NCAA Hoops Post Mortem

Perhaps it's painfully obvious that having picked the Final Four (just like everyone else lame enough to pick the #1 seeds) I picked neither semi final outcome correctly.

The moral: Buying into a Tournament Pool is gambling. I lost no money. Let's hear it for UCLA in the F4 next year.

Bruisin' Bruins

As I daftly predicted (or is that deftly?) the Bruins secure a F4 slot. And look rather balanced against Xavier the Deposed.

In other really important updates I picked 10 of the S16 and 5 of the E8. My F4 picks are all still viable and favored. And the #1 seeds (I know, not very creative). And short of Davidson making things exciting the #1 seeds appear entirely worthy of the F4.

Being a guessing man, I'll sugguesst that Memphis is the 1-seed most vulnerable. Sharpen them 'horns, Texas.

NCAA eh? The Bruins Year

One of the things I have acquired in seminary is an interest in the NCAA Basketball tournament. I attribute this to a variety of factors: Bruins as F4 staple, strong WI representation, classmates who are nutty fans of Duke, Florida, Aggies, etc.

I don't know much about basketball. Me filling out a bracket is tantamount to gambling if there's money involved, which there isn't. I have no clue how bracket points work. But the bracket is a lot of fun and my being relatively neutral makes it pretty straightforward.

My prediction: Bruins take it all this year. Over UNC. No, I can't make any kind of reasonable guess at the final score. And maybe another championship will somehow convince UCLA that the pasty blue color should be replaced with something more noble.

I missed 5 picks in the 1st round, only 2 of which effect my S16. Thanks for nothing IU, Clemson, Vandy, Drake, and U-Conn.

Don't expect my lack of knowledge or pecuniary commitment to keep me from crowing and whining at every round. Since there's nothing riding on my predictions look for this to be a year when I could have made millions on my bracket (and promptly given it all to starving 3rd world seminarians).

Achilles sets his armor down.

I am officially the first person (on this blog) to break the story that Brett Favre is retiring.

Raised a Cowboys fan, Green Bay wasn't a team to root for so much as a team to contend against. But, and this makes me the worst sports fan in existence, I'm a sucker for a juggernaut.

It's proven impossible to live in Wisconsin and resent the Packers. They haven't exactly been a juggernaut in seasons past but Brett Achilles Gunslinger The Man Favre is irresistably likeable.

If you listen to Wisconsin sports radio you can bet quarters to nickels that any given show will have a Brett Favre update. One might get tired of hearing about Favre. One might wonder how so much of Wisconsin life/economy/religion can revolve around Favre.

But then again, my uncle and cousins made a special trip from CA to see Greenbay play at Lambeau last season. They shut the Vikings out at Lambeau. The trip was worth every penny to them, and that's no few pennies any more.

I have missed the opportunity to see the closest thing we might have to Achilles on the plain of Troy. Really, no matter who you root for, if you're going to see one pro football game before you die, wouldn't it have to be Favre and the Packers at Lambeau? Maybe your team against Favre and the Packers at Lambeau?

And it has become in the last decades playing Favre and the Packers, not the Packers and Favre. He is the face of immortality for this generation of the team and perhaps the league.

He wasn't perfect. Now the endless arguments will commence about just how great he was/wasn't. But it's no small thing to go public with your triumphs (all the records, Super Bowl MVP) and tragedies (painkillers). And fans don't want perfection (which is why Tom Brady will never sell more jerseys than Favre), they want a hero. They want to cheer for the guy who starts every game so excited he usually needs to get sacked once or twice in order to settle down and throw for immortality.

Well done Mr. Favre. Thanks for giving people a reason to love big sports.

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Great article online here.

When American Football gets its Rugby on

Why does it take division III football to get plays like this?






Notice that the last defender misses because he defends the man who should have received a lateral and, in the surprise of the play, the ball carrier holds onto it.