Monday, March 31, 2008

Andrew 22, version 3.0* (*Yes, we plan on returning to school next year.)

This is the third edition of the column, which is a a blatant rip-off of (1) Pat Forde's "40 Yard Dash" column that he pens during the college football season. (He also does a college basketball one, but it is his pigskin one that coaches, players and fans anxiously wait for each week.) Of course, our version comes with a twist. Instead of 40 things pertaining to college football (Forde's runs the gamut from coaches and players to cheerleaders and college bars), ours is 22 things pertaining to...well, whatever is on our mind at the time. As for the name of the column? It honors Andrew Toney, the single greatest under-6'4"-offensive-threat in history of the NBA.

March Madness: The 16 divided by 4 recap!

We will admit that things are a bit blurry right now. Thursday, Friday and Saturday all kind of blended together in a sea of late night hoop viewings. (2) North Carolina rolled by Arkansas, breaking the century mark for the second time in two tournament games. It was then that we knew Our Louisville Cardinals would be in trouble. Shredding (3) Mount St. Mary's is one thing. Doing it to a solid SEC team is a whole other matter. But first the Cards had to get by Tennessee and (4) Pat Summitt Bruce Pearl. Pearl is an interesting chap. He goes way back to the early 80s, when he was a Boston College assistant coach. The Eagles were actually fun to watch back then. Roly-poly point guard (5) John Bagley was unstoppable. 6'9" pencil-thin-lefty (6) Jay Murphy had a sweet stroke and his eligibility restored when he was stashed in the BC night school program. BC even upset top seeded DePaul (which was led by future NBA-er (7) Terry Cummings) in The Dance.

Anyway, back to Pearl. He later became an assistant (following (8)Tom Davis from BC) at Iowa and turned in Illinois for illegal recruiting. His thanks? He got fired. Now (after going to University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin) he is BMOC at Tennessee. But, he sure does sweat a lot. In fact, most people sweat watching him sweat.

So, we were sweating as his Vols were giving Louisville all it could handle. Things got so hairy in the second half, we had to switch away from the game for a while. In the process, we caught a great interview on Nightline with everyone's favorite ex-baseball player (9) Ozzie Jose Canseco. When we flipped back, The Sons of Rick Pitino had things under control and we enjoyed a calm and relaxing replay of the second half via the almighty DVR. (Speaking of which, we must admit we were completely wrong about something. About 10 years ago when (10) Tivo (the grandfather to the DVR) first hit the market, we had no interest at all in it. Still worse, we openly said "no one" would ever buy the silly thing. "People have VCRs, no one wants or needs Tivo," we belted out one Thanksgiving.

Now, if Comcast came and took away our HD DVR, we would kill ourselves get really (really!) mad. Thanks to It, we watch almost nothing live anymore. And no more wasted time spent on commercials. If we were to rank our Favorite Man Toys (a good idea, by the way, for another blog), we are sure the DVR would be near the top of the list with the Blackberry, Weber Grill, computer, cable, HD DLP TV and the clicker.

Prior to the Cards-Vols, we enjoyed a great game between West Virginia and Xavier. Our bracket said Xavier, but you can never have enough (11) Bobby Huggins. What's better than Coach Huggs standing with his sport coat and "dry fit" blue T? Actually, the answer is it was even better when he used to coach in his West Virginia pull-over jacket. The same jacket you can go into any store in the state and buy for $39. Anyway, Huggs had a five point lead in overtime before his boys decided they no longer wanted to play D and further decided to get really nervous on Oh. Xavier advanced and our only thought was, how did this team not win the Atlantic 10?

As great as Thursday's games were, Friday's were just that bad. CBS was surely horrified that it had simultaneous games that were decided by more than 20 points. (12) Big Boy Greg Gumbel looked physically ill as CBS couldn't make up its mind and switched back and forth between two horrific games. This exchange sums it up: CBS switched everyone back to the Memphis-Michigan State game. (13) Jim Nance welcomed viewers, saying: "Michigan State has scored 16 straight points and cut Memphis' lead to 18."

