One Shining Moment

Last night the college basketball season officially wrapped up, after a thrilling championship comeback by Kansas, with the annual CBS "One Shining Moment" montage. And yesterday evening as the nation was building up to that, news of Marquette’s hiring of former Tom Crean assistant Buzz Williams as head coach leaked to the Milwaukee media. This begs the question of whether today’s hiring of Williams will be “One Shining Moment” for Marquette and Buzz Williams, or whether it will simply be looked at by Williams as his “One Shining Moment” when he is looking for employment in a few years.

Unfortunately, it was a late game last night, so I've not had time to fully jot down my thoughts. My gut reaction? I don't know enough about Williams to form a valid opinion about whether or not he's going to be a decent coach. But I think that taking less than a week to hire an unproven assistant coach from within the program and inking him to a six-year contract reeks of panic and ignores the fact that Marquette is probably the most attractive job in the country that's open right now (unless, of course, you’re Bill Self, in which case Oklahoma State’s willing to insulate your home with $100 bills if agree to be their coach). Maybe Williams is the right guy, but it sure feels like a lot more thought could have been given to this process.

But like I said, I'll give some more in-depth thoughts on the matter tomorrow. Maybe they'll tell us something surprising at the press conference this afternoon.

Tom Crean's Leaving, Huh?

There's one word to describe my reaction when I heard yesterday afternoon that Tom Crean is heading to Indiana: shocked. Over the past few years Crean's name has been thrown around in relation to just about every big college basketball coaching job in the country. But there was barely a mention of Crean this time around. I actually thought the report was an April Fool's Day joke at first. But to my surprise, it was real.

As with most things during the Tom Crean era, I find myself conflicted in how I feel about his departure. On one hand, I've made no secret over the years about the fact that I'm not exactly the world's biggest Tom Crean fan. The almost yearly stream of departures from the program by players and assistant coaches has always bothered me, as has the fact that I've spoken to virtually no one who has dealt with him directly and indicated that they liked him or found him to be truly genuine. And of course, from a basketball standpoint, my stomach starts churning every time Crean calls a play coming out of a time-out (though to be fair, there were actually a handful of good calls down the stretch this year). While he may be an excellent motivator of men, he’s not really a basketball savant.

But all that said, on a day like this, even I have to concede that he's done some incredible things at Marquette that will have a positive impact long after he's gone. That gorgeous practice facility called the Al McGuire Center (great for the school and the community) likely doesn't exist without Tom Crean. As a guy who grew up watching Marquette play in the conference that has morphed into the Horizon League, I know that without some of Tom Crean's accomplishments at Marquette, the Golden Eagles likely wouldn't have had a chance at gaining entry into the Big East. Knock him all that you want for his tournament difficulties since 2003, but he did go to the Final Four, and that's not something that a lot of coaches have done. Finally, I may be going out on a limb here, but I believe that Tom Crean's teams' success on the basketball court has probably even helped Marquette from an academic standpoint. Marquette's not anywhere near as easy to get into as it was when I was getting ready to go to college, and while I'm not naive enough to think that all, or even most of the increased competition for admission is due to basketball, it certainly couldn't hurt having the name out there on ESPN (Remember, this analysis is coming from a guy who applied to colleges largely on the basis of where I could watch good basketball.).

So what do I make of Tom Crean at Indiana? I'm not sold that he's a perfect fit, but there are two things about him that I think will translate well to the Hoosiers. First and foremost, coming off the Kelvin Sampson scandal, Tom Crean's not dirty. I've never heard a hint of a rules violation surrounding him, and that has to be the single biggest consideration for Indiana going into this hire. Secondly, Hoosiers are going to love his intensity. I've alluded to the fact that among people that I know who've dealt with Crean, he's almost universally unliked. Perhaps the only thing that I've heard that's as universally agreed upon, though, is that people who've seen one of his practices rave about how even during intra-squad scrimmages players look like they're fighting to win a Final Four game. It’s like a court full of Rudys. And given that my "people who've dealt with Crean" group has some heavy overlap with my "people who've seen Crean practices" group, you know he's doing something really right if he's impressing people that aren't particularly fond of him.

That's not to say that Crean's a perfect fit. In my estimation, his biggest strength and biggest weakness are horribly mismatched with Indiana. Crean's biggest strength is his ability as a promoter. His pre-game Jumbotron messages to fans, a mind-blowing number of promotional give-aways, and his tradition of shaking hands with the student section on the way out to the court all helped to build interest in the program. And while it never hurts to be a great promoter (just ask Bruce Pearl), I'm not sure that that's what Indiana needs. Indiana basketball has never seemed to me like one of those things that needs much promotion. People in Indiana are always going to be basketball crazy, even if you don't give then a bobblehead and constantly shake their hands. They don't need to put butts in the seats--they just need someone that knows basketball.
And that brings me to what I see as possibly Crean's biggest weakness--he's a pretty shaky game coach. Simply put, if there are 15 seconds left on the clock and my team's down 2 points, I'm not feeling real confident if I look over at the bench and see Tom Crean putting together the plan (why do I feel like I'm foreshadowing a Wisconsin loss at Indiana next year where I end the night feeling like I'm being repeatedly kicked in the groin). I could be wrong, but Indiana seems to me, more than almost anywhere else, to be a place where they'd value an Xs and Os genius. Tom Crean is not that. His ability to get guys to run through walls for him can mitigate this weakness a lot of the time, but I have to think that his lack of remarkable basketball acumen with not play well with a fan base that expects their coach to be a skillful tactician.

