Wednesday Thoughts

- Yesterday the Washington Redskins acquired wide receiver James Thrash in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, intent on using Thrash the only way he has ever been effective in the NFL… as a secondary target.
When the Philadelphia Eagles signed James Thrash three years ago, he was supposed to solve the teams wide receiver problem. Thrash never did that, mainly because he doesn’t possess the skills of a go-to guy. He is more of a possession receiver and that is the way Joe Gibbs will utilize him in the Redskins offense next year.
With Laveranues Coles, Gibbs has his deep threat, and now with Thrash, Darnerien McCants and Taylor Jacobs behind him, Mark Brunell will have plenty of targets to choose from. I didn’t mention Rod Gardner because I think he becomes expendable with the Thrash signing. Gardner has never shown why Vinny Cerrato made him a 1st round pick and doesn’t have the attitude that Gibbs wants in his players. He also is a prime example of why teams should never draft a receiver in the first round, unless they have the talent level of a Randy Moss.
These are the receivers that were drafted in the 1st round of the 2001 draft: David Terrell, Koren Robinson, Rod Gardner, Santana Moss, Freddie Mitchell and Reggie Wayne. With the possible exception of Moss, these guys have been total busts in their short NFL careers. (I don’t want to hear any complaints from Reggie Wayne fans, if there are any of you out there. With opposing defenses focusing solely on Marvin Harrison, Wayne should easily be catching more than the 68 passes he snagged last year.) A few members of that uninspiring draft class (Terrell, Robinson and Mitchell) have even managed to catch a bad case of Michael Westbrook Syndrome - disappointing years begat off-season hype which begats another disappointing year. It’s an endless, vicious cycle of suckiness.
By the way, among receivers taken in later rounds of the ’01 draft: Chad Johnson, Steve Smith and 2004 free-agent darling Justin McCareins.

- BUD SELIG: MARKETING

a) Chef Boyardee: Fine Dining
b) Kevin Costner: Acting
c) Ted Kennedy: Sobriety
d) Derek Jeter: Masculinity
e) All of the Above

I guess it’s not surprising that the man who publicly called for the contraction of teams a mere 72 hours after the greatest World Series of all-time had another one of his patented brilliant marketing ideas. Opening the baseball season in Japan will go down in history with expanding to Tampa and Miami, keeping the Expos in Montreal and under the control of the other league owners and the infamous All-Star game tie as the most idiotic of Bud Selig’s many idiotic moves as baseball commissioner.
What better way to open the most highly anticipated baseball season in decades by having the opening game take place at 5 a.m. eastern time on a Tuesday. That’s like holding the premiere for Spiderman 2 in the parking lot of a Shoney’s in Wisconsin.

- The main story on ESPN.com for most of Tuesday was Candace Parker’s win in the McDonalds All-American High School dunk contest. If you haven’t heard, Parker, a high-school girl on her way to Tennessee, beat out five guys in a dunk contest at the annual high school all-star game. Sportscenter showed the dunks a dozen times on the 6 p.m. broadcast and has been endlessly hyping the airing of the contest tomorrow night (8:00 p.m., 7:00 central. I feel bad for people in Denver. Mountain Time gets no love).
The dunk also inspired this piece of breathless hyperbole from ESPN.com writer Pete Thamel.

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. -- There are moments, stunning indelible moments, that transcend sport, crumble barriers and create icons.

There's Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs at the Astrodome in 1973. Brandi Chastain clinching the Women's World Cup in 1999. Annika Sorenstam teeing off at the Colonial last May.

On Monday night, in a cozy high school gymnasium southeast of Oklahoma City, a 17-year-old high school senior named Candace Parker turned in the latest moment. Parker beat out five male competitors to win the Slam Dunk contest of the McDonald's High School All-American Game.

Amazingly, I think Thamel is serious. Let’s dissect, shall we?
Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs head-to-head in a tennis match, which destroyed the belief that women couldn’t compete in athletics. It’s no coincidence that Title IX was instituted a few years later.

	Candace Parker wins the slam dunk contest despite getting less hang-time than Marlon Brando.

Brandi Chastain, and her teammates temporarily captivated the nation by winning a World Cup on American soil. And Annika Sorenstam, after going on a Tiger-like tear through the LPGA, narrowly missed the cut at the Colonial, showing that she could contend with male professionals.
All Candace Parker did was dunk. And pretty poorly to boot. Her victory in the dunk contest isn’t a victory for women’s rights like some commentators are saying. Instead, it’s a pretty neat win in a competition that was no more than a farce.
Have you seen the dunks? She barely can touch the rim. Parker’s “signature” dunk of the night was a rip off of Dee Brown’s dunk in the 1991 NBA version of the same event, except that Parker bailed out halfway through, uncovered her eyes and got her hand no more than three inches over the rim. This contest was rigged worse than an old Iraqi election.
I admit, it’s pretty cool that Parker can dunk. But if Candace Parker were instead named Curtis Parker, she/he would have been booed off the court.
Later on in his ESPN.com article, Thamel speculates that Parker might be the savior that women’s college basketball and the WNBA are looking for. What he fails to realize is that a simple dunk isn’t enough to save either. Candace Parker isn’t the next LeBron James. If she’s lucky, she’ll be the next Sheryl Swoopes. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

- Caution: If you easily get sick to your stomach, avoid the following

Below is a wire story published after Duke's win over Xavier Sunday afternoon.

Chris Duhon grabbed the ball one last time, slowly dribbled up court and watched the final seconds tick off the clock.

He may be hurting, but it sure doesn't show.

With his sore ribs heavily taped, Duhon steered Duke into an all-too-familiar position -- one win from the Final Four -- with a 72-62 victory over Illinois in the Atlanta Regional semifinals Friday night.

This was a performance that epitomized a gritty senior leader, the guy Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski calls as valuable to his team as any player in the country.

Duhon attempted only one shot, but it didn't matter for Duke (30-5). The 6-foot-1 point guard dished out eight assists and kept sneaking inside for rebounds, winding up with a career-high 10. He also spent part of the night guarding Illinois' top scorer, Deron Williams, who managed just seven points on 3-of-13 shooting.

And, with the wrapping on his ribs visible under his jersey, Duhon picked himself off the floor time and time again.

"It feels like I just keep getting stabbed -- over and over and over," he said. "That's just how it is right now."

He may be hurting but it doesn't show? That wuss winces every time he thinks the camera is on him. And doesn't giving an idiotic quote comparing a three-week old rib injury to repeated stabbings qualify as showing that it hurts?
As for Duhon being the most valuable player in the country - if Duhon didn't play, Daniel Ewing could easily step into his shoes and Duke wouldn't miss a beat. But, of course, Duhon will play because he isn't really hurt. He has shown no ill-effects from his "injuries" since the game he received them in.
If Duhon was a real man he'd play basketball and quit complaining. If you're going to play, then play. If your injury is really that bad, then sit out.
Look at B.J. Elder. He hurt his ankle in the regional semi-final and came out of the game. Two days later he tried to play, but could only muster 12 minutes before his ankle gave out.
Yesterday, Elder announced he would play in the National semi-final. The AP released a wire story with the news. Here are some excerpts:

"No doubt," Elder said. "I'm definitely going to be ready [for the Final Four]. It's a lot better. A lot of the soreness is gone...."

"It gets a little stiff at times," Elder said. "But I'm going through a lot of different stretches, things like that. Every day, it's getting better...."

With Georgia Tech making its first Final Four appearance since 1990, Elder is amazed at how much attention everyone is paying to his foot.

"It's kind of funny," he said. "I guess this kind of thing can really get blown up when you make it this far."

Notice the lack of editorial comments about Elder's toughness and value and the absence of any self-serving quotes from the Tech guard. How refreshing.

The Greatest

He might not have as many national championships as John Wooden and he has a ways to go before he catches Dean Smith in the wins column, but it doesn’t matter. Mike Krzyzewski could retire today and he would still be the greatest coach in the history of college basketball.
And frankly, it’s not even close.
The statistics speak for themselves. Three national championships, seven national players of the year, ten Final Four appearances, eight ACC titles, 64 NCAA Tournament wins and 621 total wins are just some of the staggering numbers that Coach K has compiled in Durham.
On Sunday, Krzyzewski’s Duke team won their 10th regional final in the past 18 years, a feat that becomes more impressive when you consider that North Carolina has won the next most in that span, with six.
Even more amazing is that in the last seven of their Final Four appearances, Duke has made it to the Finals six times, their lone slip-up in the 1998 semi-finals to eventual champion Kentucky. North Carolina, conversely, has gone 1-5 in their recent Final Four games.
Before I go any further, it’s probably important for me to give full disclosure on my personal feelings about Coach K. Namely, that I can’t stand him. I hate Duke and everybody associated with their basketball program. If I had to choose between watching Duke win another national title this year or getting 20 simultaneous root canals while listening to Creed’s entire catalogue, I’d choose the dental work, happily. To me, Duke losing is almost as good as my teams winning.
Krzyzewski is the biggest whiner in all of college basketball and relentlessly bitches to the refs, who in turn let Duke get away with murder while calling ticky-tack fouls on their opponents. In his early years at Duke Coach K insisted that there was a double standard in regards to the calls that Dean Smith got from the officials. 20 years later, Coach K enjoys the same luxury.
But, at the same time, I have to respect Krzyzewski… kind of. I don’t respect his attitude during games, his hypocritical relationships with the refs or his press conferences where the reporters treat him and his team with kid gloves (Christian Laettner received very little criticism for deliberately stomping on a Kentucky player’s chest in 1992. Do you think Stacey Augmon would have been treated the same). But at the same time, I do have to respect his numbers. The man had a winning record at West Point, for crap’s sake.
Think about it this way: if you had to choose one coach to coach one game with your life on the line, who would you pick? Even if you hate Duke as much as I do, you sure as hell know you aren’t going to be choosing Lute Olsen. Krzyzewski is the easy choice.
True, Coach K has seven less titles than John Wooden does, but Wooden coached in an era where only one team per conference advanced to the NCAA Tournament, thus leading to far weaker and smaller fields than there are today. Wooden’s UCLA teams needed only to win four games to earn their championship while all of Krzyzewski’s teams have had to win six. And while Coach K’s victories in the Final Four have come against powers like UNLV, Kansas, Maryland and Michigan, UCLA often beat up on the Drakes and Jacksonvilles of the world en route to their titles.
Dean Smith has Coach K beat in longevity, wins and Final Four appearances (11 to Coach K’s ten) and has some extraordinary stats of his own., the most impressive being that from 1964 to 1997, North Carolina never finished below third in the ACC regular season standings. But Dean didn’t get it done in the Tournament like his counterpart has, his only two national championships gift-wrapped by mental gaffes from Fred Brown and Chris Webber. (Brown threw the ball directly to UNC’s James Worthy late in the 1982 final and C-Webb took his infamous timeout against Smith’s second title team in 1993).
Some other incredible numbers for Krzyzewski include winning five straight ACC titles from 1999-2003, a 64-16 record in the NCAA Tournament (one win short of Dean Smith) and 80 weeks at #1 in the AP Poll.
And when compared to the other coaching giants, remember that Coach K’s numbers have been compiled in an era of parity in the college game. Players leaving school early, a bigger field in the NCAA Tournament and wider television coverage have taken away a little bit of the dominance that the traditional powers used to have. The Dukes and Kentuckys of college basketball still have their advantages, but they don’t have as strong a footing as UCLA and North Carolina had 25 years ago.
So say what you will about Mike Krzyzewski (I do) and root hard against his team this Saturday night (I will), but don’t let your disdain for the man and his program cloud the fact that when Duke tips off against Connecticut this weekend, you’ll be watching the best college coach of all time.

