the shrewdness of apes

lying in bed this morning staring at the map on the wall, i realized that Bahamas spelled backwards is Sam Ahab. after trying in vain to make a connection to Moby-Dick (is Samuel somehow the equivalent of Ishamel?), i decided to just type "Sam Ahab" into Google. as it turns out, the most prominent use of the name was in a deleted scene from the Beatles' movie Help!. filmed in the Bahamas, the scene has the boys hiding out at the "Sam Ahab School of Acting". i don't know what the significance of this is other than that someone working on that film had the same realization that I did and actually had a reason to use it. but as i've never seen the movie, maybe this is just a roundabout way of telling me i should put it in my Netflix queue.

Posted by Jamie at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

in the constant battle over energy policy in this country, we've finally started to see some progress as Al Gore and Hollywood combined to push global warming to the fore, and the newly Democratic Congress considers bills with actual teeth. there's a good chance that we're going to see serious action on the issues of carbon emissions and renewable energy in the next year.

that said, the global warming deniers have enough ammunition (ridiculous and misinformed though it may be) without people like Gore and John Edwards giving them extra ammunition. first Gore has his own energy use questioned by groups who wonder why his 10,000 square foot Tennessee home has an average monthly electric bill of $1,200. then i read today that Edwards' new home near Chapel Hill is over 28,000 square feet and includes a recreational building and 11 bathrooms. how ridiculous is that? this guy likes to play up his working-class roots and is pushing for a new global warming treaty. and while i'd certainly vote for him over the sickening pandering of Hillary, he's not helping his cause here (at least with me)

so much of the global warming and pollution debate had focused on vehicles like Hummers, while buildings quietly account for 43% of carbon emissions in this country, compared to 32% for transportation. buildings really represent a significant opportunity to reduce energy use in this country because the technology and materials to make them more efficient already exist. and by building "green" you save money in the long run through energy savings and potential tax breaks, even if you pay a small premium up front. all those extra rooms to heat, cool and power are much more wasteful than the terrible gas mileage of an SUV.

i'm not saying that people can't live in any home they choose, just that anyone who is preaching the cause of environmentalism, emissions reductions and responsible consumption needs to seriously consider their own actions. plus, these vulgar and wasteful displays of wealth serve only to highlight the disparities between them and the average American, making their admonitions and exhortations ring hollow. no one is asking them to take a vow of poverty, but a little more walking the talk would be helpful. build a (smaller) Energy Star home. utilize green building materials. put some solar panels on the damn thing. show people that it's easy to do these things and that cutting consumption doesn't mean cutting back on quality of life, and that practicing resource conservation doesn't have to mean dropping out of society and living off the land.

for those interested, my organization is helping to organize a large public rally and installation called Sea of People on April 14th in Lower Manhattan. check out the website and come out and participate to encourage Congress to take action on climate change. i think it's going to be a pretty cool event.

Posted by Jamie at 11:46 PM | Permalink

here's Steve Levy on SportsCenter tonight as they show "highlights" of a fight between a Maple Leafs player and a Devils player which he described gleefully as "lasting about 3 times as long as your average hockey fight":

"this is how hockey polices itself."

now apparently this fight took place in response to a rough hit that had been made in a previous game between the teams. but do you think it would have been described in such casual terms if it had taken place in an NBA game? or if it was a black baseball player charging the mound (think Milton Bradley)? could the racism be any more obvious? white NHL players are "police" while NBA players are thugs. i suppose it might go without saying that the (mostly) white audience was cheering the whole thing.

i'm not opposed to fighting in hockey, though i don't find it hugely entertaining. nor am i trying to condone something like Ron Artest going after fans in the stands (as much as those fans might have had it coming). i just think it's distasteful that the same people who tsk tsk when black players fight become cheerleaders when it's white guys involved. this is the same mindset that puts "scrappy" white guys like David Eckstein and Darin Erstad on a pedestal despite the fact that they're simply not very good players.