So it will be interesting to see how Crean does at Indiana. I suspect his tenure may be a bit more rocky than most others do. Crean’s not as bad a coach as people thought during the year when he ended the season losing to Western Michigan in the opening round of the NIT in front of just 3000 fans, but he’s also not as good as people thought when he went to the Final Four. Problem is, Indiana’s hiring the Final Four guy. If they ever get a glimpse of the NIT guy, things could turn nasty.

A few final thoughts before I wrap up my farewell to Tom Crean entry:

1) I don't yet know what the general feeling among Marquette fans on Crean's departure is, but I hope it's not excessive anger or resentment. At the end of the day, Crean's a guy who made significant improvements to the program in the 9 years he was around, made his job much more attractive to any potential replacements, and only left when one of the 5-6 most storied programs in the history of college basketball came calling. Again, there are plenty of things not to like about him, but he left Marquette a lot better than he found it.

2) Looks like that dilema of having one too many players signed to scholarship for next year should find a reasonable way of working itself out now. (And for the record, I think Dominic James and Jerel McNeal are coming back, and always have.) Heck, the new coach may even be scrambling to fill all of the spots...

3) With regard to replacement coaches at Marquette, I'll talk only about my thoughts on the two local names that are sure to pop up, since I haven't had a chance to really look at who's available. Forget about Tony Bennett, because while he's a Wisconsin native, my feeling on him is that he didn't turn down the Indiana job because he didn't want it, but rather he turned it down because he feels he owes some loyalty to Washington State for the opportunity that they afforded him and his father. The chance to come home probably doesn't change that. However, the prospect of coming home is an interesting one when applied to Rick Majerus. Majerus cited as one of his reasons for taking the coaching job at St. Louis that it afforded him the ability to drive to Milwaukee in just a handful of hours if he needed to provide assistance to his Milwaukee-based mother. Like Bennett, I see Majerus as a loyal guy who probably doesn’t want to leave St. Louis out in the cold after just one year (I've long believed that he'd have Bo Ryan's job right now if not for the fact that Utah had been very accommodating to him with a leave of absence in the season prior to the Wisconsin job coming open). But if offered the job, might Majerus’s family considerations outweigh his professional loyalty?

4) Whoever Marquette hires, this is a real chance for them to have at least one big year. The cupboard is not bare, and I’d be very interested to see what someone with a little more basketball acumen than Tom Crean can do with his stable of excellent guards.

5) Welcome to your first year as athletic director, Steve Cottingham. Bet you didn’t think things would get this fun right away, huh?

6) This isn’t specifically Crean related, but I’ll mention it anyway. Yesterday as I was driving to an appointment after work, I wanted to listen to local reactions to Tom Crean’s departure on local radio. Since the two stations that I normally listen to were playing Bucks and Badgers programming, I flipped over to 1250, Milwaukee’s lesser-known sports talk station. Something called the Gary and Cliff Show was on, and well, let’s just say that if you ever want to know about Marquette basketball, this isn’t the show to listen to. It’s frightening to me that a host of a Milwaukee sports talk radio show could be unaware that Rick Majerus was once the head coach of Marquette, or speculate that Majerus might have left for Ball State because that may have been a better job at the time. Looks like I’ve been right all along in refusing to listen to 1250.

7) I'm excited for the upcoming Marquette season already. Not because I know anything about what the year will bring, but because I'm genuinely excited to see how I feel about Marquette. For the past few years, I've had a hard time genuinely rooting for them, and I suspect it's due to my distaste for Tom Crean. This year I get to figure out my reluctance to truly embrace Marquette is attributable to Crean, or some other reason, like the entertainment value that I get from seeing my friend Greg overly upset after Marquette losses. Only time will tell.

It's Official

Well, it's official--2008 is the year of the worst NCAA picks that I've ever made. After a disturbingly bad opening weekend where I picked wrong on virtually every game that I had a question about (many thanks to Arkansas for letting me at least make one decision that was right), I had been clinging to hope that my unconventional pick of Tennessee as national champion would help me to get back in the game. But Louisville just wouldn't let the Vols get a lead last night in the game that I picked early on as likely to be the best game in the entire tournament (I was wrong about that, too). Here's hoping that Memphis can at least get to the Final Four so that I don't look like a complete idiot. I've already brought enough shame to my family.

Enjoy the Wisconsin game tonight--a win vs. Davidson just might take away the pain of my embarrassing picks.

The Powerade Jam Fest: Can I Go Home, Already?

(Due to tonight’s broadcast of the Powerade Jamfest on ESPN2, I’m not naming players in my synopsis of the night below. I wouldn’t want to spoil the spectacle for you...)

Powerade took three hours of my life last night, and I want them back.

After weeks of anticipation, last night I headed down to the U.S. Cellular Arena to meet up with my buddies Dez and Ferd to watch the Powerade Jamfest, the prelude to the McDonald’s All-American game, and where the nation’s top high school players go to shoot and dunk all night. My anticipation quickly turned to boredom, though, as the event dragged on to the point that it ended with me looking at my friends after the last dunk and wondering aloud “Are we allowed to go now?” You might have fun watching things on ESPN tonight in a tightly edited one-hour package, but here’s what you won’t have to sit through:

1) An elongated video (with nearly inaudible sound) of past McDonald’s All-Americans talking about the importance of the game, and the great things done by the Ronald McDonald House.

2) Introductions and brief biographies of all 48 male and female All-Americans.

3) A performance by the Milwaukee King cheerleading squad.

4) An poorly conceived, impromptu mascot/military representative/crowd three point contest organized by Ronald McDonald.

5) Not one, but two performances by “Grammy Award-winning artist” Ne-Yo.

6) A performance by a gigantic inflatable Bango Buck, mascot of the Milwaukee Bucks.

7) The presentation of awards to winners of each actual event, with no audio to hear the interviews with the winners.

