Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Is it Thursday yet?

Another night of the reality sickness that is American Idol and I'm already pleading for Thursday as if I was five years old and Thursday was Christmas Day. Maybe it's the fact that I'm in 36th place. Maybe it's the discomfort of being one point behind Assistant Tournament Director Raap Elleinad. Maybe it's because my mother-in-law actually has a chance to win. Maybe, just, maybe, I still have a hangover from the weekend.

It can't be the blog because this has been a one-man show. God forbid any of you would take a chance and post an opinion or retort. First, you couldn't find it (you know the inter-web is so hard to navigate). Second, it was too hard to post (I have to sign up and then I have to actually write something and then, and then, whine whine whine). It can't be that your illiterate because this thing has spellcheck.

Regardless, I guess I'll just continue the party of one. If you decide to grab a seat, the table is always open.

Interesting facts from the weekend...

1). Duke's basketball budget--$11m. Va Commonwealth's athletic department budget--$8m. Duke made $4m on basketball alone last year. VCU? Lost $1m. Do the Duke boosters feel like they overpaid?

2). The national champ picks amongst the group are pretty split. 27 for Florida, 27 for Ohio St, 14 for Kansas, 13 for NC, 11 for Georgetown.

3). Pac 10 and SEC are tied with 7 wins each and have three teams left. The Big Bad Ten has only participant and six wins along with the Big East who have two left. The Big 12 has two left and five wins. Why do I, who has lambasted you basketball geeks for caring about inane facts and figures during March Madness, care about these facts? I have money on the Pac 10--I like my chances.

4). There's too many damn women at the top! Whitney, Tina, Megan, Suretta, and Rachel split the top 10 between men and women. Don't even think about mentioning Raap. She's got her dance all ready for Friday night if she clinches the family win again this weekend. MEN--we have to do something! Something is terribly wrong. The universe is whacked out right now. Boy Scouts are getting lost. Billy Packer is almost tolerable. I didn't go to Vegas. Kevin McHale was named #1 GM by Forbes. I mean we're talking something of epic proportions here! Dogs and cats, living together--mass hysteria!

I dunno--maybe we need to have a cook off at the same time next year so the women are distracted and forget to make their picks. Or maybe we could get Oprah give a seminar in town on the Thursday and Friday of the tournament so they have something better to do. How about organizing a Pampered Chef party so they can sit around and talk about utensils all night while games are going on?

And for all you women who are disgusted, appalled, repulsed and/or annoyed with my abhorrent behavior in the past few paragraphs, just remember one thing.

I'm just kidding.

Thursday's almost here...for all of us, it'll be much clearer by Friday night (or fuzzier depending on your alcohol intake).

Cheers,
Reg

1 comment:

Tony N said...

Allow me to share my gambling stories with the group from last week:

Record on NCAA Play-In Games: 1-0

Record on NIT Games: 1-0

Record on all "regular" NCAA tourney games: 4-7. Unfortunately, I didn't have all 4 of those impressive wins on one parlay.

So, I'm doing one more parlay this weekend. Why am I sharing this? If any of you were smart (but then again, you have some association with Artie), you'd bet the exact opposite - it's like printing money.

Here are my 5-STAR PICKS (based on a 1-100 star ranking) for the Sweet 16 Games:
- Tennessee +4.5 vs. Ohio St. I think Tenn could win outright. Ohio State is the last Big 10/11 team left. They'll lose and once again we'll see how this is a dying conference when it comes to Men's College BB.
- UNC -8.5 vs. USC. I'm not sold on USC and the Heels have looked good in the first two games.
- Vandy +7.5 vs. Georgetown. I think neither team is likely to score much more than 60 point. In a low-scoring game, I like taking the points.
- Butler +10.5 vs. Florida. I'm not sold on Florida. They looked a bit shaky against Purdue, and Butler's D is likely to keep this low-scoring.

I'm sure all of this logic will blow up in my face.

On the good side, I have a bet with my two brothers on our brackets. The low scorer has to buy the other two dinner and drinks. One of my brothers (who shall remain nameless) decided NOT to use the exact board he submitted to Artie. Instead he got real fancy and changed some games around, and now he's in last place 10 points behind me. We have a lot of games picked differently this weekend though, so we'll see.