Posted by Jamie at 02:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

a conversation with the wife about the Ten Commandments prompted me to crack open our version of "The Children's Living Bible". i'm sure the answer is no, but have any of you actually read this thing lately? shit is crazy. check out Leviticus 11:29-38 as Jehovah fills Moses and Aaron in on some of the "unclean" animals:

"These are the forbidden small animals which scurry about your feet or crawl upon the ground: The mole, the rat, the great lizard, the gecko, the mouse, the lizard, the snail, the chameleon. Anyone touching their dead bodies shall be defiled until evening, and anything upon which the carcass falls shall be defiled - any article of wood, or of clothing, a rug, or a sack; anything it touches must be put into water, and is defiled until evening. After that it may be used again. If it falls into a pottery bowl, anything in the bowl is defiled, and you shall smash the bowl. If the water used to cleanse the defiled article touches any food, all of it is defiled. Any drink which is in the defiled bowl is also contaminated.

"If the dead body of such an animal touches any clay oven, it is defiled and must be smashed. If the body falls into a spring or cistern where there is water, that water is not defiled; yet anyone who pulls out the carcass is defiled. And if the carcass touches grain or be sown in the field, it is not contaminated; but if the seeds are wet and the carcass falls upon it, the seed is defiled."

got that? the potential defilements go on for pages and pages and i won't even get into the passages on menstruation and childbirth (quick summary: be prepared to offer some sacrificial animals to your local priest). but fortunately for Christians, Jesus saved them from such rules. Orthodox Jews are ostensibly still bound by these laws, but have been allowed to skip the sacrifices since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E. while this was interesting to learn about, it only served to reinforce that the more i learn about religion, the more peculiar it seems.

Posted by Jamie at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

for the 2007 Name of the Year ballot. a full 64-name bracket chock full of the whimsical, the strange and the downright ridiculous. votes are due by March 31, so there's still plenty of time to pick your (Joe) Favorito.

Posted by Jamie at 01:26 AM | Permalink

i'm a bit behind here after spending a few days taking in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, but this came from Harvey Araton in last week's NYTimes:

Come on now, who but 30-something, Buffalo-wing-eating geeks still camping out in their parents’ basement have the time or inclination to select the tournament field before they pick the winner? The rest of America will be perfectly content to wake up Monday morning with the brackets filled in for them as they prepare to do the office-pool thing.

i think Harvey has been reading my blog because that's pretty spot on except for the living with my parents part. and also the fact that i didn't quite get to finish picking the field. for the record, i think it ended up being pretty even-handed. personally, i would have taken Drexel and Appalachian State over Stanford and Arkansas for variety's sake, but overall i'm just looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

meanwhile Bill Simmons and I were writing in similar fashion. i'm not sure if that's a good thing. here's Simmons on Monday:

"I mean, did you SEE the first half of Saturday's Texas-Kansas game? Did you see him [Kevin Durant] drop 25 in the first half against the deepest team in college hoops?"

and me on Monday:

"i mean, did you see Eric Maynor completely will VCU to victory over George Mason?"

looks like bringing back this blog may be my ticket to the big time! i mean, hell the NFL Pudding Strike guy is now a writer for CBS Sportsline, so why not?

Posted by Jamie at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

everyone who takes the subway everyday knows that it can be an aggravating experience. such is life, i suppose. for me it's gotten a little bit sunnier due to the new techology being used on the L train. after long-term service interruptions that pissed off North Brooklynites for months, they now have displays in the stations that tell you how long until the next train arrives. the displays still say they are being tested, but they've been relatively accurate in my observation. this works out great because i can use the info to decide whether it's worth waiting for the train for my trip between 1st Ave. and Union Square or heading back outside and jumping on a bus. today, for instance, i just missed a train but saw that the next one was only 3 minutes away. sure enough, the next train came cruising in as advertised.

that's one small step in the right direction, but i want to be in charge of the MTA some day, or at least in charge of the day-to-day operations, so that i can get to the bottom of some of the other annoyances. such as:

* why do trains sometimes wait in the station as a local/express train pulls in on the adjacent track, but other times shut their doors and take off without waiting? who is making that decision? i hate it when i'm pulling in on the express while the local is pulling out (especially during non-rush hours when you know the next train is at least 8 minutes away, if not 15-20). or when i nd up waiting on the platform for 3 minutes for another train to "make a connection".