8) A small child dunking on a mini-hoop after jumping off a mini-trampoline. (I’m told that this was actually pretty entertaining, though I had taken a break to buy a soft pretzel at this point in time.)

9) Introductions and biographies of each of the eight dunk judges.

10) The tossing of Powerade promotional t-shirts and other items to the crowd every 15-20 minutes.

11) A breakdance team.


So yeah, it was a long, awful night. As I left the arena with my friends, I actually apologized to them for suggesting that we attend this thing. If you check out the broadcast of the event on ESPN2 tonight, here are some other lowlights to look for:

–Ever seen anyone go 0-25 in a three-point competition? One of the competitors in the girls’ competition does just that.

–Don’t expect to see both halves of the court used. It would have made too much sense to cut the time of the three-point competition in half by doubling up shooters during each minute of competition, or to give the 48 players warming up more than one basket to shoot at. I thought I was looking at a mosh pit when I walked in on warm-ups last night.

–Check out Sky Guy, the mascot for the Chicago Sky of the WNBA who made an appearance last night and is one of the most ridiculous mascots that I’ve ever seen. Sky Guy can best be described as a character who is 1/3 Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, 1/3 Duff Man, and 1/3 that guy at your gym who only works out his upper-body.

–If there are crowd shots, watch the excitement level over promotional t-shirts and other items drop as the night goes on and the arena become over-saturated with things that have been thrown into the crowd. I actually saw a few people get hit in the head by t-shirts last night because the crowd was so disaffected by the 20th round of “Here come the t-shirts!”

–Expect to be disappointed by the dunk contest. The winner’s actually pretty impressive in the finals, but the failure of the rules to allow for anyone to miss a dunk in the first round leads to some of the best competitors eliminating themselves early on for blowing a dunk (including the guy who throws down the best dunk of the first round). Because, you know, we wouldn’t want anyone trying anything too dazzling in a dunk contest.

So if you watch, enjoy the show tonight. I suspect that it will a be a lot more fun when it’s edited down to an hour. I won’t be checking it out, though. Powerade already stole three hours from me last night.

2008 NCAA Tournament Picks

Well, today’s the day I’m unleashing my NCAA picks on the world. I did so for the first time last year, due to a large number of requests for NCAA assistance from friends of mine who mistakenly thought that I might have some sort of expertise that would help them win their office pools. As the results of last year prove, I’m no expert (and my focus on in-state teams this year has ensured that I haven’t even seen much of this year’s field play, so I’m just as clueless as most of you asking for my help), but I still have enough people fooled that there’s a need to have one place to direct friends asking me for advice. And that place is this post. Before I commence with my picks, a few general notes that I’d like to make about filling out an NCAA bracket:

1) Don’t just completely steal my picks (or anyone else’s, for that matter). I don’t mind it personally, but what fun is that for you? Think of it this way–what’s going to be more fulfilling to you: telling the guy in the cube next to you that you “totally called” Winthrop knocking off Washington State, or telling him that some guy whose picks you followed got it right that Davidson beat Gonzaga. Advice is great when it’s coming from your doctor or your financial advisor, but this is the NCAA tournament–live a little!

2) Don’t go crazy with upsets, particularly in the first two rounds. The NCAA selection committee knows more than you, and they’ve seeded these teams for a reason. Sure, you’re no fun if you don’t go out on a limb here or there, but picking 14 first round upsets isn’t just bold, it’s stupid. Yeah, you’re probably going to have a friend that picks that miracle 10-seed that made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and he’s not going to shut up about it. He’s probably not talking so much about the 5-seed and the 7-seed that he had in the Final Four who both lost the first day, though. My picks are notoriously and painfully boring, and I make no apologies for that.

3) Make some picks for goofy reasons. There are 64 teams in this tournament, and unless your name is Jay Bilas, you probably haven’t seen all of them. So go ahead and pick George Mason to win a game because you had a cool boss at your old job who was an alum, or pick against Butler because of that time you took a trip there and ended up annoyed because you couldn’t find anyplace within 5 square miles of the campus to buy a sandwich. After all, last year wasn’t your pool won by that guy in your office who just picked teams because of the attractiveness of their uniform colors? See, you need some quirks, too.

4) Don’t sweat your lack of knowledge too much. The last time I won a pool was well before I was a basketball-crazed fool, and I knew even less about the teams involved than I know this year. But by some miracle, a hunch about Yinka Dare, and another one about St. John’s led me to crushing victories in every pool I entered that year. So it’s not always about what you know. Sometimes it’s just about getting lucky and latching on to a center who’s completely inept when it comes to passing the ball.

So, after all that, on to the picks. Feel free to openly mock them, because this year's matchups have me less confident about my picks than ever before. Winners are in bold.


FIRST ROUND

East

North Carolina(1) vs. Marginalized Play-In Winner(16): Okay, we all know that North Carolina's not going to lose here, so let me use this space for another year to state how ridiculous I think the play-in game is. Mount St. Mary's and Coppin State both won their respective conference tournaments and get rewarded by having to play a game on Tuesday night that won't have the atmosphere of the real tournament and that virtually no one will watch. They get the banner, but let’s not kid ourselves–whoever loses this game isn’t in the tournament. But gosh, I’m glad we’re kicking out one of the little guys so that Baylor can get an extra game or two in front of a big crowd.

Indiana(8) vs. Arkansas(9): Indiana’s got two of the most talented stars in the country, but that doesn’t eliminate the fact that the Hoosiers have been awful down the stretch. Plus, this is a great contrarian pick (with little risk in an 8-9 game), since I suspect most people will be anticipating an Indiana-North Carolina showdown of storied programs in the second round.

Notre Dame(5) vs. George Mason(12): George Mason is so 2006, and I'm pretty sure that Jai Lewis never made the NFL.

