Curses! The Buckeyes Foiled Me Again!

You know, if I wasn't already genetically and geographically disposed to dislike Ohio State, I might begin to hate those guys. They're really starting to bug me. Virtually every team I've rooted for over the past six months has been defeated/eliminated/etc. by the Buckeyes.

In football, they knocked Michigan out of the national championship race in November. In basketball, they ruined any chance Michigan had for an NCAA Tournament bid - twice in one week! And now, the Ohio State University has taken my bracket, crumpled it up, and thrown it into the garbage, by eliminating my homeboy Bruce Pearl and his Tennessee Volunteers in last night's regional semi-final.

Now that I think about it, did the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, or did Ohio State? That happened back in October, so my memory's a bit hazy. I do remember the color red being involved, however, so I wouldn't be surprised...

Why do they enjoy hurting me? What did I ever do to piss those guys off -- oops, never mind, I know the answer to that.

I'm still not sure how the Buckeyes came back to win that game. (Yes, even though Rocky Top Talk has outlined a thorough explanation.) Weren't the Vols up by 20 at one point? I have a text message from Dr. Lil' Sis' fiancee that essentially confirms that scenario. And... and that Oden dude barely played in the game because he kept fouling people (though his fourth foul was a weak call). Yet there he was at the very end, blocking the Vols' last shot.

I suppose it's easy to say that Tennessee lost because all those three-pointers they made in the first half turned into bricks during the second half. (Those guards obviously have the green light from Coach Pearl to jack up all those threes. Otherwise, I don't know how the hell he could stand it. Maybe that's the way they always play, but I kept screaming "No! No! No!" at the TV every time JuJuan Smith or Chris Lofton hoisted it from near-NBA three-point range, only to say "Oh! Okay - well, keep doing that!" every time the shot went in.)

Anyway, so that happened. Thanks, Ohio State, for screwing me again. Dammit.

So let's bring this back home. Now that Tennessee's season is done, will their head coach be getting a call from the Michigan athletic department? Chalk this up to frivolous rumor (and a lot of those things have been swirling around over the past week), and that category could certainly apply here, but I've heard rumblings from the Volunteer State that Bill Martin plans to go after Bruce Pearl and go after him hard. Maybe even harder, now that Minnesota nabbed Tubby Smith (and if you haven't read Maize n Brew's account of that, get over there and go into your weekend with a smile). Of course, that could just be anxiety from Tennessee. Take it or leave it.

By the way, now that the shock has worn off, did Tubby Smith really leave Kentucky for Minnesota? I mean, that really happened? I just wanted to be sure. I don't have anything against Minnesota. I love Minneapolis; I almost moved there a few years ago. I'm just wondering when exactly the world I knew so well changed so drastically.

How's Your Bracket Looking?

Most people are doing fine on their brackets right now, I'm sure, unless you picked a lot of upsets. No double-digit seeds in the Sweet 16 for the first time in 10 years? But Texas (Trojan revenge for the 2006 Rose Bowl?) and Wisconsin both going home had to screw up some people up.

I'm still doing pretty well in my pool. I got 13 of the remaining 16 correct, which has me in second place. Though two of my Elite Eight are already gone, thanks to the Longhorns and Badgers.

But my main man Bruce Pearl has me looking good, after a 77-74 victory over Virginia, in what was the best game I watched yesterday. I took some ribbing over that pick (Crazy? How about crazy delicious?), but being right makes it all worth it.

Tennessee's run might come to an end against Ohio State, but the Vols certainly have a chance against a Buckeyes team that just squeaked by them earlier in the season and also came damn close to losing on Saturday.

I might have to ask Dr. Lil' Sis' fiancee to get me a Vols t-shirt. I'd probably keep it in the closet during football season, though. Unless I needed something to work out in.

Give them nothing! But take from them everything!

Elsewhere in the universe, where basketball that really counts (and is shown on television) is taking place, I misread that Michigan State-Marquette match-up badly. Really badly. I thought Marquette's Dominic James would make a significant difference in the game. I guess I wasn't entirely wrong on that. MSU only allowed James to score 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting, which certainly made a difference.

And of those six shots James made, four of them were three-pointers, and that was most definitely the story of the game. Marquette was missing their second-leading scorer, but would it really have mattered? That was one of the most suffocating half-court defenses I've ever seen. The Spartans only allowed five two-point baskets. For the entire game.

If you've seen 300, there were several scenes in which King Leonidas' soldiers formed an impenetrable wall (or phalanx) with their shields and spears during battle. That's pretty much what happened last night in Winston-Salem. It was The Hot Gates all over again.

There was barely a sliver of a lane for the Marquette players to drive through. I actually began to feel sorry for them as guards and forwards tried to dribble to the basket only to have to turn back to the three-point line in frustration. In Tom Izzo's world, friends don't let friends drive to the basket. If that's what he did to his buddy Tom Crean, imagine what Izzo must do to his enemies. Take a seat next to Lupe for the rest of the weekend, Coach.