Elite Thoughts

After an NCAA Tournament where upsets reigned, the results of the regionals were pretty unsurprising.
Duke, Connecticut and Oklahoma State were the best three teams in their respective regions and Georgia Tech was a solid team all season. For all the talk about parity in college basketball, four of the best teams in college basketball will head to San Antonio and all have a good chance of winning. And yes, that includes Georgia Tech. Don’t forget they’ve beaten both Duke and Connecticut this season..
Some thoughts on the regionals:

- It’s good to see that it’s not only ACC refs that give Duke all the calls. Even though the Dukies were in foul trouble late in the game, the refs gift-wrapped a victory for the Devils by calling two cheap fouls on Xavier’s Anthony Myles. On his so-called fourth foul Myles was battling inside with Shelden Williams, who according to my count had been in the key for five seconds. Then, no more than 30 seconds later, Myles got his fifth foul on a “push” while going up for a rebound. Replays showed that Myles barely laid a hand on Shelden Williams. The fourth foul was awful and the fifth should never have happened because Myles shouldn’t have been in the game. Regardless, those two fouls were the turning point for Duke. Forget about J.J. Redick's three or Luol Deng's two offensive rebounds, the Blue Devils' travel agent could have booked hotel rooms in San Antonio when Myles was sent to the bench.

- If Seth Davis were a member of the Jackson family, he’d be Tito.

- I wonder is Chris Duhon’s ribs are alright. Do you remember when he hurt them against Maryland in the ACC Tournament final? Well, he seemed pretty shaken up. He stayed on the floor for five minutes, so he must have been in pain. He ended up playing the rest of the game. He’s a tough kid.
But interestingly enough, since that day I haven’t heard anything about the injury. CBS definitely hasn’t mentioned it in their coverage and neither has ESPN.
I guess he’s doing OK. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain when he’s playing. Occasionally he’ll wince when its obvious that the camera is on him, like when he goes to the bench or hits a free throw. But when he’s driving to the hoop, passing up a three-point opportunity or having a rebound fall into his hands, he seems fine.
You would think that CBS might give us an update to see if he’s OK. After all, what else is Bonnie Bernstein good for. Instead, this under-reported story is a mystery to fans everywhere. Shame on you Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery for not mentioning Duhon’s ribs ONCE during the two games you covered this weekend.
People around the country need to know if Chris Duhon is playing hurt. If we don’t, we’ll never know how good a person he is and how much he means to his Duke team and how tough he is.
I mean, B.J. Elder tried to play on a severely sprained ankle, a day after Illinois guard Dee Brown stayed on the court despite severe cramping in his legs. Announcers mentioned those injuries a good two or three times during the game.
But Duhon bruised his ribs two weeks ago! And there was NO MENTION of it. It’s crazy I say.

- Oklahoma State’s John Lucas III is getting all the press for hitting the go-ahead shot against St. Joe’s. But Tony Allen is the real reason why the Cowboys are making their first trip to the Final Four since 1995.

- If Duke wins the National Championship every sportswriter and talking head will compare Luol Deng to Carmelo Anthony. When it comes to basketball ability, that might not be a bad comparison. But in terms of leading their teams to an NCAA Championship, the two aren’t even in the same league.
Carmelo was the MVP on a pretty good Syracuse team. Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara are good players, but it was Anthony that put the team on his back en route to their first National Championship. Without Anthony, Syracuse doesn’t make the Sweet 16 last year.
Deng is third, maybe fourth, most important player on Duke’s team. Without Deng, Duke still would have been a #1 seed in the Tournament and probably still would have made it to the Final Four.
If Duke wins two more games, Anthony and Deng will have two things in common: they will be freshman who started on a National Championship team. The only difference is, Carmelo was the reason his team won, while Deng is just another piece of Coach K’s puzzle.

- If Mike Krzyzewski were the coach of the Harlem Globetrotters, he’d still bitch at the refs.

Check back tomorrow for an entry that probably, nay, definitely, will surprise you.

School of Hawk

In the end, it wasn’t the brilliant play of Jameer Nelson that ended Wake Forest’s season. And it wasn’t a lackluster effort by super-freshman Chris Paul either. It wasn’t St. Joe’s 12 three-pointers or Jamaal Levy’s foul trouble. And it certainly had nothing to do with Billy Packer.
No, the reason that Wake Forest will be home watching the East Regional Final is because tonight they were outsmarted by a better basketball team.
From their failure to recognize St. Joe’s screens to leaving Pat Carroll wide open on the baseline to repeatedly fouling 90% free-throw shooter Delonte West late in the game, Wake didn't play smart basketball.
A 30-second stretch late in the second-half was indicative of the Deacs play the entire night. Coming off a TV timeout, St. Joe’s had the ball up five. Wake switched to a zone defense for the possession, which contrary to Billy Packer’s repeated criticism, was a good move because the defensive set was designed to confuse St. Joe’s, who had only seen man-to-man all night. St. Joe’s picked apart the zone, however, and got the ball to Pat Carroll who was wide open from beyond the arc. He bricked the shot. As the ball was in the air, Wake’s big men were crowding underneath the basket while their guards were streaking up-court in anticipation of a fast break. This left Carroll, who had followed his shot (a rarity in any basketball game these days), with an easy long rebound, and an uncontested three that went in.
Wake ran down the court in a hurry, seemingly trying to erase their eight-point deficit in one possession, turned the ball over after a sloppy pass, and St. Joe’s regained possession up eight. The Hawks got the ball to Tyrone Bartley, who at that point was 3-4 from three-point range. Bartley had the ball at the top of the key with Vytas Danelius defending tightly. Then, without warning, Danelius backed off, essentially begging Bartley to take the three, which he subsequently did, and drained it.
So, in a span of 36 seconds, Wake was outworked for a rebound they thought they were entitled to, was caught out of position defensively, turned the ball over after an ill-advised drive, and goaded a shooter into taking his shot. They went from down five with a golden opportunity to cut the lead to three to down 11 before they knew what happened.
Of course, Wake Forest fought back in the end, just enough to tease their fans, but they were beaten to another rebound by St. Joe’s after Jameer Nelson missed a layup.
Wake hasn’t played good defense all year. Some have even joked that the team should be called the “emon eacons” because they have no “D”. That was certainly the case tonight.
Bad defense or not, Jameer Nelson showed why he was named Player of the Year in the NCAA this year. His effortless jumpshot, quickness on the drive and delicate touch shots off the glass are things of beauty. And when his teammates shoot like they did tonight, St. Joe’s will be tough to beat.
Next year Wake Forest will bring back all of their important players. Expectations in Winston-Salem will be as high as they’ve been since Tim Duncan was in town and there is no reason that the Deacs shouldn’t be able to fulfill them. But beyond hitting more shots and playing better defense, Wake Forest needs to play smarter basketball if they expect to make a deep run into next years NCAA Tournament. And if the Deacs need an example of what that looks like, they need only look at the team that beat them tonight.

Some other thoughts on Thursday night’s action:

- That Billy Packer-Phil Martelli beef was the most over hyped conflict since the one between Hillary Duff and that other hot chick from that other Disney movie. Seriously, if somebody had listened to CBS’s broadcast without knowing the back-story, they would have assumed Packer and Martelli were going to spend the off-season together looking for houses on the Cape. I guess it was probably hard to keep up with whole “St. Joe’s doesn’t deserve a #1 seed” rant while they were playing a nearly-flawless game, but mid-way through the game Packer was praising the Hawks so much he sounded like a cross between Dick Vitale calling a Duke game and Paula Abdul on American Idol.

- One last thing about the Wake-St. Joe’s game. I like Jameer Nelson. I really do. It’s not often I say that after an opposing player torches my favorite team in an elimination game, but it’s hard not to like him. But the announcers and everybody else need to get one thing straight.
As was mentioned twice during the game last night, Jameer Nelson returned to St. Joe’s last summer after declaring for the NBA Draft. When Dick Vitale or Billy Packer tells the story, they make it seem like Nelson returned to Philly because his desire to win at St. Joe’s trumped anything that the NBA could offer. Nelson came back to college for the love of the game, they say. It’s a lovely and inspiring story, but it’s also a total load of crap.
Jameer Nelson only decided to return to St. Joe’s when he was told that he wasn’t going to be a 1st round draft choice in the NBA Draft. And since 2nd round picks don’t receive guaranteed contracts, Nelson went back to school to try to move up to the 1st round.
There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. Nelson made the right move. But I can’t stand commentators trying to make him into a college basketball martyr when the only reason he returned was to make more money in the long run.

- I’m feeling more and more confident in my pick of Oklahoma State over Connecticut in the Finals. Both teams looked fantastic tonight. Uconn should have no trouble with Alabama on Saturday and St. Joe’s should find that OSU’s defense won’t be nearly as porous as Wake’s.

