Omar Samhan, new media darling

I'm not sure there's much more in life that this broadcast team loves more than Omar Samhan, the big center for St. Mary's. He's already been mentioned approximately 37 times, with phrases such as "understanding the lines on the floor," and "exceptional intellectual involvement" used to describe his game. After picking up his 2nd foul on a dubious charge call with 11 minutes to go in the first half, the crew was devastated. Wish they'd been as incredulous on Thursday, when Nova was gifted a win thanks to a 5-minute stretch of brutal officiating.

Favorite color commentary so far: "He's unselfish too," said in anticipation of Samhan passing out of a double-team in the post. Instead, he waited for the double to leave and drained a turnaround jumper.

Villanova's in trouble...

One Shining Moment? and NCAA Player draft

It's 12:55 on the third day of the tournament, and CBS is already playing a full One Shining Moment montage from clips over the past few years. Is this allowed?!? That montage is a sacred final exclamation point for the tourney, one always shown at the bitter end of the broadcast, after all the final interviews, trophy presentation, even after the credits have rolled. And now we get a full version on the first weekend?!? Not sure how I feel about it. Kinda feels like eating ice cream for breakfast.

--------

For those of you that got involved in the player draft, here are the updated stats courtesy of League Commish Heater. Total points are followed by number of players still alive in the tourney. I'll post a more detailed break-down later.

James...146..7
Nick....121..5
Rhodes..118..7
Lucas...118..4
Wes.....113..8
Btown...108..6
Heater..100..5
Wade.....76..7

The bracket is back! (and Day 3 Picks)

Giant wall bracket? Check. Without access to huge large-format plotters, this year we cobbled together a stack of 11x17s to create this beast of a bracket. It's in color, looks pretty solid, and the paper is thick enough that the Sharpie shouldn't bleed onto the wall behind it (we hope). A big assist goes to the crew at Ideamill for making our dream come true--thanks!

Lucas and I came storming back into contention with near-perfect picks yesterday. Lucas went 14-2 on the day, and my only miss came in the Oklahoma State/GTech game. After two days of picks, it's a 3-way tie: Shorty, Lucas and I are all sitting at 24-8. An epic battle in the making.

As always, leave your picks in the comments section, and feel free to jump in even if you haven't made any picks yet. My picks: Nova, Tennessee, Baylor, KSU, UK, KU, and to make things interesting, Washington and Murray State.

A follow up.

Last night we were pissed at CBS's coverage. We talked about it here. Kate was fired up and sent an email to CBS3- Philadelphia. Here's what she said-

"Why on earth would you show the end of the Lehigh Kansas game when the Wake Texas and SDSU and Tenn games are so so close and IMPORTANT to the rest of tournament? It is just irresponsible. So poorly done. Seriously. POORLY DONE. Looking forward to your contract being up. Hopefully you'll do better tomorrow night."

Today, CBS responded.

'Lehigh is considered to be a HOME market team for us- which means we were required to show the majority of their game including their ending just like we would for Temple and Villanova. There are certain rules like this that CBS is required to follow. Hope that helps explain it for you. "

Clarity.

Fact.

Mayonnaise + Sriracha + Tater Tots= Kick Ass Snack.

Pictures soon.

Watching Syracuse play makes me miss this guy. But not really.

Also- More Keiton Page

I didn't come up with this. But its damn good. Keiton Page is Ollie from Hoosiers.

Fact.

Keiton Page, of Oklahoma St, is still 12 years old. But, it should be noted that he averaged 44.4 points per game his senior year in high school. Wow. Impressive for a dude who hasn't hit puberty.

Jay Bilas is a moron

While tuning in to the Missouri/ Clemson game I was reminded of a blog rant that I went on last year. If you remember, Jay Bilas loved the defensive minded Missouri team, who's famed "Fastest 40 minutes in basketball" stye of pressing defense helped Mizzou upset #2 Memphis and make a run into the elite 8. He was particularly in love with JT Tiller, the Big 12 Defensive player of the year, constantly remarking on how JT had "New York City Toughness", and how his time growing up in NYC hardened him for college basketball. Seriously, he probably said this at least 10 times during the game. Why am I bringing it up now? Here's why: Turns out JT Tiller is from Marietta, Georgia. Born and raised. Nice work Jay Bilas.

