Kyle Whelliston’s post-basketball-season Twitter stream pointed me to this fascinating Esquire profile of sprinter Usain Bolt, the title of which I’ve stolen in my headline above: “Biography of Usain Bolt, Mutant.” Kyle highlights one of the article’s two money quotes: “Mathematically, Bolt belonged not in the 2008 Olympics but the 2040 Olympics.” The other is this: There’s a perception in… Read more »
…to lifting Butler to the national championship, over mighty Duke, in Indianapolis, on a halfcourt buzzer-beater, in the greatest moment in NCAA Tournament history, bar none — never to be surpassed if they keep playing the tourney for 500 years — and one of the greatest moments in American sports history? Really, really close. (Hat tip: Danny Pilz.) … [Bumped…. Read more »
I’ve blogged before about the UConn women’s march toward the UCLA men’s record 88-game winning streak. Now that the foregone conclusion of the 2010 NCAA UConn Huskies Invitational Championship is in the record books, it’s time to re-ask the question that I posed in early February: The Huskies could tie UCLA’s record in their tenth game of 2010-11, and break… Read more »
[Bumped to top — again — and edited/re-ordered a bit. -ed.] Kyle Whelliston’s “Epilogue, the Sixth” — an 8,173 epic featuring a quasi-political rant, a look back at the season that was, a look forward to the seasons that will be, major news about the composition of the Other 24 25, a non-sequitur about some girl Kyle has a crush… Read more »
So damn close. Would’ve been the greatest moment in the history of the NCAA Tournament, bar none, past, present or future — absolutely unsurpassed and unsurpassable. Instead: it hits the rim, and Duke wins another championship. Meh. On Twitter, several people made the comparison to Tom Watson’s missed putt at the 18th hole at the British Open. I think that’s… Read more »
Live-tweeting below. You can join in by clicking “Make a comment” at the top of the window, or by tweeting something @brendanloy, or by emailing 14115@scribblelive.com. [Live window removed; full transcript after the jump.] Folks, this isn’t just a basketball game. It isn’t just a title game. It isn’t just the first game in my entire life that I’ve had… Read more »
[Originally posted around noon Monday; bumped to top. -ed.] I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have any serious emotional investment in Butler. I don’t claim any “ownership” of this team or its tournament run. Like the sidebar at right says, I’m simply on the Butler bandwagon. When I went out to the grocery store after Saturday’s game,… Read more »
Whatever happens in Indianapolis tonight between Butler and Duke, I think Chicago’s Mark Buehrle has already clinched SportsCenter’s “Top Play” of the day: Last season, he pitched a perfect game. This season, on Opening Day no less, he starts things off with a perfect play. Nice. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure I know one thing that won’t be a “top play,”… Read more »
[Bumped. Originally posted Sunday at 1:41 PM. -ed.] From what I’ve seen on Twitter, SportsCenter and elsewhere, the “expert” consensus appears to be that Duke simply has too many offensive weapons for even Butler’s excellent defense to contain. The same people who never believed Butler could make it this far, and who still fundamentally don’t understand how they’ve managed to… Read more »
[Sorry for the delay in getting this full update online. I blame fatherhood!] Matt Wiser clinched victory in the 15th annual Living Room Times men’s NCAA pool Saturday night when Duke beat West Virginia in the second national semifinal. The Duke-WVU game was a winner-take-all LRT pool showdown between Wiser and Sharon Greggs. If the Mountaineers had won, Greggs, a… Read more »