▪▪ Meanwhile, I know the rest of yesterday's NCAA Tournament games weren't that exciting. But I still botched a couple of my upset picks. Neither Davidson or Gonzaga beat their higher-seeded opponents. Sure, I got VCU right, but didn't (almost) everybody pick that one? It was still fun to watch.

▪▪ It has to be a sure sign I'm getting old when every time the cameras showed VCU coach Anthony Grant, I kept thinking, "Wow, he looks young." However, he is actually older. While that might make me feel better, tomorrow I will get bombed with green beer in a semi-pathetic attempt to hold onto what remains of my youth. Maybe I'll watch Grant's Rams play Pitt while I'm doing that.

Happy Hour 03/12: Read This Now, and Believe Me Later

Okay, my friends. It's tournament time. March Madness. The Big Dance. Cinderellas, Sweet Sixteens, Elite Eights, Final Fours, and Shining Moments. Quite possibly the most wonderful time of the year.

Yep. I don't know anything about it.

When I got home last night, I tried to watch the selection specials that I DVR'ed, but after about 10 minutes, I realized I hardly knew a damn thing about any of these schools. And right then, a small part of me cried because it occurred to me that I may have been a more knowledgeable sports fan in my teens and twenties. I would've been all over this thing 10-12 years ago.

Even back in high school, I knew so much more about college basketball than I do now. I actually took the time to watch other conferences play. This past weekend, I actually reminisced about how I used to set aside time on a Saturday or Sunday to watch an important Big East or ACC match-up. Nowadays, with the exception of a handful of SEC games this year (which probably involved either Florida or Tennessee), it's been quite a while since I watched a regular season game that didn't involve a Big Ten team.

Despite what I just confessed in the previous two paragraphs, however, I'm going to make some NCAA tournament predictions anyway. And you might just want to read this post through to the end. Wanna know why? Do you wanna know? Because last year, I won the Super Blogger Tournament Challenge Extravaganza.

Yeah, that's right. When it was all over, I barely beat crushed Complete Sports by one point to take the trophy that doesn't really exist I still drink ice-cold beer out of one year later. And after I wipe off my chin, I look at my reflection in the silver and laugh at how totally #@$%ing lucky I was awesome that victory was.

Essentially, I was the sports blog equivalent of the secretary winning the office pool.

So here's what I'm going to do: I'm not going through the entire bracket. Tony Kornheiser did that with a handful of experts on his radio show this morning, and after one or two repetitions of the bracket, I opted for my iPod. If I couldn't stand listening to it, I don't know how in the hell I can write it all out. Especially when you can find several dozen people in the blogosphere who know what the #@$% they're talking about. What I will write out are my first-round upsets and my Final Four picks. 'Cuz that's what the big boys like Dan Shanoff do (except a full nine hours earlier).

First-round upset winners:
Davidson, Georgia Tech, VCU, Gonzaga, and Creighton.

You might notice Michigan State isn't on that list. I couldn't pick the Spartans, as much as I wanted to. (Besides, is picking a #9 seed over a #8 really picking an upset?) Unless Tom Izzo pumps up his kids by taking them to a showing of 300 the day before the game, and/or kicks his old buddy Tom Crean into the deepest, darkest well in Winston-Salem after screaming "THIS IS SPARTA!" MSU ain't beatin' Marquette. Sorry, Sparty. (That movie totally kicked ass, by the way.)

Final Four:
Florida, UCLA, Georgetown, and Tennessee.

Yeah, that's right- Tennessee. Either my sister's fiancee (Yes, Dr. Lil' Sis' boyfriend proposed to her last week. We're all happy about it - thanks for asking) has completely corrupted my objective opinion, I've been mystified by bare-chested coaches who paint themselves orange, or I might just have one of those hunches.

Did I mention that I won my bracket contest last year? You might want to take this post very seriously, my friends. I'm kind of a big deal with this stuff.

EDIT (03/13): I didn't pick an overall winner, did I? I really should do that. But it's a boring pick, which is probably why I forgot to post it originally. I have Georgetown and Florida in the finals, with the Gators repeating as national champions.

My shining moment?

I didn't pay much attention to Monday night's national championship game after halftime, but not necessarily because the score wasn't that close and UCLA had mustered only 25 points. No, I think my interest was low because the Bruins' presence in the title game ensured that I was the winner of Kevin Antcliff's Super Blogger Tournament Challenge Extravaganza.

When I say "I was the winner," however, I really mean "I was lucky as hell and just barely squeaked out a victory." And when I say "barely squeaked out," I'm talking by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin. I finished just one point ahead of Complete Sports, who not only knows a hell of a lot more about college basketball than I do, but is actually a UCLA fan, so this must've been particularly painful for him.

