Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder: UCLA 59; LSU 45

Ugly. That's what they all called them. Said UCLA played an ugly style. Well, tonight, they executed on both ends, and showed that the idiots who criticized the Bruins based on one game against Memphis (while ignoring their other game against Memphis) are a bunch of morons.

Thanks to a second half slow down by the Bruins who held a huge lead with 15 minutes to go, the score of this one actually ended up close to what was predicted by most of the press. But the final score doesn't tell the story of how much the Bruins dominated this game. They led by 15 points at half time, and they seemed to build up a pretty proportional lead all the way through the first 25 minutes or so. Against Memphis, the Bruins had four field goals in the second half of the game. Tonight, they had four field goals in the first five minutes, inlcuding two three pointers.

The second half opened much the same way. The Bruins canned four shots in the first four minutes. And when your first four baskets of the half consist of three dunks, including an alley-oop against the zone, and a three pointer from 25 feet with the shot clock about to run out, you're doing pretty good.

Once again, the story of the game was the Bruins defense. That's been the case for the last month. It's easier to play that sort of defense when everyone you have on the floor is rester. Starter played 53 minutes in the first half for the Bruins, while the subs played 47. That, folks, is depth.

Player of the game for UCLA was clearly LRMAM, who really got the job done on both sides of the floor. Seventeen points and nine rebounds, while playing excellent defense on Glen Davis, and really owning him athletically on the offensive end. Unsung player of the game was Lorenzo Mata. The box score I'm looking at right now has him credited with seven boards, but I could have sworn it was more, and that might change. But not only did he pull down rebounds, he pulled them down at huge times. When you have a double digit lead, you run down 30 seconds off the shot clock, miss the shot, and you're able to grab the rebound, that puts your opponents on defense for another 30 seconds. That's difficult to play through both physically AND mentally, and ultimately, that was the difference. LSU has been a better rebounding team all year, but UCLA owned them on the boards tonight.

About that defense, Big Baby and Tyrus Thomas combined for only 19 points on 7-21 shooting and 12 rebounds. LRMAM almost out counted them on his own. LSU didn't hit one three pointer in this one. Over the last two games, UCLA opponents have looked lost from beyong the arc.

Monday brings Florida, who have played extremely well during this tournament (obviously). They bring the size and athleticism of LSU, but unlike the Tigers, they hit their threes, and that will be a challenge for the Bruins. The other thing Florida has in its favor is the timing. Give Ben Howland a week to prepare, and he showed tonight that he's gonna find a way to exploit your weaknesses. He's only got two days for the Gators, and only time will tell what will happen.

Two young teams, two teams that will probably be picked for this game next season depending on the NBA draft (along with Carolina, Ohio State, and probably this LSU team), meet for the chamnpionship a year ahead of schedule. Let's hope it's one to remember. Of course, a Bruins blowout would be just fine, too.

LSU vs. UCLA - Pre-game thoughts

LSU vs. UCLA:

It's gonna be dominated by defense. There's just no two ways about. On the offensive end, it's essentially going to come down to how well UCLA shoots the ball. I'm not sure they're going to be able to get a lot done inside against Davis and Thomas, so it's going to be up to Farmar, Afflalo, and Ced to get some scoring done on the outside. I'd love to see some plays set up for Michael Roll as well to extend that defense.

On the other end, I'm not sure how the Bruins are going to stop both Thomas and Davis. Fortunately, LSU doesn't shoot the ball particularly well from the perimeter, so UCLA is less likely to get burned on double teams in the post. However, if they double down on Davis, Thomas might just kill the Bruins on the offensive glass. Davis might be better off chucking the ball at the hoop as opposed to throwing it out to the perimeter. I would imagine they'd try to stick LRMAM on Thomas, and hopefully's with Luc's excellent nose for rebounding, he can keep Thomas at bay.

I like the Bruins to win this one because I think they're more complete and they're deeper, but there are still injury question marks with Hollins and Mata. I expect it to be ugly.

Crazy Weekend

There's really a couple of things I ought to be doing on this site this weekend. Chief among them would be a final four preview and some sort of season preview for the Angels. Fact of the matter is, I'm swamped. It's Saturday, and I'm typing this from the office. On top of that, my mother is flying in tomorrow, so between the action tonight, I need to kind of clean my apartment. Anyway, I'll take an abbreviated shot at some point.

Memories

Posting has been infrequent lately, but rather than come up with something stupid that is just going to bore everyone, In honor of the final four this weekend, please watch two of the greatest comebacks in college history. You'll thank me.

Liveblogging my fantasy draft

That's right. Imagine the excitement of reading about all of the exciting......things going on my fantasy draft. I can tell you're as excited about this as I am.

Actually, truth be told, this is one of the leagues I most likely won't give a shit about. I'm in four, I think, and there's only one that truly matters. I drafted what I think is a very strong team in that draft. It's with a group of people I've never met, save for one guy who was my Political Science T.A. my first year in college, and with whom I've kept in touch over the years. I took over a team four seasons ago, five seasons ago, and in that time I've improved every season, going from a .415 winning percentage my first year (it's head to head) to a .620 winning percentage and a first place finish in the division last year before losing in the championship round. Also, I think I had a pretty decent draft in the Halosphere fantasy league draft as well, so I'll probably pay attention to that one.

