Irish Trojan in Tennessee

"Cover me, Chelsea!"

By Brendan Loy

Heh:

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

Where should Davidson be ranked?

By Brendan Loy

Here's a question for y'all: when the final USA Today coaches' poll rankings are released, after the NCAA Tournament ends, where should Davidson be ranked?

I think it's pretty obvious that the top 4 teams from the final regular-season poll will remain the same, in whatever order, in the post-tournament poll. After all, they all made it to the Final Four. But after that, then what? Who else, if anyone, should be ranked ahead of the Wildcats?

Davidson, which was ranked #23 in that final poll, knocked off #26 Gonzaga, #8 Georgetown, and #5 Wisconsin en route to the Elite Eight, and damn near beat #4 Kansas. And that's on top of almost beating North Carolina, Duke and UCLA in the regular season, and going 20-0 in their conference.

More on Hillary's lie misstatement

By Brendan Loy

Snipergate: the gift that keeps on giving!

SARAJEVO, Bosnia - The Bosnian girl who famously read a poem to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 1996 visit to the war-torn country is shocked - and her countrymen infuriated - that the former first lady claimed to have dodged sniper fire that day.

Emina Bicakcic, now 20 and studying to become a doctor, told The Post she stood on the tarmac at the air base in Tuzla, greeted Clinton and even had time to share the lines of verse she'd written - all without fear of attack from an unseen enemy.

In other news: Heh.

Chalk rides again

By Brendan Loy

If you think the men's tournament is Chalk City, check out the women's bracket: the Elite Eight consists of four #1 seeds and four #2s. (Admittedly, chalkiness is more common on the women's side, where parity is less pronounced than among the men. But still.) #1-seed Tennessee sealed the deal last night with a 74-64 win over #5 Notre Dame, which is now 0-16 all-time against UT.

The Irish gave the Lady Vols a much better game than they did in an 87-63 loss back in January at the Joyce Center. In this one, ND led at halftime, 33-31. But between about the 18-minute mark and the 13-minute mark of the second half, Tennessee went on a 17-1 run, and Candace Parker wound up with a career-high-tying 34 points. That was just too much for the Irish to overcome.

In my 11th annual women's pool, six contestants correctly predicted the "all chalk" Elite Eight: Ken Stern, Kevin Pilz, Tom Caputi, Carol LaPlante, Joseph Hiegel and Lisa Velte.

Stern currently leads the pool with 316 out of a possible 352 points. He took first place from Chuck Wessell when #3 Texas A&M beat #2 Duke last night. Wessell, who had picked the Blue Devils, is now second with 313. Pilz is third with 311. Those three contestants are the only ones ahead of the "all favorites bracket," which would have 309 points. Complete standings here and after the jump. Information on who's still alive to win the pool -- 21 contestants in all -- here.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention this before, but in the men's pool (presented by the UCLA Bruins, blah blah blah), 28 contestants got the "all-chalk" Final Four right. Their names are listed after the jump.

Poll: Obama increases lead over Clinton

By Brendan Loy

Gallup says Obama leads Hillary by 10% nationally. Maybe the voters are getting caught up in the same wrap-it-up trend as the superdelegates.

Meanwhile, alas, Obama is going to get in trouble for this remark regarding his opposition to abstinence-only education:

Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn't make sense to not give them information.

I boldfaced the part that's being, and will continue to be, gleefully taken out of context by "outraged" conservates. In reality, as the context makes obvious, Obama's not talking about abortion at all, nor is he saying that teenage parents ought not love their babies. He's merely acknowledging an obvious reality that everyone understands (teen pregnancy is a bad thing), and proposing something that he believes would help reduce teen pregnancy ("comprehensive" sex education that includes information about birth control and protection). His comment is entirely defensible, and indeed, 100% correct in my view. But it was also clumsily worded, and will make great fodder for some anti-abortion 527 group. (The linked blogger, Mike Allen, asks whether "this comment opened the door to trouble, or are conservatives twisting an innocent observation?" Um, both?)

GOOO IRISH, BEEEAT LADY VOLS!!!

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame and Tennessee are about to get underway in a Sweet Sixteen showdown. The #5-seed Fighting Irish are the last chance to prevent an "all chalk" Elite Eight in the women's NCAA Tournament; so far, all the #1 and #2 seeds have won.

Incidentally, the women's pool standings and scenarios are updated through seven Elite Eight games. Ken Stern currently has the lead. The standings are after the jump as well.

8 still alive in Times pool

By Brendan Loy

For the first time ever, the men's Final Four will feature four #1 seeds. And for the first time ever, a Living Room Times NCAA pool will enter the final weekend with a different potential winner for each remaining scenario -- meaning eight people are still mathematically alive to win the contest.

Currently, Alex Whitfield (a.k.a. "CORNHUSKERS 94 95 97") leads the 13th annual Times men's pool presented by the UCLA Bruins with 327 out of a possible 412 points. But Whitfield will only win the pool in one scenario: if Kansas beats Memphis in the title game. In the each of the other seven scenarios, someone different will overtake him.

The other contestants still alive are Joseph Hiegel (currently in 2nd place), Chuck Wessell (3rd), Robert Dokes (4th), Amy Greca (T-9th), Chris Mulvey (T-9th), Shari Long (T-9th) and Keith Evans (T-20th).

Complete standings, possible outcomes, what-if scenarios and other information after the jump.