- Here are my predictions for today’s games. Check back in the afternoon where I’ll have a more comprehensive preview. I’m much too tired and upset to even think about writing the name J.J. Redick.

#1 Duke over #5 Illinois
#3 Texas over #7 Xavier
#4 Kansas over #9 UAB
#10 Nevada over #3 Georgia Tech

Last night’s picks: 3-1

Sweet 16 Predictions

The NCAA Tournament resumes tonight with four regional semifinals in East Rutherford and Phoenix. Here are my picks.

#2 Connecticut vs. #6 Vanderbilt – West Region, 7:10 p.m.

When the brackets came out last Sunday Vanderbilt immediately became one of the vogue picks to fall victim to an early upset. The thought was that the Commodores were a mediocre team that only made the NCAA Tournament because of their upset over a Mississippi State team in the SEC Tournament that was overrated to begin with. Instead, Vandy beat Western Michigan and never let N.C. State put them away in the 2nd round.
(While we’re on the subject of that game, can somebody explain something to me? Why was that NOT an intentional foul against Marcus Melvin, as everybody in the print and TV media has been saying all week.
This is the definition of an intentional foul from the NCAA College Basketball rulebook:

Intentional foul- One that the official judges to be designed, or is not a legitimate attempt to directly play the ball or a player; not based on severity of the act. If a player uses excessive force or causes excessive contact while playing the ball, the foul also should be ruled intentional.

The rule is, you have to make a legitimate play for the ball. Of course most fouls are essentially intentional, but you have to at least act like you are trying to make a play on the ball. This is why in late-game situations you don’t see teams fouling miserable free-throw shooters while a ball is being inbounded. There is too much chance of having an intentional foul called if you are mugging somebody without the ball.
With regard to the State-Vandy game, Marcus Melvin trailed badly on a play, made a tomahawk chop with his right arm on the shoulder of Vanderbilt’s Corey Smith. Melvin’s hand didn’t get close to the ball, nor did it make an attempt to. Some say that Melvin tripped, but even so, in the interpretation of the rules, the referee could have decided that Melvin used excessive force.)
But I digress. Vanderbilt’s run will end tonight. Matt Freiji has had a spectacular two games in the NCAA Tournament, but he hasn’t seen a frontcourt like Uconn has with Emeka Okafor and Josh Boone.
Pick: Connecticut

#2 Oklahoma State vs. #3 Pittsburgh – East Region, 7:27 p.m.

I picked Oklahoma State to win it all, and I’m not going to back down from that now. This should be an interesting game, matching up Pittsburgh’s bruising, but effective, Big East style of basketball against Eddie Sutton’s athletic Oklahoma State team.
Pitt snuck into the Sweet 16 with two ugly wins against Central Florida and Wisconsin. In the first game, the Panthers only shot 29% from the field.
Oklahoma State has looked impressive in their last three halves of basketball. In the first half of their tournament, the Cowboys looked sluggish against an Eastern Washington team that they were tied with at halftime. Since then OSU has looked unstoppable.
In this game, Pitt’s scoring droughts will be too much for them to overcome. Tony Allen will be the difference.
Pick: Oklahoma State

#5 Syracuse vs. #8 Alabama – West Region, appx. 9:40 p.m.

I think Syracuse’s 2-3 zone will stymie Alabama’s offense. I think Hakim Warrick is the best player on the floor and will single-handedly propel the Orangemen to victory. I think Gerry McNamara didn’t have a great game against Maryland and will continue to struggle tonight. I think Alabama needed a near buzzer beater to beat Southern Illinois and didn’t play all that well (4-19 from beyond the arc) against Stanford.
So why am I picking them to win?
Pick: Alabama

#1 St. Joseph’s vs. #5 Wake Forest – East Region, appx. 9:57 p.m.

Most analysts agree that this game will come down to a backcourt battle between St. Joe’s Jameer Nelson and Delonte West and Wake Forest’s Chris Paul and Justin Gray. The popular thinking is that the experience of Nelson and West (senior and junior, respectively) will win out over Paul and Gray (freshman and sophomore).
My question is… what experience?
St. Joe’s hasn’t won a game in the NCAA Tournament since 2001, Nelson’s freshman year. That year they snuck by Georgia Tech in the 1st round 8-9 game and then fell to Stanford in the 2nd round. Since then the Hawks missed the Tournament in 2002 and were upset by Auburn in the 1st round last year. Nelson and West have a combined total of seven NCAA Tournament games experience, compared with the six of Paul and Gray. Nelson might have seniority over Paul and Gray, but his tournament experience is overrated. Still, I’ll give the backcourt edge to Nelson and West because of Paul’s recent penchant for turnovers, but I don’t think it will matter.
While everybody is focusing on the scintillating backcourts of both schools, nobody is really paying attention to St. Joe’s Achilles heel – a lack of an inside game. St. Joe’s gets out-rebounded by most of their opponents and has no solid big man in the middle that can contend with Eric Williams and Jamaal Levy.
If Wake can get establish Williams in the low post early in the game, it will force St. Joe’s to play more in the middle, thus freeing up Wake’s 3-point shooters (Taron Downey and Vytas Danelius, in addition to Paul and Gray).
The key to this game won’t be Nelson or Paul, it will be fouls. If Eric Williams can stay out of foul trouble, Wake should be able to beat St. Joe’s in the middle. If Williams gets a few early fouls, then the burden shifts to Kyle Visser to beat the Hawks inside.
Pick: Wake Forest

Random Facts from Wake Forest's Sweet 16 Media Notes

- The last time Wake Forest and St. Joseph's met was December 27, 1982. Wake won 88-65.

At that time the British were at war in the Falkland Islands, Americans were introduced to Mr. T in Rocky III (and had their love affair with Frank Stallone rekindled by his memorable performance in the film), Chris Paul hadn't been born yet, Dick Vitale was still bald and Joanie was in the midst of loving Chachi.

- The two teams met in the 1962 NCAA Tournament Regional Semi-Final, in game that pitted Dr. Jack Ramsey's Hawks versus a Wake Forest team that had Billy Packer at guard. Wake won, en route to their first and only Final Four.

Does anybody know what kind of doctor Dr. Jack Ramsey is? Normally I refuse to address people with doctorates in English or something like that as "Doctor". I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, but you don't see me asking to be referred to as Bachelor Chase.
The rule should be, a person should only be allowed to be called "Doctor" if they respond in the affirmative to the question "is there a doctor here" when somebody is having chest pains on an airplane. I bet Dr. Taylor, he of the doctoral degree in 18th century Slavic poetry, doesn't pretentiously request to be called doctor in THAT situation. Simply put, if you can help somebody who's sick, you can be called a doctor. If you can translate an early version of Beowulf, you're just a guy who probably doesn't have much to talk about at parties.
I digress. Back to Dr. Jack. When it comes to him, I guess there's something regal about the man and Dr. Jack Ramsey rolls nicely off the tongue to boot.

- The last time Wake Forest lost to an Atlantic-10 school was in 1999. The team? Xavier. The coach? Skip Prosser.

The last time Wake Forest lost to St. Joseph's was in 1968. The coach? You guessed it... Frank Stallone.

- The East region has all four of its top seeds in the Sweet 16, which hasn't happened since 2001.

Some other things that haven't happened since 2001: The Yankees winning a World Series, Duke winning an NCAA Basketball title, Michael Jordan coming out of retirement and Bill Clinton being able to use the pick-up line "Hillary might be the first lady, but you won't be the last."

- The last time a #4 seed beat a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament was in 1999 when Ohio State beat Auburn.

The next year, Sports Illustrated actually picked Auburn as their preseason choice to win the national championship. That team, behind ridiculously overrated Chris Porter (think Fennis Dembo, without the talent) snuck into the tournament as a #7 seed and lost in the 2nd round. Amazingly, this is not SI's worst prediction of recent memory. For in 2001 the pundits at the nation's top sports magazine tabbed Oregon State as the preseason choice to win college football's national title. The Beavers failed to qualify for a bowl game.

- The only #4 seed to win the national championship was Arizona in 1997. That Wildcat team beat a 12th seeded team by four points to make the Sweet 16. Once there, Arizona, with no senior starters, defeated once-beaten and top-seeded Kansas in the regional semifinal. That game featured a battle of highly-touted point guards – Arizona freshman Mike Bibby and Kansas senior Jacque Vaughn.

#4 Wake Forest beat #12 Manhattan by four points to reach the Sweet 16. Wake, with no senior starters, will play once-beaten and top-seeded St. Joseph's in the regional semifinal. The game features a battle of highly-touted point guards - Wake Forest freshman Chris Paul and St. Joseph senior Jameer Nelson. I once saw a Twilight Zone that was exactly like this, except it involved a creepy guy with a wispy mustache and a top hat and it had more to do with leprechauns than college basketball. But there were parallels. I swear.

- Wake Forest is one of six Division I schools with no scholarship seniors on the roster.

On the flip side, Cincinnati is just one of two Division I schools with four scholarship felons on ITS roster.

- The Wake Forest record for games started in a single season is 36, by Rafael Vidaurreta.

That's like a Hollywood Squares producer bragging that the record for most appearances in the center square is held by Jim J. Bullock.

Tomorrow: East and West Regional Previews
Friday: Midwest and South Regional Previews and Thursday recap

Philadelphia Freedom

Not that you would know it from reading this blog, but there have been other things going on in the sporting world over the past two weeks. I know, it surprised me too.