Anyway, this particular league is a NL only league, head to head for the first time this season. It's all guys that I went to law school with, and we've kept the league together for seven or eight seasons now. I don't really follow the NL, so I'll probably get worked. I have won this league once in the past, however. I have the fourth pick, and we're about 10 minutes away. You're going nuts with excitement, aren't you? It's all so.....exciting!!

First round: In typical ESPN cobaggery, the software is failing. We're finally underway, with Pujols, Lee, and Wright going 1-2-3, followed my selection of Chase Utley with the #4 pick. Gotta pick a Bruin. Damn, talk about exciting!! Now we wait for the guys who didn't show up to be forced to Autopilot, which should speed up the process.

Nothing pisses me off more than dudes who take the whole time to make their picks, especially their first round pick. I mean seriously, you have a goddamn week to map it out. It's not that hard. Total ratfuckery.

Second round: I take Adam Dunn. I have him on another team. My draft philosophy is that I like to take guys I have on another team, so that I have to follow fewer guys during the season. Usually by April 15th I can't remember who's on which team anyway.

Third round: Brad Lidge. I get shut out of closers every year, so I figured I'd start the run this year.

Fourth round: Right now we have four of ten guys on auto, so the draft is moving quickly. Which is good, because these get to be really boring after a few minutes. Wait, did I say boring? I mean EXCITING!! Anyway, Larry Wayne Jones is officially a Cobag.

Fifth round: Former Angel Derek Turnbow. That's two closers, and that should hold me over in the save department, unless he gets busted for roids.

Sixth round: Zach Duke. Needed a starter.

Seventh round: Brett Myers. Another good but not great starter, although he's in a hitters' park. Oh well.

Eighth round: Things are moving fairly quickly. That's eight rounds in roughly a half hour. Still, I'm probably going to miss the last purple line. Willy Taverez is the newest Cobag. Needed the steals.

Ninth round: Austin Kearns. Got him on more than one team.

Tenth Round: Mike Jacobs. Marlins. Never heard of him.

Alright, this boring. For all of us. I'm sorry, this was an idea destined to fail. Anyway, here's how the rest of it went. Bill Hall, Tony Clark, Tom Glavine, Paul LoDuca, Chris Burke, Aaron Heilman, JJ Hardy, Johnny Estrada, Ryan Klesko, man the NL really sucks, Stephen Drew (it's a keeper league), Yhency Brazoban, Orlando Hernandez, Tony Armas Jr., and finally, Ryan Langerhans.

That's it. Time to start losing.

Cool!

I don't do political stuff here very often, but this is the closest I've ever come to being linked to by a widely read lefty blog. I'm like, only a couple degrees of separation from Atrios!

Anyway, John Cole, who I like 80% of the time, went off his nut about this post by Jane Hamsher (who is a big Spiritualized fan, btw). In it, he accused the "Jane Hamshers of the left" of all sorts of nasty things. Problem is, the things he listed were never actually done by Jane Hamsher, after which John claimed that "the Jane Hamshers of the left" does not include the actual Jane Hamsher. He also implied that Jane had attributed comments to a person who had never actually said them (it's about Washington Post blogger/serial plagiarizer Ben Domenech). Only, Jane never said he said them.

Long story short, Jane got pissed, John refused to admit that he was wrong, and we all had a whale of a time in the comment thread. Jane's post on the dustup included a link to my comment where I called John intellectually dishonest. My comments include links to this blog. The Atrios linked to Jane's post. So like it goes Atrios --> Firedoglake --> My comment on John Cole's site --> Here! That's only four degrees of separation (or is it three, I can't tell?)

So that's my excitement for the day.

**UPDATE**
I try to provide my own take on the situation here, here, here, here, here, here and here. I get some nice ego strokes here, here, here, and here. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't give credit to the gang at Three Bulls for the term "cobaggery" and to Demogenes Aristophanes for the term ratfuckery.

Final Four!

Wow. Ugly game. But they give the trophies to the teams with more points.

Four down, two to go.

UCLA 73; Gonzaga 71

Almost one year ago today (just 3 days short), I gave up on a basketball game that I never should have given up on. Thank the Lord that the Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Luther Head, Roger Powell, and Jack Ingram didn't give up. They came back from a 15 point deficit with 4:00 minutes to play and completed one of the greatest comebacks in college basketball history.

Tonight, the UCLA Bruins came as close as they possibly could to equaling that stunning feat. Unable to find the basket all night, and with their stifling defense failing them for much of the game, the Bruins found another gear, and found a way to pull out a win against a team that had dominated them all night, scoring the last 11 points of the game to once again survive and advance. There's so much to talk about in this game that I can't possibly cover it all. But one of the major themes of this game for the Bruins was senior leadership. This team has had its minutes dominated by freshmen and sophomores all season long, but tonight, the seniors simply refused to let their careers end. Hollins threw in 12 points and grabbed 8 rebounds while going 6 for 6 from the line, none more important than the last two coming with 19 seconds left, cutting the lead to one point. Ced contributed 4 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, but played lock down defense on Adam Morrison after Aaron Afflalo picked up his fourth foul. You could just sense in him a desire to continue playing, which is rare, because Ced doesn't show much emotion out there.

