Friday, April 23, 2010
Teboned
The Broncos drafted Tim Tebow, sidearm throwing, jump-pass making, linebacker-looking, jerkface of a quarterback out of Florida, the one non-Big East school that I truly hate. Had to get that out of the way. I threw up in my mouth a little bit when I typed it and I can feel some wooziness and a high fever coming on as we speak. The kicker, though, is despite the fact that the Broncos started out with two first round picks (11th and 14th), they ended up trading about 14,000 times on the first day, moving down in the first round, moving out of the first round, and giving up about 3 more picks to move back into the first round to get Tebow 25th. The word on the street is that Tebow was such an attractive option because his character was in order (no complaints here, at least we won't get another whiny baby like Jay Cutler) and that he'd changed his throwing motion to one more conventional and conducive to professional football. In regards to that, assuming he's been throwing a football since he was 5, that's about 17 or 18 years of throwing the ball sidearm. So yes, I'm sure 2 months of practice will defeat all of his bad habits that he has had his entire life. That would be like me practicing for two months to never use the word "the" in conversation. Sure it would work out sometimes, like in this sentence perhaps, but in the (damn) long run, I would relapse under pressure when it matters most. Not a perfect comparison but good enough.
There are two theories on why the Broncos decided to pick Tebow. I'll start with the undoubtedly negative and horrible one first, and then move on the the extremely cheesy and optimistic one. Anyone who knows about the Broncos knows about their tradition of getting my hopes up and then cruelly dashing them again and again. I think I've told this story before, but it all comes together I promise. Two years ago, the Broncos made history by giving away a 3 game lead with 3 games to play. Yeah, they were the first team ever to do that. Like having the Guiness world record for longest time staying awake. Sure you get recognized for something, that's positive. But it leaves you wanting to just lie down somewhere and not talk to anybody for a month. Last year, Denver made no history but had an arguably more impressive collapse. They started 6-0, the playoffs were a certainty, their coach was a genius, we couldn't be happier. Before we knew it, 2 wins and 8 losses later, we once again were golfing in January. Here's where the theory comes in. The Broncos drafted Tebow to make him our quarterback and go 0-16 to top all of our previous failures once and for all. Then again, can you call it a collapse if you never had any hopes to begin with?
Theory number 2: The Broncos are in fact the TC Williams high school football team from Remember the Titans. A new guy moves into town and wants to play quarterback. At first, you have your doubts. He's not a classic quarterback, doesn't have all the moves down that most QB's do, but he's athletic and can be trained. This comes in the midst of a change of head coaches and all of the players are on edge. One of the main characters gets kicked off the team (or traded in the Broncos' case). The coach looks for players with integrity and desperately tries to hold the team together. He also wants to win. No matter what. Quote: "We're just trying to win a mother f***ing game!" The previous statements are all true for both teams now. Here's what will be true. In the championship game, the quarterback stars on defense as well as offense, and Tim Tebow could do just that. He's built like a linebacker with a neck like a Doric column. He will be able to lead block for the Fake 23 Blast with a Backside George Reverse just like Sunshine did for the Titans. Last play of the Super Bowl with time winding down, put the ball in the hands of Kyle Orton and he will run 75 yards for a touchdown, no doubt about that. So Tim Tebow is the key to winning the Virginia high school football state championship. That's what I've determined, and the Broncos are finally going to have some hardware at the end of the season.
One more bit of sports before we move on. This no longer is applicable, but it was at one time. The NHL has proven to be much more efficient in running its postseason than the NBA. NBA playoffs are the most ridiculously drawn out and unnecessarily long postseason of any sports league ever. Including this one. The playoffs started in April when I was still not worried about my final exams and will not conclude until over a month after I get home in late June. NHL playoffs aren't too much better, but hear this. The first round of NHL games were over, with two series lasting 7 games, before the NBA even had all of their series play 5 games. There were numerous occasions where teams would have two off days in a row. That never ever happens in the regular season. Take notes on how the NCAA does basketball. 3 weekends, 6 rounds, best sports event ever. If I wanted to watch something that lasted two months I would watch the World Cup twice. Once in English and once en Espanol. You know why. Goooooooooaallllll!!!!!
