entries due by Noon EST Thursday (Today). Information is here.

For those who only follow College Basketball loosely, I present some subplots to follow for the first weekend of the Tournament. None of which should serve as the basis for any cash wagers...

( Tourney Thoughts )

Ehh. That's Five Bullets, but more than five thoughts. Maybe I'll add more tomorrow.

(Crossposted to acc_sports)

As I did each of the last three years, once again, I'll be hosting a free - for pride only - NCAA Men's Basketball Bracket on ESPN.com. Let's find out if we'll get someone new, or if it'll be a repeat by last year's winner, hjcallipygian.

For those wishing to participate follow these easy steps:

1. Go to ESPN's Tournament Challenge page
2. If you do not have a free, ESPN Games ID, create an ID.
3. Join the group LJ Bracket Challenge and create an entry
4. Mock me and my crazy picks.

Note: The team listed as Control Bracket is simply an entry I've added in which the favored seed (not the Vegas favorite) was selected to win every game. For the purposes of seeing how our upsets deviate from expectations.

Repeating:
Group Name: LJ Bracket Challenge
Password: 123456

Okay, Folks.... as an appetizer I am watching Kevin Durant do ridiculous things.

The NCAA tournament Brackets will be announced Sunday Night, and I will open up a tourney pool Consider this the "Pre-call" to sign up. All are welcome to join.

As fun reference, I have added a brackets tag to previous NCAA Tourney related entries. Be psyched!

Having just rewatched Anchorman, was going to author zany post about Ron Burgundy, but will put that off for the moment. Instead, am posting links to the "One Shining Moment" Video Packages I was able to find. For those who don't follow - every year (for the last 20) at the end of the NCAA Tourney, CBS puts together a highlight package to the tune of a song "One Shining Moment" written specifically for college basketball by Ann Arbor Michigan's own, David Barrett. It's an exceptionally schmaltzy song - whether the original version or the Luther Vandross version CBS has often used. And yet, it just works for me with the sports coverage, and I get all misty with nostalgia...

Of these, I think the best ones are the 1998 package (the Valparaiso game, Mark Madsen) and 2003 (lots of Carmelo Anthony) even if whomever posted 2003 couldn't cut the studio parts.

So I give you:


1998 (Kentucky) - Luther Vandross

2002 (Maryland) - David Barrett

2003 (Syracuse) - Luther Vandros

2005 (North Carolina) - Luther Vandross

2006 (Florida) - Luther Vandross

One shining moment. It'll make you cry like Adam Morrison.

Maryland overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to defeating Duke University, 78-75 in Overtime, capturing their first National Championship in Women's Baskebtall.

Sally Jenkins analysis

Photo Gallery




The bench and head coach Brenda Friese react after Kristi Toliver (#20) hits a last second 3-pointer to send the game into overtime.



With no seniors, and only one Junior, Maryland will be the favorite to repeat. Can you say "Dynasty", boys and girls!

Hey - does anybody have the "One Shining Moment" clip - either the song or this year's video clip - from the NCAA Tourney. I didn't get to see it...

1. Congrats to hjcallipygian for finishing first in the NCAA Tourney Pool. HJ made the big move out of the first week second division, mostly because all the favorites lost, and his Gators won. Yay to HJ! Even if it means a member of the tribe (UCLA's Jordan Farmar) had to lose...

2. Good luck wishes to my University of Maryland Terrapins women's basketball team, who upset #1 UNC and will face #2 Duke tonight in the Championship game.

3. A damn gopher chewed through my cable line. When I came home yesterday, I had no internet and no TV. CRISIS! It's a good thing there are bars. Otherwise, I would have had to read books or clean my house. Stupid gophers.

4. In a discussion of Human/Vampire romantic relationships and the unfeasibility thereof, came across the best encapsulation of why I first wound up liking the Buffy/Angel ship during BtVS6/AtS3:

Maybe the problem is that Angel isn't being compared to anyone in particular, but just to "a human". He might not be better for Buffy than the ideal human guy, but he might be better than any actual human guy you could name. It's like the old joke: 60% of voters say they prefer an unnamed democrat over (for example) DeLay. It's the named democrats that they don't want.

5. I think that Barry Bonds (and other players accused of cheating with steroids pre-steroids testing agreement) should only be punished for it, if MLB is going to go ahead and kick Whitey Ford and Gaylord Perry (among other notorious cheaters) out of the hall of fame.