Washington State(4) vs. Winthrop(13): Winthrop's always in the tourney, and could make a sneaky play here, but it's tough to pick against an experienced and tough Washington State team that played in one of the most challenging conferences around this year.

St. Joseph's(11) vs. Oklahoma(6): I’m not going to lie, about all that I know about either team is that former Duke player Jeff Capel coaches the Sooners. Given my lack of knowledge, and the fact that my cousin Delonte (hey, he could be a distant cousin of some sort) played for St. Joe’s a few years back, I’m taking the upset.

Louisville(3) vs. Boise State(14): Before Louisville became Pitt's first major victim in the Big East Tournament, everyone was talking about how they were playing like one of the best teams in the country. Losing to a white-hot Pitt team doesn't negate that fact.

Butler(7) vs. South Alabama(10): I think Butler’s overrated this year based on the little that I saw of them. And they’re playing South Alabama in Birmingham, so it’s going to be a hostile crowd for the Bulldogs. Yet for some inexplicable reason, I just can’t pick against A.J. Graves and company.

Tennessee(2) vs. American(15): Tennessee's the best of the 2-seeds, and I don't even think it's a question. It's never wise to trust a Bruce Pearl team completely, but I’m willing to do it in this game. American should enjoy its first trip to the tourney, because it's going to be a quick one.

Midwest

Kansas(1) vs. Portland State(16): My friend Jay used to work at Portland State. He liked it a lot there, but basketball wasn't one of the things he bragged a lot about.

UNLV(8) vs. Kent State(9): Knowing virtually nothing about either team, I'm taking Kent State for two reasons. One, I'm still bitter over UNLV knocking Wisconsin out of the tournament last year. Two, one of my friends who moved away in middle school landed in Ohio and went to Kent State. I feel like Mike would be a fan, and I want to support him.

Clemson(5) vs. Villanova(12): I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Big East show its depth here, but Clemson looked really solid in the ACC tournament. Plus, my cousin went there, so I think I’m morally obligated to pick the Tigers.

Vanderbilt(4) vs. Siena(13): Things I like about Vanderbilt: Shan Foster and the floor in their arena. Okay, there are a lot more than that, but that’s enough to allow me to take them over Siena.

USC(6) vs. Kansas State(11): I’m taking the Trojans out of pure self preservation. I suspect I would get violently ill if I had to watch Brian Butch guard Michael Beasley at any point if K-State were to face Wisconsin in the next round.

Wisconsin(3) vs. Cal State Fullerton(14): Like I said yesterday, if this one’s being played on a baseball diamond, I might pick differently, but given that it’s on the hardwood, I’ll take the Badgers.

Gonzaga(7) vs. Davidson(10): Davidson played close games with both Duke and North Carolina this year, and that’s why most people are picking them here. Me? I simply don’t trust a Gonzaga team that’s got David Pendergraft playing a major role.

Georgetown(2) vs. Maryland-Baltimore County(15): Baltimore and D.C. are pretty close to one another. If you lived in the area, where would you want your son or daughter to go to college?

South

Memphis(1) vs. UT-Arlington(16): I’m suspect of Memphis nearly every year they roll through Conference USA, but instead of hiding behind their crappy conference and talking about how they can’t control who they play, they put together a killer non-conference schedule this year, and forced people to respect their talent and record.

Mississippi State(8) vs. Oregon(9): Oregon’s looked like a different team every time I’ve seen them this year, so their inconsistency scares me. At the end of the day, though, Mississippi State’s head coach is Rick Stansbury, and Stansbury is where Jessie Spano wanted to go to college on Saved By the Bell. So I’ve got to go with the Bulldogs.

Michigan State(5) vs. Temple(12): I may like it when Wisconsin beats Michigan State, but I still respect the hell out of the Spartans.

Pittsburgh(4) vs. Oral Roberts(13): Pitt’s so hot coming off a Big East Tournament in which they knocked off Louisville, Marquette and Georgetown that not even God himself could stop them, let alone Oral Roberts.

Marquette(6) vs. Kentucky(11): My man-crush on Billy Gillespie outweighs my love for my hometown team, as a Kentucky team that looked dreadful until finally hitting its stride in mid-January keeps rolling.

Stanford(3) vs. Cornell(14): Cornell’s Ivy League foe Harvard has started letting Tommy Amaker recruit less-qualified students to his team, and Amaker cites Stanford as a school that’s a model of the way to have both athletic and academic excellence. Translation: Stanford would crush a current Ivy League team.

Miami (FL)(7) vs. St. Mary's(10): Miami beat Duke earlier this year, but St. Mary’s beat ESPN’s late-night west coast Duke-equivalent, Gonzaga. Not sure which way to go, but let’s take the little guy since I’ve always been annoyed by Miami football.

Texas(2) vs. Austin Peay(15): The school from Austin, Texas is playing a school named Austin. I think the committee was just having fun with this one, sort of like when I was in college and the housing department just “randomly” paired up two guys named Jesus and Moses as dorm roommates on the floor above me.

West

UCLA(1) vs. Mississippi Valley State(16): Marquette used to play Mississippi Valley State back in the early 1990s and they had some super-prolific scorer. They were still part of Marquette’s cake-walk of a non-conference schedule, and I’m guessing there’s only so much that’s changed about them.

BYU(8) vs. Texas A&M(9): You burned me after I picked you to win it all last year, Texas A&M! I’m picking BYU out of spite.

Drake(5) vs. Western Kentucky(12): I saw Drake take down Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Bracket Buster weekend. They’re legit. It hurts me to take out Western Kentucky here, because they’re always solid, and against any other five-seed they’d be a sneaky upset pick. But this year’s king of mid-majors isn’t going to overlook another mid-major.