On another topic that has absolutely nothing to do with anything I've been talking about, I recently began to suspect that fire alarms are not totally being used what they were meant for. I came to this conclusion whilst at Syracuse and had some very bad experiences with said alarms. Way way back in freshman year (I know, I can't believe it either), I lived in a dorm that had more "fires" in one year than any building ever in the history of the world. It seemed like every night we would be awakened by a shrill siren and a cheery "Attention: an emergency has been reported in the building. Do not use elevators. Have a nice day, and good luck taking your midterm tomorrow on 3 hours of sleep!" I managed to avoid every single alarm in my building this year besides the 11 PM one where it was snowing and I was in sandals, but I'll mark it down as a win. However, the dorms weren't my problem this year. One day I was in Whitman where they had a fire drill, walked across the street where the alarm of the building I walked into promptly went off inside of 5 minutes later. First, what is the point of a fire drill? Most people get told when they're happening, fail to take them seriously, and end up staying in their room with the door locked and the lights off. This attitude just so happens to carry over to every single burnt popcorn/pot smoking/birthday candle incident that the super-sophisticated systems at the Cuse pick up and determine are about to burn down every building on campus. Not a fan. I'm not saying that there isn't a chance of a fire in a dorm. I'm saying that by now most people know how to get out of a building and that you should just get off our backs about it.
As you may know, I like chicken nuggets a fair amount. Alright alright, I would walk back to Cuse from Clifton Park barefoot if I found out they were serving chicken nuggets. However, I would have some trouble believing SU Food Services if they said they were for lunch today. Here's the story. At the end of the year, Syracuse does students the favor of helping them to procrastinate studying for their finals with study breaks, serving some food between 9:30 and midnight. They even tell you beforehand about the food that will be served during each of the breaks. Imagine my surprise when I walk into the dining hall in April, look up at the monitor, and see that Tuesday, May 11 is finger food day, with special guest chicken nuggets. I immediately checked off the date on my calendar and got ready by washing all of my tupperware and clearing out a backpack to put all of my nugg conquests in to hold me over for the summer. This was a unique opportunity. First semester, the dining hall had nuggs every Tuesday like clockwork. Second semester, not so much. Every other week, sometimes Mondays, sometimes Thursdays, they were like lightning. You'd never know where they were going to be or when they were going to be there. Well, when they tell you where the nuggs are going to be, we have a Back to the Future situation on our hands. The only way to know where lightning is going to strike is if it hits a clock tower, freezing it at the exact time it strikes, and you get a pamphlet on said clock tower's illustrious history. Oh, and you have to have a time machine to go back to the strike itself. Well, the study break was my time machine and Ernie Davis dining hall was my clock tower about to get struck by the golden brown lightning that is chicken nuggets. I spent weeks preparing for the moment, getting ready for the one-point-twenty one jiggawatts of deliciousness I was about to harness. Only one problem. Food services neglected to tell me that when they said they were serving chicken nuggets at the study break, they actually meant that there would be no chicken nuggets to be found. So yeah, just a little bitter over that little incident.
One more thing to conclude this rapidly lengthening and making up for the month of lost time post. I recently went to Boston to visit my best friend with another one of my best friends. They both are Red Sox fans. I am a Twins fan. So, obviously, we went to see a Red Sox vs. Twins game. Mistake on my part, as the Twins decided not to try. At all. They did get a couple people on base the first few innings. However, they legitimately managed to hit into double plays every single time. And the Sox had no problems hitting homeruns every inning or two, and soon enough I left Fenway Park with a sense of disappointment and disdain. Only thing that made up for it was the fact that after the game, I was having chicken quesadillas with two of my best friends who...sniff sniff...I will not be seeing very mush of this summer. So here's a shout out to you two who made that a great two days and who I will miss terribly this summer.