Not to be outdone, the freshmen made their presence felt. Darren Collison didn't contribute much to the scoreboard, but provided excellent defense at the point, and suffered the worst call maybe in the history of college basketball. It wouldn't be a Bruin game without LRMAM leading the way on the boards, and tonight was no exception. He grabbed 10, tossed in 14 points, and for my money, he made the play of the game. Not the game winning shot, although he showed tremendous poise and hands while hauling in the pass from Jordan Farmar and laying it in the hoop. But in a very unfreshmanlike play, he proceeded to run down the court and steal the ball from Derek Raivio, giving the Bruins posession, and ending the game for all intents and purposes.

Farmar and Afflalo? They struggled. They were a combined 10-26, 5-15 from three, and Aaron missed some big free throws. But when the game was on the line, they stepped up. Farmar hit an amazing runner in from just outside the lane in the waning moments to bring the Bruins to within three points with under a minute to play. He grabbed the loose ball and made a great pass to LRMAM under the basket for the winning score.

Congratulations to the Bulldogs on another great season. I'll admit, I hated Adam Morrison during this game. I think he fouls pretty much every time he has the ball. But he's got great touch. He looks like he has a great feel for the game. He was pretty gracious during the post-game interview, and I wish him well at the next level. JP Batista, on the other hand, whined about a foul that simply didn't exist, and anyone who saw the game knows that. Tough way for them to lose, and if Mark Few head to Indiana, their window may be shut.

Congrats to Coach Howland. Once again, he's worked the third season magic. For the first time, he's heading to the Elite 8. Fitting, because he's truly an elite coach, and he's rebuilding an elite program.

The Bruins played arguably their worst offensive game of the season. They were outshot. They were outrebounded. Yet they still found a way to get the job done. They found the will to win and showed the heart of a champion. They may not advance on Saturday, but they've anounced their presence. The program is back on the national stage, and let's not forget, this is a learning year. Next year was supposed to be the year that UCLA anounced that they were back. Looks like the precocious kids didn't want to wait that long.

Wow!

I mean, just......wow! That's two years in a row for me, folks. I'll have more later. I need to watch the end 2 or 3 or 27 more times, but man, what a finish.

Initial thoughts, though:

• If I had a vote for player of the year, after what I saw tonight, it would go to......JJ Redick. I'm a slow white guy. If I were a 6'8" slow white guy AND ALLOWED TO FOUL ON EVERY SINGLE OFFENSIVE POSESSION, I'm pretty sure I could get 30 points a night, too.
• The "on the floor" call on the foul on Darren Collison in the final minutes may be the worst call in the history of organized basketball.
• Ced Bozeman, you could tell, simply decided that his career was not going to end tonight. hey need more of that on Saturday.
  

A new direction for the Kings

This is the post I was hoping I wouldn't have to write. The Kings fired the winningest coach in team history after almost six seasons, despite being nine games over .500. And quite honestly, Dave Taylor pretty much had to do it. There's an old adage that says you can't fire all the players, and in this case, although they deserved it more than Murray, he took the fall. The team simply stopped competing. They've looked awful in their last five games, and other than a five game winning streak that straddled the Olympic break, they've been awful for months. Some of that is due to injuries, of course. Two players were unable to play in the Olympics because of injuries, and two returned from the Games unable to continue playing. Frolov will probably be back on Saturday, and Demitra is still a question mark.

Murray's career, which started with a playoff sweep in 2000, and included a promising dash to the post-season in 2001 culminating in a first round upset of the Red Wings. In the 2001-2002 season, the Kings were very good most of the year, though they lost to the defending Stanley Cup Champion Avalanche in seven games in the first round. That loss was due in part to a charlie horse suffered by Jason Allison, and it started a trend that eventually cost Murray his job. Beset by injuries for the next few seasons, the Kings have failed to reach the playoffs since. The nadir was in the 2003-2004 season, missed entirely by Adam Deadmarsh and Jason Allison, and half missed by Ziggy Palffy. The Kings set an unofficial record for man games lost to injury that season. And it's not a lack of depth that was exposed. We're talking about the entire top line going down. No team recovers from that. For the last three seasons, its invariably the stars who have been missing time due to injury for an assortment of unfortunate incidents.

But after a terrific start to this season, things went dead south. The low point was a 10-1 loss to Buffalo, and things never really got better. They've been outworked, outhustled, and outplayed. Their specialty teams have been atrocious most of the season (a positive aspect of the firing is that John Van Boxmeer was caught in the crossfire), and their goaltending has been inconsistent. They've failed to play with passion in desperate situations, save for one terrific third period against Dallas last month. How much of that can be blamed on the coach it's impossible to know for sure. But the Kings are in the midst of a 4 day rest before their final push for a playoff spot, and if they were going to make a move to jumpstart the team, now was the time to do it. John Torchetti, who is turning into a Mr. Fixit type of interim coach takes over for the balance of the season, and will be evaluated at the end.

