Well as a current resident of buckeyeville, home of THE Ohio State University I was witness to the appetizer to the Madness. OSU using some combination of luck, determination, hard work and duct tape upset Illinois. Now I'm no Steven A. Smith but going undefeated in Big 10 play until the final game of the regular season is impressive. Illinois typically shoots from the locker room and makes it. But somehow OSU beat them. And that my friends is why the Madness has begun. The Tournament is here. No team is safe and those of us watching the games (possibly while studying for an exam) are given the pleasure of close finish after close finish (quick sidenote love the Bonus Coverage e.g. switching midgame to catch the last 20 seconds of a game befor switching back to the main dish). NBA and college basketball aren't even comparable. College basketball is a game of streaks. Witness UNC v. Duke today. UNC was up by 8, then down by 9, before going on a 11-0 run to win it in the Dean Dome. By the end I needed a beer and a change of pants. In THE tournament no lead is safe and no matter how storied the tradition ANY team can lose. In the NBA if a team is up by 10 with 2 quarters left the fat lady is singing. Sure in theory a comeback can happen in the NBA, but in theory communism works and as we all know its just not going to happen. Oh, and the tournament has better betting (note gambling is only legal if you are in Vegas or Hart's apartment)
Now typically I'd pontificate about which team is going far in the tournament but given the fact that 3 potential number one seeds lost Sunday (Kansas, Kentucky and Illinois) I'm backing off and not picking anything before bracketology is completed (can you major in bracketology? I got a degree in psychology and frankly braketology seems far more practical) Nonetheless see the Madness, love the Madness, be the Madness.
While I'm on the stump I thought I'd use the power of the blog (I guess since I've written a column and now I'm blogging I'm technically clogging) . The power of the blog is to poll members of the committee and solicit opinions (on the downside a blog is also the place where Max Kellerman still makes some sort of insane rant. How was it possible he was ever on tv?). Nonetheless since its the begining of baseball season I thought I'd ask the question of what is your favorite time of baseball season? Hart and I divided it up between spring training, August/September of pennant races and October for the playoffs. After much soul searching and a rolling of a three sided die I went with the pennant race as the best time to follow baseball. Now a true pennant race doesn't happen every year and the wild card has diluted the joy a bit but there's something magical about following the standings as the season winds down. Its the time when the scrubby 5th starter must come through to secure playoff dreams. Was not the "shot heard round the world" which capped the remarkable run by the Giants to pass the Dodgers the best baseball had to offer?
1 comment:
Slow down a minute... you can't write columns like these w/o a Bracketology License. I got mine online at ITT Tech. I used to be a plumber, but now I'm living the high-life moonlighting as a Bracketologist.
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