Finally, a close game?

By Brendan Loy

Will we finally get a close, entertaining regional final game, courtesy of Kansas and Davidson? It looks good so far. After starting the game with good defense and ice-cold shooting -- it was 4-2 Kansas six minutes in, and at one point Davidson was 1-for-10 from the floor while Kansas was 2-for-10 -- the Jayhawks and Wildcats are both making big plays (on both sides of the ball), and it's 28-28 with 2:00 left in the first half.

UPDATE: Kansas 59, Davidson 57 with 36.3 seconds left. GO WILDCATS!!!

UPDATE 2: 16.8 to go, Davidson ball, still Kansas by two. Curry for 3 at the buzzer?? C'mon, I want to hear Gus Johnson so NUTS!!!

UPDATE 3: ARRRRGH. Not a good final possession at all by Curry and Davidson there. Good defense by Kansas, I guess. But, argh.

For the first time ever, all four #1 seeds are going to the Final Four!

Davidson, the last anti-chalk hope?

By Brendan Loy

With Memphis looking nigh unstoppable early -- they're up 39-24 over Texas with 2:00 left in the first half -- it's looking increasingly likely that Stephen Curry and the #10-seed Davidson Wildcats will be the last hope for the non-#1-seeds.

It was #1-seed Kansas that blew the chance for an first-ever "all-chalk" Final Four last year, losing to #2-seed UCLA in the second game of the Elite Eight. (#1-seed North Carolina subsequently lost, too, to #2 Georgetown.) But that was against a Bruins team that effectively had home-court advantage and arguably should have been a #1 seed itself. Losing to tiny Davidson, when a win would put four #1 seeds in the Final Four, would be a much bigger upset -- and a much bigger stain on the already oft-smeared record of Bill Self and the "Rock Choke Jayhawks."

And yet, would anybody really be stunned if Davidson pulled it off? At this point, who dares doubt Stephen Curry?

UPDATE: Memphis wins, 85-67. Davidson is our last hope!

Al Gore for President?

By Brendan Loy

The Goreacle Option picks up steam.

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

The idea of rejecting Clinton and Obama, and turning to Gore instead, entered the mainstream conversation with some intriguing comments by a Florida congressman on Monday, and this Joe Klein piece on Wednesday.

Cue some Rovian snark: "You know you got a problem if the answer is Al Gore."

One ballsy tie

By Brendan Loy

Is the key to Davidson's success Kyle Whelliston's tie?

Little did I know I was in the presence of talismanic greatness last year at BracketBusters!

On a more serious note, here's Whelliston's ESPN article on Stephen Curry, who, it bears repeating, is not only a transcendent superstar, but just a really nice and humble guy. Apropos of which, Whelliston's Mid-Majority blog post about the Wildcats' win over Wisconsin concludes:

We haven't had a breakout basketball star like Curry in a generation, and he's helping undo the damage that the past 20 years have done to the idea of basketball stardom. There are kids out there who are now 10, 11 years old, spending this afternoon in driveways copying the fallaway 3-pointer that gave Davidson that early lead at 13 minutes of the first half. Here's hoping that they'll keep emulating him, carrying themselves with perfect humility.

P.S. After Curry, who is a sophomore, led Davidson to their first-round victory over Gonzaga -- that's two upset wins and 63 points ago -- Rush the Court wrote a post titled "Is Stephen Curry becoming a March legend?" which noted:

[Curry] isn’t a big-time NBA prospect (according to scouts) because he isn’t that tall, strong, or athletic. In fact his biggest attributes are his shooting and intelligence, which are two things the NBA scouts don’t seem to care about these days. We are assuming that his family is doing ok financially given the fact that his father (Dell) had a long and distinguished career in the NBA. When you combine all of that, it seems like he might be one college star who remains in college all 4 years. In this day and age, that might be enough to make him a legendary player in March by the time he finishes his college career in 2010.

I'd say Curry is well ahead of schedule on the "legendary player" bit. But it can always get better. Three years of this? Pinch me.

Notre Dame advances to Frozen Four!

By Brendan Loy

One year after rising to the #1 ranking in the country only to be stunned by Michigan State in the NCAA regional final, the #12-ranked Fighting Irish of Notre Dame got their revenge tonight, beating the Spartans 3-1 (after previously upsetting the top seed, New Hampshire) to advance to their first Frozen Four in school history! WOOHOO!! (Hat tip: NDLauren.)

The Irish will play the hated Skunkbears of Michigan, whose football team lost to Appalachian State last year, in a national semifinal in Denver on April 10. Michigan is ranked #1 in the land.

[UPDATE: Folks in the South Bend area are encouraged to assemble at the Joyce Center around 4:30 AM to greet the team upon its return. (Hat tip: John.)]

Now... can the Fighting Irish women's basketball team pull off an even more monumental upset tomorrow by upsetting #1-seed Tennessee in the Sweet 16? The Irish are 0-15 all-time against the Lady Vols. How does two milestones in 24 hours sound? GO IRISH!!!

P.S. Speaking of women's basketball, the ladies are now halfway to the Elite Eight after another quartet of non-upsets. In my pool, Chuck Wessell continues to have the lead. Complete standings here and after the jump. Information on who's still mathematically alive to win the pool here.

All chalk?

