I’ve been stuck on a couple longer pieces all week. So to make up for that, a few smaller ideas crammed into one post.
The new NCAA tournament broadcasting agreement is spectacular! Four channels with simultaneous games is about the coolest thing ever. We spent most of Thursday outside, enjoying the perfect weather, so I read e-mails and Tweets and blog posts carrying on about the viewing options jealously. Finally, after the girls collapsed into bed, I was able to watch. Naturally, the early evening games weren’t nearly as good as the afternoon games, but it was still like living in the future to be able to switch games at will.
I’d love to say I picked a few of yesterday’s upsets, but since I didn’t do a bracket, I can’t claim that. I would have picked Butler, which wasn’t really an upset as much as people were picking against them. I would have given Richmond a long, hard look. No way would I have thought to pick Morehead State. Shocked Princeton was in the game until late.
How about that one BYU Super Fan who clearly had violated an aspect or two of the honor code? I don’t think you can be that pumped up without some non-natural supplements.
If you are a KU fan, and I know there are a few of you out there, you should be reading Tully Corcoran’s work at the Topeka Capital Journal. His articles, columns, and Twitter observations are much better than anything coming from the Lawrence Journal World and the KC Star. Thursday, he did a better job sizing up the difference between this year’s team and last year’s than anyone I’ve seen.1
It was a team that existed in a constructed reality. It was a team that dutifully accepted that Collins and Cole Aldrich were better than Marcus Morris, even when the evidence suggested otherwise. Morris willingly played the role of third fiddle because it was Sherron and Cole’s team. That was just a fact. Everyone knew that. I’m not even criticizing here. There was just no way around it.
We will soon see if the change in leadership makes a difference or not.
Random observation about KU’s bracket. The same set of upsets on the opposite side occurred in both 2008 and 1998, so there are no conclusions that can be drawn from those games. Can not worry about that until Tulsa has been taken care of.
I’m sure many of you saw some of the nonsense that popped up on Twitter and Facebook after the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. All the dumbasses who were making Pearl Harbor references. My response was, I hope, similar to that of most of you: WTF?!?! Because, you know, Pearl Harbor was avenged. We fought a brutal war over the next four years, bombing parts of Japan back to the stone age. Hiroshima and Nagasaki got some extra special vengence. Most importantly, WE WON THE WAR. Scoreboard is the best revenge. It also tends to be final.
Laughing because innocents were killed by a natural disaster and saying they deserved that fate because of something that happened 70 years ago is the epitome of ignorance. Figures it was people who looked like they were between 20 and 25 making the bulk of the comments. I weep for the future.2
It appears the Sacramento Kings are headed to Anaheim. First off, I don’t get it. Why does the LA area need a third NBA franchise? Shouldn’t they get a single NFL team before they get a third NBA team? And it also derails the dream (but impossible) scenario of the Kings going back to Kansas City. It would just have been good, clean fun for the Kings to return to the midwest after nearly 30 years out west. Maybe the Pacers will move to KC! Keep your fingers crossed, KC readers.
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