Irish Trojan in Tennessee

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.