By Brendan Loy

So... we head into the second day of the Elite Eight facing the still-active possibility of all four #1 seeds making the Final Four for the first time ever. Last year, that prospect still existed at the start of the Elite Eight's first day, but #2-seed UCLA's win over #1-seed Kansas on Saturday night guaranteed that it wouldn't happen. Now, after tonight's wins by #1 seeds UCLA and North Carolina, only #2 Texas (vs. #1 Memphis) and #10 Davidson (vs. #1 Kansas) stand in the way of the all-chalk Final Four.

Pool update shortly.

UPDATE: Ryan Morgan still leads the 13th annual Living Room Times men's basketball pool presented by the UCLA Bruins, but he'll be eliminated if #1-seeded Memphis beats #2 Texas tomorrow.

For now, 12 contestants -- Morgan, Mark Gardner, Joseph Hiegel, Chris Mulvey, Keith Evans, Lisa Velte, Chuck Wessell, Alex Whitfield, Shari Long, Steve Hartranft, Amy Greca and Robert Dokes -- are still alive to win the pool.

But Morgan, Gardner and Hartranft would be eliminated by a Memphis win, while Evans would be eliminated if Memphis wins and Davidson beats Kansas. On the other hand, Hiegel, Mulvey, Whitfield, Long and Greca would be eliminated by a Texas win; Velte would be eliminated if either Texas or Kansas wins; Dokes would be eliminated if either Texas or Davidson wins; and Wessell would be eliminated if Davidson wins, regardless of the Memphis-Texas outcome.

If both of the #1 seeds, Memphis and Kansas, win tomorrow, the pool will be as wide-open as is mathematically possible heading into the Final Four, with eight scenarios remaining and a different winner in each of them!

After the jump, complete standings and additional scenario information.

News flash

By Brendan Loy

Apparently John McCain is American.

P.S. Meanwhile, it seems Hillaryland considers Indiana a must-win. Also, predictably enough, their line of attack against the growing Hillary-should-withdraw chorus (about which, more here) is to play the gender card: Leahy, Dodd, Richardson, etc. are the "big boys" trying to bully a woman. Ugh. What a shameless b.s. artist she is, truly.

Oops, I did it again

By Brendan Loy

For the second straight year, I let IrishTrojan.com expire this morning. BrendanLoy.com was unaffected. I have now renewed IrishTrojan.com. It may take a while to start working again, but in the long run at least, all is well.

Why/how did this happen? Basically, I'm an idiot. Actually, it's a bit of a long story, but I don't really have time to tell it right now, as I'm in the car with Becky, Loyette, Auntie Barb and Auntie Marissa, heading to The Lost Sea in Sweetwater. More later, maybe.

On an unrelated note, GO XAVIER!! BEAT UCLA!!

All hail Appalachia

By Brendan Loy

Man, oh man, has it been a great year to be an unheralded, small-conference school in western North Carolina, or what?

First Appalachian State beats Michigan in the Big House. Then Gardner-Webb beats Kentucky at Rupp Arena. And now Davidson -- Appy State's conference-mate -- is going to the Elite Eight.

Just call it the Bermuda Carolina Triangle:

"Abandon hope, all ye major-conference foes who enter here!"

Heady days in western Carolina. HOT! HOT! HOT!

Fed seeks broad market oversight power

By Brendan Loy

File this under "things that Brendan doesn't know very much about, but that sound like a pretty big deal":

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the country’s hodge-podge of regulatory agencies, which many specialists say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they triggered what is now the worst financial calamity in decades. ...

The Fed would also be given some authority over Wall Street firms but only when an investment bank’s practices posed a threat to the financial system over all.

The Wall Street Journal says passage of the plan "would likely take years and would also require major compromises from an increasingly partisan Congress," and that it "is likely to trigger messy feuds over turf at a time when confidence in government supervision is low."

If Memphis & Kansas win...

By Brendan Loy

With Memphis and Kansas leading at halftime by scores of 50-20 and 41-22, respectively -- and with myself being exhausted and about ready to sleep -- I'm going to risk a "Dewey Defeats Truman" moment, assume that both the Tigers and Jayhawks will in fact win, and post the updated pool standings based on that assumption. If either team somehow loses, you may consider this post null and void, and the linked standings inaccurate. :) So, without further ado, my slightly-premature pool update:

Ryan Morgan leads the 13th annual Living Room Times men's basketball pool presented by the UCLA Bruins at the conclusion of the Sweet Sixteen, and would win in 34 of the 128 remaining scenarios. Dan Port and Mark Gardner are tied for second place, and would win in 26 and 11 scenarios, respectively. Eighteen other contestants are still mathematically alive to win the pool, each owning between one and seven possible winning scenarios.

Meanwhile, former leader Khalil Aboukhaled fell from first to fourth place, and was mathematically eliminated from any chance of winning the pool, when Memphis won. (He had picked already-eliminated Pitt, and needed Michigan State to upset Memphis in the Panthers' stead in order to keep his hopes alive.)

Complete scenario information can be found here, sorted by statistical chances of winning. Complete standings are here and after the jump. Also after the jump, information on who'll be eliminated tomorrow, depending on how the North Carolina-Louisville and UCLA-Xavier games turn out.

GO DAVIDSON!!!

By Brendan Loy

Wisconsin and Davidson are tied at the half. WOO!!! Go Wildcats!!!

UPDATE: Davidson leads by 15 points with 10:08 left!! WOOOO!!!