C-U-T the lead to 18?!?

What's worse -- Nance's loser comment or the fact that after scoring 16 straight points, the Spartans were still trailing by 18?!?

Saturday didn't start off too promising, as UCLA creamed Xavier. (So that's how they didn't win the mighty A-10!) The nightcap was the aforementioned Louisville-North Carolina tilt. We will say this about the two teams. Louisville has more good players and a better coach. However, the Tar Heels have (14) Tyler Hansbrough, by far the best player in the land. U of L jumped out early, fell behind by 12 at halftime and was tied with five minutes to play. That was when Hansbrough hit two 21-footers (where'd those come from?) and Louisville's (15) Earl Clark decided it would be really cool to shave points get called for travelling three times in four trips down the court. Carolina 83 Louisville 73. (16) David Padgett, possibly our (17) Favorite Card of All-Time After Milt Wagner, sat on the court and cried. We sat on our couch and almost cried.

Sunday we rejoiced (both personally and bracket-wise) watching Memphis make Texas look silly. Faithful readers know that we are card carrying members of (18) Coach Cal Nation. ("What we are doing is bigger than basketball. We're teaching life skills.") And since we are (19) Sooner Nation (football-wise), any time Texas loses in anything we are happy. People gave Cal crap all season because his kids could not hit free throws. Yesterday, in their biggest game of the season? They nailed 30 of 36 attempts. The second game (Kansas v. Davidson), we missed, as we were sitting court side for the Celtics-Heat 6 P.M. game. And we do mean court side, as (20) Kendrick Perkins came thisclose to landing in our lap while trying to grab a loose ball from the Developmental League's NBA's worst team. Fret not, we DVR'd the game (of course).

Now what?

We honestly don't know what will happen this weekend. Kansas, North Carolina, Memphis and UCLA are clearly the best four teams around. If we were to seed them, we'd go: 1. Memphis 2. Kansas 3.UCLA 4.North Carolina. Bracket wise, we have Kansas beating UCLA. But since we can't win (21) "major coin" -- we will be pulling for The Coach Cals of Memphis. Furthermore, we are hoping they beat our Favorite Whipping Boy, none other than (22) Roy "I won my only title coaching Matt Doherty's players" Williams. That's what we want. As for what we think?

Check back at the end of the week.





Sunday, March 30, 2008

Friday night's dinner...

Flank Steak and Roasted Garlic Red Potatoes

Saturday, March 29, 2008

March Madness Links, 3.0


Steve Serby on Davidson: "This is a basket ball team for anyone and everyone who holds dear to his or her heart the memory of the late Jim Valvano dancing in Albuquerque the night North Carolina State beat the Phi Slama Jama; of a frumpled Rollie Massimino embracing anyone and everyone inside Rupp Arena 23 springs ago; of Hickory High in the movie "Hoosiers." The Davidson Wildcats didn't win a national championship last night. It only seemed that way."






Friday, March 28, 2008

Louisville tops Tennessee, 79-60!


The Celtics-76ers game we attended Monday night!

And this is why Samuel Dalembert stinks on offense.
He spends all his time practicing three-pointers.

Pre-game instructions.


Andre Miller warms up.

Rodney Carney and Eddie House.

Andre Iguodala sinks a free throw.



The Celtics warm up to some good music.



Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The 76ers POUNDING the Celtics has NOTHING to do with March Madness!