* why are there certain spots where trains always seem to be going slowly? i'm not talking about when there's heavy train traffic, but like when you've waited for 10 minutes so you know there's no trains directly ahead of you, but you're stopping in tunnel anyway. or when you take the same route every day but you never seem to be going anywhere close to top speed. i noticed this a long time ago on trains that go over the Manhattan Bridge; they always seem to be ambling along instead of running. but why? you never get a specific answer. it's always "red signals" or something equally nebulous. lately, i've noticed the trains slowing between Union St. and Pacific St. on the R/M line in the mornings and between Pacific St. and Dekalb Ave. on any train in any direction. is it because of track curvature? track disrepair? the presence of homeless squatters living down there? anyone else have any areas that they notice trains consistently operating below what would be considered a "normal" speed?

* why can't they extend the G train to 4th Ave so that it can connect to the M/R at 9th St.? there's still a 3rd track at the 7th Ave. station that they could use to turn the G trains around (currently they use the "express" tracks at 4th Ave. for this purpose), and it would make a valuable connection between the lines. instead, you have to get on the F train and go one stop to Smith/9th Streets in order to get on the G, which is highly annoying.

* why do some weirdos decide to sit right next to you, even when there are plenty of other open seats around that won't result in an invasion of your personal space?

OK, that last one doesn't have an easy answer, but egotistical masochist that i am, i'm pretty sure i could fix the other stuff. or, at the very least, offer up some reasonable explanations. while i'm in fantasy world, i'd also get people to actually let passengers off the train before they push their way on and provide recycling bins for newspapers, bottles and cans.

(aside: anyone have a TimesSelect account I could borrow briefly? i wanted to pull a quote from a Sports column today, but couldn't access the digital version and didn't have the print version handy. thanks.)

Posted by Jamie at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

bubble business is shaking itself out as i type this. George Mason has lost, Oklahoma State completed their collapse by losing to Nebraska and Gonzaga is up on Santa Clara in the 2nd half [update: the 'Zags win]. let's finish this out!

Big XII
This league could get only 3 bids and not really have much to complain about, because the 3 teams they're sending could all win a championship
You Don't Even Get a Copy of our Home Game: Colorado, Baylor, Iowa State, Nebraska
If you're Baylor, you're just happy when your coach isn't implicated in the cover up of a player's murder. If you're Iowa State, you're just happy when your coach isn't spotted partying with coeds after a loss. If you're Nebraska, you're just killing time until football season. If you're Colorado, you just plain suck.
Something Was Lacking...Let's Call it Heart: Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Missouri
I like Ken Pomeroy's rankings for the simple fact that he's working to improve on the RPI by rating things like efficiency. But there's still some kinks to be worked out, because Oklahoma just refuses to fall out of the top 30. They're 15-14, 6-10 in conference, they've lost 6 in a row and their only road wins are over Chaminade (non D-I) and Baylor. And it's not like they beat anyone of note. Just baffling. Equally baffling is the aforementioned collapse of Oklahoma St. Sitting at 15-1 in early January with wins over Pittsburgh, Missouri St. and Syracuse, they lost to Kansas then beat Texas in a 3OT thriller. And then it was like the eruption of Thera, as they went 4-9 the rest of the way losing to the clean and unclean alike. Missouri is one of those ho-hum teams who ends up at 19-12 or so without having beat anyone of note. They'll get to host an NIT game.
But I'm a BCS School!: Texas Tech, Kansas St.
Both teams are flawed, and not just because they have the execrable Bobby Knight and the slimetastic Bob Huggins as their respective coaches. They both have to hope that their good conference wins will outweigh a few questionable losses, though Tech is in much better shape for an at-large bid. I'm putting them in and Kansas St. out for now pending the conference tournament results.
Heavyweight Division: Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas
There's plenty of places to read drooling commentary about any of these teams: the depth and talent of Kansas, the court leadership of Acie Law IV, the Kevin Durant dreams of NBA lottery teams everywhere. They're all quite good and if any of them lose before the Sweet 16, it will be a major upset.