We have now made it all the way to the Final Four. With all four #1 seeds out, the Control Bracket is in utter shambles. Indeed, we're going to have the lowest scoring winning bracket in pretty much ever.

There can be three possible winners:

1) hjcallipygian wins if Florida wins the National Title
2) thelastgoodname - wins if UCLA defeats LSU AND does not lose to Florida in the title game.
3) stars91 - wins IF UCLA loses to LSU AND Florida does not win the National Title.

Notes. This year's final four features no #1 seeds, and #11 seed George Mason of the Colonial Athletic Association. Mason is the lowest rated seed in the Final Four since the 1986 LSU team which featured John "Hot Plate" Williams. The only other minor conference final four team was 1979 Penn of the Ivy League. And this is only the second time there were no #1 seeds in the Final Four. In 1980, the Final Four was #2 Lousiville, #5 Iowa, #6 Purdue, and #8 UCLA. Like 1980, all four regional finals were upsets.

And: Out of 3 Million entrants into ESPN's Challenge, only 4 people had the exact Final Four. More than 2 million entries have NONE of the remaining four teams...

Also - a big rah rah for the University of Maryland Terrapins womens' team, which plays tonight to return to the Final Four for the first time since 1989.

I was hating life this morning, let me say... Was already tired to begin with, but decided to watch the entirety of last night's college basketball action. Of the four games on, three were great. Or, I should say two were great, and the last five minutes of UCLA-Gonzaga was great too.

( Lots of Basketball Blather )

Am currently watching the World Baseball Classic. Japan has taken a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning, which one imagines, must be a big relief to the White House. Cuba winning wouldn’t be very good…

And over in the NIT, Notre Dame’s season came to an end on a last second shot in Double OT. Which is pretty fitting.

As to the NCAA. Another crazy weekend, highlighted by the three big buzzer beaters: Chris Lofton in Tennessee’s win over Winthrop, Darryl Mitchell of LSU over Texas A&M, and Jermaine Wallace of Northwestern State (Louisiana) over Iowa. Two big shocks of the tournament – Bradley of the Missouri Valley and George Mason of the Colonial both into the Sweet 16. A minor conference team hasn’t made the Final Four since the University of Pennsylvania back in 1979 – the last two minor conference teams to make the Elite 8 were Kent State (MAC) in 2002 and Gonzaga (WCC) in 1999.

( NCAA Pool Results after two rounds )

Most fun link of the the week!
Sports Illustrated's index of NCAA Tournament history.

Last day to enter the LJ Bracket Challenge. Signups due at Noon, EST.

And - check it out - look and laugh at My Bracket. I can't wait for games to start, and to go and be watching games over the internet at my desk...

( Edited to Add SI's Top Ten First Round Upsets of the Last 10 Years )

Pimping the Tourney Bracket Challenge. Monmouth defeated Hampton in yesterday's play-in game. Means just one more day before the games open up...

Anyone interesting in signing up in my Tourney Bracket Challenge, there's one more day. Sign-ups due by noon. And I'll post my brackets then... In the meantime, I'll be mentally replaying that 2002 East Regional Final between Maryland and UConn, the best game ever for a Maryland fan to watch.

But what I want to know is, where's the brackets from marenfic, cjlasky, sistakaren, and thelastgoodname?

Also, check out the expert's picks from the Tony Kornheiser Radio Show - including Wilbon, David Aldridge, Jim O'Connell, and a bunch of other writers and coaches...

As I did each of the last two years, once again, I'll be hosting a free - for pride only - NCAA Men's Basketball Bracket on ESPN.com. Let's find out if we'll get someone new, or if it'll be threepeat by two-time winner, sistakaren.

For those wishing to participate follow these easy steps:

1. Go to ESPN's Tournament Challenge page
2. If you do not have a free, ESPN Games ID, create an ID.
3. Join the group LJ Bracket Challenge and create an entry
4. Mock me and my crazy picks.

Note: The team listed as Control Bracket is simply an entry I've added in which the favored seed (not the Vegas favorite) was selected to win every game. For the purposes of seeing how our upsets deviate from expectations.

Repeating:
Group Name: LJ Bracket Challenge
Password: 123456