Philly Perspective





Boston Perspective








Sunday, March 23, 2008

March Madness Thoughts, Day 3.0

We absolutely (positively)...wait while we slap the floor to signal we are serious...loved watching Duke go down on Saturday to West Virginia. No one will come out and say it, but most many people think Duke has become "too white" to contend for Final Fours. Our answer? Is Wisconsin too white? How about Butler? No, we contend the Duke problem is Coach K has never adapted to the one or even two year wonder recruit. The Dukies were about the last school to begin to lose underclassmen to the NBA. The team that lost to UConn in the 1999 Championship was stocked with blue chip youngsters. But less than a week after the loss to the Huskies, Coach K's world changed forever. Sophomore point guard William Avery declared for the NBA. Sophomore All-American Elton Brand did likewise. Super frosh Corey Maggette (left) went pro. And freshman forward Chris Burgess, a top five HS recruit, transferred to Utah. Of those four, only Brand (the eventual number one pick overall) received Coach K's blessing. The other three ignored his pleas and Coach K did a slow burn. Two months later, ESPN the Magazine profiled Krzyzewski's crumbling world. The piece was filled with inside anecdotes and anonymous quotes of Coach K using the...wait for it...slap the defensive floor...F-Bomb to the departing players and their parents. (Most assumed the anonymous source was Burgess' father.)


After that, Coach K went underground for nearly two months. He resurfaced on the summer camp circuit. But suddenly Duke was no longer going after the one and done players. The last straw was when they took a chance on Shaun Livingston. When he never set foot on campus, Krzyzewski threw in the towel and began targeting the good, but not great, players. Don't believe it? Look at their current roster. They have maybe two marginal NBA prospects -- sophomore Gerald Henderson and freshman Kyle Singler. After that, the rest of the team will soon be working on Wall Street. (That or they will follow the famed Duke Tradition of becoming Coach K's assistant coaches.)

And until Mr. American Express starts going after the one or two and done type of players, his teams will continue their recent March Madness trend of going one or two and done.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

March Madness Thoughts, Day 2.0

Wow. After a relatively boring placid March Madness last year, Day Two this year provided the best single day in many years. And to think, we Some Fool blogged yesterday about day one: Not many close games yesterday (and why does that feel like it will become a developing pattern over the next few days?). Wow. What an idiot!

Not to go all Frank Deford on everyone, but yesterday reminded us why March Madness is so special. It's not about the North Carolina's and Pukes, errrrrrr, Dukes of the world. No, it's about teams you didn't see on TV all season and players you never heard of.

Western Kentucky's Ty Rogers will never play one minute in the NBA. But he is forever a part of March Madness. For the next 10 years (at least), when CBS amps up the March Madness PR Machine, Rogers' shot will be shown, along with Jimmy V running around and Bryce Drew sliding head first on the court. Davidson's Stephen Curry's line will go down as one of the tournament's best ever: 40 points (in 39 minutes), including an eye-popping 8-10 on treys. San Diego's De'Jon Jackson scored just 4 points against UConn yesterday. But his basket with 1.2 seconds left gave the Toreros their first tournament victory ever!

Some random thoughts on yesterday's action:

1. Sixteen games resulted in seven being decided by 8 points or less. Two games went into overtime -- where both winning teams (Western Kentucky and San Diego) won on what basically amounted to buzzer beaters. Of the 16 games, seven were upsets.

2. Speaking of upsets, many hopped on the Clemson to the Final Four is Such a Chique Pick Bandwagon. (We did not, thought we did have the Tigers advancing to the Sweet 16.) We openly stated yesterday Clemson would beat Villanova by "double digits". And so it was with horror that we looked on last night as Villanova came from behind to win, 75-69. While we saw 'Nova coach Jay Wright stand, cajole, shout and simply will his players to victory, this is what we saw from Clemson: They suck stink at shooting. Even worse, they take terrible shots. And what did coach Oliver Purnell do? Well, he stood and watched. And then he watched some more. Finally, he watched a bit more. Our wife swears we do more talking in our sleep than he did during the game last night. Oh yeah. And mix in a timeout ever once in a while, Ollie.

3. What in the name of Steve McCoy was up with Siena last night? Led by guards Kenny Hasbrouck (30 points) and Tay Fisher (6-6 three point shooting), the 13th seeded Saints did a drive by on fourth seeded Vanderbilt, 83-62. Mike's Westview UMass Nation will remember, of course, that Siena coach Fran McCaffery was the runner-up to Steve Lappas to take over for Loser Brusier Flint in 2001.