- None of the involved parties should be pleased with how the Terrell Owens situation finally unfolded. Sure San Francisco got rid of Owens, who has been described as a team cancer, but is their offense really better off without him? The chemistry of the team definitely is, but I'm not so sure about the rest of it.
With Owens and Jeff Garcia out, the 49ers are headed into next season with Tim Rattay throwing balls to Arnaz Battle and Cedrick Wilson, and 87-year old Garrison Hearst in the backfield. Combine that with the offense wizardry of Dennis Erickson (and the knowledge that if Rattay gets hurt, Ken Dorsey is his backup) and the 49ers should probably start scouting the top prospects for the 2005 draft.
The Ravens should be upset, but not for losing Owens. The last thing a young quarterback like Kyle Boller needed was Owens demanding the ball on every play. Baltimore is better off without TO. Instead, the Ravens should be upset that they entered into a good-faith agreement and got screwed by the outcome. Baltimore thought they were acquiring Owens, and as a result, didn’t make a move to bring in another receiver. Why would they? They had Owens.
So, the Ravens let Marcus Robinson bolt in free agency and ignored Justin McCariens, David Boston and Darrell Jackson who were on the market. With Owens gone, the Ravens have a receiving corps that’s about as impressive as the 49ers, all because they thought they had their #1 receiver already in place and didn’t think they needed to make any moves. Now they’re stuck Frank Sanders and Travis Taylor.
And as for the Eagles… well, everybody thinks that they are the winners of this whole debacle. I disagree. I think the New York Giants, Washington Redskins and rest of the NFC are the beneficiaries of the trade. Here’s why.
Terrell Owens is a tremendous receiver. He is athletic, he plays hard and blocks (unlike his All-Pro counterpart in Minnesota) and he is able to create separation between defenders. But, Owens also has terrible hands and is one of the biggest complainers in all of sports. He is coming into another west-coast offense, albeit one with an inferior quarterback.
You thought Owens had a problem with Jeff Garcia? At least Garcia completes over 60% of his passes. TO’s new signal-caller Donovan McNabb only has a 57% rate, which is shockingly low for a quarterback in a west-coast system. Donovan also tends to throw balls either low or away from his receivers, which doesn’t bode well for Owens who doesn’t like stretching out for balls and doesn’t have the hands to bring in erratic tosses.
Also, Jeff Garcia was a quiet leader for the 49ers and never was a star in San Francisco. Owens could rip Garcia in public and nobody in San Fran would think too much of it. Garcia obviously didn't appreciate the comments, but never made it a public issue. If TO does the same things in Philly that he did in San Francisco (and what evidence is there to suggest that he won't?) that won't be the case.
Donovan McNabb is the Philadelphia Eagles. He has his mechanical faults as a quarterback, but he wins (except for the NFC Championship) and has a rabid following in the Philly. What is going to happen when Donovan misses TO on a crucial pass late in a game, and Owens rips the QB after the game? He’ll be booed out of town, that’s what. Philadelphia might be the City of Brotherly Love, but if TO crosses Donovan, that moniker will be seriously tested.
For years everybody has said that the missing link on the Eagles was a go-to receiver. But that was three years ago when Hugh Douglass, Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor and Jeremiah Trotter were playing defense in Philly. Now the Eagles need defensive help and last time I checked, TO only lines up on offense.
Bringing in Terrell Owens wasn’t a mistake for the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a move they needed to make. But nobody in Philly should be surprised when Owens starts acting up, begins demanding the ball, calls out Donovan McNabb and causes strife in the Eagles locker room. Because it will happen at some point. For the record, I’m picking Week 7.

- I don’t mean to focus on Philly too much, but the whole Allen Iverson-Chris Ford saga deserves a mention. For those who don’t watch SportsCenter four times a day, the Philadelphia 76ers interim coach Chris Ford wanted AI to come off the bench during a recent game instead of starting because the superstar was coming back from an injury. Iverson refused to play in the game, stating that superstars don’t come off the bench.
Both Ford and Iverson are at fault here. AI should have played because that’s what team players do. But conversely, if Iverson was good enough to play, Ford should have started him. But I don’t care about that. I care about something much more important than whether Allen Iverson plays a meaningless regular season game.
For there is a larger story here and it is this:
If Jim Mora doesn’t watch out, Allen Iverson just might take the title of the Best Press Conference Giver ever (non-Bobby Knight division).
Mora still holds a commanding lead with “diddly-poo”, “we sucked” and “PLAYOFFS?!!” in his repertoire, but in recent years AI has been something of a virtuoso in the field.
First he had those surreal press conferences during the 2001 NBA Playoffs where he would always wear a different throwback jersey and ramble on for a few minutes about his thoughts during the game. Like a true superstar, AI stepped up his game for the press conferences after each NBA Finals game by bringing his kids along. After Game 1, when the 76ers beat the seemingly invincible LA Lakers, Iverson sat at the podium for a good 20 minutes, with his exhausted children squirming the entire time all over him, talking about everything from John Thompson to the size of Shaq’s feet. It was classic theater.
AI moved into the pantheon of the all-time greats with his infamous “we talkin’ bout practice” press conference that was held after questions were raised about AI’s pre-game habits. In a span of two minutes AI defended himself saying that any criticism about how hard he plays in practice is ridiculous because he plays hard in the games, but did by saying/asking in utter disbelief “we talkin bout practice?” about 16 times.
Last week, in regards to his most recent beef with Ford, AI added another press conference to his growing Hall of Fame where he listed all his accomplishments (All-Star, MVP, Olympian, etc.) and asked “Does a (blank) come off the bench?” in succession until he exhausted all his credentials.
AI is no Mora or Bobby Knight (the Babe Ruth of soundbites) yet, but in a few more years he might deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as those two legends.

- Well, I didn’t plan it this way, but let’s keep with this whole Philadelphia theme. (And by the way, I add the title of each entry after I'm done writing it, so even though I hadn't planned to write about Philly when I started, the title suggests I did. And also, in case you hadn't noticed, the title makes no sense. But I always jump at the chance to drop the name of an Elton John song anywhere that is possibly appropriate.)
MTV cancelled plans to have their next version of The Real World filmed in Philadelphia. I guess that makes sense. The city once cheered Michael Irvin’s career-ending injury and booed Santa Clause, so you can only imagine what they would have done to Trishelle.

- I said I wasn’t going to talk about the NCAA Tournament, but since I have been consumed with this Philly lovefest, we’re gonna have to talk about St. Joe’s. I have two thoughts.
1) CBS made the right call in assigning Billy Packer to call the East Regional, and more specifically the St. Joe’s-Wake Forest game. It makes for good TV, but because of the matchup, the fireworks won’t be as bright as they could have been
A recap: On CBS’s Selection Sunday show, Billy Packer ripped St. Joe’s being a #1 seed. A few minutes later, St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli responded to Packer’s claims, challenged him to play against his team and called him a jackass.
OK, first things first. Packer was right in criticizing St. Joe’s last weekend. His point about the Hawks being a probably underdog to #2 seeds like Uconn and Oklahoma State was correct. Maybe Packer was a little harsh, but cut him some slack. He’s an old man and has to put up with Jim Nantz on the regular.
Phil Martelli was also absolutely right in defending his team. (I haven’t liked St. Joe’s all year, but after seeing Martelli getting interviewed on PTI a few weeks ago, I have become a fan of his. He didn’t talk like Dean Smith or Coach K and claim that every team St. Joe’s has faced is the best team ever. He spoke candidly and realistically assessed his teams chances of winning the National Championship. (He also predicted his team wouldn’t finish the regular season undefeated). I’ve gotten off on a tangent here, and I apologize.)
My point was that Packer was right to criticize and Martelli was right to defend. This situation would have played out perfectly if St. Joe’s was playing anybody but Wake Forest in the Sweet 16. But Packer, who played basketball at Wake in the early ‘60s, has always been reluctant to praise his alma mater too much, probably for fear of sounding like a homer. It’s not just Packer who does this. Guys like Len Elmore (Maryland) and Brad Daugherty (North Carolina) do the same thing. (Not surprisingly, Dukies like Mike Gminski and Jay Bilas are the biggest homers on national broadcasts).
But because its Wake Forest, instead of Manhattan, Packer won’t be hyping up St. Joe’s opponent as much as he normally would and thus his criticism of the Hawks might be tempered. Either way, the Packer-Martelli situation provides another story-line for an already compelling matchup.
2) St. Joe’s sure didn’t look like a #1 seed on Saturday. And it had nothing to do with the way they played. The Hawks played a tough game against Texas Tech that was close until the final seconds. In the end, St. Joe’s pulled away and the game wasn’t in doubt when the final buzzer sounded. Yet, the players on the Hawks celebrated the victory like they had just won the Regional Final, throwing the ball up in the air and jumping up and down near the center of the court.
If they had won a game at the buzzer then that reaction was appropriate. But when you’re a #1 seed, you should expect to beat a #8 seed like Texas Tech even if its close until the end. It just shows that even the players on St. Joseph’s don’t believe that they are a #1 seed.

- Veterans Stadium was imploded this weekend. And everywhere, lovers of such architectural treasures as the Molly Pitcher Rest Stop on the Jersey Turnpike and that Hardee's in Des Moines mourned.

48 down, 15 to go

The dust has settled from the first 48 games of the NCAA Tournament and one thing is for certain: nothing that happened was all that surprising.
Sure, you could have gotten a lot of money if you had bet that the state of Alabama would have the same amount of teams in the Sweet 16 as North Carolina. And along the same lines, the odds on Alabama and Vanderbilt being the final two teams from the SEC left in the tourney also would have been long.
But is any of this shocking? No way.
Kentucky’s play this season could be described as inconsistent, at best. At times the Wildcats looked like the best team in the country and other times they were losing to Georgia. That a UAB team who plays 40 minutes of up-tempo basketball was able to beat a Kentucky team that essentially plays six players is not stunning. Nor is the fact that Stanford lost again in the 2nd round. NC State losing to Vanderbilt? Nevada beating Gonzaga? Sure, these were upsets in numerical terms, but in actuality they weren’t Villanova over Connecticut or even Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan.
Simply put, the middle-of-the-road schools have been slowly closing the talent gap between them and the powerhouses. And in a single-elimination tournament, where match-ups mean more than how many McDonald’s All-American players on your roster, anything can happen. Just ask Kentucky and Stanford.
Some thoughts from the greatest weekend in sports.