However, he's been an excellent sport and taken his loss like a man, posting a salute to the winner, as was agreed upon by each participant in Kevin's Happy, Happy Tournament Pick 'Em and Super Fun Variety Hour.

Also gracious in defeat were the aforementioned Mr. Antcliff and Need4Sheed. (Hello to anyone who's here for the first time because of their links, by the way. I hope you keep coming back, by the way.) You guys are making me blush. Seriously. But keep your chins up. Just remember, we're all winners. I just happened to be more superior (not way more, just a smidge totally more) than you in this one instance. If it's any consolation, I spilled salsa on my sweatshirt earlier today at Qdoba, so the world still insists on keeping me humble.

And if there's one prize to be truly won from this, it's that I finally got a spot on Need4Sheed's blogroll. I didn't want to beg. I didn't want to plead. But man, I wanted my blog on that list and have spent the past couple of months making serious puppy dog eyes at it. That day has finally arrived, and well, I think my blog looks damn good there. Affirmation, baby.

Natalie runs the best-looking and most fun sports blog around, in my opinion. I'm considering getting a tattoo of her Rip Hamilton cartoon head on my waiting-to-be-toned bicep. (Also in the running are Chauncey Billups on one shoulder, and David Hall on the other - bit of an inside joke if you're not in the metro Detroit area.)

Thank you kindly, ladies and gentleman. My winners' touch is now eyeing a fantasy baseball trophy. Look out!

Sure, you had George Mason. Right.

So did virtually everyone get eliminated from their NCAA tournament pool yesterday? Or did your chances to win suddenly receive a fresh infusion of hope?

Is there anyone who didn't have either UConn or Duke in their Final Four? The many of us who did surely had one of those teams winning the tournament. But the more daring of you out there didn't. Maybe you picked Gonzaga. Or Villanova. Boston College? Texas?

Of course, some of you are still alive in your pool. Some of you had UCLA, Florida, or LSU (I definitely underestimated the SEC) in your Final Four, a few had them in the championship game, and a handful maybe even had one of those schools winning the whole thing.

Me, I'm hanging on by the hairs on a UCLA Bruin's chinny-chin-chin. They're the only one of my Final Four left, and I had them losing in the title game to UConn. So I guess I'm still standing.

(Back in high school, I used to have a UCLA hat. I'd wear it around the house to scare my parents into thinking that's where I wanted to go to college. And apparently, it caused some whispers. My dad once pulled me aside and said my grandma asked him if we could really afford to send me there. I still laugh about that. Unfortunately, I ruined the hat beyond all recognition in a softball game played on a rainy, humid day, so I won't have it to wear for some bandwagon rooting on Saturday.)

But raise your hand if you picked George Mason. Maybe you picked them to upset Michigan State in the first round. Maybe - maybe - you had them over North Carolina to get to the Sweet 16. And that's where most of these runs end. But it's appropriate that a mid-major made it to the Final Four this year. It had to happen this way, right? After the flak the NCAA took from guys like Billy Packer for letting too many of these schools in, one of them had to rise up and show us that it's a new world in college basketball.

Four people picked this Final Four correctly in ESPN.com's Tournament Challenge. My hat's tipped to them. I'm still shaking my head and rubbing my eyes. And not just because hearing the name George Mason still makes me think of Raymond Burr in a courtroom.

I watched the games. I saw the highlights. I've read the game recaps. And I'm looking at my bracket right now. I'm still having trouble comprehending this. But even those of us who didn't watch much college basketball until the NCAA Tournament (guilty as charged) could see that this day was coming.

Before the tournament started, I wondered if I really wanted to see the rise of the mid-major. Yes, the early-round upsets are fun to watch - even more so, when you've picked them in your bracket. After that glow wears off, however, the ensuing match-up isn't quite as appealing as watching the favorites play each other. That's how I felt, anyway.

But not anymore. This has been fun as hell to watch. It might be the most fun I've ever had, besides the times a team I rooted for (Michigan, usually) made it to the Final Four or national championship. And I'm actually sad it's ending next week.

▪▪ While comparing George Mason's victory to Chaminade's upset of Virginia in the 1982 preseason, the Washington Post's Michael Wilbon asks if this was the greatest upset in NCAA tournament history.

▪▪ ESPN.com's Andy Katz recaps the Patriots' amazing tournament run.

▪▪ Yoni Cohen poses the question of whether or not the NCAA Tournament truly determines the nation's best team.

▪▪ Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn says the "Chalk Era," the days of picking a favorite and sitting back to watch that team win the national title, is over.

Shining moments? BAH!

Previously on Sweaty Men Endeavors:

"... after the first day of games, I'm doing pretty well, going 13-3 with my picks, tying me for first place with Complete Sports."