The elephant in the room is the status of Dave Taylor. There's almost no one more respected by long time Kings fans in the organization, with the exception of Bob Miller. But facts are facts, and since Dave Taylor took over the GM position, the Kings have won exactly one playoff series. At some point, you have to ask whether that's good enough. On the positive side, he has overseen a rebuilding of the farm system. Lubo Visnovsky, Alexander Frolov, Joe Corvo, Dustin Brown, and Michael Cammalleri have all begun to blossom under his watch. He made the deal that brought Matty Norstrom over. He acquired Tim Gleason, who is quickly becoming a fan favorite. The Rob Blake deal looked like a winner after a half season until injuries derailed Deadmarsh and weakened Aaron Miller. The signings of Conroy and Demitra appeared astute before Demitra's freak injuries. There's a fair amount of talent in Manchester right now, and the team, with better luck on the health front, is really only a few moves away from competing for the top of the division. But you can't ignore the fact that he turned the goaltending over to two untested netminders, and the results have been mixed. He traded for Jeremy Roenick, who has been invisible in all aspects other than his drain on the payroll. And who can forget deadline disasters like the trades for Cliff Ronning and Anson Carter. He gave up Kimo Timonen pretty much for nothing other than an agreement not to draft one of their goalies, neither of whom were particularly franchise players. Taylor won't be fired. He'd be moved upstairs, but the buzzards are definitely circling.

And blame certainly goes to AEG as well. They've said for years that they were preparing financially for this season and this collective bargaining agreement. Well, it's here, and the results don't speak well for their long term planning. All things considered, the franchise is much better off than when they took over, but the fact is they're real estate developers. Their sports franchises are a means to that end. That's not to say the Kings can't be successful under their ownership, but we aren't talking about an ownership that's 100% committed to winning. What the Kings truly need is their own Arte Moreno. I'm not holding my breath.

What will the future hold? Fuck if I know. There's 12 games left. They'll likely be out of a playoff spot by Saturday, and they'll have to re-earn it. But now is as good a time as any to show that they still have some life.

Thank you, Andy. Thanks for the hard work over the years. Thanks for the dedication. Thanks for that tremendous series in 2001. Not many people dislike Andy Murray the individual. I'll definitely miss him.

The Kings. They still suck.

Way to ruin Adam Deadmarsh night. I wore my Deadmarsh jersey and everything. Another year without playoffs.

Technorati

So there's this search engine out there that basically only searches blogs. It's called Technorati. You may have seen the little Technorati button on other peoples' blogs which will take you to a page that shows you what is linking to that particular blog. Here's the Technorati search for this place. It's fun to do once or twice, but it's essentially a useless tool in my opinion. Generally, if you've had a blog for a while, you have a pretty good idea of who's linking to you by just checking your site meter (assuming you have that, of course, but it's free, so I don't know why you wouldn't). Sitemeter will tell you where your traffic is coming from, so if you get here by clicking a link on another page, it tells me where you came from.

Not long after firing this blog up again after a few earlier attempts, I posted an item asking (or blegging, if you will) about a number of hits I'd get every few days or so. Some quirk of the Blogger system would make this blog (and presumably other blogs at other times) next "in line" so to speak, and clicking the little button at the top right of the page that takes you to the next blog in line would take you here. In that post, I mentioned a number of the blogs from whom traffic had been directed here. Mind you, I didn't, and don't read any of those blogs. I have no idea who updates them, or what they write about. But I did provide handy links so that you, the 12 or so people other than me that read this site, could see for yourselves.

Turns out the proprietor of a blog called Wordonthestreetis was doing a Technorati check, found the link from this site, and came over to check it out. Problem is that in a lame attempt to be funny, I said her blog sucked. Now, granted, I hadn't actually read her blog, I have no idea who she is, and honestly, it was a one off comment using the title of her blog in what I thought was a slightly humurous fashion. Here's the paragraph in question:

In the past hour, I've supposedly received hits from USAMediablog, Fallbrookinstsyle, Vishu8, depression1resources (I know I just turned 32, but I'm not that depressed. yet.), compteachis10, maristarrynight, dermatiteatopica (I thought no one knew about that rash), wordonthestreetis (word on the street is your blog sucks - j/k), omdatikvanmeou (I don't even know what language that is), and lordofthedamned (this one could actually be a real referral). Thanks to each and every one of you. However, I'm guessing these aren't actual people, but rather some random glitch in blogger software that occurs every few days.

Yesterday, the writer of the aforementioned blog visited that post and left a nasty little note in the comments:

thanks. your blog sucks, too.

I certainly can't deny that, but really, that was uncalled for. Most people spend a little time here before deciding that this blog sucks. And besides, I didn't really think her blog sucked. In fact, I even wrote j/k, as in "just kidding" next to my little joke, which I hadn't realized I'd done the first time. Boy, now that I see that qualifier, I'm not really sure why I'm apologizing, as I was clearly kidding, and not just impliedly, but expressly. But anyway, Meridith, you have my deepest apologies. I didn't get into blogging to make enemies. I have plenty of those already just from being a typical everday asshole. Just ask anyone who has ever played hockey with me. Or co-ed basketball (that one's for you, Po). Or gone drinking.

Anyway, that comment stung. Seriously. And so I'd just like to say I'm sorry.