4. We yelled and screamed, but NO ONE LISTENED. All winter, we told you the ACC was simply not that good. And then Billy Packer cried his eyes out because the hallowed conference landed just four teams. North Carolina may as well leave for the Final Four now. But Clemson is gone. Duke should be gone. And tomorrow, Miami will be gone (thanks to Texas).

5. What to watch for today? We have Notre Dame "upsetting" (5 v. 4) Washington State. Wisconsin and K-State play at 4:40 in what looks to be an utterly fascinating game. (Can the Badger D stop the Fighting Michael Beasleys?) Pitt and Michigan State will play what will amount to a football game. A game that Pitt will win, by the way. And, of course, America's Team, DUKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, will play Coach Huggs' Mountaineers of West Virginia. We are hoping in the worst way that Huggs advances. But we see Duke squeaking by, yet again. By the way -- is it us or does it seem that every Dukie who fails to make the NBA (and that's most of them) simply becomes one of Coach K's assistants?

Enjoy the games today!

March Madness Links, 2.0

Cool graphic of Bob Ryan's bracket!

Is it us, or is Billy Gillispie scary looking?!?

New York Post on Michael Beasley!

A Tourney Blog from the New York Daily News!

The pressure of being Bill Self!

Davidson's incredible win!

The Dick Vitale-Bobby Knight love fest!

Louisville rides tough D to big win!

What do you learn during a day of watching hoops?!?

No defense for UConn's loss to San Diego!

Friday, March 21, 2008

March Madness -- Old School


March Madness Thoughts, Day 1.1

We watched this game this afternoon with our 6-year old son. Both of us had Drake in our brackets. Yet, neither one of us minded the final outcome. Seriously -- do you get this kind of stuff in any other sport? We're just saying...


March Madness Thoughts, Day 1.0

1. Yesterday, we posted our Sweet 16 picks (as well as Great Eight and Final Four). Eight of our 16 teams played yesterday. Bam! Out went USC, at the hands of K-State. Yes, everyone knows all about Michael Beasley. But how many of you had even heard of teammate Bill Walker? He was a huge name on the prep circuit for what seemed like 10 years. Many of those years he was playing with a kid named O.J. Mayo. Walker lost his senior year in H.S. on some eligibility technicality about playing a few games of varsity ball while still in the 8th grade. So Walker played AAU ball for year and then headed for K-State to play for Bob Huggins. But he tore up his knee, missed his freshman season and then Huggs took off for West Virginia. We pick up the story early this winter when ESPN the Magazine wrote a long piece on him that was, for the most part, less than flattering. It basically questioned two things: Walker's ability to come back from the knee injury, as well as his ability to transition from high school power forward (he is 6'5" with a vertical jump above 40 inches) to D-1 small forward. Well, last night Walker was dominant. With Beasley saddled for much of the first half in foul trouble, Walker was 7-12 from the floor, 5-5 from the foul line and grabbed 5 boards. Oh yeah -- hey ESPN the Rag Mag, he was 3 of 4 from 3-point land.


2. O.J. Mayo. Um...we wonder how his teammates felt last night when he took the floor sporting fancy NBA socks. While even your aunt knows Mayo has always been a one-and-done kid this season, spitting it in the faces of your teammates before the most important game of the year is...let's just say -- in poor taste. Especially when you proceed to go out and play a mediocre game. Yes, Mayo had 20 points. But he shot 6-16 and scored several hoops at the end when the game had long since been decided. Will this effort hurt O.J. Simpson Mayo's stock? Of course not. He is a sure fire top 10 pick. But a word of caution. He reeks of Chauncey Billups, which on the surface is a fantastic thing. The "problem" (a relative thing in this case) is that it took Billups, who also left college after his rookie year, nearly five years to become the star he is today. It will also take Mayo a similar amount of time before he is an NBA star.