Connecticut(4) vs. San Diego(13): UConn’s inconsistency is always maddening, and I remain fascinated by the ESPN piece from November about how San Diego starting forward Rob Jones (who's actually pretty darn good) is the grandson of the infamous Jim Jones. So I wouldn’t blame you if you took the Toreros here, but UConn’s tricked me into thinking that they’re playing well now, so I’m going with them.

Purdue(6) vs. Baylor(11): The Boilermakers beat Wisconsin twice this year, and I have to respect a squad that did that to my favorite team.

Xavier(3) vs. Georgia(14): All the respect in the world for what Georgia battled through in the SEC tournament–that took some serious physical and mental toughness. That said, my lasting impression of the Bulldogs from seeing them in Madison at the beginning of the season was that they’re not a real great team. Xavier is, so they’re moving on.

West Virginia(7) vs. Arizona(10): As with most recent Arizona teams, this one’s all dependent on whether their talent turns it on. Picking them against a Bob Huggins-coached team is a gamble, but hey, even I can't justify picking an entire region with no first round upsets.

Duke(2) vs. Belmont(15): Let’s get this one over early and get some minutes for Greg Zoubek, okay?

SECOND ROUND

East

North Carolina(1) vs. Arkansas(9): Yeah, like that goofy-looking guy with the beard and the headband is going to be able to hang with Tyler Hansbrough.

Notre Dame(5) vs. Washington State(4): I want to take Tony Bennett and the Cougars, but I know how privileged I felt to watch Marquette beat Notre Dame twice this year. The Irish are a good team, and they're moving on.

St. Joseph's(11) vs. Louisville(3): Team I believe in fully, or team that I picked as an upset because I knew nothing about either them or their first round opponent? Guess I'll take the former.

Butler(7) vs. Tennessee(2): Bruce Pearl used to beat up on Butler when he was with UWM in the Horizon League. Now he's got even better athletes. Need I say more?

Midwest

Kansas(1) vs. Kent State(9): Did you know that “Jayhawks” isn’t just the moniker of Kansas’ athletic teams, it’s the name of one of my favorite bands?

Clemson(5) vs. Vanderbilt(4): Sure, Vanderbilt beat Tennessee a few weeks ago, but Clemson’s playing better at this moment.

USC(6) vs. Wisconsin(3): My head sort of says USC, but my heart says Wisconsin. If this works out, I see Wisconsin up by 15 in the closing two minutes, and O.J. Mayo ending his college career by punting the basketball in frustration. And I can't just give up on that dream.

Davidson(10) vs. Georgetown(2): Davidson would be a nice Cinderella, but I'm not going down that road. I'll play it safe with the Hoyas.

South

Memphis(1) vs. Mississippi State(8): Bring back Erick Dampier and maybe I give Mississippi State a chance.

Michigan State(5) vs. Pitt(4): I want to pick Michigan State, but seriously, did you see Pitt in the Big East tournament?

Kentucky(11) vs. Stanford(3): Kentucky's lack of size is frightening against the Lopez twins, but their record has only gotten better as the season has gone on, and I can't ignore how well they've played down the stretch. Here’s my one truly insane upset.

St. Mary's(10) vs. Texas(2): No, I'm not a fan of Texas (though I’m not completely sure why, since they’ve got a stellar backcourt). Yes, they can beat St. Mary's. And when they do, I'll enjoy some Tito's Handmade Vodka from Austin's finest micro-distillery.

West

UCLA(1) vs. BYU(8): There are a few teams that are head and shoulders above the rest in this country, and UCLA is one of them.

Drake(5) vs. Connecticut(4): Even after the revolution of the past 2-3 years, I still don't trust highly seeded mid-majors like Drake. But I trust Connecticut over the past few years even less. Yeah, the Huskies can be spectacular, but they're also quite capable of crapping the bed.

Purdue(6) vs. Xavier(3): Look, I'm a Wisconsin fan--the Boilermakers handed my team half of their losses this year. I have to give them some respect.

Arizona(10) vs. Duke(2): Two reasons why Duke wins this one. One, they're embarrassed by their first-round exit last year. Two, I think Arizona's players are just looking to play out the year, be finished with Kevin O'Neill, and get Lute Olson back.

SWEET SIXTEEN

East

North Carolina(1) vs. Notre Dame(5): Notre Dame’s an intriguing upset pick here, since Luke Harangody’s ability to sell opponents’ fouls is a perfect skill to counter Tyler Hansbrough’s unbridled intensity. And I kind of want to pick the Irish here, but UNC’s just too good.

Louisville(3) vs. Tennessee(2): My two favorite teams in the tournament. Were these teams not in the same region, I'd actually probably put them both through to the Final Four (perhaps along with North Carolina, also in the East Region). But since I have to choose, I'll take Tennessee. Louisville's probably a bit hotter right now, but I just have a hunch about the Vols.

Midwest

Kansas(1) vs. Clemson(5): This pick is not so much an endorsement of Kansas as it is an admission that I could easily see Clemson losing to either Villanova or Vanderbilt before this point.

Wisconsin(3) vs. Georgetown(2): Here's the thing, if I pick Wisconsin here, I'm going to get into that mindset where they're one game away from the Final Four, and I'm telling myself that fate wouldn't let the Badges miss if they're that close. I can't take that kind of heartache, so I'll take the Hoyas, who are pretty darn good, too.

South

Memphis(1) vs. Pitt(4): Pitt finally starts to get tired from beating everyone, and Memphis continues to silence people who can't stop talking about their positively terrible conference.

Kentucky(11) vs. Texas(2): I just can't take an 11-seed in the Elite Eight. So what the hell, give me Texas.