Of course, I should also apologize to most of you who actually spend valuble time reading the endless nothingness that I post, but hey, you get what you pay for.

*UPDATE*
Meridith responds. Unfortunately, she may have taken me a little too seriously (or she's being funny and I'm a moron). Honestly, this was all meant as one big joke. I didn't mean to make anyone feel bad. Although, I probably should have tried to parlay this into some big Brian Jonestown Massacre vs. Dandy Warhols thing, which itself was just a poor attempt at imitating Blur and Oasis.

Weekend Post-Mortem

First off, I don't think there's really much else to say about the Illinois debacle. The game was taken from them. It's really that simple.

As for the Bruins, well, survive and advance, I guess. They didn't really impress on either end of the floor. They allowed their opponent to shoot almost 50%, although they turned up the pressure in the second half. And although the Bruins shot over 50% themselves, they still look like they've never ever seen a zone defense before in their entire lives. Something has to be done about that. They're going to face a team that will go to a zone at some point, and the game will be low scoring, and they'll let the opponent hang around (hitting a free throw every now and then would be nice), but this time, that late three pointer isn't going to fall for them, and it is going to fall for their opponent. They've got the shooters to shoot their way out of a zone, but they don't run any plays to free them up. They stand there and pass the ball around. Fer chrissakes, set a damn screen for someone.

The Bruins were getting it done on the inside. Hollins and LRMAM combined to go 9 for 9 from the field, but that's when Alabama went to the zone that thwarted the men in middle for a while. I just think it's nuts that in a game where the opponent is in a zone for much of the game, Michael Roll only takes two shots.

On now to Oakland to face Gonzaga. This game scares me because of what I saw in the box score from their last game. Indiana shot five free throws, Gonzaga shot 42. Granted, the Hoosiers were jacking up all kinds of threes, but good lord, 42 free throws for Gonzaga? That's nuts, and if the game is called that tight again, it's going to be a long night and a short trip for the Bruins. LRMAM probably matches up the best with Adam Morrison, but expect to see Afflalo and Bozeman get their share of time guarding him as well. Hollins has a height advantage over Batista that Marco Killingsworth lacked, and the Bruins have the bodies to run out there in case of foul trouble. But foul trouble means a lot of free throws. Even if they call this one both ways, a tightly officiated game plays into Gonzaga's hands, as the Bruins do not shoot free throws well. Once again, I think the Bruins are a better team overall, but this one is impossible to call without knowing how it's going to be officiated.

As for the rest of the weekend....

What went right (original loser in parantheses):

• Duke over George Washington
• LSU over Texas A&M (Syracuse)
• Memphis over Bucknell
• UCLA over Alabama (Marquette)
• Gonzaga over Indiana (SDSU)
• UConn over Kentucky (UAB)
• Villanova over Arizona
• Florida over Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Oklahoma)
• Georgetown over Ohio State: Honestly, this was probably the only real upset I called correctly. Ouch.

What went wrong (hope you've got a while):

• Iowa over WVU: Oops.
• Cal over Texas: Double oops.
• Pitt over Bradley (Kansas): I'm not weeping over this, although it pretty much means a walk to the elite 8 for Memphis.
• Illinois over Washington
• MSU over UNC: I had the "over UNC" part right. I just had the MSU part wrong.
• Tennessee over Wichita State: You don't know how close I came to actually getting this one right.
• Nevada over Boston College

Only nine sweet sixteen teams left. Only 3 final four teams left, and none of them are really longshots except UCLA, who were a sexy pick for the final four anyway, so my chances of making up ground on anyone in my pools is pretty much zero.

Quick Reminder

Earlier today:

On tap today, the Illini meet Washington in what should be the day's most anticipated matchups. Said it before, but I'll say it again. It's all going to come down to officiating. Let them play, and the Illini advance. Call it tight and Washington wins it at the line, while Brian Randle spends a lot of time in his warmups.

Yesterday:

I've already opined on this before, but I think this game is going to come down to officiating. Not only do the differences in style of play push me in that direction, but the differences in the ability to make free throws scare the hell of me. I think the Illini are a better team, but I just can't pick this one without knowing how tight it's going to be called.

Last Wednesday:

Illinois over Washington: This game will be determined almost completely by officials. Let them play and Illinois rolls. Call it tight and Washington wins a free throw shooting contest, with Brandon Roy putting up big numbers against whoever is forced to replace Brian Randle.

Final numbers:
Washington - 39 Free throw attempts - 11 converted by Brandon Roy
Illinois - 11 free throw attempts. That's right. They shot as many as Brandon Roy made. Apparently a hand check is a foul if you do it to a guy wearing a purple jersey, but it's not a foul when a guy in purple jersey does it to you. Also, when a ref starts a five count on an inbound play, you actually have about 7-8 seconds to get the ball in. You can take a few seconds, put the ball down for someone else to pick up, then he can take a few seconds, then a few seconds later you can call a timeout. Honestly, if I'd known that they were going to determine the officials based on a pregame raffle, I would have made the trip to San Diego.

NCAA Tournament - Day 2 Post Mortem

I usually start off the tournament with a great first day, followed by a crappy second day. This year I started it with a mediocre first day, followed by an absolutely pathetic second day. But the night did end on a happy note. Let's get to it.