UPDATE 2: Stephen. Curry. Is. Awesome.

UPDATE 3: Davidson wins, 73-56! Wildcats to the Elite Eight!! YAAAY!!!

Davidson has officially achieved Gonzaga status. Up next: George Mason status?!

UPDATE 4: Only two contestants in the entire pool picked Davidson to reach the Elite Eight, and both are way down near the bottom of the leaderboard: Jessica Osborne of Denver, currently in 236th place, and our cats, Toby, Sasha & Butter Zak, currently in 238th place. Both brackets have Davidson losing in the Elite Eight (to Kansas, in Osborne's case; to already-eliminated Clemson, in the cats' case).

UPDATE 5: After the jump, complete standings of the 13th annual Living Room Times men's basketball pool presented by UCLA. Khalil Aboukhaled is still in the lead, thought he would win in only 1.6 percent of the remaining 512 scenarios (up from 0.4% of 2,048 scenarios as of last night). Ryan Morgan is second, and Mark Gardner, Bill Reece and Dan Port tied for third.

Quite possibly...

By Brendan Loy

...the silliest-looking police car ever.

Ohio: it's a quagmire!

By Brendan Loy

I knew the mortgage crisis had hit Ohio hard, but I didn't realize things were as bad in the Buckeye State as this headline suggests:

Obama, Clinton Respond to Bush’s Speech on the War in Ohio

Personally, I think we should withdraw our troops from Ohio immediately. We must stand down so the Ohioans can stand up.

Dean wants supers to decide by July 1

By Brendan Loy

Howard Dean wants the undeclared superdelegates to pick a candidate "at some point between now and the first of July, so we don't have to take this into the convention."

Dean's logic is not necessarily pristine here, alas. Even if every single one of the 794 supers were to "say who they're for" prior to July 1, that doesn't necessarily mean "we don't have to take this into the convention." Indeed, in a formal sense, we "have to take this into the convention" no matter what -- there is, after all, going to be a roll call at the convention, and no other binding roll call will occur before then. The best the Democrats can do is have a nominee presumptive before the convention, not an actual nominee. And that only works if Hillary Clinton plays along.

That raises the following question: if the informal July 1 tally shows Hillary trailing by, say, 100 delegates -- barely 2 percent of the total -- does anyone believe she'll drop out at that point? Particularly if the Michigan and Florida controversies are still unresolved? She keeps reminding us that all the delegates, including the "pledged" ones, are free to make their own independent decisions when the roll is called. That means they're also free to change their minds between July 1 and August 28. If Hillary's willing to put the party through hell through the end of June in hopes that Obama will inexplicably collapse, why wouldn't she be willing to extend her quixotic quest for another two months?

This is where the brilliance of Phil Bredesen's superdelegate superconvention -- which Dean opposes, because he doesn't like the potential "cigar-filled back room" aspect of it -- comes in. Admittedly, such a gathering would not formally change any of the above. But if Hillary publicly buys into the concept (even if kicking and screaming), then it will have the potential of producing some actual closure to the race, as opposed to the anticlimactic June trickle of superdelegate endorsements that Dean seems to envision. It'd be much harder for Hillary to justify continuing her campaign after "losing" the "superdelegate primary" than it would be if she is merely "trailing" in the fluid, informal "superdelegate count."

In related news, one day after Chris Dodd said that "over the next couple of weeks," after the North Carolina and Indiana primaries at the latest, "the national leadership of this party has to stand up and reach a conclusion... instead of having this sort of drip on for the next five months," Pat Leahy took it a step further, opining that Clinton "ought to withdraw and she ought to be backing Senator Obama." Cue sputtering outrage from the Clinton camp in 5... 4... 3...

It should be noted that Dodd and Leahy had already endorsed Obama, so these aren't exactly neutral parties putting the heat on Clinton. Nevertheless, it's significant that we're start to hear some high-level noises that sound a bit like "drop out, Hillary."

Oh, and also, Pennsylvania Senator (and superdelegate) Bob Casey (D-PA) will endorse Obama today. This is a big deal for two reasons. One, it's a crack in Hillary's firewall of Pennsylvania establishment support that could carry a decent amount of weight in the Keystone State, since, in Halperin's words, Casey has a "big following among — and symbolic resonance with — the state’s working-class voters." (Did I mention he's white? And, as far as I know, doesn't attend a wacky racist church?)

Secondly, as Eric Kleefield notes, "Casey had previously said he thought the best thing to do was remain publicly neutral — so his endorsement of Obama could potentially reflect a desire to end the primary race as soon as possible." Along the same lines, Mike Allen writes: "Democrats are wondering if this could signal the beginning of a 'bandwagon effect' that began last week with the endorsement by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson."

In other words: Richardson... Dodd... Leahy... Casey. The drumbeat begins. Boom, doom. Drums in the deep.

Vols losing; Hilltoppers threatening

By Brendan Loy

It looks like Louisville is about to beat Tennessee. Meanwhile, Western Kentucky has mounted a big rally to pull within six points of UCLA with 7:07 left. GO HILLTOPPERS!!!

UPDATE: Louisville wins; Khalil Aboukhaled leads the pool. Jeff Belisle is second; Ryan Morgan drops to third. Full update after the UCLA-WKU game.

UPDATE 2: A valiant effort by Western Kentucky -- and damn, if that three-pointer rattles in, back when it was a four-point game with 5:17 left, who knows? -- but the Bruins win, 88-78. So it'll be UCLA vs. Xavier in the West Regional Final... just like my original bracket predicted (I had Xavier beating the Bruins and going all the way to the title game), before I changed it at the last minute to have UConn beating UCLA and going to the Final Four over the Musketeers. Harumph.

UPDATE 3: As mentioned earlier, Khalil Aboukhaled of South Bend, Indiana (a.k.a. "fezafou") leads the 13th annual Living Room Times men's basketball pool presented by the UCLA Bruins. He has 247 out of a possible 312 points. However, his chances of winning the pool are statistically quite small -- just 0.4% -- in large part because his predicted national champion, Georgetown, has already been eliminated, as has another of his Final Four teams, Pitt.

The mathematical favorite to win the pool is Jeff Belisle of Brooklyn, New York, currently in second place with 242 points. He has a 14.5% chance to win. Belisle is followed in the current standings by Ryan Morgan of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who had a 14-point lead at the beginning of the day, but went just 2-for-4 on Thursday, having picked neither Xavier nor Louisville. He has 241 points, and a 10.4% chance to win.

Dan Port, Lisa Velte, Bill Rece and Mark Gardner are tied for fourth with 239 points apiece. Alex Whitfield is eighth with 237, Joseph Hiegel ninth with 235, and rounding out the top ten are Kevin Hauschulz, Chuck Wessell, and brother & sister Matt Thomsen and Danielle Thomsen, all tied with 234 points each. Hauschulz and Danielle Thomsen are already mathematically eliminated from winning the pool, however. Here's a full list of possible outcomes.

Complete standings here and after the jump.

March Madness: it's baaaack!!

By Brendan Loy

Our (three-day-)long national nightmare -- in which all we had to satisfy our hunger for college basketball was the NIT, the CBI and the largely upset-free opening weekend of the women's Big Dance -- is over. The Sweet 16 begins tonight. Whee!!!

All I can say is: GO WESTERN KENTUCKY!!! BEAT FUCLA!!!

(Also: Go Tennessee! Go Xavier*! Go Wazzu!)

*Or West Virginia. Whatever.

UPDATE: Xavier won in overtime; North Carolina won easily, again.

In the 13th annual Living Room Times men's basketball pool presented by UCLA, Ryan Morgan still leads, but his margin is down to 4 points because of West Virginia's loss. Everyone else in the Top 7 -- Khalil Aboukhaled, Matt and Danielle Thomsen (brother and sister, tied for third), Chris Mulvey, Jeff Belisle and Joe Swiderski -- picked both of tonight's early-game winners. Morgan only picked the Tar Heels.

If Louisville beats Tennessee, Aboukhaled will take the lead. If the Vols win, Morgan will remain on top.

Complete standings here and after the jump.

Does Hillary want McCain to win?, ctd.

By Brendan Loy

Yesterday afternoon, I blogged about Maureen Dowd's column in yesterday's New York Times, in which she argued that Hillary Clinton's willingness to out-and-out attack Barack Obama -- even though the resulting damage will probably inure only to John McCain's benefit, not Hillary's, in the end -- might indicate a self-interested preference for a McCain victory in November. The theory, of course, is that an Obama defeat in the general election would open the door for Hillary, The Sequel in 2012. "Some top Democrats are increasingly worried that the Clintons’ divide-and-conquer strategy is nihilistic: Hillary or no democrat," I quoted Dowd as saying.

Silly me, thinking Maureen Dowd had an original thought.

As it turns out, this very topic has been the subject of a raging debate in the center-left blogosphere for almost a week, with various prominent bloggers weighing in both sides of the issue -- creating a dialogue that's much more illuminating and insightful, unsurprisingly, than a Maureen Dowd column. Details after the jump.

Davidson offering students free tickets, travel, lodging for Sweet 16, Elite 8

By Brendan Loy

Sweet, indeed:

Davidson College students who want to go to Detroit to see their basketball team in the Sweet 16 can do so for free.

In an e-mail to students Wednesday, school President Tom Ross said the school's trustees will pay for tickets, travel and lodging for Davidson's Midwest Regional semifinal game Friday night against Wisconsin at Detroit's Ford Field. Students also get tickets to Sunday's regional final -- win or lose.

The gift will not come from Davidson's endowment, said Stacey Schmeidel, director of college communications. "At least one person on the board stepped up and said, `I want to do this for the students,' " Schmeidel said.

As of Wednesday night, hundreds of students had signed up for the offer, so many that college officials were scrambling for extra tickets and buses. The offer includes a 660-mile bus ride to Detroit leaving Friday morning and returning between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. Monday -- just in time for classes.

Heh. Awesome. (Hat tip: anonamom.)

The only downside: they aren't cancelling classes on Friday. The school's president urged students to "please consider going to the game ONLY if this is, academically, the right decision for you." Riiiiight.

UPDATE: Here's the full text of the president's e-mail, courtesy of Davidson blogger Will Bryan. But now it seems the school sent out "a second email a few hours later saying that not everyone who responded to the first will be able to go since they don't have enough tickets." Heh. That's according to AOL Fanhouse, quoting Bryan. A commenter on Bryan's site confirms:

They said they could give free tickets, transportation, and lodging to everyone, but now they are saying that they can't meet the student demand (and they should have certainly expected FULL demand). Things are really up in the air right now as people are hoping that Davidson will keep its word on this. A lot of people who were really excited are now pretty disappointed. Don't make promises you can't keep.