Oh, I almost forgot. There was an impasse between who of us visitors would sleep on the couch and who would sleep on the floor. My friend said we should devise some sort of challenge, the winner of which would get the couch. I didn't think we'd have too much trouble thinking of one. While waiting for the quesadillas to cook, we played a game of HORSE with a ping pong ball and a glass of water. But, when the time came for a real challenge with real consequences, I thought of something better. After watching some How I Met Your Mother, I got a hankering to slap someone. So I told my friend that if he let me slap him in the face, he could sleep on the couch. He agreed. What followed was one of the greatest moments in my life. Not that I have anything against my friend, but that slap was so amazingly awesome that I think I may have just had an epiphany to solve the American economy because of it.
We need to gradually ween the US off of the dollar onto a new currency. Slaps. When you go to the grocery store, you get slapped twice to buy eggs, once for a candy bar, and so on. We could even implement fractional slaps. If they slap you above what the item costs, your change is slapping them back. You could take out loans if your face hurts too much and pay back a few slaps per month with interest. People would be a lot more careful about what they spend their slaps on, because impulse shoppers would just get pummeled every time they go out shopping. This system would foster savings, financial preparation for the future, and an overall toughening up of the cupcakes we call Americans. I don't see a single problem with it, and I think President Obama should consider setting the wheels in motion. Yes We Can...get slapped in the face.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
It's the Daily Orange, not USA Today
It's FYP, not Broadway
"First Year Players performed, to the best of their abilities, 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' this weekend as their annual show."
"Though the performance had many singing and acting flaws, it was expected of the freshman and first-year non-drama majors."
"Despite the enjoyable and entertaining plot and characters, First Year Players' Thursday-through-Sunday presentation of the musical "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" fell flat vocally."
To which I reply:
The Daily Orange wrote, to the best of its ability, a review of the First Year Players' production of 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.'
Though the article had many writing and phrasing flaws and sounds like it was written by a complete d-bag, it was expected of college students.
Despite the professional tone of the review, the article fell flat in terms of actual content.
I am starting to realize that I am a critic of the media and in making fun of the DO, I am becoming exactly the evil that I have sworn to dispose of: bad media. Seriously, these days any idiot can start a blog and write whatever the hell they want, and since it is on the internet, anyone anywhere can read it. You don't need talent to get an audience, just connections. In my eyes, there are many media outlets that could use a makeover. However, I acknowledge the media's ultimate importance to the survival and improvement of society. Right now, I think that a proper analogy would be this. The media is an extremely powerful tool, much like a calculator, when used properly. But, when misused, it is like someone typing in numbers to a calculator and flipping it upside down to read a funny word on it.
Media aside, sometimes there is no controlling how people react to different stories. Recently, charges have been pressed against Syracuse football player Delone Carter for striking a student he believes threw a snowball at his car. Turns out he was wrong and the student he gave a severe concussion to did absolutely nothing at all. These are the facts as told by a syracuse.com news story. I am absolutely disgusted with some of the responses made by readers.
-Over one lousy punch...cops got nothing better to do then play gestapo.
Syracuse hasn't changed in 60 years since I was there. Civil rights in the Cuse? LOL.
-Little Jimmy shouldn't throw rocks at bigger dogs, at 1 a.m. no less, deserved a punch, probably was talking smack too. Good for the footballers!
-These are the type that jump into the Gorilla pen wanting to play with the cute monkey and are stunned when he tears them apart.......but the soccer playing peeps think this is great
-This may be the most outragious story I have ever seen. This is really news? Someone throws a snowball at a car drivin by god knows who and they expect what? a handshake? Natural consequence, I feel
All of these represent the stupidity of a few people giving everyone else a bad name. The article states that the student assaulted did not throw the snowball, yet everyone assumes that he was just some punk kid looking to piss off some people and get away with it. He wasn't. So in response, here's my two cents.
-I'm standing on the street corner doing nothing but talking to my roommate and a D1 college athlete comes over and punches me in the face giving me severe injuries, apparently it's the normal progression of events and I deserved it for letting my face get in the way of his fist.
