On the eve of ESPN’s ridiculous/awesome 24-hour marathon of wall-to-wall college hoops, a bit of November Madness courtesy of, well, Wall:
That’d be Kentucky’s John Wall, kicking off his college career in style. Here’s the same play, without the awful play-by-play announcing, as seen from the crowd:
P.S. “Charlie Coles finds your question absurd.” Heh.
In ’07, Stanford (41-point underdog) beat the spread by 42, won by 1. In ’09, Stanford (11-point underdog) beat the spread by 45, won by 34.
Trojans ranked #18 in BCS; could slip back into Top 14 if they win out. Would a BCS bowl prefer 9-3 USC to a better but lower-profile team?
Unfortunately, the scenario involves Wazzu winning, so it ain’t gonna happen. But Ken Stern can dream:
[T]here would have to be a 6 way tie for the conference lead (with 6-3 records) among Oregon, Arizona, Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and USC. Under that scenario the first tie-breaker is the record against those teams and USC, Oregon State and Arizona would have the best records at 3-2 against those teams. Then USC would get the nod because it would have beaten both Oregon State and Arizona.
So what is the likelihood of such a tie? Oregon would have to lose to Oregon State and Arizona. Arizona would have to lose to USC but beat Oregon and Arizona State. Stanford would have to lose to Cal. Cal would have to beat Stanford and Washington. USC would have to beat UCLA and Arizona. Oregon State would have to beat Oregon, but lose to Washington State!!!!
Those scenarios are not entirely far-fetched…except of course for the one with Oregon State somehow beating Oregon, after losing the week before to Washington State.
Heh.
P.S. To simplify things slightly, this scenario requires the following eight outcomes:
Saturday, November 21:
Arizona beats Oregon
Cal beats Stanford
Washington State beats Oregon State
Saturday, November 28:
Arizona beats Arizona State
USC beats UCLA
Thursday, December 3:
Oregon State beats Oregon
Saturday, December 5:
USC beats Arizona
Cal beats Washington
Most Trojan fans consider a “perfect day” to be a day when USC wins, and Notre Dame and UCLA both lose. As an “Irish Trojan,” I have a different definition: a Brendan Loy Perfect Day is a day when USC and ND both win, and UCLA loses. That’s happened a bunch of times since I enrolled at Notre Dame.
What hadn’t happened, not even once, in the six years since I became an Irish Trojan, is the exact opposite of a Brendan Loy Perfect Day: USC and ND both lose, and UCLA wins. Until yesterday.
UCLA’s blowout win over Pullman High School Washington State is really just adding insult to injury. The losses by USC and Notre Dame are bad enough on their own. In fact, believe it or not, that simple combination — a Trojan loss and an Irish loss on the same day — is itself unprecedented, even without the added condition of a Bruin win, since I started law school at ND.
Ugh.