- Three ACC teams are going to the Sweet 16 while the other three are going home. Each of the six teams (save for Duke) played close games, but in the end, the three losers all had chances to win or tie at the buzzer but couldn’t get a decent shot off. Rashad McCants of UNC had the best look, and had his defender in the air, meaning he could have drawn a foul to send him to the line for three free throws. Instead he dribble-faked and ended up taking what would have been a meaningless two and Roy Williams was denied another shot at the National Championship. But at least McCants had a chance.
Maryland and NC State both had the ball with a chance to tie (the Terps were down only two and could have won with a three) but put the ball in the hands of inexperienced freshman who seemed more focused on being a hero than winning the game. Engin Atsur of State was dribbling the ball at the top of the key until four seconds remained on the game clock, then instead of handing off to Marcus Melvin (who is five inches taller than Atsur’s 6’3 and a better shooter) the freshman launched a deep three against a taller defender that was blocked and State lost after having a ten-point lead with under three minutes to play. (And yes, it was an intentional foul on Marcus Melvin. You have to make at least an effort to get the ball.) But, at least Atsur is a good shooter. Maryland’s DJ Strawberry is not. He is a scrappy defender and decent ball-handler, but his jump shot is uglier than Nick Horvath. In fairness, Maryland’s two starting guards John Gilchrist and Chris McCray had fouled out, so Strawberry was the only one on the floor who would have been bringing the ball up, but after DJ had gone to the baseline, Mike Jones (3-point specialist) was wide open. Instead DJ tried to be Drew Nicholas, took an awful shot, then hurried his attempted tap-in. Both Atsur and Strawberry are freshman, so their mistakes are excusable. But both players should have been looking for an open man somewhere else, instead of trying to be Jimmy Chitwood.

- It’s all about match-ups in the NCAA Tournament. And with only a day to prepare for the “40 minutes of hell – part II” of UAB, Kentucky had a serious problem. The Blazers play 40 minutes of high octane offense and defense, which presented a problem for a Kentucky team that only had six players playing significant minutes as well as two guards with less-than-stellar ball-handling abilities.
UAB played one of the best games in recent memory. After giving up a 13-point lead early in the 2nd half to the #1 seed in the tournament, most teams would have folded and let the Wildcats continue their run. But the Blazers hung tough and produced the most unexpected result of the weekend. Maybe with a few more days to prepare, Tubby Smith could have come up with a better game plan for his Wildcats. But he didn’t have four days, he had 24 hours, and UAB is going to its first Sweet 16 since 1981.

- Did you see that pass from UAB's Ronnell Taylor to his twin brother Donnell? The one where Ronnell intercepted a Kentucky pass on a fast break, did a 180 in the air and landed in the Kentucky key with his back to his own basket, then launched a no-look bullet pass over his head that hit his breaking brother squarely in the numbers en route to an uncontested dunk? That was maybe the best pass I’ve ever seen and guaranteed to be on highlight packages for the next 20 years.

- And now, a look back...

Nor should you expect much from Mississippi State. Don’t let the #6 ranking and probable #2 seed in the tournament fool you into thinking that this team is that good. Every year about this time I pick my “big tournament upset victim” (which usually ends up coming from the SEC or Big 10). Mississippi State is this year’s early favorite. This might change come tournament time if MSU gets an easy draw in the first round, but I still don’t like this team to do much in March.
- Chris’s Sports Blog - February 10, 2004

Now, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but “beep, beep”.

- Here are Stanford’s results from the last six NCAA Tournaments:
1999 - #2 seed, lost to #10 Gonzaga, 2nd round
2000 - #1 seed, lost to #8 North Carolina, 2nd round
2001 - #1 seed, lost to #3 Maryland, Regional Final
2002 - #8 seed, lost to #1 Kansas, 2nd round
2003 - #4 seed, lost to #5 Connecticut, 2nd round
2004 - #1 seed, lost to #8 Alabama, 2nd round
So here’s my question. Why does coach Mike Montgomery get a pass from the media despite woeful underachievement by his teams? In four of the last six years his Cardinal teams have been a #1 or #2 seed and haven’t advanced to a single Final Four and only made it out of the 2nd round once. If he were at any other school he would be drawing criticism about choking in March at the very least. And if he were at North Carolina or Kentucky everybody would be calling for his head.
But since Montgomery is at Stanford, he is seen as a coach who does a lot with a little in the regular season and plays with house money in March since his team shouldn’t be all that good anyway. I think that’s nonsense.
I don’t want to bash Montgomery. When he arrived at Stanford in 1986 the Cardinal hadn’t been to an NCAA Tournament in over 40 years. By 1992 Montgomery had turned Palo Alto into a basketball town and his teams have made the NCAA Tournament for ten straight years, including a Final Four trip in 1998. Clearly he has been a savior to the program, much as Gary Williams was to Maryland. But even after Gary brought Maryland back to national prominence, he was still getting criticism for his lack of success in the NCAA Tournament. Of course, that stopped when the Terps made the Final Four in 2001 and followed with a National Championship in 2002.
Mike Montgomery is a great basketball coach and has turned a school from a basketball after-thought into one of the top programs in the country. But if he doesn’t start winning in the NCAA Tournament, he'll be known for never winning the big one instead of turning a floundering program into one of the Nation’s best.

- Nothing is certain in the NCAA Tournament. Well, nothing except for this: Bob Huggins’ teams never make the 2nd weekend.

- After a weekend of interesting match-ups and fantastic games, the slate for the Sweet 16 games is less than inspiring. Nevada-Georgia Tech? UAB-Kansas? Alabama-Syracuse? I haven’t seen a lineup this bad since the UPN lineup that included Shasta McNasty and that show with the slave playing Abraham Lincoln’s advisor. Remember that? What the hell were they thinking when they put that on the air. I just googled it to see what the name of the show was and laughed out loud. It was called The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer and about a black guy from England that was kidnapped and forced to be Abraham Lincoln’s butler. Of course, the geniuses behind this show decided that this lighthearted affair would be a comedy. Not surprisingly, it was cancelled after two episodes. But I digress.
The only marquee games on the lineup are Wake Forest-St. Joe’s, Pitt-OSU and Texas-Xavier. Of course, Stanford-Alabama wasn’t the best game on paper, but turned into one of the best for the tournament. I think the UAB-Kansas game could be one of those types of games.

- I don’t think we’ll be reading any stories next season about how Gonzaga doesn’t get any respect. Every time they have an opportunity to earn some, they blow it.

- 48 games down, 15 to go. I’m still sticking with my pick of Oklahoma State as National Champion, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the remaining teams (except maybe for Vanderbilt and Nevada) cut down the nets on April 5.
My amended Final Four picks are Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas and Connecticut, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Duke and Alabama there either.

NCAA Tournament: Day One Recap

Even though it was a day that saw the favorites win 14 of the 16 games (13 if you include Arizona as a favorite; which they were, despite their lower seed and darker jerseys), the first day of the 2004 NCAA Tournament was predictably unpredictable.
Sure, conventional wisdom said that Syracuse would beat BYU (which they did, 80-75), but did anybody think it would take a superhuman performance from Gerry McNamara (43 points, nine 3’s) to do it?
On the same side of the bracket, Maryland was expected to cruise against UTEP. But, the Terps found themselves down one late in the game before John Gilchrist, in spite of a tired performance in the game’s first 35 minutes, took over near the end.
Maryland’s ACC foe Wake Forest also had trouble with their supposedly easy 1st round opponent as did everybody’s sleeper Final Four pick, North Carolina. But both heavyweights from the ACC survived.
All in all, it was a day where a lot of underdogs came close, but couldn’t hit the jumper or free throw down the stretch to win.
Conventional wisdom would say that after yesterday’s near-misses, there will be a shocking upset or two today… unfortunately the NCAA Tournament has been known to pay no heed to such rationale.

Midwest Region

#10 Nevada 72 - #7 Michigan State 66
Forget Manhattan, the biggest upset of the day belonged to the Wolf Pack from Nevada. In the school’s first appearance in the Tournament since 1985, Nevada topped a Michigan State program which has the same amount of National Championships as Nevada has tournament appearances. Think about it… a team from the WAC knocks out a team from the mighty Big 10. If this game had taken place a month ago you would have been shocked at the outcome. But because the two seeds of these teams were so close, it’s only seen as a minor upset.
The Pack came all the way back after being down 16 and closed the game with a 16-3 run to send home the underachieving Spartans.

#2 Gonzaga 76 - #15 Valparaiso 49
The only thing surprising about this game was that Homer Drew was still coaching the Crusaders. Turns out he retired, had his son Scott take over the program, then came back when Scott went to try to resuscitate the floundering basketball program at Baylor.

East Region

#1 St. Joseph’s 82 - #16 Liberty 63
Reports out of Philadelphia say that Terrell Owens is now trying to get out of his contract with the Eagles and is demanding a trade to the Hawks.

#8 Texas Tech 76 - #9 Charlotte 73
Unless you live in southern Texas or Charlotte, or have the NCAA Internet package, I doubt you saw much of this game, except for the highlights. And by looking at those, plus the final score, you’d think that this was a hotly contested game that was close until the end. It wasn’t.
This stinker was easily the worst game of the day, won by Texas Tech only because Charlotte couldn’t hit an open shot for the final 15 minutes of the game.
Never before have I seen a team miss so many easy lay-ups and shoot so poorly from the perimeter. (Charlotte shot 6-24 from behind the arc, two of those shots coming in garbage time.)
And it wasn’t just that the 49ers were missing. No, they were missing badly. So anybody that thinks Texas Tech is riding high going into their showdown with St. Joe’s should be wary. If the Red Raiders play like they did yesterday, St. Joe’s will waltz into the Sweet 16.

#12 Manhattan 75 - #5 Florida 60
For Luis Flores’ sake, don’t call it an upset. As Matt Walsh put it before the game, it would have been an upset if Florida had come away with the W.
This game was over before it started. Florida had no desire and seemed resigned to losing this game once they got down early. They only kept it relatively close in the 2nd half because of their superior talent level to the Jaspers. In every other facet of the game, however, Manhattan outclassed the Gators.
Despite not having a player over 6’7, Manhattan out-rebounded Florida 36-26. Late in the game when Manhattan was pulling away, Florida’s Matt Walsh was called for an intentional foul on a Jasper breakaway. The other UF players were standing on the other side of the court, hands on hips, content to watch the action on the other end unfold.
Don’t look now, but Billy Donovan’s club hasn’t seen the second weekend of the tournament since their unlikely run to the Finals in 2000 (a run that only happened because of a Teddy Dupee buzzer-beater in the 1st round against Butler). Looks like Donovan has been taking lessons from the Lute Olsen school of Tournament coaching.

#4 Wake Forest 79 - #13 VCU 78
The Demon Deacons probably should have lost this game. They didn’t play bad, per se, but they didn’t play as good as the Jeff Capel-led Rams either. Three straight three’s late in the 2nd half erased a six-point VCU lead and only some late-game heroics by freshman Chris Paul kept the Deacs ahead. Wake needs to forget about this game and looked ahead to Saturday’s match-up with Manhattan. After all, it doesn’t matter how you advance, as long as you do.