So the conclusion to draw here: nobody is perfect, the media and Joe Public especially.
I really want to get back on track, this has been quite the angry post so far. I recently attended my first auction. Like all good young masters of finance, I came with a pocketful of cash (it was in small bills to more easily facilitate 'making it rain'), I looked over the lots, and I went with a good idea in my head of what I wanted to buy. I told myself that I would put a limit on how much I would spend. Just so happened that the limit and the amount of money I had on me were the same. Once the auction started, I did a good job holding off bidding on the items I didn't want so much, and once one of the things I had my eyes on (cupcakes and a movie night) came up, I was ready. Bidding started at $5, and I jumped in pretty quick. Things got out of hand pretty quick, with the bidding to 10, 11, 12 dollars. I don't really remember clearly because of the adrenaline head rush that was driving me to bid higher and higher, but I'm pretty sure the number was $14 when my brain said, "Hey Tim, you might want to reconsider this whole bidding thing." I had to keep my eyes on the prize, so I vowed my return to bidding on another item would bring victory.
It did. But, funny story, it was an item I had no desire for previously. I promise the purchase was entirely pragmatic. It was a polo shirt from Abercrombie. I know, I'm the biggest prep in the world, and now I can finally show it. The shirt just looked all alone up there with nobody bidding on it. So I snagged it for a cool $5. Next, I made another impulse purchase. It was a Syracuse colored winter hat. It just looked soooo cool. With slightly less cash, I turned towards the real reason for my being at that auction. 3 words. Homemade. Chicken. Parm. I bid with the fervor of a man possessed. Bidding went to $10. Someone went to $11. I said $12. The competition hesitated for a half of a second. That's when I went for the throat, outbidding myself to $13. Turns out that people didn't want to bid against a crazy person, so I won. And it was de-fricking-licious. Last but not least, I won a homemade shirt that is probably going to be amazing. I was filled in on the process to make it, and it apparently involves ninjas, snipers, and Chuck Norris. I won this one by just threatening to overbid myself. No need to follow through this time, people were afraid of just the concept now. Advantage, Tim.
I think I need to take a nap. I ate my weight in chicken parm yesterday and its still hanging with me a little bit. Worth it? Worth ittttt.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
And Now I Relay This Information to You
Now that that matter is officially sealed up, Syracuse lacrosse officially dominated last weekend. They got to open the new Giants/Jets football stadium with none other than a lacrosse extravaganza. A multi-multi-million dollar facility, opened by a college sport that nobody, not even twice repeating national champion home of the tribes that actually invented the sport Syracuse University, can make money on. Less profitable than college women's basketball, baseball, and hockey. But we opened that mother up with a bang. Playing the #4 Princeton Tigers and we made them look like they were back in the old days playing naked with a pig skull for a ball. Just made them look foolish. 13-4. It was the first day of my life where I was a little hesitant to name-drop my father's alma mater. (But I'm not hesitant today, it's Princeton!) The point of this is that lacrosse is awesome, but only if you go to Syracuse. I'm looking at you, Cornell students. How about teaching your so called lacrosse team how to make a clear with a long-sticker slash checking while they run out of the attack box? Don't worry, it's a lacrosse thing.
The other highlight of my weekend was a little event called Relay for Life. Quick refresher: it's an event where a bunch of teams fundraise for cancer research and then walk around a track all night lit by luminaria in honor and memory of those afflicted with cancer (they raised over $153,000). I got to go with PSP, possibly the most interesting and awesome collection of individuals on the face of the earth. I compiled a list of the different laps (~1/4 mile) we tried throughout the night.
