noonan!

couldn't agree more

just sayin'

...

h/t jess



telus

4/20 @ 4:20

this will make the festival

todaze musical interlude

don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone

'cuse basketball season played as game of life

post mortem on season

Good game, great season, sad end

remembering back when weeds was good

little boxes performed on little boxes
h/t rob

understanding Jimmy

"He's a good friend of mine, but I will tell you I have been fascinated by this," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said. "I'd read a headline and think, 'That's the one. That's going to crack him.' Not one time has that happened. I couldn't do it. Some of these blows would bring you to your knees, but not him. Maybe 5 percent of coaches could handle what he's handled."
Then Martelli paused.
"No," he said, "that's too high."  

34-2

64-63
sixteen is sweet but eight is great!  bring on OSU

Syracuse adds non-scholarship walk-on to sweet sixteen roster

Seven foot Briazillian native Drab Fellow may even be up-to-speed quickly enough to sub for the the academically ineligible Fab Melo, thereby significantly increasing the 'Cuse's chances in the Eastern Regional in Boston Thursday night.

you are powerless

I know how to reverse it.

noose papers

sizing up sweet sixteen

Sweet 16 log5

03.18.12

Hot off the presses, we have the log5 analysis for the 16 remaining teams. These teams comprised 81% of the title-winning chances before the tourney started, up from 69% last season, indicating that this year’s group was more expected than last season’s. (Pre-tournament chances are indicated in the ‘Prev’ column.) Michigan State received nearly 6% of the 19% the losers left behind, primarily due to surviving the gauntlet that was their round-of-32 game.
This obviously doesn’t account for injuries, but I have a feeling UNC’s chances aren’t that far off. They have the enormous benefit of getting to play the weakest team remaining in the field in their first game. Beating Ohio is not certain, of course, but just getting to play them is the best-case scenario if you’re trying to figure out how to play basketball without a point guard.

Elite8 Final4 Final  Champ   Prev    1 in…
 1S  Kentucky    71.7   56.9   32.8   20.5   19.7    5
 2E  Ohio St.    82.9   52.7   31.9   19.8   19.3    5
 1W  Michigan St 76.4   54.8   33.8   18.0   12.4    6
2MW  Kansas      80.4   46.3   24.4   11.0    9.1    9
1MW  N. Carolina 84.9   45.5   22.8    9.8    6.6    10
 4E  Wisconsin   52.5   23.0   11.3    5.6    4.2    18
 1E  Syracuse    47.5   19.8    9.3    4.4    4.4    23
 7W  Florida     52.9   19.0    7.8    2.6    0.5    39
 4S  Indiana     28.3   17.2    6.1    2.5    1.7    40
 3S  Baylor      72.6   21.9    6.9    2.4    1.7    41
 3W  Marquette   47.1   15.8    6.0    1.8    0.9    54
 4W  Louisville  23.6   10.4    3.5    1.0    0.5    105
 6E  Cincinnati  17.1    4.5    1.2    0.3    0.2    323
11MW N.C. State  19.6    5.3    1.2    0.2    0.1    470
10S  Xavier      27.4    4.0    0.6    0.1    0.04   946
13MW Ohio        15.1    2.9    0.5    0.06   0.01   1720

h/t kenpom.comhttp://www.kenpom.com/

best ncaa tournament fan sign

Hello, Bristol?

But here’s why I’m a little surprised my phone hasn’t rung.

33-2

75-59, looked much better
on to the sweet sixteen!

hare today

Ooops!

make mine paleo

is that what we've become? the socialst's anchor?

32-2

72-65, ugly ugly win

what's this?

a. modular furntiture
b. ice cube tray
c. hot plate
d. footprint disguiser
e. penguin incubator
f. all of the above