SEC
Wow, what a clusterf*ck this conference has shaped up to be. Anyone else want to take a shot at sorting out all the half-assed teams in the middle here? Because I'm going to bore even myself if I have to do it.
Kissing The Lipless: LSU, South Carolina, Auburn
Anyone else want to see LSU and George Mason play a "Faded Final Four" matchup in the NIT? That could be fun.
Lake Wobegon Division: Alabama, Mississippi, Mississippi St., Georgia, Arkansas
At least one of these teams will be probably make the field of 65, and no matter which one it is, I'm going to be annoyed.
The Quasi-Fantastic Four: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
People worried when Florida lost 3 of 4, and rightly so - they seem to be playing from behind a lot and that won't work in March. Kentucky fans are becoming despondent and calling for Tubby Smith's head because they didn't beat a ranked team this year (poor 'Cats fans!). Tennessee was another fast starter that faded a lot faster than the image of a shirtless Bruce Pearl has faded from my memory, but they've turned it around to win 7 of 8. Is Vanderbilt the team that lost to Furman, Wake Forest and Appalachian St. before January or the team that beat Kentucky and Florida in February (while also losing to Mississippi St. and Arkansas)?

Tomorrow we'll put it all together and see what sort of pie we've baked.

Posted by Jamie at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

i mean, did you see Eric Maynor completely will VCU to victory over George Mason? the last 3 minutes of the game belonged to him. he drove to the basket at every opportunity and got swarmed. one miss turned into an alley-oop. a few others got blocked or missed badly. but every time he gave up the ball, one of his teammates would lose it, and they weren't hitting shit for jump shots anyway. so he knew what he had to do. after a turnover with the Rams already down 5, he steals the ball, hits a twisting layup and draws the foul. after making the free throw, he steals the ball again and takes it for another layup to tie the game. then Mason misses and he grabs the rebound, takes it up the court, pauses, drives and hits a floater to give his team the lead. then, he pulls down a long defensive rebound, gets intentionally fouled and hits the free throws that seal the victory. just, wow.

Posted by Jamie at 09:43 PM | Permalink

Georgia Tech is making me look good, and a few other picks have come through (thanks, Belmont!), while others aren't working out (Loyola (Md.)). I'm going to try to wrap up my field of 65 here, so to start, a couple more one-bid conferences became apparent upon closer inspection:

Horizon: Butler; They're fading a bit at the end of the season, but they're in regardless, and if they lose their rubber match to Wright St. on Tuesday there are going to be some angry teams in the SEC and Big XII.
WAC: Nevada; For a few minutes I was searching for a case for New Mexco St., but they missed their chance to sweep Nevada and their best out-of-confernce win is against Ohio. I'll also be watching for Utah St. to make a run in their conference tourney.

Mountain West
This conference gets consideration along with the Missouri Valley as best non-BCS conference. They're looking at 3 bids right now.
Mediocre Western State Universities: Colorado St., Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, TCU
OK, TCU isn't a state university, and mediocre is a generous way to describe a team that lost 11 in a row from mid-January to mid-February. The rest of these teams barely warrant a sentence, though I want to take a second to consider the strange season that Utah had. They started off the season with 3 losses, including to terrible Southern Utah and Colorado teams. They followed that up with 3 wins capped off by beating Washington State. A few weeks later they pummeled a lost Virginia team in Puerto Rico by 24 points to get to 5-6 on the season, then promptly went out and lost 6 in a row to teams like Northwestern and Albany. They broke out of that with a win over Air Force (ranked in the Top 15 at the time). They finished at 11-18, but with victories over 3 Top 25 teams that could all make the Sweet 16.
Bubble Boys: San Diego St.
The Aztecs just lost to Utah and were swept by Wyoming. If they win those 3 games instead, they're 24-6 and looking strong right now, though they have no good non-conference wins to speak of.
Mormons Soliders March on Las Vegas: BYU, Air Force, UNLV
Conventional widsom has these 3 teams in the field of 65, they're all ranked in the Top 30 of the AP and Coaches polls, and they all split the season series with each other. But when you look beyond the gaudy records, there's certainly some question that could be raised. The best non-conference wins of the group are against Texas Tech (UNLV, Air Force) and Stanford (Air Force) both of whom are questionable tournament cases, and there are some bas losses to Lamar (BYU), TCU (Air Force) and UC-Santa Barbara (UNLV). Air Force has now dropped 3 in a row heading into the conference tournament. If any of these teams loses a bad game early this week, they will be sweating it out into Sunday.