- Your heels can't touch the ground lap
- Do the same stupid dance move for the entire lap lap
- Leapfrog lap (only lasted about 1/8 of a lap)
- Carry a girl on your back lap (not to brag, I did 4 of these)
- Frislap (or lapbee, we're not picky) we did about 10 of these
And fun story, I didn't sleep at all. I planned on a 3 hour nap at 6 AM, but decided that breakfast with PSP-ers was more important instead. Totally worth it. So when I had to got to church at 9 AM to play bells, I had a solid 45 minutes of sleep under my belt. Then came an hour of practice, an hour of chatting, and an hour for the service. 12 PM, I finally trudge home to clean up and collapse because my arms and legs were threatening to secede from my body. Get to sleep around 12:45, just enough time to sleep 3 hours before my next event. PSP chapter, lasted 5 hours. So I do what any red-blooded American would do when faced with an empty stomach and closed dining halls. I bought 2 chicken quesadillas. Ate 'em up, got in bed at 10 PM and slept for 12 hours. What a day. Probably the first time in my life where an outside observer would've mistaken me for a narcoleptic.
Finally, a bit of current events. The Denver Broncos, my beloved but embattled (good word) football team, traded a top 3 wide receiver for 2 second round draft picks. Seriously, I'm not even biased, Brandon Marshall was one of the best. He tried harder than any other wide receiver I have ever seen. He was beastly, could outplay anyone to catch a pass. He caught a record 21 in one game. So what if he was a disruption to the team. So what if he lacerated every muscle, tendon, ligament, artery, vein, and whatever else you can lacerate in your arm after he was goofing off with his brother and got pushed through an entertainment unit. So what if he punted footballs in frustration at practice. So what if he got in trouble for substance abuse. Wait. I'm realizing something. Maybe he was a detriment to the team. Well, here's a link for you. The gist is that ESPN seems to think that now the Broncos are chomping at the bit (equestrian humor haha) to draft Dez Bryant out of Oklahoma State. Interesting. The thing about Dez Bryant is...he's the same fricking guy! He got suspended for basically an entire college football season because he lied about stuff to people. He's been continuously reprimanded and demonized and is one of the biggest controversies of the draft. So why wouldn't the Broncos want a wide receiver of his moral fiber? People are stupid.
I apologize for my lackluster blog, college basketball is over so get used to it. I'll hopefully get next week's out on time. If I don't...I will...I don't know. I'll put out my blog on Whensday. Promise.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
SPIN MOVE!
- I want you to build up the blog in your head because of all of the anticipation, disappoint you when it's not as good as it should be, and study the range of emotional reactions that I see. It's all part of a psychology experiment I've been undertaking ever since the age of 5. Surprise!
- Tuesdays are Dinosaur Stampede Day here in my dorm...it's hard to think with the stegosauruses and triceratops running down the hallways.
- I've recently created a new religion, which celebrates the birth of Chester A. Arthur, requires all members to sport amazing facial hair, and takes a sabbath on each Tuesday. No work on those days.
I am officially out of material when it comes to my main staple, college basketball. As you may know, or not if you live in a cave or Iowa or something, the college basketball men's and women's championships were this week. We saw Butler vs. Duke and Stanford vs. Connecticut. And by we saw Stanford vs. Connecticut, I mean to say that we know that the Stanford and Connecticut women's basketball teams saw Stanford vs. Connecticut. Just for old time's sake, and for my sake as well, I'll just jot down some thoughts to carry me through a basketball-less 7 or so months.
Duke is officially the whitest team in the history of everything. Sure, they have players from other races. But what they have that other teams do not is Kyle Singler. Seriously, looking at this guy is like looking at the surface of the sun.

I know, I see it too. Looks like he's 12. In this case, whiteness overcame youth and Duke took home the 61-59 victory. Man I hate those guys.
In the case of the women's championship, I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you who won had I not seen SportsCenter on in the dining hall (sorria to the person I was eating with for my lack of attention). Well, here's what I found out. UConn came in to the game with a 77 game winning streak. That's like 2 1/2 seasons. No losses. And what's more, nobody even lost to them by single digits this year. That's not even fair. Well, this night would change that. Stanford came in looking to win. And UConn helped with the fact that from 17 minutes left in the first half to 7 minutes left in the half (a 1o minute period in the game), they scored a grand total of 0 points. 0. They missed 16 shots in a row. I don't think I've done that in my basketball career. With stats like that, the winner of the game should be obvious. UConn wins 53-47. Wait, did I just type that? Yes, UConn went through 1/4 of the game not scoring a single point. Ice cold from the field. And won. How screwed up is women's basketball? A friend put it best: "They should call the women's tournament the UConn Invitational."
