The Night Frank's Bracket Died

And I was singing
Toast, toast, my bracket is toast
I was feelin brash, talkin trash
But now I've no right to boast
It all slipped away while I watched Memphis coast
Sayin oh my gosh my bracket is toast
Oh my gosh my bracket is toast

And just like that, my hopes of a respectable finish in my various pools slipped away as Kansas and Memphis advanced into the Elite Eight. Memphis simply took the wood to Michigan State in the first half, leading by 30 at the half. Some thoughts from tonight.

1. Just like Georgetown, Wisconsin was significantly bigger than Davidson on the block yet, bafflingly, couldn't get much scoring production down low (Stiemsma, Butch, and Landry were a combined 6 of 16 for the game). Whatever Davidson is doing to keep their opponents bigs from scoring in the paint, let's hope they can find a way to keep it up against Kansas.
2. If the T-Wolves by some miracle end up with the first or second pick of the draft, they should take Derrick Rose over Michael Beasley. I just don't see Beasley complementing Jefferson very well and Rose would be a beast in the backcourt with Foye and Brewer, with McCants coming off the bench for scoring. So a starting lineup of Jefferson, Foye, Rose, Brewer, and a more defensive minded F/C. That starts to sound promising...
3. Glen Dorsey is a chump. Only a chump would trash talk a guard after an open court dunk in a game where his team is leading by 20+.
4. I can admit it, I was completely wrong about my prediction that Wisconsin would make the Final Four.
5. Brook Lopez had a pretty good game tonight even though Stanford lost. Get ready for the local papers to hype him up when the Wolves miss out on Beasley & Rose and end up taking Lopez with the third pick. (Frank slams head into wall)

Anyway, a disappointing night of blowouts. Rory is back in town from Iraq so the Caboose & I are driving to Marshfield tomorrow to visit for his welcome back party. Be sure to check out his blog (Duty, Honor, Country) for some of his tales from the front.

Thursday Tournament Observations

Some thoughts while watching basketball and recovering from my own craptacular performance on the court tonight:

1. North Carolina is good. Like, really good.
2. Kevin Love is this year's Sean May. Look out for the man-child over the next two weeks.
3. Josh Ship's confidence is shot. He's passing up shots he would normally take...and make. If UCLA is going to win this thing, they need him to play well.
   
4. The big winner from last weekend's games was Wisconsin. Tomorrow they get to play Davidson instead of Georgetown and then (if they win) get to play perennial choke artist Kansas. Pencil the Badgers in for the Final Four.
5. Drew Lavender's ankle seems healed. Xavior could be a pretty tough match up for UCLA.
6. If Louisville shot better from the charity stripe, I would take them over North Carolina. But they don't, so I won't.
7. Darren Collison scored 4 points against Western Kentucky. That's right, the all-american scored 4 against a 12 seed.
   
8. March Madness in HD is the greatest idea ever.

Hopefully Friday is just as much fun!

Scotch, Ham, and Broken Brackets

Some people cannot imagine enjoying a football game without cold beer. Others cannot imagine taking in an afternoon baseball game without a hot dog with all the fixins. In much the same way, I cannot imagine watching the first round of the NCAA Tournament without a fine single malt scotch on hand. There's something about the smoky sophistication and slow, savored sipping of scotch that seems to pair well with way Tournament games gradually build in intensity before their frenzied finish.

On that note, this weekend certainly saw its fair share of frenzied finishes and left many of us staring at the shattered remnants of our broken brackets, wondering just what had happened and how were we supposed to feel about all this? Some of the big events of the weekend:

1. Georgetown is upset by Davidson. Simply unreal. I've probably watched Georgetown more than any other team this year and have seen them win close game after close game in the uber-competitive Big East, gritting out wins on the road at Marquette and Villanova. Not only is this team talented and well coached, throughout the year they have been lucky, a trait that is imperative to have if you hope to make it far in the tournament (see UCLA for another lucky team). I'm speechless that Georgetown lost to Davidson, just speechless. Of all the power teams coming into the Tournament, they seemed to have the easiest path to the Final Four, their only serious obstacle being perennial choke artist Kansas. The only upside of this loss is that it likely ends any chance that Georgetown's Roy Hibbert ends up as a lottery pick, and makes the nightmare I had a few months ago about Kevin McHale drafting Roy Hibbert #1 overall an almost impossible scenario. Almost...

2. Stanford comes through in the clutch. Like Kansas, Stanford is a club that regularly finds a way to choke spectacularly in the NCAA Tournament. Imagine my confidence watching this game with my uncle Bill (who had picked Stanford to win) as Marquette scored to take the lead in OT and Stanford prepared to inbound the ball with less than 10 seconds on the clock. I thought I had this one in the bag. But no, Stanford kicks the ball down low to Brook Lopez who hits a one-handed, fade-away hook shot while spinning towards the baseline over an outstretched defender with one second on the clock. Seriously? Brook Lopez comes up with a clutch one-handed, fade-away hook shot while spinning towards the baseline over an outstretched defender with one second on the clock to win the game? That's how Stanford stays in the tournament? If Georgetown hadn't found a way to blow an 11 point half-time lead, this would have been #1 by a long shot.

3. UConn and Drake both bow out in round 1. How many people had Western Kentucky playing San Diego to make the Sweet 16? Seven? Eight? People will discover Jimmy Hoffa's body and the secret to cold fusion before you find somebody that picked that match up. That's what March Madness is all about!

4. Clemson and Vanderbilt go home early. How quickly the mighty fall. Not a week ago, Clemson was giving North Carolina all they could handle in the ACC Tournament championship and Vanderbilt was coming into the Tournament after a solid SEC season. Both get bounced in the first round by Villanova and Siena. You think maybe the ACC and SEC weren't as good this year?