3. Not many close games yesterday (and why does that feel like it will become a developing pattern over the next few days?). We warned you yesterday that Duke is simply not that good -- but their draw guaranteed them a trip to the Great Eight. And so it was last night that Belmont (Belmont?!?) was in a position to win, ahead 70-69 with 20 seconds to play. But then they decided to: a. not play any defense and allow Gerald Henderson an uncontested drive and bucket down the lane. b. become scared and feeble on the offensive end. In an unrelated rant, how come Duke point guard Greg Paulus gets to constantly use the two handed shove maneuver on D without getting whistled for fouls?

4. What can we expect today? For starters, Our Bracket says St. Mary's will upset Miami in the 7-10 game. Another 7-10 upset we are forecasting is Davidson over Gonzaga. Everyone Loves Raymond Phil Martelli of St. Joe's. As such, many are predicting the Hawks will upend Oklahoma. We don't see it. And remember when you could guarantee a 5-12 first round upset every year? Some fools think Villanova will "5-12" its way past Clemson today. Our take? The Tigers will coast to a double digit W.

Enjoy the games today!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Want to win your bracket contest? Read on!

Teams advancing with an upset win are noted with an *. First round upset picks include St. Mary's over Miami and Davidson over Gonzaga. We really don't think Duke is very good at all. However, they have a relatively easy path to the Great Eight (though they will struggle in the second round with West Virginia.) Ultimately, we will delight in watching UCLA pistol whip them by twenty-plus. And, yes, we fully realize we picked four number one seeds to make the Final Four.

Sweet 16
North Carolina
*Notre Dame (over Washington State)
Louisville
Tennessee
Kansas
*Clemson (over Vanderbilt)
*USC (over Wisconsin)
Georgetown
Memphis
Pitt
*Marquette (over Stanford)
Texas
UCLA
*Drake (over UConn)
Xavier
Duke

Great Eight
North Carolina
*Louisville (over Tennessee)
Kansas
Georgetown
Memphis
Texas
UCLA
Duke

Final Four
North Carolina
Kansas
Memphis
UCLA

Championship
Kansas & UCLA

Champions
Kansas

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Which non-top seed will crash the Final Four?!?

Texas?

USC?

Georgetown?

Louisville?




Sunday, March 16, 2008

NCAA Bracket 2008-- Fear the Jayhawks?!?


(More, much more, tomorrow. But we love the road paved for Our Louisville Cardinals.
Duke as a two seed is a joke. They may not even get by West Virginia in round two.
UCLA has the easiest road to the Final Four. Memphis v. Pitt?
We guarantee Joey Dorsey is fighting someone on the Panthers.)

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Andrew 22, version 2.0* (*March snow included)

This is the second edition of the column (here's the first one), which is a a blatant rip-off of (1) Pat Forde's "40 Yard Dash" column that he pens during the college football season. (He also does a college basketball one, but it is his pigskin one that coaches, players and fans anxiously wait for each week.) Of course, our version comes with a twist. Instead of 40 things pertaining to college football (Forde's runs the gamut from coaches and players to cheerleaders and college bars), ours is 22 things pertaining to...well, whatever is on our mind at the time. As for the name of the column? It honors (2) Andrew Toney, the single greatest under-6'4"-offensive-threat in history of the NBA.
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March Madness

Speaking of March...speaking of Our Guy Forde, here is his latest, which focuses on the (3) conference tournaments. His Atlantic 10 team to watch? (4) Your UMass Minutemen. Oops. (5)The Fighting Sons of Travis Ford went one and out in Atlantic City. Hmm. Suddenly Ford's overnight stay in Amherst on his way to a Big Time Job is turning into the (6) Milt Wagner 10-year college stay. And it figures to get worse next year, when senior (7) Gary Forbes will be playing for pay in the NBA.