West

UCLA(1) vs. Drake(5): UCLA has all-American freshman Kevin Love as their most talked about player. Drake’s most buzz-worthy guy is Adam Emmenecker, a former walk-on guard who’s afraid to shoot 3-pointers. Yep, I’m going with UCLA here.

Purdue(6) vs. Duke(2): I've shown my respect to Purdue, but they're from the Big Ten after all, and I can recognize that the Big Ten just wasn't a great conference this year. I'm not totally sold on Duke, but I think their guards will carry them through here.

ELITE EIGHT

East

North Carolina(1) vs. Tennessee(2): Was it a bad idea when I named Texas A&M as my team of destiny last year and had no good reasons to continue picking them at this point? Yes. Does that mean I'm not going to do the exact same thing with Tennessee again this year? No.

Midwest:

Kansas(1) vs. Georgetown(2): Not crazy about either, but Kansas' ability to disappoint goes back further than its current coach, who has a similar reputation for bowing out too early. I'm crossing my fingers that we don't see another 0 point effort from Roy Hibbert.

South

Memphis(1) vs. Texas(2): Seriously, this is a 1 vs. 2 seed? Not even a question--I love Memphis here, even if the backcourt matchup is legenday.

West

UCLA(1) vs. Duke(2): Two great programs, two solid rosters, and two excellent coaches. I could really make the case either way, particularly since these are two of my favorite teams to watch each year. Since my friend Kevin and I were laughing this weekend about how we started out the year talking about Kyle Singler as if he belonged in the same conversation with Kevin Love, I'm going to go with the Bruins.

FINAL FOUR

Tennessee vs. Georgetown: Well, seeing as Georgetown's sort of a default choice that I don't totally have faith in and Tennessee is one of the 5 or so teams that I could see winning it all, I'll take Tennessee.

UCLA vs. Memphis: Could someone hand me a coin, because I need to flip it. No? Okay, I’ll pick Memphis for the all-Tennessee final game, just because that’s fun.

CHAMPIONSHIP

Tennessee vs. Memphis: The Vols won last time, so why pick against them now. Who knew that their earlier 1 vs. 2 matchup would end up being repeated for the national championship?

Thoughts From Selection Weekend...

Well, it’s tourney time. I spent the bulk of my weekend on my couch watching basketball, and bracket analysis, getting in shape for next weekend when I’ll spend even more time on my couch watching hoops. I’ll have my NCAA tournament picks posted for all the world to see tomorrow, but for today, some thoughts on the weekend in general. But before I get to that, here are my gut reactions to the tournament positions of Marquette and Wisconsin:

–Very rough draw for Marquette. Kentucky was terrible at the start of the year, but seems to have taken to new coach Billy Gillespie down the stretch, with 11 of their 18 wins coming in the last two months. My man-crush on Gillespie is well known to you if you recall my tournament picks last year where I wrongly declared his Texas A&M squad my “team of destiny” and predicted them to win it all. Without question, this is the last 11 seed you’d want to see, and Marquette has a difficult task in front of them. And if they get through that, the Golden Eagles’ most likely second round opponent is Stanford. And I can pretty much guarantee that the last thing Marquette wants to see on their docket is a pair of seven foot twins. I’m seriously wondering if Tom Crean used to date the wife of one of the committee members, because

–Interesting draw for Wisconsin. If the Badgers were playing Cal State Fullerton in baseball, they might have a problem, but since it’s the basketball, I’m less concerned. Such is life for a 3-seed. And the second round will bring one of the freshman phenoms, O.J. Mayo or Michael Beasley. Mayo’s team might be better, but I’d almost rather see USC in the second round, just because the thought of seeing Brian Butch anywhere near Michael Beasley on the blocks makes me physically ill. Conversely, it might be fun to watch Michael Flowers chase Mayo around all day. With either team, though, it will be a game that people will be watching.

Now on to those lingering thoughts from the weekend:

1) It boggles my mind that someone out there actually thought that ACC singer guy that ESPN used for pre-game highlights prior to every ACC tournament game was a good idea. My theory is that the guy who came up with the Big Ten poetry slam commercial left his job with the Big Ten and started work for ESPN about three weeks ago. No one else could have come up with something this laughably ridiculous.

2) Very enlightening to hear from Billy Packer during Wisconsin's Big Ten Tournament semi-final game against Michigan State that Brian Butch was much more dangerous after recently adding a three-point shot to his arsenal. Billy may be old, but I don’t think six years ago when Butch was a junior in high school qualifies as “recently.” Maybe Packer was simply trying to make reference to Butch’s awful long-range start to the year, but if so, it was inartfully communicated, and just one of a number of times that my friend Kevin and I rolled our eyes at his commentary Saturday afternoon.

3) Lucky for me, I happened to catch the last several minutes of the Indiana-Minnesota game on Friday night. It ended up being possibly the most entertaining five minutes of basketball that I've seen all year. The Blake Hoffarber (arguably the whitest name ever) last-minute game-winning shot that's been on every highlight show known to man was incredible, but equally incredible was the preceding few seconds on Indiana's end of the floor. Minnesota's foul on D.J. White's putback to tie the game with 3.5 seconds left looked like it had turned a near-sure win into an instant loss. Then White missed his foul shot. The ball bounced around a bit afterward, and it seemed like the clock would run out until White miraculously came up with the ball again and was fouled with something like 1.8 seconds left. He again missed his first foul shot, leading me to wonder if anyone wanted to win this game. Finally, White made his final foul shot, but not before a string of three moments of failure by the Hoosiers and the Gophers that were each nearly as incredible as Hoffarber’s ultimate success.

