NCAA Tournament: Championship Game Preview

Oh wow the Final Four was exciting. You might not have known this seeing me watching the games, as I drifted off to sleep with 8 minutes left in the UNC-Kansas game (idiot.) What was more exciting than the games themselves, was the projection of the Championship Game. Memphis-Kansas. Whew. And I CALLED IT. HA. (Not entering in a pool was probably one of the stupidest things I’ve done in a long time.) This game is going to be DIRTY. My pick? (Don’t hate me, Court…) Memphis. Yes, Kansas is a sick basketball team, and yes, they will likely win. I would not be upset about that. But I’ve got a feeling about this Memphis team, reinforced by two articles I read this morning; one about Derrick Rose and his “stomach ailment”, and one about Joey Dorsey and keeping his big mouth shut.

Forgive me for not being a real numbers person when it comes to athletic competition, but human interest stories like these really get me. If you’re not naturally a fan, it’s stories like this that MAKE you a fan. Or at least me. Maybe it’s a girl thing. Regardless, reading that Derrick Rose eats a sick amount of gummy bears and Joey Dorsey comes from Baltimore and is the first in his family to get a high school diploma, makes me pull for Memphis that much more.

Rose’s sugar tooth: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney08/news/story?id=3332589

Dorsey shuts his mouth, gets railed on, and grabs those boards: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=3332873&sportCat=ncb

That and there was this one hook shot amid three defenders that Douglas-Roberts made in the UCLA game that was just absurd. Athletic, graceful, sexy, dirty, etc, etc… Douglas-Roberts vs. Brandon Rush?! Oh my.

Tigers. Grrrrrrr.

 

NCAA Tournament: Sweet Sixteen, Day 2

I have a big fat crush on Stephen Curry. Duh.

Davidson. Wow.

 

NCAA Tournament: Day 3, aka Things that cause me to REALLY have a shitfit (or die a little bit inside)

…When my three-pointer dependent team can’t sink their threes.

…When it becomes painfully apparent for the umpteenth time this season that Duke is smaller and less aggressive under the basket than pretty much every team worth anything in the NCAAs.

…When I see DeMarcus Nelson’s face on the bench at the end of the game, all too aware of his tournament shortcomings, and his career over.

…When I think about all the gloating Duke haters out there.

…When I remember how good UNC looks right now. (yes, i know. i’m a hypocrite.)

That said, I still love the tournament and am most definitely still watching. (why oh WHY did I have to miss that Stanford-Marquette game? Oh yea, cause I saw Aretha instead. more on that soon.) 

But my focus has shifted. (Please, Andy Pettitte, recover quickly, we need you!)

 

Day 1 addendum

Damn it, I spoke too soon.

15 out of 16 (94%) ain’t bad. (Fucking Arizona.)

 

NCAA Tournament: Day 1, aka Things that cause me to have a shitfit

It’s that glorious time of year again, my friends: NCAA March Madness. And day 1 winds down in truly stunning fashion.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Most of it has been fairly predictable (as a matter of fact, I am currently sitting at 100% in my pool-less bracket. awesome.) But HOLY SHIT, that Duke game nearly gave me a heart attack. Yes, I am a Blue Devil fan. Some of you may be disgusted. Yes, it’s just like being a Yankee fan, it’s easy to be a fan of a team that wins all the time, etc, etc. But I am ashamed neither of my Duke nor Yankee affiliation, so any haters can go cry about all the years they’ve gone without a championship. (Sorry…the venom that gets spit at me just has to come back out sometimes…)

Anyway, the fact is that the Blue Devils really DON’T win all the time, as has been evidenced in our past 3 tournament appearances. And tonight was, for a good deal of the game, all too reminiscent of last year, when Duke bowed out in the FIRST ROUND to VCU. Now, the Belmont team is NOTHING like VCU. No full court press, much scrawnier athletic black men (what few of them there were). But still, the scoreboard towards the end really had the adrenaline going. (I think I scared one of my roommates with all the cursing and screaming I did. oh dear.)

I found myself pacing the living room during timeouts, talking to myself, my roommates, anything that would listen, “Again? AGAIN?!?! No. No. This is not going to happen. NO WAY are we going to lose,” all the time very very cognisant of the fact that, yes, there is a fair chance that Duke COULD actually lose. TO AN UNATHLETIC, UNCOORDINATED, PRINCETON DERIVATIVE?! Jeez.

But then dear, dear Gerald Henderson (sigh) went coast to coast for the game winning basket, with that beautiful pacing and hesitation at the top of the key. Magical. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the nail biting and cursing didn’t stop until the clock showed 0.0, but that shot reminded me that YES, Duke actually IS a good basketball team. Whew.

Other observations:

-Marquette really better get their shit together if they’re gonna beat Stanford as I have picked them to. Dominic James is a baller and needs to start playing more like it.

-Male co-workers really don’t know what to do with a girl who’s actually interested in random tournament games. Really. It’s awkward.

-Yes, 100%. That’s RIGHT I picked Kansas St. A guy named Beasley beats a guy named Mayo any day. Come on.

-Does Bob Knight think he’s better than the suit jacket and tie? Yes, apparently he does.