5. Duke spends another April going to class instead of going to the hole. Is there any sight in sport more satisfying that watching Duke lose? I submit that there is not. Not even the Yankees can touch the Blue Devils for smug arrogance. The funny thing is that everybody seems to understand and feel the same way about this without even talking about it before hand. It's a primal desire of human nature to see hubris laid low by an underdog, to see the powerful and tyrannous humbled by ordinary mortals. Ahh the satisfaction.

And as I think about the warm satisfaction Duke's loss gave me, it seems like a good place to end this post. As always, the first round of the NCAA Tournament delivered thrills like no other event and time of the year, I hope everybody had a chance to enjoy it!

Return of the Shaq

After winning their seventh game in a row last night, I think it is safe to say the Shaquille O'Neal trade is working out for the Phoenix Suns.

The trade has been analyzed every which way, with proponents and opponents either praising or criticizing Steve Kerr for making such a bold move. Despite all of this analysis, the bottom line seems obvious to me: no matter how great a player Shawn Marion might be, trading for Shaq allows the Suns to compete and win against teams that like to ugly the game up with physical defense and post play, teams such as San Antonio and Dallas, who have combined to eliminate the Suns from the playoffs the past three years.

Good to see Shaq, one of my favorite players, experiencing a second renaissance in Phoenix.

Sleuthing the Slowdown

Today's New York Times has a fascinating article detailing some of the more nuanced questions concerning the recent purchase of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Chase. Of course, what remains so fascinating about all of this is that we have been through similar economic situations before, yet nobody seems to learn from their past mistakes! The media does not seem optimistic about the prospects of people learning from this round of trouble.

With the amount of uncertainty still left in the market and the slow pace that this uncertainty is being wrung out, I think it will likely be an economically frosty 2009. Let's just hope we do not start to have runs on banks and serious employment problems, as those will truly be signs of a crisis beyond control.

Grab those profits while you can and wait for the dust to settle folks!

Lost in the Maddness

It's the most wonderful time of the year
Where there's vicious rebounding
The shots are astounding
And we all get to cheer!
It's the most, wonderful time, of the year!

March in Minnesota is a tough time. As I recently heard Garrison Keillor describe it, "March is God's way of showing people who don't drink what a hangover feels like." The streets are sloppy and obnoxious to drive on. Melting snow reveals the trash and debris that has been deposited into snow banks throughout the winter and must now be picked up. The sky teases with days of sunshine and warmth, then cruelly returns us to blizzards and freezing rain at the drop of the hat. In this land of gray bleakness and false springs, it's easy to feel as if all hope is lost, that the ring has been returned to Sauron, that the Death Star has destroyed the rebel base on Yavin IV, that Betamax has rendered all of your precious VHS tapes worthless. In short, everything is wrong in the world and there is little hope it will be made right.

It is no coincidence, in my opinion, that the powers that be picked this most hopeless time of year, as season of frayed nerves and tears, to host the most splendid celebration of western civilization, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Endless word's have been written about the splendors of the NCAA Tournament, all of them letters of love to the basketball gods thanking them for such a display. There's no doubt the unique structure of the Tournament, a one-and-done fest of the nation's best teams, attracts many admirers, myself among them. Thought I would take a quick moment to jot down some of the things I love most about the Tournament.

1. Everything changes as the tournament progresses. One of the best parts of March Madness is that the way you feel about a team is in constant flux based on what else is going on in the Tournament. You might love Texas against a smaller, quicker team like Marquette, but how will they hold up against the low-post power of Stanford? Georgetown might seem an obvious match up nightmare for a smaller, more one-dimensional team like Kansas State, but how will they fare against the tall, deep squad from Wisconsin? This constant state of flux fascinates and frustrates and makes it so every round, every game is a must see just because you have no idea what will happen.

2. It's a family affair. I realized yesterday that this is the first time in over a year that I have eaten two evening meals in row that were not cooked by me and did not involve fast food or a restaurant. I'm not kidding, this is why I love March Madness. Every March, my dad and I spend a solid 4 days screaming at the television while Mom whips up delicious, ingenious food hour after hour. It completely amazes me the kind of creativity she can show in a simple food like quesadillas or pizza. Dad gets more animated at sports than any other time of the year, and I just feed off his energy taking our enjoyment of the game to a new level with each passing night. Caboose gets involved with sports in a way he usually doesn't, coming down to shout at the television and whoop in celebration as Duke gets bounced from the Tournament. All of this blends into four solid days bonding with my family, whom I love and admire tremendously.

3. Bonding with coworkers. Personally, I love all the press about companies losing billions in productivity every year because of March Madness. I love it because it means employees would rather focus on bonding with each other in the celebration of competition than concentrate on the daily grind. It's an affirmation that, no matter how materialistic and shallow our culture might become, people still have enough sense to focus on an event that celebrates powerful human emotions at their most basic and raw: losing and winning, humiliation and celebration, failure and triumph.

4. Kids become heros. As many of the NCAA commercials hammer home, most of the kids that play in the Tournament will never play professionally. For most of them, this will be the biggest stage they will ever play on, and for the seniors, it will be the time they get to lace em up and hit the hardwoods. And for some lucky few, they will get to be their school's hero for a day, a shining example of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

5. Gus Johnson. Most of the year, we are tortured by horrendous sports announcing. Just think of the travesties unleashed upon us by John Madden, Al Michaels, and the other major announcers throughout the NFL season and the overall poor color commentating that goes on throughout the NBA season. Amidst this steady stream of mediocrity stands out Gus Johnson, the finest color commentator on television today, and a professional at his finest during March Madness. Watch this clip and tell me you don't get fired up.

So there you have it, my top five for the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully this marks the return of regular posts to Minnesotan on the Loose!