JTIII

We must admit that we never cared much for (8) John Thompson during his reign in the 80s. We always felt that he was thisclose to going (9) Al Sharpton on us. But we have a wicked huge Man Crush on his son, (10) John Thompson III. Unlike his old man's teams that played angry at the world, JTIII's Crew keeps its collective mouths shut. No talking. No taunting. No dirty play. I got an e-mail last year from a Louisville fan who told me Thompson's kids were the nicest, most polite group of kids to ever visit Freedom Hall. So while we are obviously pulling for (11) Our Louisville Cardinals in next week's tournament, we will also be cheering for the Hoyas. (And that is something we never thought we would utter.) By the way, Georgetown probably does not have enough oh to win the whole thing. But if it gets a few more games like the opening round of the Big East Tournament (17 treys against Villanova), it can (and probably will) win Everything. Final Hoya Thought: He's not a star at the collegiate level, bit it says here that (12) Patrick Ewing Jr. will make someone's NBA roster next fall. He is a legit 6'9", able to defend 3s and 4s, a solid ball handler and a good finisher. Kind of a (13) Luke Walton, minus the passing.
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Other Big Dance odds and ends
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Yes, the rumors are true. Our much heralded (14) Good Pro, No Pro column will return during the March Madness run. Obviously Super Frosh (15) O.J. Mayo will be on the team. Mayo is so good, that people expect the world from him. And because of that, some peeps have actually gone as far as saying the Huntington, West Virginia native (that makes two of us) has been a disappointment this year. Which reminds us of one or our favorite sayings: A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Funny that (16) Kansas is somewhat of an afterthought with national "experts". (You know 'em...The guys who ignore college hoops until March.) They have size, athleticism and talent. And now that (17) Roy "Gosh I Loved Coaching Matt Doherty's Kids to a Title" Williams is gone, we fully expect the J-Hawks to advance to the Final Four. And advance easily.
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Non Sports Minutiae (Which, let's face it, is really why you are reading this blog.)
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That (18) Spitzer guy is completely C-R-A-Z-Y. Dropping of over 80k on women of the night? Good gawd, my man, it would have been cheaper and safer (on multiple fronts, not the least of which is the STD factor) to have a girl friend on the side. Staying in the political arena, if (19) Osama Obama thinks things are getting sticky now, he will go into cardiac arrest when he finds out what happens in September. For those who think (20) Karl Rove has pulled the plug on his GOP work, think again, suckers. Our Guy Karl has all sorts of Young Republicans out there digging up dirt on Iraq Barack. Republicans have money (as compared to Democrats who take your money). And they will spend what it takes to get (21) John McCain to succeed Dubya.
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Pass the Metamucil
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It pains us (literally) to say this, but the Pit Master is turning 4-oh next week. We are still able to crank out 4.5 miles every morning on the treadmill, just like we did 15 years ago. The difference now is the always present (22) Hurt List. Said list includes: a bad knee, sore hip, stiff back, one tender quad and one tight calf. As our old hoops coach told us many (many) years ago: "After 30, it's all about Advil and ice."

Amen to that.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Take that, anonymous blogger!


Undoubtedly motivated by a recent scathing commentary by This Blog, North Carolina's Danny Green tallied 18 points, 8 rebounds, 7 blocks(!) and 2 steals to lead UNC
to a 76-68 W against Duke last night.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

A contemplative look @ the Pistons-Celtics game...

1. We were not surprised that Boston won, rather, we were surprised how they won. Limiting the Pistons to 36 percent shooting? Kendrick Perkins (20 rebounds) nearly out rebounding the entire Detriot team (29 boards)? Rajon Rondo dogging Chauncey Billups into a 4-12 shooting night?

2. A good bench is only good if it produces in big games. We have heard all season about the athleticism and depth of the Detrot bench. Well, last night Genius Flip Saunders played his starters major minutes. And this after Billups (37 minutes), Rip Hamilton (34), Rasheed Wallace (36), Antonio McDyess (31) and Tayshaun Prince (39) played the night before against Seattle and did not arrive in Boston until 4 AM yesterday. The bench of Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell, Juan Dixon, Jarvis Hayes and Rodney Stuckey combined for... wait for it ... FIVE (repeat: five!) points. (Boston's bench combined for 15 points -- a bench that did not include newbies Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown.)