4) I didn't see footage of Tom Izzo at Saturday's press conference after Michigan State's loss to Wisconsin until I was climbing into bed on Saturday night. I'm not sure I've ever seen a coach so emotionally spent and sad after a game. Had I not known what had happened earlier that day and not had sound on my television, I suspect I would have been wondering if one of Izzo's players had sustained a horrific injury, or that someone close to him had died. Izzo looked to be in worse shape than the survivors of tragedies on the program on the History Channel that I was watching just beforehand. I hate to see anyone feel that bad after a game, though part of me loves that someone can be so affected by a simple basketball contest. And my Izzo love is well-documented, so I hope he really can let go of this of this two days later like he said he wanted to, and put together a bit of a run in the NCAA tournament.

5) It was obviously sort of anti-climactic to have Wisconsin taking on the 10-seed in the finals of the Big Ten tournament on Sunday afternoon. What made that scenario even more upsetting, though, was that there was a definite need to go all-out to win that game. Losing to Indiana in the finals you could get over, but to losing to lowly Illinois in the conference championship game on Selection Sunday? That would haunt you pretty bad going into the tournament. So no relaxing on Sunday. Thankfully, the unthinkable didn't happen.

6) Add Trevon Hughes to Dominic James and Brian Butch on the list of guys who can really make you think and injury is worse than it is when they go down. Hughes was even more scary to watch, because seeing Hughes writhing in pain reminds you how little guard depth the Badgers have if he goes down heading into the tournament. (Even though you wouldn't want to lose either, James and Butch each have an army of little and big guys, respectively, behind them in.)

7) On Saturday night, my friend Peter, who has applied to New Mexico State for grad school, text-messaged me to inform me that if NMSU won their triple-overtime game with Boise State, he would go there for grad school. The Aggies didn't pull it out, though, so I'm still hoping that Peter gives more thought to UW-Milwaukee, because I know he'd be game for buying cheap Panther season tickets with me next year.

8) You know, I honestly don't mind that much that Marquette lost in the Big East Tournament, since I've become a big believer over the last few years that it truly is better to rest for an extra day or two than to plow through four games in four days. Tom Crean, who I rarely compliment, actually seemed to do a good job with limiting minutes for his key big men over the past few days, so look for a fresh-legged Golden Eagle squad on Thursday (and they’ll need those fresh legs against Kentucky).

9) Crazy as the idea that a tornado hit the Georgia Dome and wreaked havoc on the SEC Tournament, it was even crazier to watch footage of what things looked like inside and think that no one was seriously injured. For as much critisism as I've seen hurled at the SEC for how they handled the situation (moving the remaining games to Georgia Tech, allowing virtually no spectators, and forcing Georgia to play twice in one day), I can't argue too much with the action taken. You can't be prepared for everything, and having a major facility failure due to an act of God when you're on a deadline to get your most important games of the year played is not one of those situations that you should spend a lot of time beforehand crafting a contingency plan for. Yeah, forcing Georgia to play two games in one day on the home floor of the “other” team in their state was pretty obnoxious, but I’m not sure I could have come up with a better plan.

Like I said, back tomorrow with my picks. Enjoy going over your own brackets today. Only three more days until the best weekend of the year...

State Tourney Wrap-Up

Well, it finally happened. Nineteen years after I went to the Fieldhouse to see Wauwatosa East win a state championship in the first ever state tournament game that I attended, the Red Raiders again hold the crown. I spent the weekend shuttling back and forth between Milwaukee and Madison, and enjoying games with various friends. My Wauwatosa-centric thoughts on the championship game, and the tournament itself below:

1) After parking my car on my first trip to the tourney, I began my walk to the Kohl Center. About 30 feet into my walk, I saw a store located next to the parking garage which specialized in selling Magic: The Gathering cards and comic books. I looked inside and saw 5-6 guys playing some sort of card game that I'm sure I wouldn't understand. "What nerds" I thought. Then I considered the fact that I was in the midst of taking a two and a half hour round trip journey and planning to forsake a couple hours of sleep later that night, just so that I could watch a bunch of high school kids play basketball. So I think I'm pretty clearly unable to look down at people who read comic books.

2) I've long thought that the high school state tournament was better the old UW Fieldhouse, a place that was much more intimate and would fill up completely, giving a special feel to high championship games. But I think I was finally won over by the Kohl Center on Saturday night when they darkened the lights, and played the video highlight reel preceding introductions. Absolutely awesome, and set the stage perfectly for an exciting final. Times have changed since the Fieldhouse days, and I think I finally felt that last night. I've finally truly embraced the charms of the Kohl Center.

3) It required some work to get out of the way, but there are few things that made me more happy this past weekend that watching student sections from winning schools stampede their way down the concourse at the Kohl Center en route to purchasing tickets to the next day's game.

4) Even after their loss on Thursday, the Eau Claire North team stuck around to watch more games over state tournament weekend, and were clearly visible on the concourse in their powder blue sweatshirts. So yes, I did walk by Evan Anderson and his feet are that gloriously big.

5) I listened to lots of the audio of press conferences covered by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this past weekend, but none more classic than the top one on this page, where Tosa East coach Tim Arndorfer and player Jake Barnett are interviewed following the division one championship game. The legendary portion of the interview is at the end, right at the 10:50 mark, where a reporter asks Barnett about the jump ball in overtime by leading with "Did you think you could out-jump him (Jeronne Maymon)?" You simply have to hear Barnett's tone as he laughs off the absurd idea that he could out-leap the most athletic player in the tournament and replies "No, I know I can't out-jump Jeronne Maymon." The room cracked up as he responded to the question, and so did I.

6) Here's the ridiculous lead for the Journal Sentinel's story about the division one championship game:

Goliath got tired.

And David was ready. Ready for the performance of a lifetime.