As some of you may know, I've been enrolled in a ballroom dance class this semester. I know, pretty awesome, right? So I thought I'd conclude by imparting some knowledge onto all of you in terms of what some of the dances actually are.
- Foxtrot: It's like, if a fox could dance, it would probably dance like this.
- Chacha: Just move your hips around a lot and jerk your head around every time you change direction.
- Rumba: The guys stand there and "showcase their partner" (aka let her do all the work)
- Merengue: As long as you keep doing steps in groups of 8, you can do pretty much whatever the hell you want
- Waltz: Who knows? I skipped dance twice and this is what they went over both times. It is also the dance "randomly" assigned to me for the final exam.
- Swing: Twirl the girl, twirl yourself, repeat.
- Salsa: Not so tasty unless you bring tortilla chips.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Battle Royale: Sponsored by Centrum Silver
BASKETBALL TEAMS YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO BE A PART OF
1. Northeastern Men's Basketball Team.
And here's a picture of them:

Wow. I read that back and its a bit harsh. My bad. But what's done is done, it's not like I can go back and change what I just wrote. I apologize, you know who you are. You were just really upset that you had to wait an extra 24 hours to read this masterpiece and I am frustrated with my forthcoming lack of material due to the *sniff sniff* end of the Syracuse basketball season. But that's not what we're here to talk about. I'd much rather not write anything about it and pretend that it never happened. Instead, let's talk about the best holiday since Thanksgiving.
Easter? No. Passover? Not quite. I'm talking about National Orange Day. Last Wednesday was the glorious day of the year when the best color ever invented finally gets its due. At least, that's the theory. In reality, the execution wasn't quite there. I started the day strong with an orange collared shirt that I wore to work. That was just a warm up. I followed it up with the main attraction: plain orange sweatshirt, orange t-shirt, and yes, I wore my pumpkin pants. I walked out of my dorm with pride, only to be slapped in the face by an endless tide of blues, reds, chartreuses, burnt siennas, and whatever other frigging colors those darn college students are wearing these days. I walked into my first class. 35 kids. 3 wearing orange (including me). The teacher walks in wearing all black. Terrific. A funeral atmosphere for the death of my favorite color. Second class: 75 kids. I was literally the ONLY one wearing orange. What college do we go to? Syracuse. Syracuse what? Saltine Warriors? Dragon Slayers? Swashbuckling Armadillos? No. The Syracuse Orange. Is it too much to ask to wear that color one day out of the year? Because if it is you could become a Cornell Big Red or a Delaware Blue Hen for all I care.
On a lighter note, I did get to attend the NCAA Regionals in Syracuse last weekend. I have to tell you, they weren't so much fun when I was sitting in a mob of Cornell fans during the West Virginia-Washington game. But, halftime of Kentucky-Cornell was very entertaining. A 75 year old Washington fan (who had lost already) was complaining to an usher about those darn kids who were standing in front of him during the game. God forbid that Ivy League fans get excited when their team does well for once. So one of the aforementioned ne'er do well youths went to plead his case, which the old-timer did not take to so kindly. And I quote:
Old Guy- Nobody's talking to you! I'll punch you right in the face!
Now, someone threatening a kid whose age is 25% of his is a pretty good halftime show. But it got better. A well-meaning West Virginia fan (age ~50) decided to get in on the shenanigans. He yelled "Get a life pal!" about 15 times before the other guy realized. And he had a killer response:
Old guy- I'll punch you right in the face! [and later] I hope you lose too!
Zing.
And here I was thinking that going to a basketball game by myself was not going to be as fun. Although I have to admit, you can't scream at the top of your lungs at the people next to you if they are a 5 year old on one side and a 70 year old lady on the other. And they don't respond to chest bumps as well as college kids do. Or earthquake-inducing high fives. Kind of makes me appreciate the people who would go to games with me. So if you are out there and at one point put up with me yelling "KJ!" every time Kris Joseph touched the ball, thank you.