Missouri Valley
They've already crowned their champion (Creighton), so there's not much to predict here other than whether a 3rd team will get in. It's getting pretty tight and you have to figure there may be at least one or two surprises this week that will throw things into a tizzy. Some people - [cough] Matt [cough] - complained that this league gets press simply for beating up on each other, but there's no question that even the worst teams here are capable of giving good teams a run.
The Never Weres: Evansville, Indiana St., Drake, Illinois St.
Actually, Indiana St. beat Butler and started 4-1 in conference before losing 13 of their last 14 games. Drake swept the Iowa sweepstakes, beating Iowa, Iowa St. and Northern Iowa twice and was 9-2 going into MVC play. Evansville's coach just resigned.
The Used to Bes:Wichita St., Northern Iowa
After making the Sweet 16 last year and starting 9-0, the Shockers were ranked in the top 10. Then they went out and lost 8 of 11. Northern Iowa started of 13-2 (4-0) before finishing 5-10 and falling to Bradley in the MVC tournament.
A-Wishin': Bradley, Missouri St.
Bradley took care of business against the bottom of the conference, but got swept by Missouri St. and missed their opportunities to beat good teams until they won at Virginia Commonwealth. It probably won't be enough. Missouri St. has a win over Wisconsin, but lost to Winthrop at home during Bracketbusters. Their season may hinge on whether they end up at #65 or #66.
A-Dancin': Creighton, Southern Illinois
These two teams are almost yearly invitees and both stand to receive pretty high seeds - there was even some talk of Southern Illinois getting a #2 seed, but they're probably looking at a #4 now.

Pac 10
For a while in the early winter, the Pac 10 was getting some play as possibly the best conference in the country. UCLA was #1, Arizona was in the top 10, Washington was highly thought of, Oregon was one of the last undefeated teams and Washington St. was playing well out of the gate. The bloom is off that rose a bit, but they're still likely to get at least 5 bids.
Dregs Ahoy!: Arizona St., Oregon St., California
Yeah, so there's these guys.
What To Do About Them?:Washington, Stanford, USC
Washington was a highly-touted Top 20 team to start the year but spit the bit by losing 6 of their first 7 conference games. Their end of the year win over UCLA won't be enough to get them in unless they can use that mojo to win the Pac 10 tourney. Stanford keeps cropping up in bubble talk, but they lost 8 conference games to 7 different teams and wins over Virginia and Texas Tech are tempered by losses to Santa Clara and Cal. USC has a profile that bores me, but they're probably in barring a disastrous showing in mid-week.
Fighting West Coast Bias: UCLA, Oregon, Washington St., Arizona
Would you feel good picking any of these teams to go far in your bracket? Not that there's a ton of better choices out there - things are really wide open - but each of these teams strikes me as unreliable in some way. UCLA's probably looking at a #1 seed and the others could all be #4s give or take.

OK, I'm tired and out of anything interesting to say, and this leaves me with 55 spots claimed and the Big XII and SEC still to go.

Posted by Jamie at 10:28 PM | Permalink

since the first tickets to the Big Dance get handed out tomorrow, i'll first do a quick run-through of all the 1-bid conferences and my picks to win each. i've actually managed to find my way into a pool that is picking every game of every conference tournament, plus the NIT, plus the NCAAs. total overload, but i love having a rooting interest in the Ohio Valley and all these other piddling conferences.

quick update: Appalachian State loses to College of Charleston in OT, meaning that the SoCon is probably down to one bid now too. too bad because i thought the Mountaineers had a chance at an at-large bid with wins over Virginia, Vanderbilt and VCU. as an aside, i've found recently that everytime i see or hear College of Charleston, i start singing it to myself like the "City of Compton" part of Straight Outta Compton (do not under any circumstances subject yourself to the video of the Nina Gordon cover version).

