How 'Bout Them Wildcats?

Raise your hand if you thought Villanova was going to make the NCAA tournament 8 days ago. (A few hands go up.) Okay, now raise your hand if you thought they would be in the Sweet 16 after the first weekend. (All hands go down.) Yeah, that's what I thought. But, sure enough, after routing Siena in the second round (take that Albany!), 'Nova has advanced to play Kansas next week, confirming what most people thought before the season started - that Villanova was the best college team in Philly.

When 'Nova is on, they can beat anyone in the country. And they are really going to have to be on to beat the Jayhawks. Either way, it's been a pretty sweet ride thus far. Go Cats. And go Butler, who is currently down by four to Tennessee at halftime.

UPDATE: Butler has bowed out in overtime against Tennessee, the final score being 76-71. Mike Green had 15 points, 5 assists and 7 rebounds, but was a not-so-great 4-17 from the field, and 6-10 from the line. Still, a valiant effort all around, and hopefully Mike will find himself on an NBA roster come October.

March Madness. Gotta love it.

Looks Like There Will Be A Philly Team At The Big Dance After All

Ah, college basketball. I'm essentially indifferent towards you - until March. Then I care quite a bit. This of course does not make me different than quite a few Americans, especially those from Philadelphia. The great thing about growing up here is that you can root for any one of six different teams (LaSalle, Temple, St. Joes, Villanova, Drexel and Penn) come tourney time, provided none of them are your alma mater. And even then, you can root for another one of them to succeed. (The downside of having these six teams is that they all fight for local talent and therefore, with a few rare exceptions, none of them are ever that good.)

At least one of them, however, is always pretty good. There hadn't been a year in my lifetime where one Philly team didn't make it to the NCAAs. This year, however, was shaping up to be that year. (The last time it happened was 30 years ago.) Nova is too young. Ditto for LaSalle. Penn somehow didn't win the Ivy League. Drexel was Drexel. And St. Joes and Temple were both decent teams peaking at the right time, but it seemed like too little too late. Until last night.

St. Joes(#5 seed) upset Xavier(#1) for the second time in two weeks in one A10 conference semi final, and Temple (#2) cruised past Charlotte(#6) in the other. Considering the one of these teams has to win the A10, and therefore will secure an automatic bid in the tourney, the streak of Philly appearances will live on. (It's also possible at this point that both of these teams will make it, with the loser gaining an at large bid.)

So there you go. The game is tonight, and I couldn't care less who wins. (Temple probably will.) Now I've got a rooting interest in the tournament, even if it will almost definitely be over by the end of the first round. After that, at least I"ll still (hopefully) have Butler.

The Rematch

Ohio State and Florida are to play for the national championship for the second time in 2007. Only this time it will be basketball instead of football. What were the odds of that happening? Has it ever happened before? Probably. But I'm not the man to look it up.

Now, what are the odds of Florida delivering a severe anal pounding to Ohio State much like they did in January? I would say quite good. But you never know. I'm the same jackass who wrote that OSU was clearly the weakest team remaining in the Final Four, and they didn't have too much trouble with Georgetown. So we'll see. Let's just hope it's better than either of today's games were.

Also, OPENING DAY IS TODAY. Fuck and yes. Baseball. Mmmmmmmm. I can officially be happy from now until April 14th, when the Phillies are 2-9. God I hate loving them.

The Final Four. Finally.

And then there were four. Two #1 seeds and two #2 seeds. Boooorrrrriiiinnngggg. Upsets? You want upsets? Watch women's basketball. Rumor has it Rutgers beat Duke. But seriously folks, despite a boring first two rounds, the tournament has been pretty exciting since. Plus, I got three of the four teams right - I was wrong on OSU - and can still win the coveted bragging rights over strangers that the JCMJ pool offers.

My (essentially knowledge-free and therefore useless) thoughts on each of the final four teams:

Georgetown: Streaky, yes, but this team could be down 20 with 7 minutes to play and still win easily. Then can just shut teams down, as they did for the last 12 minutes of the UNC game today (Overtime included). 15-3 in overtime! That's why I think these guys win it all. Defense. Plus, Jeff Green is the best player left in the tournament not named Oden.

Florida: Probably the most complete team in the field. They can score. They can rebound, They can D up. And they do all the little things right. Outside shooting is not a strength though, which is why I think they will have trouble with a big team like G-Town. Still, if it weren't for the fact that Joakim Noah is such an asshat, I probably would have picked them to win. But I can't root for him. He's a very good player that I would welcome with open arms to the Sixers, but geez, what a douche.