What went right:

Not much, really, but....

• WVU over Southern Illinois
• Texas over Penn
• Memphis over Oral Roberts
• Bucknell over Arkansas
• Pitt over Kent State
• UConn over Albany
• North Carolina over Murray State
• Villanova over Monmouth
• Arizona over Wisconsin
• Georgetown over Northern Iowa
• Ohio State over Davidson

What went wrong:

• Northwestern State over Iowa: The bracket has officially been blown up. I gambled on Iowa, figuring that they had senior leadership, a talented core of players, and no one else would pick them for the final four. So if they got there, I would look pretty golden. But they choked. Hard. Brunner missess a free throw, they fail to sell out for a rebound, and they watch a final desperation heave fall through the twine. Game over. Career over. My bracket...over.
• NC State over Cal: Yep, had them in the sweet sixteen. Way to not show up, Bears. Way to be the only Pac 10 team to lose in the first round.
• Kentucky over UAB: Should have seen this one coming. It was too popular a pick.
• George Mason over Michigan State: Sparty has a knack for either going deep or going home. Last year I picked them to go deep and it paid off. This year, they screwed me.
• Bradley over Kansas: Let me just say that again, because it sounds so nice. Bradley over Kansas. Doesn't it just have a great ring to it? Try it one more time...Bradley over Kansas. So, how long until people start realizing that Bill Self can't coach in the tournament? He's had impressive collections of talent for the last five years, and all he has to show for it is an elite 8 loss to Arizona (in a game where the Illini really got fucked). Sure, he's got the one Tulsa run, but even a blind squirrel..... It's just...I can't describe how great it feels to see Kansas lose.
  

On tap today, the Illini meet Washington in what should be the day's most anticipated matchups. Said it before, but I'll say it again. It's all going to come down to officiating. Let them play, and the Illini advance. Call it tight and Washington wins it at the line, while Brian Randle spends a lot of time in his warmups. UCLA meets Alabama in a game that the Bruins should win. They're deeper and tougher than Alabama, although the Tide is very athletic. The Bruin backcourt can be turnover prone at times, and if the Tide can jump into passing lanes and create turnovers, it could be a rough night for the Bruins.

NCAA Tournament - Day One Post-Mortem

OK, so before I take a look back at Day 1, let me just say that you probably shouldn't pay attention to any of my other selections, as Iowa just made me look like a really big moron. Thanks, Iowa. Nice job, Brunner. Good to know that after four years at UFI, you can't hit a goddamn free throw, nor can the rest of your idiot teammates grab a rebound. Well done.

Anyway....

What went right:

• Duke over Southern
• GW over UNCW (barely)
• LSU over Iona
• Gonzaga over Xavier, even though Xavier totally blew a chance to win this one
• UCLA over Belmont
• Washington over Utah State
• Illinois over Air Force
• Wichita State over Seton Hall
• Tennessee over Winthrop on the luckiest shot of the day
• Boston College over Pacific - yet another wasted opportunity
• Florida over South Alabama
  

What went wrong:

• Syracuse over Texas A&M. Never trust a hot team that bulldozes it's way into the tournament.
• San Diego State over Indiana. Another blown opportunity. I was close.
• Marquette over Alabama. Didn't see it, but I don't really like Marquette, so I'm not too disappointed.
• Nevada over Montana: 12 vs. 5. I should have known better.
• Oklahoma vs. Wisconsin Milwaukee. Should've known better here, too. Almost all the guys back from their sweet sixteen run. Of course, not a lot of buzz about this one, and those invariably become upsets, so again, I'm stupid.

UCLA over Belmont:
This one started while I was on my way home from work, but I was going crazy on the train. Checking the score every few seconds. Calling my dad to get updates. I wasn't happy with the six point deficit. Then they caught fire, ended the half on a huge run, and showed the dominance that made them a #2 seed. Belmont just doesn't see teams that combine that sort of defensive intensit with so much athleticism. The fourteen turnovers is a little disconcerting, but the 11 steals is fantastic. Tournament jitters? Not for the freshmen. Collison had 10 points, while LRMAM added 17 and 8 rebounds. UCLA rolls and prepares for former UCLA assistant Mark Gottfried and Alabama.

Illinois over Air Force:
Thank the lord for Jamar Smith and Warren Carter. Lot of props for Brian Randle and his amazing flying second half, but it was Smith and Carter that kept the Illini out in front in the first half and early in the second when things started to tighten up. The Falcons stayed in their zone most of the game, and that gave the Illini problems at times until Jamar Smith singlehandedly busted the zone with his shooting. His six for nine from long range opened things up enough for him to add two points on a baseline drive in the second half, and created the lanes that Brian Randle exploited in scoring his 15 second half points. The skeptics will point out that Dee Brown only had eight points, and he did it on 1-7 shooting. But the point guard version of Dee dished out 10 assists, and amazingly grabbed 8 rebounds, more than anyone else on the floor for both teams.

Washington took care of business against Utah State, setting up a terrific second matchup between the Illini and the Huskies. I've already opined on this before, but I think this game is going to come down to officiating. Not only do the differences in style of play push me in that direction, but the differences in the ability to make free throws scare the hell of me. I think the Illini are a better team, but I just can't pick this one without knowing how tight it's going to be called.