3. When did Prince turn into George McGinnis during Big Games with the Celtics? For someone who is known as a good shooter, his field goal percentage against the Celtics this year is, like, 20 percent. If he does not step it up, you can book the Celtics winning in five games come playoff time.

4. So now what? Boston clearly has the edge -- in the standings, psychologically and, perhaps, even in terms of talent. The common cry from the Pistons (and many NBA observers) is that Detroit's starting five have been through enough wars that they are merely marking time until the playoffs start. And that may well be true. But unless at least two guys can help off the bench, it won't matter how much experience the first unit has.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Three Things to Ponder...

1. Will the Final Four exclude the ACC? By it's typical Greek God standards, the ACC is having a disappointing year. There are Duke and Carolina, of course, because -- well -- you will always have Duke and Carolina. After that, there's a lot of mediocrity. Clemson, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Miami have a combined 38 losses. As for the other six teams in the conference, no one(!) has a winning record in the league. The Dukies are sporting a spiffy 25-3 record. They have a lot of "nice" mid-sized players. What they don't have is a player who can carry the team offensively; nor do they have size. Those two things will keep them from playing on the final weekend of March Madness. Everyone seems to be gah-gah about the Tar Heels. While there is certainly no finer player in the land than Tyler Hansbrough, beyond that, there ain't much. Ty Lawson looked OK in his return from a bum ankle against BC last weekend. Wayne Ellington offers some good "oh." Otherwise, they will struggle to score this month unless Lawson is healthy enough to resume his one man fast break routine. Danny Green, the 6'5" junior averaging 12 points per game? Let us put it this way. We like him as much as we like Boris Diaw of the Phoenix Suns. Really, we could go out there and play better than he does. Lastly, yes we know Coach Roy (finally) won a title in 2005. We can only guess how he must feel about winning said title with the talent that Matt Doherty brought on campus. Go get 'em, Roy! Anyhow, we watch UNC and are alarmed at the lack of athleticism on the court. At times, it looks like they have Hansbrough, Lawson and three guys they grabbed from the intramural court. We're not ready to say they won't make the Final Four, but we are thisclose to doing so.

2. How close was Randy Moss to signing with Your Our Philadelphia Eagles? We are guessing the alleged conversation over the weekend between Moss and Andy Reid went something like this:

Reid: "Hey, man, I just came from visiting my kids in the hole and/or rehab and was thinking you might want to play for us."

Moss: "Yo boys know Kevin Faulk?

Reid: "Not sure about that. So do you want to catch passes from D-McNabb, the best one of the 12 best QBs in the NFL?"

Moss: "The only 12 I know is Tom Brady."

Reid: "Great. So if the Patriots don't give you what you want, give us a call."

(Seconds later, Reid grabs some doughnuts his cell and calls every newspaper in North America.)

Reid: "Psst. This is all off the record, but I think we got a great shot at getting Randy Moss."

Think about it. It's just what the Phillies did with Mike Lowell in November. They knew he wasn't going to leave the Red Sox, so they made the obligatory free agent proposal. And the minute Lowell re-upped with Boston, the Phillies leaked their contract offer to every newspaper in the world. What were the chances that Moss was ever going to walk away from the Pats? We will be generous and say one percent. He had his greatest year ever and he knew Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Favorite Son Tom Brady would have pissed if Moss left. So the Eagles offered Moss a good deal and when he turned it down (shocking!), they ran and told everyone how hard (really hard) they tried to get him. Owner Jeff Laurie figured the fans would be happy with the team's effort to finally get McNabb a top rate flanker...AND it didn't cost him a penny of his mom's money that Joe Banner so closely guards.


3. Is there a better show on the air than The Office? It may well be the single greatest show in the history if TV. (Yes, better --perhaps-- than 90210 and Homocide: Life on the Streets.) We have yet to view an episode where we didn't legimatly laugh five or six times. Michael Scott (the pride of Marshfield, MA) is the leader, but there are others who ride shotgun so well. Dwight is the Loser we know at work. Jim is the funny guy who actually gets it. And Pam is the token hottie in the short skirts.