UCLA: Athletic as all hell. Can defend very, very well. They can run. They aren't great shooters, but no team left in this tournament shoots particularly well from distance. If this team gets hot they could easily get revenge on Florida. I honestly haven't seen that much of them this year, but even I knew to pick them over Kansas. I mean, come on. It's Kansas for crying out loud. I still think Florida will be too much to handle for this team though.

OSU: The block to end the Tennessee game was awesome. Greg Oden, my hat is tipped. But I'd still draft Durant. A 6'10" 18 year old who can score from 25 feet? I'm sold. However, Oden is a force defensively. You really can't drive to the hoop on him, but Georgetown has the size to keep him in foul trouble and the shooting ability to keep OSU spread out. The rest of the Buckeyes scare no one, despite solid play - especially from Lewis - throughout the tourney. Easily the weakest remaining team of the final four, so don't expect them to play for the championship.

But it's March. Anything can happen. All I know is that if the Hoyas beat the Gators next weekend, I get to gloat to a bunch of strangers. Fingers crossed baby. Fingers crossed.

Hey, You(SC), Box Out!

Offensive rebounds. If you allow your opponent to get them, you will lose. This is a guarantee. It's like missing free throws. You just wont win if it happens. Tim Floyd needs to work with his team on that over the summer. Box the fuck out. Do it, and you beat UNC. But you didn't, and now my bracket has seen better days. Thank God the refs gave Jeff Green a passport and let him travel. Go Hoyas. Lousy Smarch basketball.

My Connection to the Sweet 16

While watching Butler beat Maryland in the second round last weekend, I noticed someone named Mike Green grab a crucial rebound in the waning seconds of the game. He looked familiar, so I looked him up on ESPN.com. As it turns out, he was from Philadelphia. Why does this mean anything? Because when I was playing rec league ball in Philly when I was 14, there was a Mike Green on my team. And he was really, really good. And he looked just like the guy on Butler.

Sure enough, it's the same guy. The Mike Green I knew went to Franklin Learning Center for high school. This Mike Green went to FLC. Granted, the Mike I played with eight years ago was 5'5", and the current Mike is 6'1", but still. It is definitely the same guy. In fact, he's actually pretty good. You can see his stats here. 14 ppg, 6 rpg and 4 apg for a junior are solid, solid Division 1 collegiate numbers. And I used to be on his team.

If I recall correctly, Mike, who was our version of Allen Iverson - bring the ball up, take most of the shots - averaged close to 30 points a game in a league where teams averaged around 60. He carried us to the finals, where we lost to a team (the Timberwolves) with 3 kids who were 6 feet tall and theoretically 14 or younger. When Mike left the game for the last time in the fourth quarter of the championship with us down at least 10, he got a standing ovation. And it was deserved. I think the rest of the team had 4.3 points.

He was so good my dad noticed him during tryouts before the teams were even drafted. My dad was waiting for me to try out, and Mike, whose last name came before mine alphabetically, played first. (Every six players alphabetically played 3 on 3 for about 5 minutes before all of the coaches.) When we left that night, my dad mentioned a really talented player named Michael Green. At the time, I didn't really think much about it.

Then, a couple weeks later, when the teams had been established, we (The Magic) had a scrimmage. We played the Sixers and won by a few points, with me dropping 17 and my coach calling me a sleeper. (Apparently I was a 6th round pick). At that point I had no idea Mike was on the team, because he wasn't at the scrimmage. After the game the coach mentioned that we would be even better with our first round pick, Michael Green. My dad heard this, and looked up from his magazine and said, "Michael Green is on this team?" My coach replied "Oh yeah".

The thing is, we were already good. Mike made us awesome. At the time I didn't realize how cool it was to play with someone of his caliber, someone who made everyone around him better. And now I can watch him play in the big dance. That, my friends, is fucking cool. And so, the point of this story, other than the fact that I dropped 17 points in an organized basketball game, is that it's a small world. You never know who might get famous, so make sure all of your friends and teammates autograph something you own. That, and the Timberwolves were a bunch of cheaters. 6 foot tall 14 year olds my ass.

Early Thoughts on the Madness

Only one real upset so far, and it couldn't happened to a more deserving team - Duke. I don't even care that I picked them to win (I'm currently in 3rd in the JCMJ Bracket Challenge). I'm just happy to see a team with the same letters as my old graf crew advance. I knew I should have picked them to honor Victimless Crime Unit. Oh well.