America East: Vermont
Atlantic Sun: Belmont
Big Sky: Weber State; Those who know me, know that i harbor a soft spot for the Utah teams after having lived there for 4 years early in life. I used to ride my bike to the Weber State campus in fact. Plus they have my undying love ever since they upset UNC in the first round of the 1999 NCAA tournament behind Harold "The Show" Arceneaux (now playing with the Utah Eagles of the CBA). I had even picked them in my bracket pool that year and ended up winning the pot by 1 point when UConn beat Duke. in 1998, I picked Utah to win it all and would have won the pot had they managed to knock off Kentucky in the finals.
Big West: Long Beach St.
Conference USA: Memphis; How bad is this league? 2nd place: Central Florida.
Ivy: Penn
MAAC: Loyola; I've gotta be loyal (yeesh) to my brother's alma mater, even though he could give a shit about basketball. The other choice would be Marist since they won the regular season title and because the wife and I shared a plane with them on the way to Ohio back in November. They lost their game to the Bobcats, but had a pretty nice season after that, including a win over likely at-largers ODU.
MAC: Akron
MEAC: Delaware St.
Mid-Continent: Oakland
Northeast: Central Connecticut St.
Ohio Valley: Tennessee Tech
Patriot: Holy Cross
Southern: Davidson
Southland: Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Sun Belt: South Alabama
SWAC: Arkansas Pine Bluff; Random pick for the league that usually gets the play-in game.
West Coast: Gonzaga; They're becoming the Atlanta Braves of college basketball - a great story at first but then kinda boring, and finally just get off the stage already. We've seen it. But you can't pick against them until they lose, just like the Braves kept winning for like 5 more years after everyone thought the Mets or Phillies would finally take them down. If they lose in the WCC tournmament this year, however, they're could be looking at the NIT, though they do have wins over UNC and Texas (pre-Heytvelt suspension; isn't Heytvelt a Dutch name? Shouldn't there be some leniency there if that's the case?).

That's actually 17 18 conferences, so I will have to update my numbers at the bottom of the page.

Colonial Athletic Association
There's been a lot of attention lavished in this conference this year, relative to the past due to George Mason's tripping the light fantastic in 2006. But I'm fresh out of Mason jokes at this point, and they were thoroughly average this year.
The Punching Bags: Delaware, UNC-Wilmington, JMU, Georgia St.
Delaware was a truly terrible team; they gave Iona one of their 2 wins of the season. UNC-Wilmington has fallen from a #9 seed in last year's NCAA tournament to a team capable of losing to Campbell not to mention Delaware and Georgia St. (twice). My poor alma mater of JMU can at least take solace in the performance of the women's team (25-4 and occasionally ranked in the top 25). Georgia St. can just ended William & Mary's season earlier today, so they got that going for them. Like JMU, Georgia St. was coached by Lefty Driesell, who, according to this terribly outdated webpage, can be hired as a speaker at your event for somewhere between $10,001 and $20,000.
Hoping to Make the CAA Final Four: William & Mary, Towson, Northeastern, George Mason
Mason finished behind Northeastern in the standings after losing to the Huskies by 23 to end the regular season. They at least managed to beat JMU tonight. As mentioned, W&M done bowed out already, but there was a shining moment in January when they had a bit of buzz about them after winning 7 in a row over such luminaries and North Florida, UMBC and Hampton before dropping 7 of their next 9. They're hanging around the bottom of the Bog Poll, though. Northeastern played whipping boy to the Big East early on with losses to Syracuse, Pitt, UConn and Lousiville but finished strong (sic) to end up at 12-18. They get Drexel tomorrow. Towson was the ultimate one-man team as Gary Neal lead them with over 25 points a game, and somehow was also 2nd in assists. He'll probably be gunning for some team in Europe next year.
Soon To Be Sick of Answering George Mason Questions:Drexel, Hofstra, ODU, VCU
Hofstra has the weakest claim to an at-large bid of the group, though they beat VCU in their only meeting. VCU won the conference regular season, but has no big wins out of conference and missed their big chance by losing to Bradley two weeks ago. ODU and Drexel have at-large profile. The Monarchs have a win over Georgetown and have won 11 in a row including over all three of their compatriots. Bruiser Flint's boys have 13 road wins, including at Villanova, Syracuse, St. Joseph's and Vermont (check out Bruiser's website that brags about taking "Mid American Conference runner-up Buffalo to overtime on its home court in the opening round of the NIT" and lets us in on the secret that "there is such a fine line between winning and losing."

