Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Cal beats UW; Bruins next

By Brendan Loy

Cal will get a rematch tomorrow of its controversial season regular-finale against UCLA.

That'll be at 5:30 PM on FSN, right after the 3:00 game between USC and Arizona State. I'm hoping to get to work early tomorrow, and to work through lunch, so I can come home for at least the second half of that one. :)

If the Trojans and Bruins both win, then my bet with Mike will be decided Friday night. If, on the other hand, either team loses tomorrow, the season series remains split 1-1 and the bet's a wash.

Also tomorrow, at 9:30 PM on ESPN: Notre Dame vs. Marquette or Seton Hall. All in all, it's going to be a big day in Irish Trojan land...

Stunning upset in women's MWC

By Brendan Loy

Wow... just wow:

In by far the biggest upset so far this March, the 3-27 Colorado State women's team beat 27-3 Utah in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament. ...

To give an idea of how big an upset this was, the Sagarin ratings ranked Utah as the 18th best women's basketball team in the country and Colorado State as the 305th best. The corresponding upset in men's basketball would be Farleigh Dickinson beating Connecticut.

In regular-season conference play, Colorado State was 0-16; Utah was 16-0.

P.S. Put another way: if Oregon State were to beat Arizona tonight in the men's Pac-10 tourney, it would be not as big of an upset as CSU over Utah was. (Oregon State is #240, according to Sagarin; Arizona is #29.)

UB football on ESPN2 on Election Night

By Brendan Loy

The University at Buffalo football team will play a home game on ESPN2 on Election Night against Miami of Ohio. It'll be Buffalo's first nationally televised game since moving to Division I-A, and the first-ever nationally televised game out of UB Stadium. And according to UB grad Weston (pictured below with yours truly on the night of the Buffalo-Rutgers game last fall), they're calling it the "Blue vs. Red Game," in reference to its Election Night timing. Heh.

Speaking of Buffalo, the Bulls are currently trying to extend their men's basketball season in unlikely fashion. At 3-13 in conference play and 10-19 overall, UB is the lowest seed in the conference, #12, but they're leading aforementioned Miami, the #5-seed, by a score of 51-42 with 11:39 to go. Can Buffalo get four wins in four days to win the MAC Tournament? Um, probably not. But hey, you never know. Crazier things have happened -- like the UB football team winning five games in a season. :) Winner gets #4-seed Ohio tomorrow.

UPDATE: Buffalo loses, 69-68. :(

Mount St. Mary's upsets Sacred Heart

By Brendan Loy

Moments ago on ESPN2, #4-seed Mount St. Mary's defeated #3-seed Sacred Heart, 68-55, on SHU's home floor in Fairfield, Connecticut, to earn the Northeast Conference title. So that leaves just Hartford and UConn still alive from the Nutmeg State. (Hartford plays for the America East title on Saturday morning. UConn plays West Virginia in the Big East quarters tomorrow, but is, of course, going dancing regardless.)

The NCAA bid for the Mountaineers is their first since 1999. Between Mount St. Mary's from the NEC, St. Mary's from the WCC, and Notre Dame from the Big East, the Blessed Virgin will be very well-represented in this year's NCAA Tournament. :)

Bobby Knight is not a mid-major fan

By Brendan Loy

ESPN's newest basketball analyst, Bobby Knight, made his SportsCenter debut tonight. His analysis of the Villanova-Syracuse game was underwhelming -- his expert opinion was that the momentum 'Nova built by finishing the first half on an 8-0 run was, er, important -- but he'll probably get better at saying slightly more insightful things as he gets more used to his new role. What was more concerning was his answer when asked his opinion about the respective at-large merits of Villanova and South Alabama, and, more generally, how he feels about the always-vexing question of comparing major-conference teams from the middle ranks of the standings with top-tier teams from mid- and low-major conferences.

Knight's answer was -- and this isn't an exact quote, but it's a close paraphrase -- that he pretty much always favors major-conference teams, whenever they're anywhere near the bubble, because they play tougher schedules.

Needless to say, he didn't address the fact that those tougher schedules are already taken into account by the fact that we're comparing mid-major teams with records like 26-6 to major-conference teams with records like 20-11. As far as Knight is concerned, schedule strength is apparently pretty much the only thing that should matter. The fact that the non-major teams under consideration at least partially made up for their weaker schedules by winning more games apparently doesn't even figure into the equation.