Pitt and their early struggles

Pitt's struggling a bit, but that shouldn't be big news for anyone who's watched them in the tourney the past few years. Seven turnover in 12 minutes isn't going to get it done, but I expect them to settle down and take the lead by half. Last year, 16-seed Eastern Tennessee State gave them all they could handle, as did Oklahoma State and Xavier in the next few rounds. The Nova game...well...I'm still not ready to talk about that one.

USA! USA! (completely unrelated to the tourney)

After being out 7 weeks with a knee injury, our boy Clint Dempsey is back in the mix at Fulham. Why is this important? Because he's one of the few legitimate goal-scorers the USMNT has, and the World Cup is right around the corner. Why do I mention this now? Because just the other day, Fulham (Dempsey's EPL team) fought back from a 4-1 (aggregate) deficit in a Europa League 2nd leg match against Juventus, with Dempsey scoring the winner in the 82nd minute. Not sure what all those words mean? Just watch the goal, it's a thing of beauty.

Fulham has played their matches at Craven Cottage since 1896; the "cottage" used to be a hunting lodge, and has a history that goes back over 300 years. Just thought I'd mention it.

Big Red!

First games of the day are finished, and while not as thrilling as yesterday, it still gave us the first 5-12 upset of the tournament. Cornell, repping the Ivy (a league that hasn't won an ncaa game since 1998), dominated 5-seed Temple with a balanced inside-outside game and some classic senior leadership. When you shoot over 56% from the floor, 40% from 3, and almost 79% from the line, you have to like your chances. I didn't realize Ryan Wittman's dad was the NBA's Timberwolves coach...that's a pretty good pedigree. This team looks great--their upcoming matchup with Wisconsin should be a fun one to watch.

Now we've got Pitt coming up, as well as a Sienna and Purdue game that's already pretty interesting. Sienna has had success in each of the last two tournaments, including last year's OT win against OSU, prompting this reaction as captured on last year's blog. We'll see if they can become tourney darlings for the third year in a row. Hopefully Pitt takes care of business and doesn't play to the level of their competition, as usual.

Go Pitt!

This might be a stretch

I've got a theory here. It might be ridiculous. But I also might be on to something. Theory: If you are named head coach of the Temple Owls, you slowly start to actually become an Owl. Crazy? Maybe. But let's look at long time Temple coach John Chaney. By the time he was done, he was practically an Owl. And now current head coach Fran Dunphy? He's well on his way.

Best Day 1 Ever, and Day 2 Picks

That was hands down the best first day of the tournament. Ever. Of the 16 games, 9 were decided by 5 points or less (3 of which went to over time), and we had the tourney's first buzzer-beater. We also had an epic hose-job, with the officiating crew inexplicably gifting Nova a game they didn't deserve to win. Seven lower seeds won, including an 11, 13, and 14 seed. As of last year, 12-seeds won their first-round games 33% of the time; we'll see if this holds true for this year, as three of the four 5/12 matchups are today. I say Cornell pulls off the upset this year.

Speaking of picks, here are the current standings. Not a good showing by yours truly:
Shorty: 13-3
Heater: 12-4
Lucas: 10-6
James: 9-7

Post your Day 2 picks in the comment section. My picks:
Okla. St, MSU, OSU, Xavier, Pitt, Maryland, Zags, Cuse, WVU, Cornell, Wisconsin, Purdue, A&M, Cal, Dook, and Missou

More Overtime!

Texas and Wake Forest are headed to overtime. Between this game and the tight finish in the Tennessee- San Diego St game I think I can officially say that this is one of the best, if not best days ever in the history of the tournament.

CBS Blows

CBS is dropping the ball. Here in Philadelphia, we're still watching Kansas and Lehigh exchange baskets despite a 16 point KU lead, while Wake and Texas are seperated by 1 point with 1:30 to go and Tennessee and SDSU are involved in a 3 point game under 2. Ridiculous. Thank God for the internet.