South Region

#1 Duke 96 - #16 Alabama St. 61
In ACC-land, the conference tournament is shown by Raycom and blacked-out on ESPN. But I heard that during the Maryland-Duke final on ESPN, Dick Vitale compared Chris Duhon to Derek Jeter on numerous occasions. And, you know, for once I agree with Dickie V.
Jeter and Duhon are two peas-in-a-pod. They are the captains of their teams, despite being among the least talented members, both are hyped by the media for things they accomplished years ago and each has had to depend on the success of others to have any of their own. Yes, Jeter and Duhon must have been separated at birth.

#8 Seton Hall 80 - #9 Arizona 76
When it comes to picking Lute Olsen teams in the tournament, I’m like a woman that constantly gets cheated on by her boyfriend, yet stays with him and thinks he’ll change. I KNOW Lute Olsen teams never do well in the tournament. Sure, I don’t really love him, but he seems to treat me nice during the year. But every March he’s playing footsy with a floozy in the outposts of America, while losing games to the East Tennessee State’s and Santa Clara’s of the world. Then there was that one magnificent March where he finally changed for a bit (they all do) and won a Championship, but soon after he reverted to his lying, losing ways. Oh Lute, why won’t you love me?

#6 North Carolina 63 - #11 Air Force 52
Midway through the second-half, with UNC down four, Roy Williams had the look of a poker player who pushed all his chips into the center of the table and was waiting for his flush to come up on the river. At that point, the game was out of Roy’s hands. If his Tar Heels were going to avoid a humiliating loss to a team that hadn’t made the tournament in 52 years, they would have to do it by themselves.
Then Raymond Felton hit two three’s to put the Tar Heels ahead, where they stayed. Roy got his card.

#3 Texas 66 - #14 Princeton 49
This is another one of those scores that is deceiving, only this time the game was a lot closer than the score indicates. Like UNC, it took Texas 30 minutes to figure out the Princeton offense, and when they did, they pulled away.

West Region

#1 Stanford 71 - #16 Texas San-Antonio 45
UTSA actually cut the Stanford lead to six in the 2nd half. But after that, they were the Dennis Kucinich to Stanford’s John Kerry.

#8 Alabama 65 - #9 Southern Illinois 64
A friend of mine picked the Saluki’s to make a run to the Elite Eight. Ouch.

#5 Syracuse 80 - #12 BYU 75
The Cougars had an open-look from three to take a lead with under a minute in this game, but they couldn’t convert. Thusly, Syracuse avoided becoming the first defending champion since UCLA in 1996 to go out in the 1st round.

#4 Maryland 86 – #13 UTEP 83
Nik Caner-Medley driving to the hoop is reminiscent of Britney Spears' foray into acting.

#7 DePaul 76 - #10 Dayton 69 (2OT)
In 50 minutes of play, these teams scored a total of 24 points less than Maryland and UTEP did in 40 minutes.
DePaul’s Andre Brown went 0-10 from the free-throw line, yet avoided becoming the goat, because Dayton’s Mark Jones took care of that.
While it won’t show up in the box score, late in the second overtime Jones fouled DePaul’s Drake Deiner (an 87% free-throw shooter on a 69% shooting team) three times, despite the presence of Andre Brown (0-10) and Quemont Greer (5-8) on the floor. There are two things I hate seeing in college basketball games; missed free-throws and stupid fouls. DePaul and Dayton provided both.

#2 Connecticut 70 – #15 Vermont 53
Look out everybody, Okafor’s back didn’t seem to be giving him any trouble.

My picks: 11-5

NCAA Tournament Picks

Today at high noon the Madness begins. It will continue throughout the month and end on April 5th when one of the 64 teams in the field cuts down the nets in San Antonio. Last year Syracuse marched through the NCAA Tournament on the back of freshman Carmelo Anthony, surprising fans and pundits alike. Will there be another Syracuse this year? Or will one of the #1 seeds power their way through the brackets. The best part about the Tournament is that nobody knows for sure. All it takes is a six-game winning streak and any team from Kentucky to BYU could earn the title of 2004 NCAA Basketball Champion.
Here are my picks for each of the 63 games. I must warn you that a) I haven’t done well in a pool since Marcus Camby was at UMass and b) I lost $80 in forty-five minutes in the sports book at Caesar’s during last years conference tournaments. Jimmy the Greek, I am not. So take these picks with a grain of salt. Preferably a grain of salt from some potato chips that you’re washing down with some beer while kicking back on your couch and enjoying the splendor that is March Madness.

Click here for my full bracket.

Midwest Region

1st Round

#1 Kentucky vs. #16 Florida A&M
If these two schools faced off in a Battle of the Bands, Florida A&M would be the one favored by 35 points. But, sorry Rattlers fans, they’ll be playing basketball.
Pick: Kentucky

#8 Washington vs. #9 UABI’m picking Washington, but I feel like this could be one of those games where I’ll be watching the ticker and each time this score passes UAB will be up a larger margin and I’ll think to myself, “I’m sure glad I picked UAB.” I’ll go through the whole game thinking I picked them, then I’ll go to my brackets afterwards to circle my great pick only to see that I’ve chosen Washington. At this point I’ll let the expletives fly and wonder why the hell I didn’t pick UAB. I KNEW they were going to win.
Pick: Washington

#5 Providence vs. #12 Pacific
I’d tell you I was picking Pacific, but then I’d be lying.
Pick: Providence

#4 Kansas vs. #13 Illinois-Chicago
UIC has a great backcourt in Cedrick Banks and Martell Bailey. But I don’t think the two childhood friends have enough to upset the Jayhawks.
Pick: Kansas

#6 Boston College vs. #11 Utah
Boston gave us Ted Williams. Utah gave us Roseanne.
Pick: Boston College

#3 Georgia Tech vs. #14 Northern Iowa
Before the game Northern Iowa coach Greg McDermott will have NIU-alum Kurt Warner give the Panthers a pep-talk. NIU will start off the game looking like UCLA circa 1971 as the announcers talk about how the team is destined for the Final Four. They will take a lead of 18 into the locker room. In the second half they’ll fall apart and lose their starting job to Marc Bulger.
Pick: Georgia Tech

#7 Michigan State vs. #10 Nevada
Michigan State played in this same game last year and went all the way to the Elite Eight. Not this year.
Pick: Nevada

#2 Gonzaga vs. #15 Valparaiso
OK, I’ll be honest. I only picked Nevada because I realized I had a chalk bracket through the 1st round in this region. I think Michigan State will probably win, but I’m not sold on their team. But I’ll stick with the Wolf Pack.
Pick: Gonzaga

2nd Round

#1 Kentucky vs. #8 Washington
Tubby Smith being nicknamed Tubby is like Carson Kressley being nicknamed Butch.
Pick: Kentucky

#4 Kansas vs. #5 Providence
I’ve taken some heat from some family members for knocking on the Jayhawks this week. Maybe this will appease them. Although I think Providence would win this game if it weren’t being played in Kansas City. Well, guess I burned THAT bridge again.
Pick: Kansas

#6 Boston College vs. #3 Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech is one of those teams that I can’t figure out. Just when I start to believe in them, they play a miserable game like they did against Duke. Jarrett Jack could have a coming out party during this tournament like Chris Wilcox did with Maryland in 2002. He’s that good. And teams from the Big East (Uconn excluded) always choke in the tournament.
Pick: Georgia Tech

#2 Gonzaga vs. #10 Nevada
I haven’t seen the Zags play as much as I would have liked this season, but when I did catch their games I saw Cory Violette dominating the middle like he was Mike Singletary.
Pick: Gonzaga

Sweet 16

#1 Kentucky vs. #4 Kansas
Mark it down: Kentucky will be in this tournament longer than Ashley Judd’s last movie was in theaters.
Pick: Kentucky

#2 Gonzaga vs. #3 Georgia Tech
The media is fascinating. They hype up things until they make the cover of a national magazine, then they bring them back down again with harsh criticism, only to try to prop them back up afterwards with kind words. The press did it to Howard Dean and they are doing it to Gonzaga. One week ago everybody was laughing at the thought of the Zags getting a #1 seed. Now everybody is back on the bandwagon and picking Gonzaga to win the whole thing. I want to agree, but the last time the Bulldogs were involved in a close game was before Christmas in a seven-point loss to Stanford. I’m thinking that they’ll panic if the game is close late in the 2nd half and Tech will pull out the victory.
Pick: Georgia Tech

Regional Final

#1 Kentucky vs. #3 Georgia Tech
Paul Hewitt got robbed in the ACC Coach of the Year vote. Herb Sendek won because his teams constantly don’t live up to their high expectations and this year they finally did. Nobody expected the Yellow Jackets to do anything this season (they were voted 7th in the ACC Preseason Poll) and they responded with a spectacular year and a #3 seed. If Luke Schenscher has a monster game in the middle and Jack and B.J. Elder are hitting from the perimeter, the Jackets could steal this game from Kentucky. But I don’t think they will.
Final Four Team: Kentucky

East Region

1st Round

#1 St. Joseph’s vs. #16 Liberty
All season long I’ve been predicting that St. Joe’s will lose in the 1st round. I also said that Maryland was losing the in quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament and The Passion of the Christ would tank at the box-office.
Pick: St. Joseph’s

#8 Texas Tech vs. #9 Charlotte
I was in an NFL pool this season. In the first week of the season I picked the Minnesota Vikings to lose at Green Bay. They won. The next week I picked the Vikes to get beat by the Bears. Didn’t happen. For the next four weeks I continued picking against Minnesota because I had no faith in the team. Of course, they started the season 6-0. Finally, in week seven I decided to admit that I was wrong about Daunte and Co. and started to pick them to win, whereupon they dropped four straight games.
I always pick Bobby Knight teams to do well in the tournament. They never do. Apparently forgetting my 0-10 start with the Vikings, I will finally pick against the General.
Pick: Charlotte

#5 Florida vs. #12 Manhattan
Every year there is a team that becomes the vogue upset pick. Last year it was Wisconsin-Milwaukee, before that Penn, Indiana State and Creighton appeared on everybody’s upset list. Manhattan is that team this year. Luis Flores is a mid-major version of Juan Dixon, but without the supporting cast.
Pick: Florida

