College Basketball & Other Stories

Well, it's been a nice season for UL basketball. Winning both the Big East regular season and conference tournament titles. Now the overall #1 seed in the tournament. Going into the weekend, some dumbdicks, I mean pundits didn't think they deserved a 1 seed in the tournament at all even if they won the Big East tournament. Then UNC and Michigan State lost early and there you go. I don't see how they don't. What other major conference had both the regular season and tournament won by the same team? I think the Big East and ACC are the two best conferences (I don't care how many teams the Big Ten gets in, I don't see it). So, how could a team that swept both titles of one of the top two conferences not be a one seed? They did have three non-conference losses, but all three teams ended up with 20 plus wins. Plus, UL has only lost two games in 2009. Other top teams have really struggled down the stretch. Still, I was surprised that they were the top overall seed.

Here's a cute story. A rumor was going around that a Swiss Zoo didn't have space for a baby hippo and were going to kill it and turn it into tiger food. Well, that's not going to happen, but it's apparently happened before. I like the fact that they point out that European zoos don't use birth control on their animals. Let me get this straight. You have situations where overcrowding causes you to occasionally feed some of your animals to others. Yet, you don't think sterilizing some of them is a good idea? Yeah, that's a great idea. Why don't we feed unwanted children to stray dogs?

I think Morehead State got screwed. How did they get the play-in game? Check out conference RPIs. The Ohio Valley is higher than eight other conferences. And it's not like Morehead is some last place team that got hot in their conference tournament. They were two games out of first. Yet, they are a play-in team while East Tennessee State isn't. ETSU just happened to have lost to Morehead this year. Actually, they need to dump the play-in game altogether and just lose an at large team. Is the tournament enhanced by having an Arizona team that can't win a road game? But not only does it screw the losing team which doesn't get an actual tournament game (I don't care what they call it), it also means some brackets have to be turned in two days after the teams are announced.

Here's a good one. A state legislator from West Virginia (figures) wants to ban Barbie dolls from his state (but sister humping is still okay). His rationale is that the doll emphasized beauty too much for girls. He's a Democrat so I'm surprised that he just didn't try to tax it. But he took page two from his party's playbook and is trying to suck up to the feminist left. Must be hot to trot for one in particular. Let's think about this. He doesn't want girls to know that beauty is valued whether we like it or not. Does this mean that he plans to ban hot chicks so high school girls won't see high school boys drooling over them? Sure, it's West Virginia, but they could see hot chicks on TV. Actually, the biggest problem here is exactly what the story says. A politician an wants to ban a toy because of self esteem.

So, Louisville, Morehead State and Western Kentucky made the NCAA tournament. UK made the NIT. But at least they host it. And are charging $33 for a ticket. Talking about adding insult to injury. And it will probably be worse next year. I don't care what they say right now, I don't think either Patrick Patterson or Jodie Meeks is coming back. Meeks is playing like someone trying to boost his stock and he sure doesn't look happy. Patterson is a first rounder. And if Meeks doesn't come back, why would he?

I was a little surprised by this article. A man was cited for driving solo in the carpool lane after he tried to fool cops with a dummy in the passenger seat. He didn't get caught because his dummy looked like Denver Pyle. He got caught because the dummy wasn't wearing his seatbelt. I'm surprised because I would have thought you would need the seatbelt to hold up the dummy.

The question for UK is what to do with Billy Clyde. As a UL fan, I'm all for giving him a contract extension. I originally thought he'd do well. He seemed to have the work ethic and background for it. I was wrong, but it didn't take long to change my mind last year. In fact, I was reminded last week that I said during last season that UK had hired their Steve Kragthorpe (except it's for basketball), and I think that description fits. UK basketball wasn't coming off the success that UL football was when Kragthorpe took, but each year has been a worse finish. Both seem to have been successful at lower levels, but are unable to handle the bigger job. You see the deer in the headlight look on the sideline as they don't seem to know what to do. Bizarre recruiting strategies. Freely running off talented players and then blaming depth for losses. Inexplicable game decisions. I'm feeling pretty smug because when the job first came open, I said UK should go for John Calipari at Memphis (and also rightly said he wouldn't get a look). I'm too lazy, but you can do a search on the blog. Memphis was in the title game last year, and even though they lost most of the key players from that team, they're a 2 seed this year. Oh, and team star is Tyreke Evans who is a freshman. As a UL fan, I'm happy to see Calipari at Memphis. In fact, I hope he stays there. And Gillispie stays at UK.

People are struggling with the thought that the Sears Tower will soon be called the Willis Tower after the Different Strokes character. Or an insurance company, I'm not sure which. I don't know what the big deal is. People bitch about football stadiums being named after corporations so why get concerned that one corporations' name is being replaced. Hell, they should have changed it 17 years ago when Sears moved out. Maybe Sears wouldn't have been so big headed to merge with Kmart so they have Kmart quality at Sears prices.