Georgetown started slow but handled their business. Oden looked good. Methinks Stanford didn't belong there. Effin' eggheads. Deep down they probably enjoyed the vicious butt-raping the 'Ville gave them. (When a guy who went to NYU is making gay swipes at you, your school is gay.) I got nothing against Stanford though. There were just more deserving teams, like Syracuse and Drexel.

Anyway, I'm heading to New York tomorrow to celebrate the birth of Maniac Magee and the magnanimity of some guy named Patrick who now has a day. A day for drinking. I'll be back Monday. Enjoy the tourney responsibly.

On the Brink of Madness

Well, it's almost here. It's that thing that makes everyone a college basketball fan in March. The Big Dance. Games all day tomorrow. Games all day Friday. Games all day Saturday. Games all day Sunday. And then there will be only 16 teams left. The selection committee overlooked the Fighting Violets of my alma mater, but we're pretty used to it by now. They're just scared we might win. It's not like NYU students need another excuse to get fucked up.

Anyway, who do I think will win? We'll, I honestly only filled out one bracket for the Just Call Me Juice Bracket Challenge. I think Georgetown will win it all, but one of my buddies pointed out that their guards might not be good enough to win the whole thing. This may indeed be true, but I'm betting that that front court will be too much for anyone to handle. Roy Hibbert is nasty when not in foul trouble. And Jeff Green is downright measty. But this is college basketball in March and anything can happen.

The rest of my Final Four includes Florida, Texas A&M and UCLA. But I'd be lying if I said I truly know anything about college basketball. I am a fair weather fan at best. All I am sure of is that when 'Nova takes on Kentucky on Friday, the Wildcats will win.

(Aren't I just too fucking clever?)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Selection Sunday. Baseball is 3 weeks away. The weather is getting nice. St. Patty's Day. February is 11 and a half months away. Hallelujah. The only downside right now is how much money the Patriots are spending. I hate the Patriots. Tom Brady's chin looks like my ass and yet he's banging Gisele? Weak. You go to hell Tom Brady. You look like a white Yao Ming. Seriously. You do.


Don't tell me you don't see a resemblance.

The Obligatory College BBall Post

I don't really care about college basketball. Or any college sport for that matter. I'm from a city with real (read: professional) teams and I went to a school whose mascot is The Fighting Violet. Well, officially we're the Bobcats, but aggressive purple things seems more appropriate when you consider the student body.

Anyway, while sitting through a shitty day at work, I at least got to watch the Villanova-Georgetown game yesterday. It was a sloppy game, with defense dictating the pace, but it was entertaining and came down to the wire. Nova led for almost the entire game and dominated the majority of the first half, only to allow a 9-0 run to close the half out, which was capped by a half court 3 pointer, making the score 29-27 in favor of Villanova.

Now as I said, I'm not a big college sports fan, but I do usually root for whichever of the Big 3 in Philly(Villanova, Temple, St. Joe's) are any good at the time. Last year Villanova was quite good, only to play like utter garbage come tourney time, with Randy Foye and Kyle Lowry carrying them to the Elite 8 where eventual champion Florida picked them apart. Foye and Lowry are both gone, and while Nova has a respectable record this year (18-8), it's clear they lack the go-to scorers they lost to the draft. This was painfully evident against #16 Georgetown, who was able to shut Nova down at times when they needed to. Georgetown is a very good defensive team - they recorded 14 blocked shots, including 8 by forward Jeff Green - but Nova still should have pulled away at times in this game. One reason they didn't (and another reason they were crappy in the tournament last year) - Mike Nardi, Senior.

He starts this year and he started for them last year, and I still have no idea why. Maybe it's because coach Jay Wright thinks he needs to start a white guy. Nardi doesn't disappear in big games, he poops all over the court. It would be much better if he didn't show up. Yesterday he scored 2 points on 1-6 shooting, had 2 assists and 1 rebound, and 2 turnovers and no steals - in 34 minutes! He was on the court for all but 6 minutes of the game, making a complete turd out of himself. The only shot he did make was an ill-advised runner in traffic that bounced off the rim 3 times before going in. He was on the court in the final minutes, when he was clearly outmatched. They needed this game to make the tournament, and now they almost definitely will not. Is Nardi the reason for all of Nova's problems? Of course not. But does anyone know why he logged the second most minutes on the team? Nope. He's one of two seniors leaving Nova this year (Will Sheridan is the other) and he will not be missed. Scottie Reynolds is a beast though, and only a freshman. Watch out for him, and Nova, next year.