The commenter also quotes from the latest e-mail from the college: "We have been overwhelmed by the response. There will not be enough time before Friday morning to respond to each email. We are keeping track of the requests in the order they come in. If we have a ticket for you, we will email you directly on Thursday. ... We apologize, but we will not be able to take every student who wants to go to Detroit."

P.S. In other basketball-related news, I'd just like to clarify, in case anyone was wondering after last night's David Schnauzer Letterman Top Ten list, that the reason we've chosen to conceal Loyette's true first name on the blog is not because we named her "Gonzaga." ;)

Speaking of the Shuttle...

By Brendan Loy

Heh.

Time for a new garish blazer?

By Brendan Loy

The Bruce Pearl to Indiana rumors are officially on.

It's Kirby vs. Dupuis in NIT Pool

By Brendan Loy

Gary Kirby is one Florida loss away from winning his second consecutive Irish Trojan NIT Pool.

Kirby, a.k.a. "gahrie," got the entire Final Four right -- something only he and Katrina Lewonczyk can claim -- and he now has 228 out of a possible 252 points. That puts him 15 ahead of Josh Krause, 16 ahead of Mark Gardner, 22 ahead of Brian Dupuis and 23 ahead of Ginny Zak.

Only Dupuis, a LSU alum, still has a chance to win, however. Both he and Kirby, who attended USC in the 1980s, predicted a Florida-Ohio State title game, a rematch of last year's NCAA championship game. But whereas Kirby (along with everyone else near the top of the current leaderboard) picked the Buckeyes to win, Dupuis picked his Tigers' conference rivals, the Gators.

So if Florida follows up its two consecutive NCAA championships with an NIT championship, Dupuis -- winner of the Irish Trojan college football bowl pick 'em contest in 2005-06 -- will win the pool. If anyone else wins the title, Kirby will repeat as NIT Pool champ.

Complete standings here and after the jump.

Heh.

By Brendan Loy

TNR's Christopher Orr says Hillary Clinton has joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

Meanwhile, blogger Cameron Fredman has found some counts that show Clinton ahead. My favorite:

Average Highest Elevation

CLINTON: 6135 Feet
OBAMA:  6097 Feet

Frankly, I’m surprised that more attention hasn’t been drawn to this.  Obama claims to want to elevate the level of discourse, but he has failed in states with the highest elevations.  Clinton has won on Mount Whitney (California), Humphreys Peak (Arizona), Boundary Peak (Nevada), and Wheeler Peak (New Mexico). Perhaps more significantly, there are so few peaks left that despite the close margins, Obama has no hope of regaining the altitude vote.  Clinton also leads among states with the highest average mean elevation: (Clinton:  1908.8 feet    Obama:  1457.7 feet).

I fully expect Howard Wolfson to be citing that one within days. (Hat tip: TNR.)

P.S. And another "Heh," courtesy of James Carville, opening a speech at a finance conference: "Governor Richardson was going to introduce me, but he got pinned down by sniper fire at the airport.”

P.P.S. And yet another "Heh," courtesy of Wonkette:

NIT Pool down to a Final 3

By Brendan Loy

Ole Miss beat Virginia Tech tonight to become the third straight NIT #2 seed to knock off a #1 seed on its home floor -- and in the process, the Rebels eliminated Josh Krause, Dan Port, Pat Caplin, Jeff Burch and Joey Perucki from any chance of winning the 4th annual Irish Trojan NIT Pool.

The pool is now down to a final three: defending champion Gary Kirby ("gahrie"), who attended USC from 1983-1987; Brian Dupuis ("DUP"), a 2004 LSU alum; and Chris Bravo ("cdbavg400"), a 2007 USC alum and current Arizona grad student.

Bravo needs Dayton to beat Ohio State in a game that's still in progress. If the Flyers win tonight, Bravo will win the pool if UMass wins the NIT and the total number of points scored in the title game is 128 or less. On the other hand, if the Buckeyes win tonight, Bravo is eliminated. Meanwhile, regardless of tonight's outcome, Dupuis will win the pool if Florida wins the NIT. And Kirby will repeat as pool champion in every other scenario (including the one where UMass wins a title game in which 129 or more points are scored).

I'll post a full update tomorrow, but that's where things stand in terms of the scenarios.

Shuttle to land tonight

By Brendan Loy

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center at 8:39 PM EDT. Complete coverage here.

UPDATE: The Shuttle landed safely.

Krause, defending champion Kirby tied atop NIT Pool; Gardner eliminated

By Brendan Loy

Barely 24 hours removed from pursuing a perfect bracket, Mark Gardner is suddenly out of the running in the Irish Trojan NIT Pool -- and defending champion Gary Kirby is back in the catbird seat.

Kirby, a.k.a. "gahrie," is tied with Josh Krause for first place, and is statistically the most likely to win the pool, prevailing in 14 of the 32 remaining scenarios. He is also the only contestant guaranteed to still be mathematically alive after tonight's final two quarterfinals. For now, however, eight contestants are  alive to win: Kirby, Krause, Dan Port, Brian Dupuis (DUP), Pat Caplin, Jeff Burch, Chris Bravo and Joey Perucki.