When I think about it, Arizona is the last team that should have made the tournament. They went 9-9 in the PAC-10 which isn't a juggernaut. They won one of their last six games. They played only 11 road games and only won two of those. Against the two Oregon teams (combined record 21-40). I would have taken UK over them. I would have taken a lot of teams over Arizona.

Since it's irrelevant to me, I'm just linking this article for some of the guys who read this blog. Or their significant others who might convince them it's the hip thing to wear.

Of course, Arizona isn't the only team that didn't deserve to be in. I think Penn State got screwed. How did they not get in, but Minnesota and Michigan did? To begin with, the Big Ten got too many (and it sucks watching them play). You might notice that neither had more wins than Penn State and were behind them in the Big Ten conference. They split their season with Penn State so no advantage there. All three lost to either Northwestern or Iowa who were bottom feeders in the league. Minnesota should have been the odd man out of the three. Why? Penn State went 5-3 over their last 8 games while Minnesota went 3-5. Minnesota did have the win over UL but that was early in the season. Penn State beat Michigan State (which neither Minnesota or Michigan did). So, league record should have trumped that. And between Michigan and Minnesota, the Wolverines swept the Gophers.

I had mentioned previously how the Obama administration had hurt some feeling with the British when it gave some DVDs after receiving a well thought out gift of historical significance. But I missed one important point. I forgot about DVD formats. It's possible that the British Prime Minister was given DVDs that won't work on his machine. That is so classic. And it gets better. A state department official was contacted about the issue and responded "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world." Right. England and Suriname are on equal diplomatic footing. Much better, an Obama confidante has said that he's "overwhelmed" by the job (boy, isn't that encouraging) and can't really put much time into meeting with our one consistent ally of the past century. Although he can find time to meet with their mortal enemy of the past century. I'm just not sure what he's preoccupied with. For all the talk of him moving too fast, he's really just signed some bills. His biggest one was the stimulus/outright pork barrel spending project, but anyone looking closely at how that was passed, it's pretty obvious that written and pushed through by Congressional leaders. What extremely taxing jobs has he done himself? Well, besides designating a White House aide to strategize an attack on a radio host. That really is a new type of politics. Not sure how it helps the economy, but it's got to be better for it than his other plans. Oh, and for those appalled by Limbaugh's statement that he wants Obama's policies to fail, this isn't a new political strategy. James Carville said the same thing about Bush's policies. Well, until some planes crashed into some buildings.

Looking at the brackets, I'm predicting that of the high seeds (4 or higher), Kansas has the best chance of going out in the first round. They weren't focused in their tournament. Bill Self made a name for himself his first two years at Kansas by flaming out early. The North Dakota State players will do whatever it takes not to have to go back to North Dakota.

I didn't think the Eliot Spitzer situation could get any more embarrassing for him. Then it came out that he liked to choke his hookers. And left his tie on and sweated a lot. Personally, that makes his whole thing more understandable. He likes to choke women. His wife wasn't into it so he had to hire a pro. Still, blowing your gig as governor seems a pretty high price to pay for a fetish.

Damn. The SEC sucks. Only three bids and the highest is LSU with an 8 seed. Sadly, I give Mississippi State the best chance to get out of the first round even though they are a 13 seed. Tennessee is really the best team in the conference, but they play stupid way too much. And can't guard the perimeter.

Dude gets arrested for masturbating by a mailbox. First thought - was it a purty mailbox? Then I see his reasoning. He wanted his neighbors to know "who was boss". Man, he showed them. I can think of a lot better reasons to jerk off at your mailbox. Actually, no I can't.

Hey, Duke is playing in Greensboro, NC to open the tournament. When was the last time they didn't play their first round in North Carolina?

Bumfights for retarded people. This is pretty sad. A home for the mentally handicapped was recently found to have clients engaged in a "fight club" staged by workers there. What the hell? No purses? Sure, it's bad to have the handicapped fighting, but it's even worse not to pay them. Speaking of the mentally challenged getting paid, some learning disabled high school kid found $18K of drug money and started giving it away. He'll be lucky to just get his ass kicked by a bunch of mentally challenged people in a home. Most drug dealers aren't too happy when you take their money.

Finally, can UL win it all? They can. But I do have reservations. Their backcourt has issues. No true point guard. Their rebounding sucks way too often. When your two forwards are way ahead of everyone else on rebounding, that's a problem. They get brainlock at times which is why they trail too often at the half. Outside shooting can be streaky. Still, I'm going to pick them. The backcourt struggles with offense, but they can lock you down on defense. Terrence Williams is playing great. Earl Clark is finally showing why the scouts love him. They just don't lose. If Andre McGee and Jerry Smith can hit their 3s, I think a title is definitely possible. Especially since every other team is flawed. UNC will struggle if Ty Lawson isn't 100%. UConn hasn't been the same without Jerome Dyson. Pitt struggles when Dejaun Blair is in foul trouble. Duke has no inside game. Oklahoma is a two man crew. Memphis is young. I see no reason why UL can't win this. As long as they play good defense and don't take stupid shots.