3 Days of Goodness

Thoughts from the first 2+ days of the tournament:

- Despite winning in the first round, Notre Dame should be the most embarrassed team in the tournament, except for maybe UCONN. Washington State is considered a good team, however I think they are very overrated and vulnerable, and the Irish completely embarrassed themselves with that turd of a game today, scoring just 41 points after shooting less than 25% (13-53). Luke "Big East Player of the Year" Harangody was the biggest culprit shooting a whopping 3-17, although he wasn't helped by Kyle McAlarney going 5-13. In case you're curious, that was Harangody's second worst scoring day of the year, with just ten points. Nice timing. I wish I could have watched that game, to see what the hell happened. But I'm predicting a UNC route of Washington State next week.

- Unfortunately I didn't get to watch the games early Friday, which is when two of the best games of the tournament thus far took place - Western Kentucky/Drake and Davidson/Gonzaga. I saw the highlights, and that WKU shot was amazing. Snacks says the Northwestern State moment was still the best Sensor's NCAA tournament moment ever, but that is a close second. That's so gay it would happen when I couldn't be there.

- When I left Friday, Klinger was as drunk as I've ever seen him, and maybe the drunkest anybody has ever been ever.

- I told all you about Siena, and called their victory over Vanderbilt. According to Snacks, a lot of people were predicting that upset, but I'll tell you right now, I never heard a word from anybody else before making that call. I'm kind of bummed they're facing Villanova instead of Clemson, because I'd be interested in seeing if they could handle the Tigers. Speaking of that, how in the holy hell did Villanova beat Clemson? Scottie Reynolds sucks.

- I still can't believe USC laid such an egg. They seriously had the talent to go to the Elite 8. I wrote that the one big issue facing USC was OJ Mayo trying to do too much and shooting them out of the game, but their defense should be able to handle Beasley (relatively). Well, Mayo went only 6-16 and Beasley didn't explode, hitting for only 23. K State somehow got scoring from the whole team, and managed to shoot 48% against a tough USC defense, then shot under 40% against an almost identically defensively Wisconsin team. Weird.

- Speaking of the Badgers, they are looking very, very good so far. If Georgetown gets passed Davidson, expect a final score in the neighborhood of 35-32.

- Watching the very end of the Stanford/Marquette game, with the Eagles up 1 with 8.8 seconds and the bad Lopez brother at the line. He missed, and place sounded very pro-Marquette, despite being in Anaheim. It's just goes to show, everybody hates Stanford.

- Duke got bounced early again, ho-hum, how utterly shocking. It's going to be very interesting to see just how entrenched Coach K is there after two straight early exits. Will there be grumbling, or is it going to be more like Paterno at Penn State? As in, no matter how far he's causing the program to fall, he'll be there until he retires. Note, I'm not saying Duke has crashed or anything like that, just that two straight early losses for them is something I've never seen.

- Arizona sucks. I should have paid more attention to their late season suckness and inability to beat anybody other than Washington State rather than the talent on their roster. Oh well.

- Another minor shocker was Butler's thorough ass-kicking off South Alabama. I picked Butler, and expected them to win, but I thought it would be a tightly contested game that would likely come down to the wire. Instead Butler kicked their butts and won by 20, and it wasn't even that close. If I'm Tennessee, I'd be very nervous.

- It's fairly clear the Atlantic Ten was overrated this year outside of Xavier. Temple got stomped by Michigan State, and St Joe's got rolled by a really mediocre Oklahoma team. And yes, I picked Temple to beat the Spartans. Shut up.

- Phone call just received from Bogart, who is at the bar down in Chicago, but needs to chase his gambling losses on the day with another $100 bet he needs me to place. And not only do I need to place it, I have to pick it too. I go with UCLA -10.5, because A&M sucks.

UPDATE: Texas A&M does not suck, Kevin Love and Darren Collison were just a little bit better down the stretch. Not bad for a non-ankle breaking guard and not stud lowpost guy. Great game. Sorry Bogart. Maybe you'll feel better after this: