Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Siena, are you ready for your closeup?

By Brendan Loy

Somehow, when they set the schedule for tomorrow's games, I don't think CBS was expecting to lead off with a nationwide broadcast of #12 Villanova vs. #13 Siena. Heh.

What a game!

By Brendan Loy

UCLA just won an instant classic, 53-49 over Texas A&M.

Absolutely incredible finish. UCLA's rally was remarkable: their defense was just superb, and it seemed like they scored on three or four straight possessions when they absolutely needed to, often on very tough shots (including one Jordanesque fadeaway by Kevin Love). Then, down the stretch, both teams just kept making huge plays on both sides of the ball. It was exactly what you love to see in the NCAA Tournament. One "shining moment" after another.

Utterly heartbreaking loss for the Aggies, obviously. As for the Bruins, will this be their "great escape" en route to a Final Four and perhaps a national title? We shall see. They now face the winner of a #12/13 game in the Sweet 16, and then if they win that one, either a #3 or a #7 in the regional final.

As for the 13th annual Living Room Times men's NCAA pool presented by those selfsame UCLA Bruins: updated standings are here and after the jump.

Ryan Morgan leads men's pool

By Brendan Loy

Ryan Morgan, a Drake alum and Wisconsin fan, took sole possession of first place in the Living Room Times men's pool when Michigan State beat Pitt moments ago.

Morgan, who lives in Milwaukee, has 172 out of a possible 209 points in the 13th annual pool, presented by the UCLA Bruins. He will stay in first place tonight regardless of the UCLA-Texas A&M outcome.

Kevin Pilz of Newington, Connecticut and Ken Wagner of Nashville, Tennessee are tied for second with 167 points. Liz Janelle, Alex Whitfield and Khalil Aboukhaled -- previously tied with Morgan for first place -- are now tied for fourth with 165 points. (They picked Pitt.) Complete standings here and after the jump.

Trouble's Bruin

By Brendan Loy

Texas A&M leads UCLA 29-26 at halftime. w00t! Go Aggies!

Incidentally, in my pool, I've added four "dummy brackets" for comparison purposes: the "all favorites" bracket, the "aggregate picks" bracket, John McCain's bracket and Barack Obama's bracket.

I've added the "all favorites" and "aggregate picks" brackets to the women's and NIT pools, too. You can see how the actual contestants compare to the dummy brackets by looking at the various pools' standings. (Men's, Women's, NIT.)

Four-way tie thru 38 games

By Brendan Loy

Six games into the second round, there's a four-way tie among Khalil Aboukhaled, Liz Janelle, Alex Whitfield and Ryan Morgan for the lead in the 13th annual Living Room Times men's NCAA pool sponsored by the UCLA Bruins.

Argh.

By Brendan Loy

Wazzu 61, Notre Dame 41, final.

You don't win too many games scoring 41 points, least of all in the NCAA Tournament.

So all three of "my teams" are gone within the tournament's first three days. All four if you count UConn. Harumph. I guess now I'm rooting for... Davidson? The Butler-Tennessee winner? And of course, whoever's playing UCLA. :)

Meanwhile, we've got a thriller in overtime between Marquette and Stanford. Go Pac-10!! GO DRUNKEN TREES!!!

UPDATE: Stanford wins!! Brook Lopez hit the game-winner with 1.3 seconds left. One of the best games of the tournament for sure. And the Trees won despite losing their coach in the first half.

P.S. Incidentally, Notre Dame's loss knocked Khalil Aboukhaled out of sole possession of first place in the pool, back into a four-way tie with Liz Janelle, Alex Whitfield and Ryan Morgan. That's still the situation after Stanford's win, which all four of the co-leaders predicted. Full update coming after the Kansas-UNLV game ends.

Fire Mike Brey?

By Brendan Loy

I kid, I kid! :) But Notre Dame clearly isn't playing too well, down 32-19 at the half. Though we missed almost the entire first half because Purdue-Xavier took so long to finish. Speaking of which,
Khalil Aboukhaled (a.k.a. fezafou) now leads the pool.

UPDATE: Harumph. With the Irish trailing 38-28 with 14:08 left, CBS has switched us over to the closer Stanford-Marquette game. Off to MMOD I go.

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

Former SLA member Sarah Jane Olson was mistakenly freed a year early from prison Monday, and is back in custody.

Morgan, Janelle, Aboukhaled tied for first

By Brendan Loy

I've updated the standings of the 13th annual Living Room Times men's NCAA pool presented by the UCLA Bruins, reflecting Duke's glorious loss to West Virginia. It's now a three-way tie between Matt Kagan Ryan Morgan, Khalil Aboukhaled and Liz Janelle, all of whom correctly predicted the Mountaineers' upset win. Complete standings here and after the jump. (Now corrected! -6:30 PM)

[UPDATE: Someone will take sole possession of the lead shortly, depending on the outcome of the Purdue-Xavier game. If Purdue wins, Liz Janelle will take the lead; if Xavier wins, Aboukhaled will take the lead. Morgan is bound to fall behind because he picked Baylor, who lost on Thursday.]

In addition, the women's pool standings are updated through the first six games, including Hartford's upset win over Syracuse. (Woo!! Connecticut pride!! Jen Rizzotti!!) Those are after the jump, too.

P.S. This may be my last pool update for a few hours, as I'll want to focus on watching the Notre Dame game this evening. GO IRISH!

Go Huggy Bear! Beat Duke!

By Brendan Loy

Bob Huggins's West Virginia Mountaineers are threatening to beat Duke. I have the Blue Devils in my bracket, but who cares about that? Go WVU!! Duke sucks!!

P.S. Apparently Bob Huggins's "hometown" is "West Virginia." Heh.

UPDATE: Mountaineers win!! Woo!! They're burning couches in Morgantown tonight!!

How excited is UCLA right now? If they beat Texas A&M tonight, they play the winner of a #12 vs. #13 game in the Sweet 16... and now the #2 seed in their region is eliminated. Now watch Purdue beat Xavier and completely bust that bracket.

Gardner still perfect in NIT Pool

By Brendan Loy

Twenty games into the NIT, with half of the quarterfinalists decided, Penn State alum Mark Gardner is still perfect.

Gardner, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, is 20-for-20 with 11 games to go. He has 152 points in the 4th annual Irish Trojan NIT Pool, 14 ahead of Gary Kirby, Patrick Roach, Derek McDonald and Josh Krause, who are tied for second place with 18-for-20 prediction records and 138 points apiece.

Full standings here and after the jump. Scenario info here.

And this time, nuts won't save them

By Brendan Loy

Jericho has been cancelled. Again. (Hat tip: Andrew Hiller.)

I gotta be honest, I've TiVoed all the Season 2 episodes but have only watched the first one. Between the baby, the election and March Madness, I've been a bit distracted. So I guess I'm sort of complicit in the show's latest round of low ratings. Oh, well. I look forward to watching the rest of the episodes.

Karl Rove: my iPhone makes me cool

By Brendan Loy

Karl Rove on his iPhone: "I love it. My life has changed. I have a shred of coolness."

Heh. He goes on. ("I mean it is just shocking how much better, how much more productive I am.") He also sings the praises of his aforeblogged MacBook Air.

The big question is, which effect is more pronounced: hip Mac products making Karl Rove cool, or evil Karl Rove making hip Mac products less cool? :)

10-way tie atop men's pool

By Brendan Loy

Ten contestants are tied for first place in the 13th annual Living Room Times men's basketball pool presented by the UCLA Bruins, with 26-for-32 prediction records at the end of the first round.

The ten co-leaders are Matt Kagan, Khalil Aboukhaled, Liz Janelle, Amir Sadaghiani, Ryan Morgan, Robert Dokes, Carolyn Blessing, Joe Swiderski, Benjamin Rumery and Alex Whitfield. Each has 130 of a possible 160 points. 24 contestants are tied for 11th place with 125 points apiece, and 42 contestants are tied for 35th place with 120 points each.

The pool is scored on a 5-7-10-15-20-25 basis, so the 7-point second-round games today and tomorrow will probably begin to break many of the ties.

Complete standings here and after the jump.