More on how the Hawkeyes have destroyed my will to live when I do this same sort of thing tomorrow.

Kings

They suck. Season is pretty much over at this point.

From 64 to 1: My NCAA Tournament Projections

The first thing to keep in mind is that I'm in probably six or seven different pools, and I probably have different picks in every pool, and I'm not going to list them all. So this is the most recent set, and this is the one that I feel most confident about. Anyway, let's get to the picks:

Atlanta Region

First Round

• Duke over Southern: No 16 seed has ever beat a 1 seed. It won't happen this year either.
• George Washington over UNC Wilmington: GW will be pissed about their seed, and they'll have one game to show it before getting trounced by Duke.
• Syracuse over Texas A&M: One last hurrah for Gerry McNamara.
• LSU over Iona: One of those games where no one seems to be picking an upset, which means that Iona will probably play them really tough.
• West Virginia over Southern Illinois: Look out for senior laden teams in the tournament.
• Iowa over NWSU: Another senior laden line up, playing well right now.
• Cal over NC State: Lots of size in the front court, and Cal's guards are smart enough to keep feeding Leon Powe.
• Texas over Penn: I don't expect any of the 2 seeds to go out in the first round, at least now that Hampton is out of the tournament.

Second Round

• Duke over George Washington: By all rights, GW probably shouldn't be in this game. And guess what? They won't be. Duke cruises.
• LSU over Syracuse: Cuse is way overseeded here, and they'll play down to the seed they should have received.
• Iowa over WVU: Battle of senior teams. WVU's reluctance to go inside will neutralize Hansen somewhat, but I think Iowa is more tested. Haluska is the X factor.
• Cal over Texas: If healthy, Leon Powe will be the best post player Texas has seen this year.

Sweet Sixteen:

• Duke over LSU: Big Baby's tournament run comes to an end.
• Iowa over Cal: Powe will get his, but Hansen knocks enough away. Cal's backcourt defense isn't good, and Horner will exploit that.

Regional Final:

• Iowa over Duke: This assumes competent officiating. If Coach K gets some lapdogs with whistles, Hansen and Brunner will spend a lot of time on the bench. If they're allowed to play, Iowa locks up on Redick and wins by six.

Oakland Region

First Round:

• Memphis over Oral Roberts: 1 vs. 16 - nuff said.
• Bucknell over Arkansas: The SEC almost always disappoints, and Bucknell is good.
• Pitt over Kent State: The dreaded 12-5 game. Whatever, Pitt wins easily.
• Kansas over Bradley: Not sure if Bradley should be here. They're not as good as Bucknell from last year. Self will get another opportunity to show he can't coach in the tournament.
• San Diego State over Indiana: Aztecs play a lot of games at altitude. Killingsworth gets winded, and those jumpers travel just a little too far in the thin air. Mike Davis says goodbye.
• Gonzaga over Xavier: Musketeers play tough, but too much Morrison dooms them to an early exit.
• Marquette over Alabama: Tom Crean begins to re-raise his profile (more later).
• UCLA Bruins over Belmont Bruins: I could make a Bruins joke here, but I get the feeling that others will take care of that.

Second Round:

• Memphis over Bucknell: Young, athletic, and talented Memphis move on.
• Pitt over Kansas: I'm not sure if Jamie Dixon is a good tournament coach, but I know that Bill Self isn't. Latest reports indicate that he still doesn't think he should defend the perimeter against Notre Dame.
• Gonzaga over SDSU: Bulldogs no longer America's darlings, so they actually start playing to seed.
• UCLA over Marquette: With the Indiana job officially open, Tom Crean spends too much time focusing on the press conference he's called to deny interest in becoming the head Hoosier, and forgets to prepare for UCLA's defense. Ah, who am I kidding? You can't prepare for UCLA's defense.

Sweet Sixteen:

• Memphis over Pitt: Something about Pitt and the sweet sixteen. Nothing changes this year.
• UCLA over Gonzaga: Gonzaga still plays to seed. UCLA defense is too tough, and they completely take Batista andn Raivio out of the game. Ced Bozeman shows Adam Morrison how to play defense.

Regional Final:

• UCLA over Memphis. This isn't the same Bruins team that played Memphis back in Madison Square. Lack of tough competition over the last few months catches up with Memphis.

Washington D.C. Region

First Round

• UConn over Albany: 1, 16, nuff.
• UAB over Kentucky: I haven't seen much of either team this year. This is just a gut feel.
• Washington over Utah State: I think this will actually be a struggle for Washington, as the Huskies aren't great at defending the perimeter.
• Illinois over Air Force: Dee talks trash. Cadets proseletyze. Advantage Dee.
• Michigan State over George Mason: Seniors, and a great coach in March make this an easy one for MSU.
• North Carolina over Murray State: Young Tarheels are peaking at the right time, which makes it the wrong time for the Racers.
• Wichita State over Seton Hall: I've been to Wichita. I've gotten absolutely wasted in Wichita. Seton Hall, you're no Wichita!
• Tennessee over Winthrop: This one should be so easy for Tennessee that Satan's Spawn (Bruce Pearl) shouldn't break a sweat. Doesn't mean he won't, of course.