Gardner, who was perfect until the tournament's 22nd game and entered last night's action with a 23-1 prediction record, was mathematically eliminated by a pair of quarterfinal upsets: wins by #2 seeds UMass and Florida over homestanding top seeds Syracuse and Arizona State, respectively. The Syracuse loss especially hurt, as the Orange were Gardner's predicted runner-up. He can now finish no better than third place.

Kirby, for his part, appears to have an uncommon gift for predicting the NIT. In addition to winning the 2007 pool, he finished second in 2006. (He did not compete in 2005.) This year, he has gotten only two games wrong to date.

Dean O'Hara to step down in 2009

By Brendan Loy

Above The Law has confirmed the legitimacy of the leaked U.S. News law-school rankings, which I blogged last night. As I mentioned in that post, they show Notre Dame Law School erasing last year's decline and returning to #22.

Meanwhile, there is breaking news at NDLS. Less than an hour ago, Dean Patty O'Hara wrote an e-mail to the student body, announcing that she is stepping down at the end of next year. The e-mail was forwarded to me, and it's printed in full after the jump.

Gravel vs. Paul? Bring it on!

By Brendan Loy

Mike Gravel, the former Democratic presidential candidate who once made a creepy YouTube ad in which he stared at the camera for like two minutes, will run for the Libertarian nomination for president.

So far, Ron Paul -- who was the Libertarian presidential nominee in 1988 -- says he's not running in 2008. But man, wouldn't that be awesome? Mike Gravel vs. Ron Paul? The Democrats' fringe also-ran vs. the Republicans' fringe also-ran, duking it out for the Libertarian nomination? It'd be the political equivalent of the NIT championship game!

The audacity of hopelessness

By Brendan Loy

David Brooks had a good column about Hillary Clinton in yesterday's New York Times. He estimates her chances of capturing the nomination at 5 percent, and then professes himself astounded at "what she’s going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance." She appears intent on attempting to destroy Obama, even though there's a 95 percent chance her efforts will only help McCain. "When you step back and think about it, she is amazing," Brooks writes. "She possesses the audacity of hopelessness."

Interesting stuff, but even moreso when it's read in concert with today's Maureen Dowd column, which suggests that Hillary might consider this lifeline to McCain a feature, not a bug. After all, if Obama loses the general election, Hillary can take another stab at the presidency in 2012. And a 76-year-old President McCain could hardly play the age card against a 65-year-old opponent.

Chuck Wessell leads women's pool

By Brendan Loy

Chuck Wessell, a Ph.D. student at N.C. State, leads the 11th annual Living Room Times women's basketball pool heading into the Sweet Sixteen.

Wessell picked both of last night's mild upsets -- by #5 seeds Notre Dame and Old Dominion, both in overtime over #4 seeds -- to break the deadlock at the top of the standings. He has 243 out of a possible 272 points. Maryland alum Josh Rubin and Evansville alum Jeremy Gist are tied for second place with 240 points. The pool is scored on a 5-7-10-15-20-25 basis. Complete standings here and after the jump.

44 of the 91 contestants -- nearly half -- are still mathematically alive to win the pool, as you can see on the Possible Outcomes page. (To sort that page by mathematical likelihood of winning, instead of by current rank, click twice on the column header "# First.")

I'll post an NIT Pool update later today, sometime before tonight's last two quarterfinals tip off at 7:00 PM EDT.

SHA girl needs your votes!

By Brendan Loy

Since I was being mean to Buffalo yesterday, I figured I should do something nice for a Buffalo native this morning. And, conveniently enough, one of Becky's high-school classmates needs my, and your, help!

Sara Crowther (née Alpsan) is competing in the "Be a Milk Rock Star with Rascal Flatts" contest. She uploaded a video of herself singing "God Bless the Broken Road," and it's currently ranked 14th out of 219 entries, based on viewers' votes. That's up from like 85th or something when I first checked! You can help keep that momentum ("Crow-mentum"?) going by clicking the above link and voting for Sara!

Sara doesn't need to finish first -- she just needs to crack the Top 10 by April 15. Then Rascal Flatts and MilkRocks.com will pick the winner from the Top 10 entries. Whoever they choose will, according to the contest rules,  "win a trip for them, and three friends, to see the band live and perform their song entry onstage with Rascal Flatts; a Gibson Les Paul Studio Guitar autographed by Rascal Flatts; their own backstage dressing room, a meet and greet with the band; VIP accommodations to and from the concert on the Gibson Guitar Tour Bus and a webcast featuring their performance aired for 30 days on MilkRocks.com."

So anyway... vote for Sara! Here's her video:

ND beats OU in OT; Tennessee next

By Brendan Loy

#5-seed Notre Dame and #4-seed Oklahoma -- playing in West Lafayette, Indiana -- are tied 72-72 in overtime in the second round of the women's tournament. Winner gets Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen. GO IRISH!!

UPDATE: IRISH WIN!! Notre Dame is Sweet 16-bound!! Wooo!! GOOOO IRISH, BEEEEAT LADY VOLS!!

I'll update the pools in the morning.

Endeavour & ISS over Knoxville

By Brendan Loy

I drove a few miles to Carl Cowan Park this evening, where I figured I'd have a clear-ish horizon and a dark-ish sky to watch the Shuttle & ISS flyover. And, sure enough, I saw both spaceships -- preceded a few minutes earlier by the ATV Jules Verne -- race across the sky. The view of the Shuttle & ISS wasn't as spectacular as when I saw them from Nashville (they were much brighter and more directly overhead in that particular instance), but it was still neat. And I got a video!

