Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Coming soon...

By Brendan Loy

The 13th annual Living Room Times men's basketball pool, presented by the UCLA Bruins.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Showtime at Staples

By Brendan Loy

They're underway in L.A.

FIGHT ON, TROJANS!!!!! BEAT THE BRUINS!!!!! WIN ME THE BET!!!!!

(I think I'm going to use that bear for every anti-UCLA post from now on. Hahaha.)

UPDATE: USC leads at halftime, 34-29. I'm not too happy, though. Frankly, the margin should be bigger. The Trojans' defense was great, and the Bruins' shooting was cold until the last couple of minutes, yet USC's offense wasn't clicking on all cylinders. From the 16-minute mark to the 9-minute mark of the half, UCLA only scored 4 points (increasing their total from 7 to 11), which would have presented a great opportunity for USC to build a big lead, but they only managed to get up 17-11 during that stretch. I feel like the Bruins have a good run in them sometime in the second half, and I'd like to see the Trojans build up enough of a lead beforehand that they can withstand it.

Also of concern: Hackett and Jefferson each have 2 fouls. Hopefully neither of them picks up a quick third in the second half. You don't want to put your fate in the hands of Pac-10 refs!!

Meanwhile, UCLA's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute went down with an ugly-looking injury. Hopefully he's OK and will at least be back for the NCAA Tournament.

UPDATE 2: Aaaaand, while I was in the other room helping Becky with the baby, UCLA opens the second half on a 17-4 run. They're up 46-38 with 14:43 minutes left. Yikes. Oh, and Hackett just got his third foul. And Gibson has 3, too. Crap, crap, crap.

UPDATE 3: Trojans within 5 points with 3:43 to go. Gibson and Jefferson both have 4 fouls. I'm so nervous. I feel like I have such a huge personal stake in the outcome of this game... stupid bets with Mike Tran...

I just really, really hope the Pac-10 refs don't decide this one.

UPDATE 4: UCLA by 3, USC ball, 39 seconds left. My heart is pounding. I swear I'd be less nervous if I had a couple hundred dollars on this game, rather than having my pool's honor riding on it.

UPDATE 5: DAMMIT.

DAMMIT.

DAMMIT.

That was a weird strategy at the end there...

Ugh.

Dammit.

Finally!

By Brendan Loy

A bubble team that actually wants to go dancing!

American wins Patriot League

By Brendan Loy

For the first time ever, American University is going dancing.

Bubble update

By Brendan Loy

Florida State: done.

Virginia Tech: still alive.

Ohio State: still on the bubble.

(If not for yesterday's carnage, I'd say Ohio State is "done," but since nobody within spitting distance of the "cut line" can win a damn game, some conference-tournament flame-outs are going to have to get bids -- they've still gotta invite 65 teams -- so you can't count the Buckeyes out yet. Florida State, though, was way down near the bottom of the pecking order anyway, so they're done for. Virginia Tech, meanwhile, was also pretty far down the S-curve, so this win doesn't get them in, necessarily. A win over North Carolina tomorrow, though, probably does, since it would make them the one and only major-conference bubble team to achieve anything worth a damn during Championship Week.)

Now, all bubble-watching eyes turn to the Atlantic 10. If Xavier and Charlotte win, could that conference be, as Andy Glockner suggests, a one-bid league?! I don't know, but personally, I'll be rooting for St. Joe's and Temple. It would be nice to see someone actually earn their way into this tournament.

P.S. Apparently it is now Irish Trojan policy that all posts' titles shall begin with the word "Bubble." ;)

Me on Sirius radio in 10 minutes

By Brendan Loy

I totally forgot to plug this earlier, but if anyone has Sirius satellite radio, and happens to see this post in the next half-hour, tune to Channel 110, Indie Talk -- I'm scheduled to be on their "Blog Bunker" program from 5:00 to 5:20 PM EDT.

I have absolutely no idea what the topic(s) will be, so if I seem stumped or surprised, now you know why. :)

Bubble Scoresheet preview

By Brendan Loy

Sometime on Sunday afternoon, I'll publish this year's version of the Official BrendanLoy.com Bubble Scoresheet, which provides an easy tool for bubble-watchers to use while watching the Selection Show, to make sense of things as the regions are announced. I figured I'd briefly plug it now, to encourage y'all to come back Sunday afternoon. :)

By specifically keeping track of how many "probably in," "bubble" and "probably out" teams have been selected thus far, I find that it's much easier to figure out what the stakes are, and what the as-yet unselected teams' chances are, as the show proceeds.

For example, two years ago, during a commercial break 3/4 of the way through the Selection Show, I was able to write definitively that "either Northern Iowa or Cincinnati is NOT dancing. The bubble is tapped out." Thus, when Northern Iowa's name appeared in the final region, I knew that Cincy was doomed. And last year, again 3/4 of the way into the show, I noted that "unless either Syracuse or Xavier [both of whom I had listed in the 'probably in' column] is left out ... the rest of the bubble teams aren’t going to the tournament." As a result, when CBS announced the inclusion of Xavier and then of bubble-team Stanford, I knew immediately that Syracuse had been, stunningly, snubbed.

Bubble carnage!

By Brendan Loy

Yesterday morning, Joe Lunardi said there were 25 teams on or near the bubble, competing for 11 spots. Of those 25 teams, 18 were in action yesterday -- and they went a whopping 6-12! (And that's not even including Baylor!)

But it gets worse. The ten teams closest to the "cut line" -- the "last five in" and "last five out" -- went an incredible 0-7, with only Ohio State, Illinois State and VCU managing not to lose (because they were idle; in the Redbirds' and Rams' cases, their seasons are already over).

Here's a graphical representation of yesterday's carnage, using Lunardi's Thursday-morning pecking order as a starting point. The teams are listed in S-curve order, from best to worst, as of yesterday morning. Green means they won yesterday, red means they lost, italics means their season was done before the day started. Here goes:

• IN: Miami, Texas A&M, Arizona, UNLV, Arkansas, South Alabama, Oregon, Massachusetts, Illinois State, New Mexico, Arizona State

• OUT: Ohio State, Florida, VCU, UAB, Dayton, Saint Joseph's, Villanova, Mississippi, Syracuse, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Temple, Houston

So, where does this leave us?

Geraldine Ferraro is right... sort of

By Brendan Loy

The big kerfuffle in the Democratic presidential race this week -- albeit largely overshadowed by the trials and tribulations of New Year's "pay for luv gov" -- has been the controversy over Geraldine Ferraro's comments suggesting that Barack Obama wouldn't be where he is now if he weren't a black man.

[Caveat: I've only followed this story cursorily, as I've been much more interested in basketball the last few days. As such, take my opinion with a grain of salt. For instance, I haven't actually watched any of the interviews with Ferraro, so if the details of her initial or subsequent comments are more (or less) outrageous than what's reflected in the bare-bones news and blog reports I've read, I may not be aware of that. The point of this post is more to react to the general concept of someone saying that Obama's race helps him, rather than to pass judgment on Geraldine Ferraro specifically.]

From what I know of it, I regard this controversy as much ado about not much. Ferraro's comments were unnecessary and inappropriate, in the sense that they serve no possible purpose except to inflame racial tensions and further divide the party. And yet, they're also not "racist," any more than it'd be "sexist" to say that Hillary Clinton wouldn't be where she is now if she were a man, or if she weren't Bill Clinton's wife. (Or, for that matter, to say -- as Ferraro herself did -- that Ferraro wouldn't have been the 1984 vice-presidential nominee if she were a man.)