Random thoughts while overindulging in college basketball's finest day of the year: · Can't we get a national holiday declared for the first day of the tournament? No one wants to be doing anything but watching college basketball, yet we begrudgingly and distractedly force ourselves to go through the motions of everyday life. I'm as Irish or more Irish than the next guy, and if St. Patrick's Day gets the recognition that it does, then the NCAA Tournament ought to get double it. Instead of green, maybe we can all wear the school colors of our favorite 5-12 game upset special...
· I may have hoped earlier this semester that I'd be sharing a Guinness with Ireland's favored son and current Virginia basketball coach Pete Gillen on St. Patrick's Day just before an NCAA Tourney run. Well, I had my Guinness last night sans Pete, toasting what is sure to be a magical run through the NIT instead. And for now, that's good enough for me...
· Wait, was that really our Virginia Cavaliers playing at U-Hall Wednesday night against George Washington? When did we ever run and fast break like that before? (Besides the High Point game...)
· Gillen's job is safe. How can it not be? Our young team surged in the second half of the ACC season, narrowly missed the tournament and showed last night that Gillen can still inspire the troops to get excited about the NIT. Todd Billet is our only substantial loss, and we have a few good recruits coming in. Ol' Petey deserves at least one more year...
· I camped for the NIT game. For the pure absurdity factor. I actually spent the night in 'Hooville with friends before a first-round NIT game. That has to be some kind of record. And some kind of certifiable offense...
· Wait, did Virginia really shoot 50 percent from three-point range Wednesday night?
· Funniest sidelight of the game: the dueling mascots. The pint-sized, sneaker-wearing George Washington (whose head was disproportionately large for the rest of his body) insisted on provoking the bigger, superior CavMan. Sadly, no fight ensued, but CavMan proved he would have won any type of dance-off competition...
· Honestly, though, is there any debate between Presidents Washington and Jefferson? I remind you that when Georgie Dubs crossed the Delaware, he was retreating...
· Take yesterday's Alabama-Southern Illinois finish. So exciting. Half the NCAA Tournament games seem to end in similar fashion. Is it criminal to enjoy life this much?
· Wait, did Virginia really have 13 blocks?
· My bracket's Final Four: Connecticut beating Kentucky in the championship with Duke and Pittsburgh as the also-rans.
· Keep in mind that I got three of the first four games wrong before taking my advice...
· The Assemblage of Cain still cracks me up. They made an appearance in Sports Illustrated on Campus. There are soon to be chapters at other schools, making them one small step closer to their stated goal of taking it "inter-planetary." Jason Cain's line from Wednesday of two minutes, two turnovers and one foul only makes it funnier...
· Wait, did Virginia really shoot 65 percent from the field in the first half?
· Where's that line between rooting hard for your bracket and, spur the moment, rooting for a big upset? That's the conundrum I faced during the VCU-Wake Forest game. I have Wake going to the Elite Eight but would have loved to see VCU pull out the upset. The way I see it, there are four factors to determine in-game allegiance: 1) the difference in seeds, 2) what round you expected the favorite to reach (i.e. how big of a disruption it will cause to your bracket), 3) how much money is at stake in your pool...
· Does anyone else remember Miami of Ohio's Devin Davis? You know, the guy with the Boyd Tinsley hair who single-handedly upset Arizona in the first round of the tournament. He had 24 points and 15 rebounds to send Damon Stoudamire prematurely packing back in 1995. I remember being, ahem, "sick" --wink, wink -
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