Only 189 Days Until Midnight Madness

People often refer to their guilty pleasures; something that provides them both enjoyment and embarrassment. I think this is ridiculous. I love Project Runway and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Last week I downloaded that Hannah Montana song from iTunes after I found myself repeatedly switching to XM's Top 20 station in order to hear it. I'm not ashamed. (OK, maybe a little. But that song is really, really catchy.) Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be leading conversations with these topics, but I don't get why I should feel bad about something from which I derive pleasure.
There is one thing that makes me feel this way though; pre-pre-season college basketball polls. You know what I'm talking about: Six hours after Kansas cut down the nets Monday night, SI.com already had their 2008/2009 Top 25 list on their site. These things are even dumber than pre-season polls, as nobody has any clue:
a) Which players are going to leave early for the NBA
b) How the guys who have yet to graduate from high school will adapt to the college game.
But, as much as I hate these polls, I can't not look at them. I form opinions based on them. And when I saw Wake Forest's name on two of these polls, I couldn't help but get excited. I know I shouldn't; I know Andy Katz saying Wake might be good doesn't mean anything, but I can't help it. The mere thought of Wake's top-ranked recruiting class meshing with their young, talented - yet inconsistent starting five - and making a run in the ACC is enough to make me forget the past three seasons. Is this logical? Of course not. Do I derive some guilt from this pleasure? Perhaps.
I also can't help but mock CBSSports.com's (when did they change the name from Sportsline?) Gary Parrish for ranking Duke as his #2 team next season. For real, bro? You mean the same Duke team that was manhandled by West Virginia after barely escaping Belmont? The same Duke team that is losing it's best player? Is he serious? Parrish says that incoming freshman Elliott King will replace DeMarcus Nelson (presumably by going 2-15 from the floor against Carolina on senior night). But even if that's true (and we all know how good Duke's McDonald's All-American recruits have been of late, Brian Zoubek), shouldn't that make Duke, like, #20? Unless Elliott King is bringing his brothers Bernard and Albert, I fail to see how any logical person can rank Duke #2. That'd be like putting Maryland at #15 just because Gary Williams got another tall, athletic underachiever to replace James Gist.

* When it was announced that ESPN bought the rights to broadcast the first two rounds of The Masters, I thought it was going to destroy everything the uptight protectors of Augusta National had worked for all these years (forcing announcers to call the gallery "patrons", limiting coverage so as not to oversaturate the viewer, etc). So far, it appears, awesomely, that I was wrong.
First, Chris Berman was left off the broadcast team. (I have to believe that the Lords of Augusta demanded this, lest they hear "Rocco Mediate's putt COULD... GO... ALL... THE... WAY" through the azaleas.) Then today, ESPN provided exquisite coverage of the goofy Par 3 Tournament and followed it with a never-before-seen tour of Augusta National with Andy North. (For as well known as the back-nine at Augusta is, the front nine is a relative unknown commodity. It wasn't until recently that cameras were even allowed on the front nine. Full 18 hole coverage didn't begin until, I think, 2002.) In today's segment, a camera followed North around holes 3, 4, 5 and 6, showing how players might encounter difficult lies, impossible putts and wicked pin placements. It was all done very simply, which went nice with the restrained coverage from North and Scott Van Pelt. I especially enjoyed when they both gave no credence to the Par 3 results, stating that it was merely a fun, relaxing afternoon for the golfers. That's the easy, correct response, but ESPN analysts have a tendency to overplay events that appear on the network. A few years back, I remember John Kruk saying that one player's poor performance in the Home Run Derby could affect the second-half of his season. Moron.
With Mike Tirico at the helm tomorrow for first-round coverage, I hope ESPN continues their good work from Augusta.