I think that's enough for one day. But I feel the need to put a list in here as I so love to do. In honor of the upcoming Sylvester Stallone/Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. I will come up with 5 movies that I'd rather see.
- Terminator 5, starring Jimmy Stewart as the Terminator and Danny DeVito as John Connor's great uncle, where Danny DeVito's character is continuously attacked by the new model of the Terminator, a happy-go-lucky song and dance kind of robot
- Nicholas Sparks' newest novel-movie, One Last Kiss, starring Hayden Christensen and Megan Fox as two young, beautiful people suck at acting, fall in love, fall out of love, and fall back in love, only to realize that nobody around them actually cares
- Rocky X, where X = whatever number Rocky movie they're on now, starring Sylvester Stallone as a boxer who loses, trains really hard, wins, and yells Yo Adrian!
- Whatever Twilight, Moonlight, Skylight I don't even know what's going on in that series. But whatever it is, it would be better than Sylvester and Ah-nold.
- Tropic Thunder. 'Nuff said.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Stop...Hammer Time
So here's what I think. Not very much. I honestly do not have the time to waste reading ponderous government documents that are inordinately long and verbose. I barely even have time to write a slightly below average blog each (almost) week. But, here's an argument against socializing health care. Who knows if it's even relevant, it's possible that it has nothing to do with anything. The problem with a Communist system is that there are no incentives for personal excellence. I know this is the point behind it, that everyone is equal, but seriously why should you be equal with a janitor if you went to school for 20+ years to be some kind of fancypants lawyer or something? Kind of what's happening here. Doctors are going to lose respect and reputability if everything has to go through the government. Salaries will go down. The idea of going through school for so many years that you could have a kid and put him through college in the time it takes to become a full fledged doctor will become less and less appealing. Next thing you know, the only doctors in the country will be John T. Ihavenothingbettertodowithmylife and Billy Q. Iamafraidtoleavecollege. I don't know about you, but writing those names down on emergency contact lists would be a bit too difficult for me. I once again make the disclaimer that that passage may in fact be completely useless and unrelated to everything ever.
See, I promised non-sports news this week. Now on to March Madness. You knew it was coming. First round was crazy. There were ups, downs, upsets, Syracuse not getting upset, and complete and utter heartbreak on the part of someone in my pool. I hope this person (henceforth known as bracket guy) does not mind my using their misery in this post. And if they do, I hope a big hug will suffice as repayment. So here's what happened (all times are estimates and may indeed be in the wrong order).
Thursday:
4:10 PM- Vanderbilt (4) scraps and fights its way back into a game that Murray State (13) had controlled the entire time. Vandy takes a 1 point lead with about 4 seconds to play. Murray makes a covered fadeaway from 18 feet away. Murray wins, bracket guy picked Vandy.
9:20 PM- Marquette, having opened up the second half on a 17-3 run, squanders a 15 point lead and drops into a tie with 2 minutes left. Nobody scores until Washington makes a shot with 1 second left. Game Washington. Bracket guy picked Marquette.
9:25 PM- UNLV sticks with Northern Iowa, winning for a lot of the time and nailing a 3 with 40 seconds left to tie the game. Northern Iowa responds with a 30 footer with 7 seconds to go, no sweat. Victory to Northern Iowa. Bracket guy had UNLV.
Friday
12:20 AM- Trailing most of the second half, Texas makes a miraculous comeback and forces overtime against Wake Forest. They go up 8-0 at the start of OT and Wake seems like they're waiting for their players to age a few more years before they score a basket. Wake comes back, assisted by 2-6 free throw shooting by Texas. Wake makes a fadeaway from the same spot Murray did earlier in the round. Wake takes it. Bracket guy went with Texas.
So the moral of the story: don't complain about how screwed your bracket is until you've lost 4 games on last second shots not just in the same round, but in the same day. Meanwhile, I hit 13 of 16 on the first day and took a mental snapshot of my 99.5 percentile bracket on espn.com. The next day I proceeded to go 10-16 and was ousted from first place in my pool.