#4 Wake Forest vs. #13 Virginia Commonwealth
If Wake loses to a team coached by Jeff Capel then Skip Prosser should be fired and replaced with Dante Calabria.
Pick: Wake Forest

#6 Wisconsin vs. #11 Richmond
The Spiders beat Kansas in Lawrence earlier this year, so logic would say that they are capable of beating Wisconsin in Milwaukee. And they can. But they won’t. Or will they?
Pick: Wisconsin

#3 Pittsburgh vs. #14 Central Florida
You know, it wouldn’t sound as good if Central Florida were instead located in, say, Central New Jersey.
Pick: Pittsburgh

#7 Memphis vs. #10 South Carolina
Memphis coach John Calipari once made it to the Final Four. South Carolina coach Dave Odom once visited Euro Disney.
Pick: Memphis

#2 Oklahoma State vs. #15 Eastern Washington
You know, it wouldn’t sound as good if Eastern Washington were instead located in, say, Eastern New Jersey.
Pick: Oklahoma State

2nd Round

#1 St. Joseph’s vs. #9 Charlotte
Phil Martelli looks like Rick Majerus. Bobby Lutz looks like an out of work porn star.
Pick: Charlotte

#4 Wake Forest vs. #5 Florida
Steve Spurrier came to the Redskins from the University of Florida. I hardly think one university could cause me that much pain.
Pick: Wake Forest

#3 Pittsburgh vs. #6 Wisconsin
Wisconsin usually plays well in the NCAA Tournament. Pittsburgh usually plays well in the AFC North. Usually.
Pick: Wisconsin

#2 Oklahoma State vs. #7 Memphis
Back in 1996 I went to the 1st round games in Baltimore. We had seats behind the basket, which gave me a perfect view of the Oklahoma State cheerleaders. Picture a younger version of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders mixed with Britney Spears circa 2002. I don’t think I watched a single minute of the game. That year, my new favorite team made it to the Final Four. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.
Pick: Oklahoma State

Sweet 16

#4 Wake Forest vs. #9 Charlotte
This epic matchup will be billed the “Battle of I-85”. It will be played in a converted swamp in New Jersey. Well, I guess it could be held in worse places. Like Raleigh-Durham.
Pick: Wake Forest

#2 Oklahoma State vs. #6 Wisconsin
Did I tell you about those Oklahoma State cheerleaders?
Pick: Oklahoma State

Regional Final

#2 Oklahoma State vs. #4 Wake Forest
Wake likes to play up-tempo and Eddie Sutton’s OSU team will try to slow them down. The last time a team did this to Wake, Texas blew them out of the gym.
Final Four Team: Oklahoma State

South Region

#1 Duke vs. #16 Alabama State
If Alabama State’s Malcolm Campbell can get hot and Shelden Williams gets in foul trouble early, then the Hornets could possibly – aww, who am I kidding.
Pick: Duke

#8 Seton Hall vs. #9 Arizona
(See prediction for Washington-UAB matchup.)
Pick: Arizona

#5 Illinois vs. #12 Murray State
It’s never a good sign when a team’s leading scorer is charged with pot possession three days before their 1st round game. But, either way, look for the Blazers to draft that guy in the 2nd round.
Pick: Illinois

#4 Cincinnati vs. #13 East Tennessee State
In related news, Bob Huggins expressed disbelief that it wasn’t one of his players.
Pick: Cincinnati

#6 North Carolina vs. #11 Air Force
Maybe a Matt Doherty coached team would be flummoxed by the Princeton-style offense, but not a Roy Williams team.
Pick: North Carolina

#3 Texas vs. #14 Princeton
Maybe a Mack Brown coached team would be flummoxed by the Princeton-style offense, but not a Rick Barnes team. Wait, maybe a Rick Barnes team will be. Naw, not even Ricky B. could screw this one up.
Pick: Texas

#7 Xavier vs. #10 Louisville
The single hardest 1st round game to predict. I guarantee I’ll pick wrong.
Pick: Xavier

#2 Mississippi State vs. #15 Monmouth
Oh, who cares.
Pick: Mississippi State

2nd Round

#1 Duke vs. #9 Arizona
Christian Laettner and Gilbert Arenas will be watching this game in the Wizards locker room. They’ll make a bet that says whoever’s alma mater loses, that person will have to carry the other’s bag for two weeks. When Duke wins, Laettner will hand Arenas his bag. Arenas will then proceed to bitch-slap Laettner because, seriously, what’s Christian Laettner gonna do about it?
Pick: Duke

#4 Cincinnati vs. #5 Illinois
Picking a Bob Huggins team in March is like picking a Libertarian candidate in November.
Pick: Illinois

#3 Texas vs. #6 North Carolina
Of late, Texas has been scoring less than A.C. Green. And everybody has been telling me that I’m crazy if I pick Texas in this game. Hmmmm… Crazy like a FOX!
Pick: Texas

#2 Mississippi State vs. #7 Xavier
If this matchup were guaranteed of happening, I’d pick Xavier. But since the Muskateers could easily lose to Louisville in the 1st round, I’ll play it safe and pick Mississippi State.
Pick: Mississippi State

Sweet 16

#1 Duke vs. #5 Illinois
#1 seeds don’t often lose in the Sweet 16. But the last two times it happened, it was the Dukies who were on the losing end. In Jason Williams freshman year he was frigid from the field and Duke got knocked off by Florida, who was en route to the Finals. In Jason Williams junior year he missed a game-tying free throw with almost no time on the clock and Duke got beat by Indiana, who was en route to the Finals. I wish I could say that history was going to repeat itself, but the only place Illinois is en route to is Terminal B at Hartsfield International.
Pick: Duke

#2 Mississippi State vs. #3 Texas
I don’t know what’s more surprising. The fact that Texas put up 122 points in a single game earlier this year or that Mississippi only has five different letters in it.
Pick: Texas

Regional Final

#1 Duke vs. #3 Texas
On Sunday, when North Carolina beats Texas, I’m going to feel pretty miserable when I’m crossing off one of my Final Four teams. But I just don’t think that Duke can match the Longhorns size. And with J.J. Redick shooting about as well as Chris Dudley, Duke doesn’t have that “punch in the stomach” guy who hits the three to crush an opponents momentum.
Final Four team: Texas

West Region

1st Round

#1 Stanford vs. #16 Texas San-Antonio
You know, if UTSA could rattle off four straight wins, they’d have an essential home game for the Final Four. And if Keanu Reeves had talent, he’d be Al Pacino.
Pick: Stanford

#8 Alabama vs. #9 Southern Illinois
The Salukis killed me last year when I had them beating Missouri and Marquette (who went on to the Final Four). Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Dammit.
Pick: Southern Illinois

#5 Syracuse vs. #12 BYU
By now you’re probably wondering why I haven’t picked that many 1st round upsets. Well, it’s because I’m changing my strategy this year. This year, I don’t plan on sucking as bad as I usually do in my pools. I’ve been bitten before in picking upsets that nobody else did because everybody got those free points while I was left to wonder… why did I think Winthrop had the poise of a Sweet 16 team.
Pick: Syracuse

#4 Maryland vs. #13 Texas El-Paso
The Terps could easily lose this game today. The tip is at 10:40 local time, the players are emotionally exhausted from their ACC Tourney victory this weekend and despite what Gary Williams will tell them in the locker room before the game, the players probably think they’ll have an easy time with the Miners. I’m picking Maryland, but only because I don’t want to hear complaints from all my fellow Maryland fans.
Pick: Maryland

#6 Vanderbilt vs. #11 Western Michigan
You didn’t think I was going to go through the whole bracket without one real upset, did you?
Pick: Western Michigan

#3 N.C. State vs. #14 Louisiana-Lafayette
State is one of those teams that could lose in the 1st round or go the Finals. Let’s have them going somewhere in between.
Pick: N.C. State

#7 DePaul vs. #10 Dayton
Blue Demons sounds too much like Blue Devils for my taste.
Pick: Dayton

#2 Connecticut vs. #15 Vermont
Vermont forward Taylor Coppenrath scored 43 points in the Catamounts win in the America East Championship game. If Emeka Okafor’s back starts giving him trouble, this could be one of those historic #15 over #2 upsets. Emphasis on “could”.
Pick: Connecticut

2nd Round

#1 Stanford vs. #9 Southern Illinois
Directional teams rarely taste the delights of the Sweet 16.
Pick: Stanford

#4 Maryland vs. #5 Syracuse
Even though Syracuse’s zone will force Travis Garrison to make more horrible passes than usual, I still think that John Gilchrist isn’t done showing how good he really is just yet.
Pick: Maryland

#3 N.C. State vs. #11 Western Michigan
Another directional team, another loss.
Pick: N.C. State

#2 Connecticut vs. #10 Dayton
Nope. Not gonna happen.
Pick: Connecticut

Sweet 16

#1 Stanford vs. #4 Maryland
A rematch of the 2001 West Regional Final in which Lonny Baxter went nuts on the Cardinal and single-handedly took the Terps to their first Final Four. Baxter is now warming the bench in Washington, which is akin to being an understudy in a Duluth Theater Company.
Pick: Stanford

#2 Connecticut vs. #3 N.C. State
Julius Hodge is good. Emeka Okafor is better.
Pick: Connecticut

Regional Final

#1 Stanford vs. #2 Connecticut
Stanford's mascot is a tree.
Final Four team: Connecticut

Final Four

#1 Kentucky vs. #2 Oklahoma State
This is the matchup CBS execs are begging for. Here’s hoping they show the game on one-half of the screen and on the other half switch off between Ashley Judd and the OSU cheerleaders.
Pick: Oklahoma State

#2 Connecticut vs. #3 Texas
Do I really have Texas in the Final Four? The same Texas team that scored 48 and 49 points in their last two losses (one of which was to Kansas State)? The same Texas team that is coached by Rick Barnes? I owe all of you a grain of salt.
Pick: Connecticut

National Championship

Connecticut vs. Oklahoma State
It’s only fitting that the Cowboys will ride high in San Antonio.
Pick: Oklahoma State

Enjoy the tournament.