I think Drexel and ODU can both get in at-large, and they might carry VCU with them since the Rams were the regular season winner, provided they don't lose to Georgia St. tomorrow. What would we be without wishful thinking?

TSOA's picks thus far:
ACC: UNC, Va. Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Duke, BC, Ga. Tech
A10: Xavier
Big South: Winthrop, High Point, VMI?
Big East: Georgetown, Pitt, Marquette, Syracuse, Louisville, Notre Dame, Villanova
Big Ten: Ohio St., Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan St., Purdue
CAA: Drexel, ODU, VCU
Spots awarded: 43 out of 65 (including 18 conferences that will only get 1 bid)

Posted by Jamie at 11:30 PM | Permalink

note 1: OK, High Point has gone down meaning that i need to hope for an upset of Winthrop to at least keep my numbers right. you'd think that might discourage me from continuing to make predictions, but you'd be wrong. on the positive side, Georgia Tech justified my love with their win over UNC tonight. i think that puts them in, but they should probably go ahead and beat BC Saturday just to be safe.

note 1a: sorry to those of you with no interest in College Basketball. this will be over in a few weeks.

note 2: does anyone else think the officiating in a lot of these games has been pretty shaky? OK, not exactly fresh territory, but while watching "Throwdown Thursday" (ugh) on ESPN, i was struck again by the number of seemingly ridiculous fouls: guys brushing against guys and getting called, defensive guys without their feet set drawing offensive foul calls, guys with their hands up in the air and standing perfectly still getting called when a guy jumps into them, players just flopping all over the place in general - the whole thing is starting to resemble a South American soccer game (see video of a terrible dive here). also, why don't they ever call traveling anymore? OK, that's enough. it's time to tackle....

The Big East
This league raided Conference USA after some of their teams defected to the ACC, giving them a ridiculous 16 teams. Now, some teams don't even play each other in the regular season and 4 teams get left out of the conference tourney. There are 4 teams tied for 7th place in the conference with 8-7 records. This gets me to another pet peeve: the unbalanced conference schedule. It used to be that all the teams in a conference played each other the same number of times, so it was easy to just look at the conference standings to get a general idea of team quality. Now you have to follow so closely to understand who played who, whether they played them at home, on the road or both and how that compares to the other teams in the league. Did one of those 8-7s come against a soft conference schedule (Providence)? Did someone have to play Pitt, Georgetown and Notre Dame on the road (West Virginia)? Can't we just break this into 2 conferences, or at least into an East/West thing like the SEC or Big XII? What a pain in the ass. But moving on....
The Chaff: Cincinnati, Rutgers, South Florida, Seton Hall, St. John's, UConn
It's been a tough season for New Jersey, and the NYC metro area in general (13-32 aggregate in the Big East). For a while I was contemplating doing a poll of the NYC-area teams along the lines of the DC Area Poll. Then I realized that Fordham would be the undisputed #2 team in such a poll (behind Hofstra) and quickly released the hounds on the idea. UConn's loss to George Mason last year carried over to this year in the form of a 6-12 record since an 11-0 start. All of their conference wins have come against this group except for a W over Syracuse. Cincinnati must have made their players start going to class or something.
How Many of These Guys Are Named Corey?: Providence, West Virginia, DePaul, Villanova
I could spend 45 minutes and 1,000 words trying to differentiate these guys, but nobody really wants that. Here's the thing: at least one of these teams will make the tournament. Right now, WVU (win over UCLA) and Villanova (wins over Oklahoma, Georgetown, Louisville and Notre Dame) have the best shot, but it could be whoever goes the deepest in the Big East tournament. If DePaul goes on a tear and makes the final they might sneak in.
Picking Out Their Dancing Shoes: Marquette, Syracuse, Louisville, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Pitt
Man this conference bores me. I really find nothing to get excited about here. I've been giving Goergetown short shrift all year, and even now that they've come around to tie for first place I remain unconvinced that they can win more than 2 tournament games. They have the highest Offensive Efficiency in the country, but I'm not convinced they have enough outside threats. Among players who average significant minutes, their leading 3-point shooter is Patrick Ewing, Jr.! Notre Dame has put up some real stinkers in an 18-point loss to Georgetown that wasn't that close, a loss to South Florida and another to St. John's. Marquette (who I'm partial to for name-related reasons) has lost 4 of 5 and gets Pitt on Saturday. Louisville has come on strong and doesn't have any bad losses but I've got Pitino issues. Syracuse will play only 9 total road games, 8 of which were in conference and the other of which was against Canisius, also in upstate New York. Pittsburgh has been the conference leader all season, so I guess they should be the favorite to go deep in to the NCAAs.

