march madNESS

the revolution will not be televised in many locales.

unless you went to your local sports bar, it is unlikely that you saw the evolution of basketball as we know it.

last night, i was watching memphis and nevada. nevada is a pretty decent team, with nick fazekas, a center who is destined to enter the league as a career backup. fazekas is decidely weak; he commits silly fouls and lacks a dominant defensive presence. still, his skills in college have parlayed into a potential pro career, as teams are always looking for some sort of big man who can rebound and shoot. whatever.

we shouldn't take away from the memphis tigers, a team that has quickly become one of my favorite teams to watch. they are truly remarkable. here is a team that is 324th in free throw shooting, yet basically doesn't give a damn about that fact, insisting rather to drive to the rim on every possession. periodically, for kicks, of course, they run a play, which generally consists of someone cutting to the basket and getting an open dunk. memphis has apparently decided that putting four guys who can get to the tin at will on the perimeter along with some vigilante badass on the inside is the best course of action. i concur.

apparently memphis has been playing possum with us for awhile; i, along with many others, thought this team wasn't a legit two seed. apparently i should have been looking for paper badgers instead of paper tigers.

now, on to memphis being the future of college basketball. obviously, one reason why memphis is the future is the simple fact that their style of basketball is more fun. what dude wouldn't want to run up and down the floor, knowing that his team wouldn't be constrained to run some stupid offense conceived in the 1950's? don't you think that's what sold half of the mickey-d all americans on ohio state? can you see mike conley running some sort of offense right now? lol! what do you see duke, kansas, louisville, florida, and unc doing? we look at memphis some more, and we see competent ball-handling in every game. at least you can't press this team into oblivion (take note, texas a & m). the revolution will soon be televised all over creation, and i welcome it with open arms.

now, on to the monster disappointments: come on down, texas. you seduced us with kevin durant, but ultimately, we discovered the parallels between durant and t-mac ran deeper than we thought; neither guy could take a team that generally sucks all the way to any meaningful kwan. for reference, check out the magic/pistons playoff series.

were all the carmelo references legit? apparently we all forgot this guy:

hakim, i'm sorry. yes, you were the big east player of the year. yes, you were a first-round pick. yes, you do get 12.4 a night for the griz. and yes, you were the needed vigilante. so let's stop pretending that carmelo was workin' downtown for the minimum wage. not happening.

next up: come on down, duke. i was more shocked to find out that josh mcroberts had never gotten more than 22 in a game before the vcu contest. that guy needs to get his millions before everyone figures out that he kind of sucks in a proficient way. also on the chopping block: the big 10 and the acc. maryland done me wrong, and the alando tucker all-stars couldn't quite get it done against a team that could run an offense and play defense. purdue, b.c., michigan state, and indiana acquitted themselves nicely, in the sense that we all are happy that they were invited to the tournament, whatever that means. it's one of those "keep up the good work, guys."

let's play the over/under game

chris lofton's points against osu: 24

georgetown suffering silly letdown to vandy: 40%

ucla/pitt being an utter debacle to watch: 75%

unlv/oregon being the best game of the sweet 16: 30%

memphis foul shots: 30

southern illinois and butler both being down double digits at the half: 40%

anyone i know caring about unc/usc: 15%

i'm out.