Second Round

• UConn over UAB: Tall and talented Huskies blaze by UAB.
• Illinois over Washington: This game will be determined almost completely by officials. Let them play and Illinois rolls. Call it tight and Washington wins a free throw shooting contest, with Brandon Roy putting up big numbers against whoever is forced to replace Brian Randle.
• MSU over UNC: In a game of tournament tested seniors over talented freshmen, I'll take the seniors every time, and I'll win most of the time.
• Tennessee over Wichita State: Bruce Pearl sweats through two suits. The spectacle distracts Wichita State long enough for Tennessee to put the game away.

Sweet Sixteen

• UConn over Illinois: Illini get pounded on the boards. Dee has a tremendous final college game, but the Huskies' size inside makes life miserable for James Augustine.
• MSU over Tennessee: Late in the first half, Chris Lofton slips on a puddle of Bruce Pearl sweat and sustains a concussion that ends his night. The Spartans never look back.

Regional Final

• UConn over MSU: Sparty meets the same fate as the Illini one round later. They use that to claim that they were better than Illinois despite their crappy record and home loss to the Illini.

Minneapolis Region

First Round

• Villanova over Monmouth: enough already.
• Arizona over Wisconsin: Tough call here. I think Arizona's big white guy will outplay Wisconsin's big white guy. The question is, will Ivan Radenovic show up to play the second half? Ah, who am I kidding, of course he won't.
• Nevada over Montana: The multitude of Montana grads in my family won't be pleased, but Fazekas eats up mediocre teams.
• Boston College over Pacific: The UOP grads in my family might not like this, but that's OK, because we don't talk to that side of the family anymore.
• Oklahoma over Wisconsin Milwaukee: UWM has exorcised the Spawn of Satan, but the money they saved on sweat mops this season wasn't invested wisely enough.
• Florida over Southern Alabama: Why do the Gators hate the USA?
• Georgetown over Northern Iowa: Hey, I already picked one Iowa team to do well. I'm not dumb enough to pick another.
• Ohio State over Davidson: Davidson will not slay the Goliath that is Terrence Dials this year.

Second Round

• Villanova over Arizona: Arizona can't overcome turnover prone Mustafa Shakur against Villanova's quality backcourt.
• Nevada over Boston College: Too much Nick Fazekas.
• Florida over Oklahoma: The Gators and Sooners trade volleys for a while, but Joakim Noah slams a winner past Kelvin Sampson's club.
• Georgetown over Ohio State: I like the Buckeye's but I just have feeling about the Hoya's in this one.

Sweet Sixteen

• Villanova over Nevada: The great guards take over at this time of the tournament.
• Florida over Georgetown: In the battle of solid big men, Noah comes up aces again.

Regional Final

• Florida over Villanova: I'm running out of tennis metaphors. I'll take the big guy in this one.

Final Four

• UCLA over Iowa: Low scoring defensive battle. This goes against my 'trust the seniors' tendency, but at this point of the tournament, everyone has tourney experience. The Bruins' depth keeps their front line out of foul trouble, while Mbah A Moute and Afflalo lock down on Haluska and Horner, sending UCLA to the title game for the first time in 11 years.
• UConn over Florida: The Gators have a great big man. UConn has about four or five. Back to the title game for the Huskies.

Championship Game

• UConn over UCLA: The Bruins run into a juggernaut, and learn from the best program of the last decade just what it takes to win a national championship. It will be a valuable lesson for the group of kids who will be cutting down the nets in Atlanta in 2007.

Kings lose again

Is it too much to ask that they at least show up?

UCLA a #2, Illinois a #4

Before the season started, I predicted that the Bruins would play somewhat above their pre-season ranking, and the Illini would right about at theirs or below. Looks like I was right. I think the two seed for UCLA was a surprise. I expected a three. Likewise, the four seed for Illinois was surprise, as again I figured on a three.

UCLA could not ask for a better bracket in my opinion. They get a 15 seed in the first round (coincidentally also called the Bruins), followed by Marquette in the second round. Win that one and they're set to meet Gonzaga in the third round, who has played one tough team in the last couple of months (Stanford) who they beat at home (UCLA killed Stanford both at home and at Maples Pavillion this year), although they struggled in doing so. They also struggled in their conference tournament. They don't play anyone who defends like UCLA. A win over the Zags would set up a regional final against Memphis, who beat UCLA earlier in the season. But they play in an awful conference, and the Bruins are probably more tested at this point. I think they can get to the final four.

Illinois not only got dicked on their seed, but they also got shipped out west for the first round (they'll be playing alongside UCLA in San Diego), where they'll face Air Force, who shouldn't even be in the tournament, followed by Washington. That could be a very tough matchup for Illinois. On the plus side, the Illini have one of the best defensive stoppers in the country in Brian Randle, but Brandon Roy gets a lot of respect from officials, and Randle doesn't. If Randle spends a lot of time on the bench, the Illini are in trouble. Washington is not a good defensive team, and they're soft in the middle. The X factor in this one is Sean Pruitt. He could go off in that one.

I'll try to do a longer post on this tomorrow with all of my picks, but I thought I would crank this one out for now.