The Wauwatosa East Red Raiders shocked a Kohl Center crowd of 14,000-plus, a statewide television audience, their opponents - everyone except themselves - with a stunning showing that approached high school basketball perfection Saturday night.

Really? That's how Art Kabelowsky framed this game? While I recognize that there was a distinct buzz in Madison around Madison Memorial and Jeronne Maymon's breakout performance, Wauwatosa East wasn't exactly the downtrodden underdog that Kabelowsky paints them as. The Red Raiders were ranked third in the state coming into the tournament, had one loss all year (to a state semi-finalist, no less), and got to Madison by winning the state's toughest sectional. Had David had those type of credentials, I suspect he'd have put down his slingshot and given some thought to taking a swing at Goliath. And let's not forget that Oshkosh West's 34-point fourth quarter had showed that Memorial could be hurt. Memorial was undoubtedly favored, and their athleticism probably helped their popularity, but this was way closer to an even matchup going in than this story. It's laughable to frame a meeting between the two favorites of the tournament in this way.

7) Once again, my friend Nick, the guy that I sat next to for virtually every game back when we were in high school, takes a segment of his radio show to talk about our alma mater’s big win. Former athletic director (and Nick's dad) Joe Vitrano begins the segment with some astute observations, and Wauwatosa East and UW-Green Bay legend Gary Grzesk joins the discussion near the end of the segment.

8) Not that it needs to be said, but Jeronne Maymon's performance was maybe the best that I've ever seen at the state tournament. Perhaps the only better performance that I've ever seen was Julian Swartz's effort in the 1999 (I believe that's the right year) tournament, but even that was just one incredible game. Maymon brought his game and put up obscene numbers for three straight nights.

9) On Thursday and Friday I managed late arrivals both nights due to work, and upon my entrance each time, I was surprised at some of the bad fan karma on display by student sections that I was walking past. First was Brookfield Central. As I walked in around mid-third quarter on Thursday night, I found myself dodging my way around an astoundingly huge mass of Brookfield Central students in line for concessions. Maybe going to the state tournament has become old hat for the Lancers, who seem to be there every other year, but to me, the state tournament would seem an important enough event that you’d make darn sure not to miss four minutes of the game standing around trying to get a hot dog.

More egregious than Brookfield Central’s love of stale nachos, though, was the already-forming line of Madison Memorial students preparing to get tickets to the state championship game when I walked into the Kohl Center with 5-6 minutes left in their team’s game against Oshkosh West on Friday night. For a guy that freaked out during his high school days at a premature “Scoreboard!” chant, this sight sent chills up my spine. I’m willing to admit that Memorial’s lead going into that final quarter did seem insurmountable, but ditching most of the final quarter really was tempting fate. And Oshkosh West’s miracle 34-point fourth quarter nearly turned these excited early-birds into a deeply upset mass of students. In the end, the ticket-seeking Memorial students missed 5-6 of the most riveting moments of the tournament (aside from the small television that they watched from the atrium), but got off easy when their team pulled through. Here’s hoping that the Memorial students who stuck around to see all of their team’s game were the ones who got the best seats for the championship game the next night.

10) I got a text message from a friend at the Duke-North Carolina game just prior to the start of the state final game, and it was a weird feeling to consider that I may have actually been in the only place on earth that I’d have rather been than at Cameron that night.

11) Madison Memorial's excellent sophomore Vander Blue has a name that throws me off. After seeing such players as Logan Vander Velden and Dean Vander Plas on the UWGB squad back in the 1990s, I keep thinking that Blue’s name should be something like “Tim Vander Blue.”

12) After the close of the division 3 championship presentation on Saturday night at the Kohl Center, they switched the scoreboard to the names of the teams in the division one final. Only they briefly got it wrong and listed Tosa West as one of the schools involved. Either that, or someone was trying to do a shout-out to me, a guy named West from Tosa.

13) Prior to the state semi-final game, I ran into the mother of my childhood best friend and neighbor Andy, with whom I played basketball and football in my backyard pretty much every day growing up. She and her husband had been the ones who took me and their son to the championship game in 1989. Andy and I grew apart and began attending different schools shortly thereafter, and aside from running into her at a game or two earlier in the year, I hadn't seen Andy's mom in several years. But now Wauwatosa East is 2-2 in state tournaments during which I've seen her. So rest assured that the next time Wauwatosa East heads to Madison, I'll be looking everywhere around the arena to find Andy's mother.

14) Madison Memorial's final possession in regulation was pretty confusing to me. I've never seen anyone hold a ball deeper into the clock than Jeronne Maymon, who began his drive with just over 5 seconds left. At about the 6 second mark, I began to wonder if Madison Memorial was about to pull the ultimate badass move--simply holding onto the ball until time ran out and saying essentially "Screw it--you guys tied the game, but we'll just beat you in overtime." Thankfully, no one's that badass.

15) Congrats to first-year Tosa East coach Tim Arndorfer on setting the bar way too high for his coaching career this year. As great a guy as he is a coach, he's a fun person to watch succeed.

16) I’m sort of amused by the fact that like the 1989 state champions before them, this year’s Wauwatosa East team was pretty clearly not the most talented team that the school has fielded in the 20 or so years that I’ve been watching them. Obviously, neither team was what you’d call devoid of talent, but other years have included some frighteningly talented guys. But while both teams would probably land somewhere around fifth in terms of talent levels over the past 20 or so teams, both also knew how to get the job done, which makes me ooze respect for them.

And with the weekend coming to an end, I couldn’t have been much happier on my drive home. I’d seen old friends from high school and old basketball-watching friends from other facets of life, gotten to hand around Madison, one of my favorite cities, and topped everything off with a thrilling state championship that went to overtime before being won by my favorite team. All in all, not a bad state tournament weekend...