Round 2. Storyline: Syracuse vs. Gonzaga. Syracuse still has not gotten Arinze Onuaku back from injury, and analysts say the Zags are "playing their best basketball of the season." Cuse could go the same way as Kansas and Nova did the day before. It didn't help that Rick Jackson, our only remaining big man, got 3 fouls pretty much before the opening tip. Oh wait, we have Da-shawn-tay Riley, almost didn't see him there because he's 7 feet tall and weighs about 45 pounds. And doesn't do very much. But he did have 0 rebounds in the game to go along with his 0 points, so thats a strong showing. In all fairness, the 1 assist he had was pretty sick. But that's beside the point.
Wes Johnson finally is back to being the best player ever (besides KJ of course). He could not miss a shot. He shot the way teams normally shoot against Cuse. And Andy. Too much to say about that guy. He does it all, and when he's hot, he's hot. Between the two of them, they scored 55 points. Compare it to Gonzaga's entire team. They got 65. Throw in Scoop's 13 points and we have 3 guys who outscored the other team by themselves. 87-65 final score, after the first 15 minutes it was never even a game. No lie, this is the second best I have ever seen Cuse play, the first being the time we beat Nova 95-77. Then again, I may be biased because I waited for 14 hours at the Dome for that one to start and my memory might be a little hazy, what with all of the sleep deprivation and hallucinations and whatnot.
I will leave you with this happy thought. After the bloodbath that was the first weekend of March Madness, I am left with only 4 of my Final Four teams alive. Ha! That's all of them! Count 'em- Ohio State, Kentucky, Baylor, Kansas State (just kidding...SYRACUSE!). We are looking primed for a national championship run. So, in conclusion, stay dry, stay awesome, and for goodness sake watch out for bad raspberries when you're picking out a batch to chow down on.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
MJ 2-4 Just Sounds Like an Awful Nickname
So on to the bigger picture of March Madness. I see some intriguing matchups (but will not give away my picks until the brackets lock on Thursday). In the South Region, I think 15 seed Robert Morris looks primed to make a run. Not only is the road to the Final Four paved for them with the blood of Scottie Reynolds and Villanova, history is on their side. Robert Morris is a founding father. What other important revolutionary figures have colleges named after them in past tournaments?
- George Washington University, named after first President of the United States George Washington (obviously)
- George Mason University, named after Bill of Rights architect George Mason
- Davidson College, named after Revolutionary War Brigadier General William Lee Davidson
- Georgetown University, named after a town named after the grandfather of King George III, mentioned several times in the Declaration of Independence as someone who pretty much sucked
- 2006- George Washington wins in the first round, Georgetown makes the Sweet 16 as a 7 seed, and George Mason makes the Final Four as an 11 seed
- 2007 (off year)- Davidson and GW lose in the first round, Georgetown makes the Final Four as a 2 seed
- 2008- George Mason loses in the first round, Georgetown loses in the second round (to Davidson), Davidson makes it to the Elite 8 as a 10 seed
- 2009 (off year)- Robert Morris loses in the first round
So that takes care of the South and Midwest regions. West, easy. There's this one team there that's pretty good. And orange. Both are factors in them doing very, very well. That leaves one Final Four spot up for grabs in the East region. We'll take a look at the most intriguing match up. Team Let Down vs. Team Disgrace. Texas vs. Wake Forest. One team who started 17-0 and then lost pretty much everything. Another team who lost in the first round as a 4 seed last year, as well as losing to William and Mary, as well as 12th place in the ACC Miami (twice!). This is the selection committee's middle finger to these two teams. This is like March Madness's version of a drunk bum fight...possibly entertaining, probably means nothing. This is just a battle to see which one of them gets mauled in the second round by Kentucky.
While this was a short post, I'll try to keep updating it through the week. Sorry if you don't like sports, but it's all March Madness all the time until April. And maybe some other things so I don't lose 95% of my readers who hate it when I talk about sports.