Wait-

Brady Morningstar of Kansas is 24? And playing college basketball?

Goshen!

#16 Lehigh is giving #1 Kansas all they can handle. And a big reason for that is the play by standout freshmen CJ McCollum, who at 18.9 points per game was the leading freshmen scorer in the whole country. Why am I telling you this? Because they just mentioned on air that he's the younger brother or Erick McCollum, who played for Goshen College and was the conference MVP. Score one for the Maple Leafs. Only downside to this story is that they pronounced it "Gawshen." Boo.

Big thanks to Heater for the heads up on this one.

Here's a video of Erick McCollum that was #5 on the SportsCenter top 10 in January-

A new word

Stick-to-it-ness. Yup, thats what it means when you follow your own shot, get the rebound, miss again, grab the board, and then finally finish. I like it. Thanks CBS announcers.

Must be the hair?

This Marquette/ Washington game is turning into a real doozy. I can't help but be distracted by the hairstyles of Marquette. Apparently, as an act of team unity, the entire team and staff went to a barber and got their numbers and a pattern shaved into their head.

My View of the Madness

O-H-I-O

The beating that Ohio is putting on Gtown is really impressive. What's even crazier is that they were 7-9 in their conference, the MAC, and had to win 4 straight games in their conference tourney just to get in. They're playing amazing right now.

Also, the Northern Iowa/ UNLV game has turned into another nailbiter. Farokhmanesh drills a 30 foot 3 pointer with 4 seconds to go do seal the deal. I'm sure he'll never forget that.

Dinner Time.

Dinner with a West Philly touch. Gojjo, a local Ethiopian bar/restaurant put their own touch on Philly's signature sandwich. Add berber spice, the spice found in a majority of Ethiopian dishes to a cheesesteak. The result? Awesometown. Pictured above is Ethiopian Chicken Cheesesteak with a side of collards. Bam!

Quick Question-

Hey Indiana Hoosier Fans-

Does it piss you off seeing Armon Bassett tear it up for Ohio, after fleeing IU in the wake of Sampson debacle?

Love, Shorty

Evening Session- Night 1

What a start to the tournament. Let's hope for more of this tonight. In our Pick'em pool, Heater and I went 7/8, and James and Lucas both went 4/8. Here's my picks for the remaining games of the day: UNI, KU, Gtown, UK, Texas, Tennesee, Washington, and New Mexico.

Off to get some food. More on that soon.

Bill Raftery continues to amaze me

Bill Raftery just told the viewing audience that a man who wears a multi-colored mouth piece is a man who is confident in himself. Interesting.

Wow!

First buzzer beater of the tournament- Murray St!!!! Well done boys, you deserved it. Murray? Present.

Lunch. And Snacks.

Chicken Queso burrito from Qdoba, side of guac (they were out of steak)





Pre-Easter Easter basket courtesy of the A-Train. Highlights include Cadbury mini-eggs, two types of Jelly Bellys, and sour patch kids. It's been a big hit so far this afternoon.

Lucas and I have yet to change out of sweatpants, and I think Scooter and his jeans are jealous.

Crazy

The games continue to be close, with Murray St. still holding a decent lead over Vandy. KSU seems to be struggling a bit with North Texas. Maybe we'll get lucky and Denis' Clemente will try one of these shots in the game-

Sam Houston State

There is a guy on Sam Houston State wearing goggles. As in swimming goggles, not rec specs.

EDIT: They actually call him "Goggles" Clavell. I guess it works, he's got 17 of Sam Houston's 28 so far.

"He stroked it admirably." Nice color commentary, Vern.

I'm not sure we had three games this good in the entire first round last year.

What an effort by RMU. The finish was disappointing, even though a Nova loss would've destroyed my bracket. The officiating in the last few minutes of regulation was suspect at best. OT wasn't much better, particularly the jump ball fiasco. In regular time, Scottie Reynolds was the main beneficiary, shooting like 8 free throws in the last few minutes, which helps when you're 1-14 from the floor (at the time). At the end of regulation, fouls were 26-16 in favor of Nova. I'm just sayin'...

