How Sweet It Is … Or Is It?

Yesterday’s Sweet 16 tourney games were so-so at best, with exception of course to the OT thriller between Xavier and West Virginia.  The other three were fairly anti-climactic, except for that late push Western Kentucky had against UCLA which was quickly squashed by the Bruins.

The UNC game was a big step for the young Tar Heels, who proved they can play a little defense if necessary.  Say what you will about Washington State’s offensive capabilities, it’s still difficult to hold a team to only 47 points in the Sweet 16. Also, UNC proved they can distribute the ball and score without a major contribution from Tyler Hansbrough, who led the team with 18 points, but was accompanied by three others who scored in double figures.  One last thing we saw from this game was that UNC doesn’t have to play an up-and-down fast paced game in order to keep things within their comfort zone.  They responded well to a tough defense and played a slower halfcourt style than they are used to, but they still looked sharp, more so in the second half than the first.

Louisville proved that they are as good or better than everyone thought.  They scare me even more now than they did before because after watching them manhandle Tennessee it tells me they will be a real test for my Tar Heels.   Speaking of Tennessee, I have been saying it since they beat Memphis and no one listened.  They turn the ball over way too much at bad times and they play a sloppy, high-paced streetball style of game which can be to their detriment against a solid team unless they shoot the lights out (which they didn’t last night, shooting only 33.9% from the floor and 68% on free throws).  If I could offer only three words of advice to the team, those three words would be: Lock it up.

Tonight’s games should be exciting.  They are a little harder to pick, but I am not going to shy away from a challenge.   Here are my picks:

• (3) Wisconsin over (10) Davidson.  I just think Stephen Curry and Davidson are going to run out of gas.  Wisconsin plays tight defense and I just don’t think Davidson is going to be able to find enough people to score.
• (2) Texas over (3) Stanford.  As I said in a previous post, Texas’ guards are just too good.  If they shoot the ball well this one could get a little out of hand.
• (1) Kansas over (12) Villanova.  Kansas has too much talent, and that’s all there is to it.
• (5) Michigan State over (1) Memphis.  Memphis is just not doing it for me.  They have almost fallen apart twice now in their first two games and I’ll be damned if they aren’t lucky as hell to be playing tonight.  They should be at home in their respective Section 8 houses watching the game.  Now I’m not saying Memphis is a team full of thugs, but I’m pretty sure that as a team they own more handguns per person than a group of NRA members.

I’m beginning to wonder what the hell I’m going to talk about after this tournament is over.  For now, rather than stress too much about it, I am going to take full advantage of the hand I’ve been dealt and use it as an excuse to sit on my ass and watch every game I can. Have a great weekend everyone!

One love,

10

A Weekend Worthwhile

Wow do we have some catching up to do!

What a weekend. Not only did I have Friday and Monday off thanks to Easter, but there was a lot going on worth mentioning. Of course, the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney were on, and as exciting as always. Every year I tell myself that the current year’s first two rounds are the best I’ve ever seen, and this year certainly stacks up with those in the recent past.

Before we get into the games and such, I think it’s worth mentioning that my roommate Waldo and I have a friendly bet on whose bracket will come out better after it’s all said and done. We’re not doing the points system, just straight up correct picks, and as of today I am up 5 over him. He’s got a little bit more light at the end of his tunnel though, as his Final Four is still in tact, while I only have three of the four remaining after my sleeper pick, UConn, put up a stinker in the first round. Yeah I know, in hindsight this was a stupid pick, but it really made too much sense to me since the Big East was pretty good this year, and the Huskies play good defense. It really didn’t help things when A.J. Price left due to injury either.

The story of the weekend pertaining to basketball is certainly the rise of Davidson as this year’s possible Cinderella story as they ride the coattails of sophomore phenom Stephen Curry. To my credit, I had the 10th-seeded Wildcats knocking off Gonzaga, a 7 seed, but I never would have thought they would upset Georgetown. After back to back games in which Curry absolutely went off in the second half, it makes me wonder if Wisconsin’s defense is going to be able to stop him. ESPN jerkoff analyst Skip Bayless says they will, but he hasn’t been right about anything since 1984, so look for that to be a good matchup. Seriously though, Curry is amazing.

I hate Duke, so I love the fact that they once again crapped out early despite being a high seed. As everyone has said over and over, they just relied too much on the three ball. However, they are going to be amazing next year because they are only losing one player to graduation (DeMarcus Nelson), Gerald Henderson is only going to get better, and somehow Coach K makes sure no one ever leaves early for the NBA. I’m pretty sure he either bakes the world’s best cookies or he scares them into staying by threatening to have J.J. Redick call them five nights a week to read them his poetry.