"Along with Boston College, I have UCLA, Iowa (Is that a homer pick, now that I'm living in Michigan?), and Connecticut..."

"But things can change, of course, and change fast."

Well, so much for that. How's your bracket looking right now? Are your Final Four picks still intact?

It's a good thing yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and there was beer easily on hand. After Jermaine Wallace's fadeaway baseline 3-point prayer went in with 0.5 seconds left to send "my" Hawkeyes to an embarrassing first-round defeat vs. a #14 seed, I curled up in the bathtub for almost an hour while the shower washed away my pain.

Wallace had his visions before the game. I'll be having visions for months after the game. And the clock's already running on the Steve-Alford-to-Indiana countdown.

I didn't even watch college basketball for the rest of the night. It was too painful. And, um, I zonked out early in the evening. So, of course, I was very surprised to see Michigan State go home, too. A 10-point loss to George Mason? Oooh, I bet nobody sat near Coach Izzo on the team bus afterwards.

Didn't I learn enough about karma from My Name is Earl? Don't go bragging about picks after the first day of the tournament, when all of the opening-round games haven't even been played yet.

On the bright side, I can now just sit back, watch the games, and enjoy them, rather than fret about how the outcomes will affect my bracket and chances of winning a pool. That's what I'll tell myself, anyway, as the taunting phone calls and e-mails pour in.

The life: college basketball and green beer

As I said last week while "NIT-picking" at the Michigan basketball team (who showed some passion against UTEP last night, in a 82-67 victory), it feels a bit strange to be writing about college basketball when I've barely paid attention to the sport all season.

For bloggers who really know what they're talking about on this subject, check out Complete Sports, which has been doing a great job covering the sport over the past few weeks, along with The Gatorade Dump, the live-blogging Deadspin, and of course, the one-stop shop for college basketball, Yoco Hoops.

But like most sports fans yesterday, I turned in my NCAA tournament brackets before noon and had the TV on most of the day to keep tabs on the opening games. And within a couple of hours, I came close to losing one of my Final Four picks in the first round. Oh, Boston College - you made me hug and bite things unnecessarily for most of the afternoon. I'm glad I was alone in such a vulnerable moment.

I'm also glad Bruce Pearl wore a darker suit for Tennessee's nail-biter against Winthrop. (Why can't I find a picture of Pearl completely sweating through his suit when I need one? Maybe it's for our own good.) And former Michigan coach Steve Fisher came oh-so-close to sticking it to an old Big Ten rival that often had his number.

(Speaking of Coach Fisher, if you missed it, the New York Times ran a feature on him in Tuesday's edition. His Aztecs have been through quite a bit. Incidentally, since I love making things all about me, I'd like to mention that our Ann Arbor phone number was apparently very similar to the Fisher household's. So when Fisher was fired by Michigan in 1997, we got a bunch of wrong-numbered calls from reporters.

I sometimes regret not working on my Fisher imitation so I could've fed quotes to the press, such as "Tom Goss #@$%ed me right up the @$$, man," "I use blush and apple butter to get my cheeks that rosy," or "Oh yeah, the baggy shorts and shaved heads were my idea. That's how I rolled in college." C'est la vie. I'm digressing, aren't I?)

Along with Need4Sheed, The Wayne Fontes Experience, Leelanau Sports Guy, Mickey Tettleton Memorial Overpass, the aforementioned Complete Sports, and a few others, I'm participating in Kevin Antcliff's Yahoo! tournament pool. And after the first day of games, I'm doing pretty well, going 13-3 with my picks, tying me for first place with Complete Sports.

I got the two upsets (Texas A&M and UW-Milwaukee) right, but wasn't exactly stretching with those picks. The one game I got completely wrong, thus exposing my shallow knowledge of college basketball, was Wichita State's 20-point victory over Seton Hall. Oops. (Oh, I'll pick the Big East team - that's a good conference!)

But things can change, of course, and change fast. Since I'm more than willing to brag when I do well, I'll post my Final Four picks here, so you can point and laugh when I'm wrong later. Along with Boston College, I have UCLA, Iowa (Is that a homer pick, now that I'm living in Michigan?), and Connecticut, with the Huskies my pick to win the tournament. Pretty safe picks, I suppose. But picking a UConn-Duke final didn't seem like too much fun.

How did I not follow this sport all season... ?

Okay, I'll be watching "my" Iowa Hawkeyes play at noon, here in Michigan. (Hopefully, the Lions won't sign another quarterback today and I can just enjoy some hoops.) Northwestern St. is going down, and going down hard. Hawkeyes fans are free to crash at my place this weekend, but it's B.Y.O.F, because my refrigerator is empty. And I hope you brought your own fried pork tenderloin sandwiches, 'cuz you ain't finding that around here.

Carry on with your bad selves and have a great weekend. Be safe with that green beer.