clicky

kenpom

This is the year a 1 loses to a 16

03.13.12

Full disclosure: Every year I love the prospect of a 16 winning its first-ever game over a one-seed. Loyal readers will recall my irrational exuberance regarding Oral Roberts in 2006.
This is not without reason, though. If you run the numbers, the chances of all of the one-seeds getting to the Final Four are typically roughly equivalent to one of the top-seeds losing in the first round. Yet somehow history has betrayed the odds. The Apocalypse Scenario played itself out in 2008 when all of the one-seeds made the Final Four, while 16-seeds are 0-108 against one-seeds all-time. And there have really only been four cases where the outcome was in doubt in the final minute - none since Western Carolina took Purdue to the wire in 1996.
Even with this enormously long drought, I make it a point to watch each 1/16 game from the beginning, knowing that there’s the potential for history, and that if it occurs, I’ll have been along for the ride from start to finish. Usually, I need only maintain this ritual until the first or second media timeout when the game is obviously out of reach. But every once in a while there’s an Albany/UConn in 2006 or a Holy Cross/Kansas in 2002 where my vigilance is rewarded with a mildly interesting game in the second half. On Thursday and Friday, those are the moments I live for.
I’ll continue that tradition this season, once again believing this is the year. And this really could be the year. I say this every year, of course, but this time I mean it. For reals. The crop of 16 seeds in the 2012 tournament appears to be the strongest ever. I went back through my ratings going back to 2003 and then the SRS ratings at College Basketball Reference for data before then to find the 16-seeds that were ranked the highest. These are the ten-highest ranked 16-seeds of all-time:

Year Team         Rank
2012 Lamar         102
1993 Wright St.    105
2009 E. Tenn. St.  111
2006 Oral Roberts  115
2012 Vermont       120
2012 UNC Asheville 121
1986 Montana St.   124
2008 Portland St.  127
1987 Penn          130
1985 Southern      130

Yep, 2012 has produced three of the strongest 16-seeds in the history of the tournament. Consider, too, that comparing the raw ranking of a 2012 team to teams from the ‘80s and ‘90s isn’t totally fair since there were fewer Division-I teams years ago. A ranking close to the top 100 is more impressive now with 345 teams in the mix than it was when there were 50 fewer teams. Also consider the absurdity of Lamar and Vermont facing off in a play-in game just to earn the right to slay a one-seed. Giving #213 Norfolk State a 15-seed and #165 LIU a free pass to the round of 64 weren’t the committee’s best moments on Sunday. http://www.kenpom.com/

that's like $2.20 of free toilet slime

distractions

the coach, who on a good day looks like he's eaten a dozen lemons, has stood watch over a season that has been perfect calm on the court and a swirling tempest off it.

this is why they call it madness

Western Kentucky comes back from 16 point deficit to win.

Anatomy of a Comeback

Western Kentucky put together a furious rally to overcome a late 16-point deficit, the largest comeback with less than 5 minutes left of an NCAA tournament game. The previous record was 15, by Illinois in its 90-89 OT win over Arizona in the 2005 Elite Eight.

 BYU, down by 25, rallies to win

Iona's Epic Collapse

BYU was down 25 points in the first half against Iona but rallied for the largest comeback in NCAA tournament history. Iona scored 55 points in the first 15:26 of the game, but just 27 in the final 24:34.

goodbye national championship hopes

Fab Melo ineligible for NCAA tourney

31-2

68-71
no big east tourney title.  regular season champion will have to do.  Next loss will be their last.  either win six or go home.  time to rest and regroup for the big dance.  #1 seed still a lock, but still hurts

ding-dong

i wasn't talking to you

wow. just wow

Milton Friedman on, "Is America still great?"
spoken in 1978.  34 years ago
worth five minutes

meanwhile in our government

"green" lightbulb, created through taxpayer subsidies, hits market for the low, low price of...

thank you pat robertson!

todaze...

31-1

58-53, defeating last year's national champions for the third time in a month!
Big East tourney semi-finals tomorrow

special season continues

could never get the hang of thursdays

...

the new phone book's here... the new phone book's here!

At year-end, Buffett acquired Princeton Insurance, a New Jersey writer of medical malpractice insurance that brings with it more than $600 million of float.


“Our lizard has another endearing quality: Unlike human spokesmen or spokeswomen who expensively represent other insurance companies, our little fellow has no agent,” he wrote.

a (regular) season to remember

game-by-game in 12 minutes

30-1, end of regular season

58-49

5th largest crowd in dome history

seniors

wire madness

my final four: wallace, bublles, boadie and cutty from the cut

and we're back

philly corner boy makes good

Angie Cook wanted more for her son. She would drive past that corner on her way home from work, see her son lurking there. When Scoop spotted her car, she said, he would walk away. But his presence there, the lure of the [drug] life, constantly worried her.

Senior Day Saturday

wee-bee-doh, wee-bee-doh, wee-bee-doh

It’s because of a brain-eating amoeba called Naegleria fowleri. It’s common in warm rivers and lakes, but if it travels up the nose to the brain it’s usually deadly.