UCLA has the easiest remaining path to the Final Four, (they play Western Kentucky on Thursday and if they win, would play the winner of the Xavier-West Virginia game) and they are still getting every call, so that looks like it’s about as close to a sure thing as it can get.

My Tar Heels are looking strong on offense, but I am beginning to worry that they are allowing too many points. JK keeps saying that if someone holds them under 75 they’re in trouble. We’ll put a pin in that and keep it off to the side, because I let my heart do the picking this year and they’re my pick to win it all. Louisville scares me way more than Tennessee to be completely honest, because Tennessee just gets way too unorganized and hectic way too often, and they always seem to turn the ball over at bad times. I’d much rather see UNC playing Tennessee to get into the Final Four because I just know they would score about 40 points off turnovers alone.

Texas’ guards are too much for Stanford in my opinion, so as long as they can stay away from those two giants Stanford has lurking inside and shoot the ball effectively from about a 12 to 22 foot range, they’ll come out on top there. Memphis is on the brink of a breakdown, and I’ll be damned if they shouldn’t have lost against Mississippi State. If Michigan State keeps the game within single digits late, Memphis’ inability to shoot freethrows at a level acceptable for humans with two arms will surely haunt them. The whole time during their last game, JK and I were wondering why teams just don’t put in their 11th and 12th guys off the bench to hack away and force Memphis to shoot over 40% from the charity stripe. Either way, they’re screwed.

Villanova, I’m sorry, but you’re also screwed. Kansas is good and the upperclassmen are hungry. Whether they end up playing Wisconsin or Davidson remains to be seen, but whomever it is, I just hope that’s a good game.

I’m still standing by UNC to win it all, and you can quote me on that.

Shifting gears, us golf fans enjoyed an exciting weekend of play again, with different results than we’ve grown accustomed to. For the first time in seven starts for Tiger Woods, he didn’t finish atop the leader board, and in all honesty, I’m a little glad. Not because I don’t like Tiger – I really enjoy watching him play and he’s a marvelous ambassador for the sport. It’s just that if he would have kept on winning and I would have been further subjected to talk of him having a perfect season, I might have ended up choking someone. Instead, he finished in fifth place, two strokes behind winner Geoff Ogilvy, and I can breathe easy again and enjoy each week’s tournament without this cloud looming over the whole thing.

JK’s trip up here was a good time, as usual. This time around he actually had his ID so we were able to partake in adult-type things. We went out with the rest of the guys a couple times over the weekend, but nothing got really out of control, so I don’t have any funny stories for you on that. However, everything I saw adds up with what I wrote last week about the stages of drunkenness as well as the gender differences during said drunkenness.

As I mentioned this morning, I started my new job today.  It’s an international corporation in the Fortune 100 and just in case some kind of legal hulla balloo prohibits me from mentioning it directly, I’ll say this:  It’s a shipping company that rhymes with “red ex.”  Nevertheless, the first week is all training, so I spent most of the day watching training videos and filling out paperwork.  From everything I’ve gathered so far, it seems like it’s going to be a really good gig, so I am very excited to be working there.  On top of the fact that the pay is really good, I am actually going to have health insurance for the first time in almost four years!  Also, I signed up for the A.M. shift, so I will be done by 9:00 or 10:00 every morning, and that means I can devote my afternoons and evenings to golfing as much as I possibly want to, which is much nicer than last summer when I worked 60 hours every week and had to resort to golfing at 6:30 in the morning some days just to get my fix.  I know it’s still a couple months away, but I am declaring the upcoming months the Summer of Mike.

My last few days at my old job were lame, and it took every ounce of me to get myself to show up.  As much as I would have loved skipping out on my last day especially, I just couldn’t stand being the kind of guy who screws everyone over like that, even if it was only a gas station.  I consider myself to be a stand-up guy like that, plus I hate it when people don’t like me.  I really feel like I left behind a legacy anyway, because for my last seven months there, I was in charge of hiring and I did what anyone in my position would do … I hired my friends.  I hired my roommate’s girlfriend, my sister, a friend, and my roommate all in the span of about five months.  It was like my own little dynasty, but it was time to move on.
It’s that time of year where there will be plenty to talk about in the coming months …  the NCAA tournament, the NBA playoffs, baseball is starting up, the NFL draft is just around the corner, golf, the summer Olympics, the election race will be heating up, and much more.  I promise not to have a five day hiatus again this week, because believe me, I missed you as much as you missed me.  You did miss me right?  Good.

One love,

10