Big Ten
All right, another uninspiring conference with four 8-7 teams! Why am I doing this again?
At Least We Have Hockey/Football/Academics to Fall Back On: Minnesota, Penn State, Northwestern
I feel like I've seen highlights of Penn State losing about 15 close games this season. They're always in the verge of an upset, only to fade in the end. Then I looked and they do have a few close games, but not really very many. Maybe those were first half highlights I was seeing. Outside of their wins over Purdue, Penn St. and Northwestern, Minnesota has only one conference game decided by less than 10 points. Northwestern is 3-0 this year when scoring at least 70 points.
Mmmmmmm......Mediocrity: Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan St., Purdue, Illinois
These teams are all separated by one win in the standings, so again I'll try to keep this brief. Iowa's got 13 losses and can be safely ignored. People are getting excited about Michigan after they beat Michigan St., but let's talk about their 3-8 road record for a second. And Purdue's 2-8 road mark for that matter with the wins coming over N'western and Penn St. And then let's talk about the NIT. Michigan St. is only 2-6 on the road (could you imagine if these major conference teams actually had to play road games in November and December? Think the gap between them and the mid-majors might close a bit?) but their wins are a bit better than Purdue's. Illinois doesn't have as many good wins, but I think they're in at 10-6 in the conference if they beat Iowa on Saturday. Indiana should also get in at 10-6, and I credit them for at least scheduling a few road games against Duke, Butler and Kentucky, even if they lost them all. It might serve them well in March, but they're 5-5 record in their last 10 doesn't inspire much confidence.
El Jefes: Wisconsin, Ohio St.
Did anyone watch these two play on Sunday and think to themselves "Well I can't wait to see that again." I'd seriously rather watch a PBA skills competition. Have you ever seen those, where they're throwing balls over chairs and through their legs (warning: a bit loud)? Pretty great. If that game was the best they have to offer, I think it's very safe to say that I'll be skipping any Big Ten tournament games I flip past. Also, I think Greg Oden when he has his scraggly beard looks like Leonard Smalls from Raising Arizona.

Maybe sorta? I swear it made sense when I thought of it.

I'm giving them 5 bids for now and I'll use Purdue to cover for the probability that Winthrop out-and-out takes the Big South. Though it would be awesome to see VMI sneak in and freak out some #1 seed with their manic style for 30 minutes (Dave, I think this is the link you were looking for).

TSOA's picks thus far:
ACC: UNC, Va. Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Duke, BC, Ga. Tech
A10: Xavier
Big South: Winthrop, High Point, VMI?
Big East: Georgetown, Pitt, Marquette, Syracuse, Louisville, Notre Dame, Villanova
Big Ten: Ohio St., Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan St., Purdue
Spots awarded: 36 out of 65 (including 14 conferences that will definitely only get 1 bid)

Posted by Jamie at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)