As regular readers know, I’ve got three primary college basketball rooting interests: my alma maters, USC and Notre Dame, and the team I’ve randomly followed since just before they became a household name, Gonzaga. There’s also team number four, the UConn Huskies, who I grew up rooting for, but who I now only casually follow, at best. But there are… Read more »
The latest bubble update from Mike Scullin’s NIT-ology is instructive, both for thinking about this year’s NCAA Tournament, and for thinking about how an expanded, 96-team field would change the nature of the discussions that we have at this time of year. With respect to the current state of the NCAA bubble, Scullin writes: I’m sure this is a common… Read more »
Here’s how Joe Lunardi assesses the bubble as of now. He’s got 33 teams as “locks,” including Louisville — which closed out historic Freedom Hall in memorable fashion by beating #1 Syracuse today — and Northern Iowa. Lunardi’s “bubble” consists of 22 teams competing for 11 spots, which he lists, in order, thusly: IN (11, in S-Curve order): Marquette, Wake… Read more »
Bubble guru Andy Glockner says Notre Dame’s win over UConn yesterday gives the Irish some much-needed “wiggle room” — and means UConn is in “a lot of trouble”: Notre Dame (20-10, 9-8, RPI: 61, SOS: 54): The Irish’s unexpected push without Luke Harangody continued on Wednesday with a so-ugly-it’s-beautiful home win over bubble rival UConn. Now even if the Irish… Read more »
The UConn women’s basketball team routed #6 Notre Dame at the Joyce Center tonight, 76-51, earning their 69th straight victory — all of them by double-digit margins, even though the Huskies routinely play Top 10 teams — and finishing their second straight undefeated regular season. UConn will tie its own record for longest winning streak in women’s NCAA history (70)… Read more »
Turns out the guy in those Old Spice commericials used to play football for the Sun Devils. (Helmet tip: Ted Miller.)
Do you think Canadians are a little bit excited about aboot their big hockey win yesterday? If the moving scene of an entire stadium singing “O Canada” at the top of its collective lungs wasn’t enough to convince you, here’s a look at some of today’s newspaper front pages, via the Newseum: More after the jump.
http://itsjustmovies.com/7902
For anyone who is watching the U.S.-Canada gold-medal hockey game, and wants to say something about aboot it, here’s an open thread for you. I’m not “liveblogging,” per se, though I may post an update or two, if I feel so inspired. GO AMURRRICA!!! BEAT CANADIA!!! UPDATE, 1:40 PM MDT: 1-0 Canada on a goal by Toews, 7:10 left in… Read more »
Inspired by my own lame joke about tonight’s USA-Canada hockey result — “Do you believe in mild surprises? YES!” — I got to thinking about whether it would be accurate to describe the call on which the joke is based, Al Michaels’ “Do you believe in miracles?” at the end of the 1980 USA-Soviet game, as the single most famous… Read more »