So basically, if it were up to Bobby Knight, teams like St. Mary's, Illinois State, VCU, South Alabama, and (if they lose the MAC tourney) Kent State would all be out, replaced by mediocre BCS-conference squads like Syracuse, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Florida and Ole Miss. Oh, that'd be thrilling. An NCAA Tournament utterly devoid of potential Cinderellas. Awesome.

Luckily, Bobby Knight isn't on the selection committee. But on top of the possible Great Billy Packer Eruption of 2008 over on CBS, I guess we can look forward to Knight's grumpy commentary on ESPN, wondering how a team like St. Mary's could possibly get in over a team like Ohio State. I hope ESPN lets Knight and Dick Vitale appear on-air together at some point during the post-selection show. It would be fun, in the seemingly inevitable event of a major-vs.-mid-major selection controversy, to watch the always-energetic champion of the little guy go toe-to-toe with the chair-throwing defender of the BCS conferences.

He's a killer candidate

By David K.

Jack Kevorkian is planning to run for Congress.

Alternate headlines considered: 
-  Kevorkian hopes to inject some honesty into Congress
-  He's dying to be elected

Syracuse is NIT-bound

By Brendan Loy

That "pop" you just heard was Syracuse's bubble bursting.

Including today's game, the Orange finishes 9-10 in Big East play. They couldn't even win 10 f***ing games.

This is excellent news for teams like Illinois State and VCU, and other bubblers like Arizona State, Oregon, Ohio State, UMass, etc. Although today's Villanova-Syracuse game was widely described as an "elimination game," the Wildcats came into it lower in the bubble pecking order, by most accounts, than the Orange did. Syracuse might have been able to get into the tournament just with a win over 'Nova, and perhaps a close loss to #1-seed Georgetown tomorrow. Villanova almost certainly needs to beat Georgetown, or else they, too, will be NIT-bound, and the Big East will be a seven-bid league. In which case, a spot opens up for somebody else.

Year of the mid-major?

By Brendan Loy

Y'all know where I stand on the perennial big-conference vs. small-conference debate: I'm firmly on the side of the little guy, and I love to see teams from low-major and mid-major conferences excel in March. For me, a 12-over-5 upset in which, say, Texas A&M beats Syracuse or Missouri beats Miami, always feels sort of cheap and anticlimactic. Those are power-conference teams, not cuddly underdogs! Give me Pacific over Providence, Wisconsin-Milwaukee over Alabama, Butler over Mississippi State, etc. Those are upsets I can feel good about. I also love to see well-seeded mid-majors confirm the hype and prove their mettle, which is why it was so great that Butler and Southern Illinois advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in last year's otherwise rather underwhelming NCAA Tournament.

This year, as events have unfolded, I think there are going to be a lot of opportunities for the little guys to crash the party in a big way. There is a quality crop of mid-major and low-major conference teams who should be seeded on the 13-line or better -- in several cases much better -- giving them a real opportunity to make noise in the NCAAs. I just hope the committee, this time, sets up the seeds and brackets in way to give them a fair shot.

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer today announced his resignation after allegations of his involvement in a prostitution ring.

Design contest reminder

By Brendan Loy

Just a reminder that I still need entries in the Irish Trojan design contest for the 13th annual Living Room Times basketball pools' official logos. The deadline is 5:00 PM EDT tomorrow. Details here.

NOTE: This post will stay on top of the homepage for a while. New posts will appear below.

Spitzer to resign this morning

By Brendan Loy

As the New York Post first reported, and now the New York Times is reporting as well, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is expected to announce his resignation this morning at around 11:30 AM EDT.

Here, incidentally, are this morning's Post and Daily News front pages:

ORU, WKU, Butler win auto bids

By Brendan Loy

The states of Tennessee and Indiana failed yesterday to pad their totals of NCAA teams, as IUPUI lost to Oral Roberts and Middle Tennessee State lost to Western Kentucky. So it'll be five Tennessee teams (UT, Memphis, Vandy, Belmont, Austin Peay) and, barring an unlikely run to the MAC title for #10-seed Ball State, four Indiana teams (Notre Dame, Purdue, Indiana, Butler). Only California, with nearly twice as many Division I schools, will have more teams dancing than the Volunteer State.

Speaking of Butler, they won the Horizon title game, thus earning the automatic bid and preserving an at-large spot for some bubble team. The Bulldogs, who went to the Sweet Sixteen last year as a #5 seed and damn near beat eventual champion Florida, will probably get a similar seed this year. Lunardi currently has them as a #5; maybe they'll be a #4 after this win. Either way, watch out for these guys -- they can ball.