NCAA Tournament Thoughts

- Tomorrow is definitely the greatest day of the sports year. And I really don’t think any other day can come close. I’m glad I’m still unemployed, because I don’t think it would be as easy to ditch work as it was to ditch classes at Wake Forest for four years on the first two days of the tourney. There’s nothing like watching Price is Right at 11:00 and going immediately from Bob Barker imploring America to have their pets spade and neutered to hearing the opening notes to CBS’s NCAA Basketball Theme. Then Greg Gumble and Clark Kellogg (who CBS seemingly puts in storage for 49 weeks a year, then breaks out for the Tournament) come on and preview the early games, sending the audience out to some random city where Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel are calling the Duke-Radford tilt. What follows are 48 games stuffed into 80 hours over four days that sees the 64-team field cut by 75%. I watched the Maryland/UNC-Wilmington game on ESPN Classic last night and it got me all excited for the 1st Round games. I can’t wait.

- I guess that got me thinking about what the other best days in sports are. Here is my Top 5 list:
5) New Years Day, College Football Bowls
4) NFL Divisional Playoff Weekend
3) Baseball Opening Day
2) Sunday at the Masters
1) 1st Round of the NCAA Tournament

New Years would have been higher a few years ago, but since they have spread out the games and put the important ones later in the week, the first day of the year has lost some of its luster. I bet a lot of people would have the Super Bowl on this list, but the game is usually more hype than substance (this year being a rare exception). I also really like the 1st and 2nd round of the US Open, but figured that one golf event was enough.

- I have no clue what to do with North Carolina in my brackets. This is a team that has one of the most talented players in the nation in Rashad McCants, a solid point guard (Raymond Felton) and an effective big man (Sean May). They can beat anybody in this field. But this is also a team that lost to Clemson and could lose to a good amount of teams in the brackets, including Air Force. Will UNC score too much for Texas to keep up, or will the Longhorns big men make the game too physical for a Tar Heels team that likes to play an up-tempo game? I really have absolutely no clue. And I think both of these teams will take out Mississippi State. Either way, I have a feeling that my South picks are going to come back to haunt me. More on that tomorrow when I reveal my picks for all 63 games.

- Can you imagine what would happen if CBS signed Dick Vitale away from ESPN? If Dickie V were calling a Duke Final Four game I would have to presume that his head would explode from the excitement.

- Why is everyone giving Gonzaga a tough time about choking in the tournament every year? Am I missing something? Is this not the same Gonzaga team that made a run to the Elite Eight a few years back and played a classic game against #1 seed Arizona last year in which they lost in heartbreaking fashion in double-overtime? The Zags seem to be a victim of their own success. They come from the WCC, a small conference with the likes of St. Mary’s and San Francisco, yet are a major player on the national scene. Mark Few, and before him Dan Monson, have turned a small school in Spokane into a perennial Top 25 team. Stop hating on Gonzaga and appreciate all they’ve done.

- Read Thomas Boswell’s column in yesterday’s Washington Post. Excellent stuff.

- I received a couple kudos on my two John Stamos references yesterday, so I figured I’d beat the joke into the ground today. If Uncle Jesse were filling out the brackets this year he would probably pick Gonzaga, Florida, Louisville and Stanford to be in the Final Four. Why you ask? Because Ronny Turiaf, Billy Donovan, Rick Pitino and Josh Childress would easily run through their brackets if success in the tournament was based upon the merits of their respective tresses. And while Childress has made a bold choice with his Dr. J-esque afro, Uncle Jesse would definitely have Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinal winning the whole thing. Pitino’s hair is about as immovable as Marlon Brando, but still maintains a healthy shine in addition to that killer widow’s peak.
Some of you might be thinking that Mr. Stamos would be a fan of Missouri coach Quinn Synder, he of the locks adored by the press, but then you’d be forgetting that Uncle Jesse probably hates Dukies as much as the next guy.

- Pick Kentucky to make it to the Final Four. If for no other reason then to just get karma on the Cats side so they keep winning and CBS can keep showing gratuitous shots of Ashley Judd jumping up and down.

- How much of a buzz kill must it be for ESPN to have to broadcast the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament and act like they actually care what happens. While hosting the Women’s Selection Show Rece Davis had the same look on his face as Harrison Ford did midway through Hollywood Homicide. The worst part about it is that ESPN feels obligated to show the women’s scores on their ticker. Does anybody really care about the Vanderbilt – Lipscomb game? Does anybody know where Lipscomb actually is?

Alright. I thought I was going to have more to say about the brackets, but then realized that everything I had to say had to do with my predictions, which will be in tomorrows entry. So, check back tomorrow morning for the full rundown of my bracket predictions, from the 1st round all the way to the Final Four.

Bracket Tips

Advice on how to fill out your NCAA brackets is kind of like getting tips on how to win in the stock market. Everybody thinks they know what they’re talking about, but nobody really does. Everybody’s an expert. Truthfully, to be successful, you need to combine a little analysis with a lot of luck.
You can go on one of the three major sports sites on the internet (ESPN, SI and Sportsline) and you’ll be deluged with information ranging from the size of Northern Iowa’s center to the three-point percentage of Monmouth’s backcourt.
You’ll read about how there is no way a #2 seed will lose in the 1st round this year, or how Stanford is a lock for the Finals. One analyst will guarantee that Kentucky will come out of the Midwest (I am refusing to call the regions by their location names) and another will be just as sure that Gonzaga will come out of that region. The point is, nobody really knows. A #2 seed could easily lose, it’s happened four times before. And there is no such thing as a lock for the Final Four as Kentucky and Arizona proved last year.
Did anybody think that Coppin State would beat South Carolina a few years back? How many people really predicted that Syracuse would cut the nets down last year? I’m sure there is a lot of people that claim they did, but few that are actually telling the truth.
The point is, if being knowledgeable about college basketball translated into NCAA pool success, then Digger Phelps and Andy Katz would predict all 63 of the games correctly. Instead, Digger was near the bottom of the ESPN analyst bracket challenge last year and Katz wasn’t that much further ahead.
It’s a cliché, but in so many office pools the secretary who has never watched college basketball and thinks that Gonzaga is the new Viagra competitor often wins. Why? Because there is no right way to make the picks. I’ve watched a lot of college basketball this season, probably more than 90% of the people I will be competing against in various pools. Yet, I’ll probably finish up somewhere in the middle of the pack. Why? Because the only thing predictable about the NCAA Tournament is its unpredictability.
With that word of warning, I now will offer some tips on how to have a great looking bracket on Thursday morning turn into a mediocre bracket by Thursday night.

- Be wary of picking too many big upsets. Me giving out this advice is like getting Rick James to be the keynote speaker at a Just Say No! rally, but hopefully I will learn from my past mistakes. In years past I always picked a lot of upsets. Sometimes this works. I remember the glorious run of the Kent State Golden Flashes to the Elite Eight in 2002 and basking in the praises of my peers for such a clairvoyant pick. But for every Kent State on my resume, there are about 40 Michigan States, a #10 seed I thought would make a deep run in that same 2002 tourney, but ended up being out of the tournament at 2:30 on the first Thursday.
You’re better off having a few upsets early (#12 over #5 is always good) or maybe picking a sleeper team that falls in the #6 to #9 range to make it to the Sweet 16, but nothing more than that. This leads to the next tip…

- In the later rounds, ignore seedings. St. Joseph’s is a good team, no matter what Billy Packer says. But in a game against Oklahoma State, Wake Forest or Pittsburgh on a neutral floor, the Hawks would probably be the underdog. It’s not an upset if you predict a #3 seed over a #2 seed, since there is so little difference between them. Pittsburgh spent most of the season ranked higher than Oklahoma State, but is the #3 in the East, compared to Ok. State’s #2. If Pitt wins, it would be considered an upset. But in reality, it will be one good team beating another good team. Don’t be scared of picking numerical upsets.

- Pick three out of the four #1 seeds to make it to at least the Elite Eight. Last year all four #1 seeds made it that far, compared to three in 2002, four in 2001, one in 2000, three in 1999 and three in 1998. From there, use your best judgment.

- Buck conventional wisdom. Let’s tie this tip into the last one. Everybody seems to think that St. Joe’s won’t advance past the second or third round. (I must say that I am included in this group). But think of the advantages if you picked St. Joe’s to go the Final Four. You’ll be one of the only poolers to do so and can distance yourself from the group.

- Conventional wisdom is a good thing. The prohibitive favorites for the 2000, 2001 and 2002 tournaments were Michigan State, Duke and Maryland. I don’t need to tell you who won those three tournaments. Last year, most analysts thought that Kentucky and Arizona would meet in the Final. Neither ended up making it to the Final Four, but Kentucky was battling injuries and Arizona is coached by Lute Olsen, the Don Nelson of the NCAA. (Yes, I know Arizona won the title in 1997. I would hope so with Bibby and Miles Simon on their team. But that doesn’t erase the fact that Olsen’s teams have been perennial chokers in the Tournament. He might have redeemed himself with that Championship, but I haven’t forgotten about the losses to Santa Clara, Wisconsin and Oklahoma).
Anyway, there’s a reason that Kentucky and Duke are #1 seeds. Because they’re good teams.

- Put at least one sleeper into the Final Four. Syracuse and Marquette (both #3 seeds) in 2003, Indiana (#5) in 2002, Maryland (#3) in 2001 and North Carolina and Wisconsin (both #8 seeds) in 2000 are recent examples. This year, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin, Louisville and Texas are all solid teams that could put together a good run.

- Don’t read anything into the conference tournament losses. The only thing conference tournaments are good for is determining who is hot. Maryland, for example, is one of those teams. They were able to knock off the top 3 seeded teams in the ACC Tournament because they’re playing their basketball of the year. On the flip side, North Carolina, Mississippi State, Texas and Providence all suffered tough losses in their respective conference tournaments but won’t be any worse for the wear come Thursday.

- Ignore the polls and the RPI. If you want to look at numbers, check out a team’s non-conference RPI.

- Under no circumstance should you ever listen to Dick Vitale. In fact, you should probably look at Vitale’s bracket and pick the exact opposite of what he does. (Note: Shockingly, Vitale picked Duke to make it to the final game. Shockingly, in an unsarcastic way, he picked them to lose.)

- Beware of hyphenated schools. Sure, Illinois-Chicago might look great (“well, they are a crossbreed of a lovely state with a big city, ergo, they MUST be good!&#