Jimmer was the hero in BYU's 2OT win, scoring 37 and hitting two crucial 3s in the second OT. He could've been a goat, after that bad turnover at the end of regulation that gave Florida a chance to win, but instead bouces back for the performance of the day...so far.

Great effort, Bobby Morris. And at the same time, thanks for saving my bracket, Nova.

Well Shit.

ND goes down. A long scoring drought in the 2nd half costs the Irish the game. Its insane to think that the Irish have been better in the last 4 weeks when Luke Harangody, without question one of the best players in the history of Notre Dame, is on the bench. Sad, but true.

What a start!

This is a ridiculous start to the tournament. Irish lose by 1, Florida and BYU look to be headed to OT, and Bob Morris is still up on Nova by 4. Let's hope that this quality of games continues for the rest of the weekend.

Robert Morris comes to play!

First half of the opening games are in the bag: ND has a 2-possession lead, BYU (led by Jimmer Fredette, whose season high is 49) is up two, and Robert Morris is setting the stage for an early upset bid against Nova.

Scooter reported that RMU's coach was on sports radio this morning, saying he likes how they match up...we had a good laugh about that. After seeing their aggressive, organized defense put on an impressive show in the first half, he may have a point. I still expect Nova to win it, but I'll be pulling for the hometown underdogs from Moon Township.

First session of games has begun. I've got Nova on the tv, Irish on the computer. I had a brief glimpse of the Florida game, which made me (slightly) miss the days of Joakim Noah. Especially these amazing dance moves.

I've Got Skillz.

Makin' Picks

This year, we're going to attempt to demonstrate our basketball IQ's by picking the winners of each round of games. It will be fun. And maybe humbling. Feel free to contribute your picks, we'll post them and keep an ongoing tally. Here are my picks for the opening session-

• BYU over Florida- Mormons dominate
• Villanova over Bob Morris- Cats return much of last years Final Four squad
• Notre Dame over ODU- New look Irish poised for a deep run
• Murray St over Vandy- Upset City! Murray, present.
• KSU over North Texas- Fear the Beard. I'll get back to that later.
• Baylor over Sam Houston- Tweety and LaceDarius roll.
• St Mary's over Richmond- St Mary's- "Austrailian for College Basketball. (Short, B. 2010)
• Butler over UTEP- Fundamental hoops FTW.

Bracket Time

Last year I had access to $10,000 plotters that could print anything up to 36" in width by dozens of feet long. This year my printing options are limited to an old Epson inkjet that can barely handle 8.5x11. Needless to say, there won't be any 12-square foot bracket on our all this year. But I still made a bracket, and if you have access to large-format printers, I'd recommend printing this out and putting it up on the wall--it was a big hit at our place last year.

2 hours, 40 minutes....

The calm before the storm.

In these last few hours before it all begins, people everywhere are scrambling to complete their brackets. Filling out a bracket is without a doubt one of my favorite parts of March Madness. It's also one of the most frustrating. Regardless of how many games I've watched from mid November until now, I always find myself completely lost and confused when it comes to picking a winner. "Which 12 will beat a 5? " and all that nonsense just messes with my head. And it shows. I haven't won a bracket pool in years. Does it stop me? Hell no.

If you're lost and unsure of who to pick to win it all, you can always take the advice of good ol' Barack Obama. Last year he predicted North Carolina to win it all, and they did. This year, he's calling Kansas. Here's a picture of the Barack O'Balla.

March Madness Eve.....

We're back! That's right. A year later, and a year better. For our returning fans, it's good to see you again. For our new fans, we're so glad you're here. Prepare yourself for the best hoops insight, analysis, and (social) commentary available on the internet. And not only that, you get a look at how we're watching the games. By the end of this madness, you'll know what we watched, what we thought while watching it, what we ate while watching, and what we were wearing. Ok, kidding about the last part. Maybe.

Feel free to go back and review some of the our posts from last year. There are some absolute gems, a couple of duds, and some fantastic videos.