Pay no attention to my blithering at the end of the video about how the Shuttle "stayed light longer than I thought it would." I was just a bit confused in real-time. On the video, it's perfectly obvious that the Shuttle faded into shadow when and where you'd expect it to, based on the ISS's behavior moments before.

The more interesting question -- which I don't mention in the video -- is why the Shuttle flared up so bright, brighter even than the ISS, in the final moments before it disappeared into the Earth's shadow. I'm sure there's a good answer to that question, but I don't know what it is.

P.S. The apparent jerky motion of the ATV, Shuttle and ISS is a result of my camcorder's "Super Night Shot" feature. In actuality, orbiting satellites move rather smoothly. :)

P.P.S. The title of this post is technically wrong. The Shuttle and ISS were not directly over Knoxville when I saw them, but rather, over the Memphis area.

NDLS back in Top 25?

By Brendan Loy

U.S. News and World Report's 2009 law-school rankings aren't due to be officially released until Friday, but there are scattered reports of leaks. (Hat tip: yea.) Specifically, law blog The Shark has published a PDF scan of an apparently Xeroxed copy of the alleged list (purportedly found at an unspecified "newsstand"); Xoxohth poster "Gerbil21" claims he saw the magazine on display early at a local Barnes & Noble and wrote the rankings down by hand; and poster "m1" on Law School Discussion took a digital picture of the alleged new rankings page.

If the leaked list is accurate -- a big "if" -- it would mean Notre Dame Law School has recovered from last year's drop from #22 to #28, climbing back into a tie for #22. However, I can't vouch for the accuracy of these purported leaks in any way, shape or form. I'm just passing on the links. You can consider them sort of like the early unweighted exit polls on election nights: lend them whatever credence you feel is appropriate, with "none" being a perfectly valid answer. We report, you decide.

Oh, and insert your own rankings-don't-matter disclaimer here. :)

P.S. For example.

Translating Hillary Clinton

By Brendan Loy

A few days ago, Jay blogged about Phil Bredesen's proposal for a superdelegate superconvention. Today, Hillary Clinton offered her thoughts on the plan: "The governor from Tennessee suggested that there be a convention of superdelegates, and I think that it is an intriguing idea. I have not considered it long enough to have an opinion on it."

Heh. Translation: "I haven't determined yet whether it would help me or hurt me politically. When I figure that out, I'll let you know whether it's an obviously necessary, undeniably fair and just procedure for determining the nominee, or a horribly undemocratic, totally indefensible alteration of the sacrosanct process we already have in place."

Jim Kelly for Congress?

By Brendan Loy

Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly is reportedly considering a run for Congress as a Republican.

Let's see: he can serve in the House for four years, run for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat in 2012, win in a stunning upset, make a national name for himself, and then in 2016, when President Obama is termed out...

...can you say Kelly-Norwood '16?

You may scoff, but the ticket has some major built-in political advantages. First of all, they'd win the normally Democratic state of New York in a landslide, by uniting nostalgic Bills fans and grateful Giants fans. And secondly, they'd have no problems motivating the conservative base. After all, nobody knows how to aim for the right like Scott Norwood! It'd be a vast wide-right wing conspiracy!

:P

(Hat tip: Hugging Harold Reynolds. To all my Buffalo readers, including my wife, I apologize. I couldn't resist.)

Another chance to see the Shuttle & ISS

By Brendan Loy

If you're in the South, the lower Great Plains or Midwest, or Texas, and your sky is clear, you may be able to see the Space Shuttle and International Space Station fly across the sky tonight as two distinct, bright dots, the Shuttle trailing about 20 seconds behind the ISS. (That's "seconds" as a unit of time, not as a unit of angular distance.)

The Shuttle Endeavour undocked yesterday, and is scheduled to land tomorrow, so tonight is the only side-by-side Shuttle & ISS viewing opportunity for this mission, barring delays. As I've said before, this is a very cool thing to see, well worth a few minutes standing outside and looking up at the sky.

The flyover will occur between 9:34 and 9:39 PM Eastern time. To find out exactly where in the sky to look, and when, go to Heavens-Above, select your location from the database or the map, and then click on "ISS" or "STS-123" under the heading "Satellites." The closer you are to the solid black line in the graphic below, the better your viewing opportunity will be:

Don't pay too much attention to the red circle, as it "moves" along with the Shuttle and ISS. Just look at the solid black line. The closer you are to it, the better. But don't believe me -- go to Heavens-Above and found out the local details. And then go outside tonight and look up.

Here in Knoxville, I'll be looking up to the western sky -- just barely south of due west, actually -- about one-third of the way from the horizon to the zenith. The sky's clear now; hopefully it'll stay that way. Now I just need to pick a viewing location. If I'm able to get any good pictures, I'll (obviously) post 'em!

For those of you who haven't seen them before

By Jay Johnson

I don't know how many folks are aware of the guys from Red State Update, but I love their redneck takes on politics. The guys are radio DJs/comedians, playing the characters of Jackie Broyles and Dunlap.

Usually, it's simply them sitting at a table, bantering back and forth. This one, however, is a special kind of amusing.

Enjoy. Then, if you haven't already, go check out their other stuff on their site and/or add them to your MySpace friends.