Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Obama's refrain

By Brendan Loy

"Get me more white people!"

And also, a shrubbery.

The best of times, the worst of times

By Brendan Loy

I've been looking all day for a scan of the Lawrence Journal-World's front page, so I could do a compare & contrast with the front page of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. But the J-W wasn't on Newseum when I checked earlier. Now it is, albeit with a strangely low-quality picture. Anyway, both front pages are after the jump. Heartbroken Memphis fans, you may not want to click the link below.

Hey...

By Brendan Loy

...does this mean there's going to be a parade?? I love parades!!

UPDATE: Local news says there will be a celebration at Thompson-Boling Arena at 5:30 PM tomorrow, free and open to the general public, with doors opening at 5:00. No word yet on any parade plans.

P.S. My Facebook profile asks the question:

Jeff Freeze wins women's pool

By Brendan Loy

The Tennessee Lady Vols defeated two Indiana schools on their road to the Final Four, but their national championship means victory for at least one Hoosier: newly crowned Living Room Times women's pool champion Jeff Freeze.

Freeze, a resident of Portage, Indiana and an alumnus of Indiana, Michigan State and Notre Dame -- the latter having been one of Tennessee's tournament victims, along with Purdue -- jumped from eighth to first place tonight on account of the Lady Vols' 64-48 win over Stanford tonight. He finishes with 381 out of a possible 477 points, good enough for a two-point win over Joseph Hiegel in the 11th annual Times women's pool.

Like men's pool winner Alex Whitfield, Freeze has been an Irish Trojan reader since Hurricane Katrina. (Hiegel, on the other hand, only discovered the site earlier this month, by Googling "NIT prediction pool.")

Hiegel, of Greenfield, Wisconsin, finishes second with 379 points. F.X. McGahee of Aiken, South Carolina is third with 374 points, followed by Dan Port of Los Angeles, in fourth with 372. Port wins the prize for best two-tournament performance, as he finished second in the men's pool.

Port is also one of just three contestants to correctly predict the national champions in both the men's and women's tournaments. The others are Chris Aemisegger (51st in the women's pool, 27th in the men's) and "Loyette" Loy (85th, 234th).

Ken Stern of Thomaston, Maine -- who started the night in first place, but had no chance of winning because his national champion had already been eliminated and he was bound to be leapfrogged -- finishes fifth with 362 points. Jeff Vaca, a Cal alum and Elk Grove, California resident who would have won the pool if Stanford had beaten Tennessee tonight, instead finishes sixth with 362 points.

Complete standings here and after the jump.

UT vs. Tree

By Brendan Loy

It's Candace vs. Candice (and Smoky vs. The Tree) in the women's national championship game, and Jeff vs. Jeff in the Living Room Times women's pool, as March Madness officially ends tonight.

If the Tennessee Lady Vols, led by Candace Parker, beat the Stanford Drunken Trees Cardinal, led by Candice Wiggins, in tonight's title showdown, then Jeff Freeze, a 1992 Indiana alum, will win the 11th annual Times women's pool. If Stanford prevails, then Jeff Vaca, a 1982 Cal alum, will be the pool champion.

The game starts at 8:30 PM EST on ESPN. Gamecast here.

P.S. If Tennessee wins, there will be three contestants in my pools who correctly predicted both the men's and women's champions: Chris Aemisegger, Dan Port, and... Loyette! Heh. (If Stanford wins, there will be no such contestants.)

UPDATE: It's 37-29 Tennessee at halftime.

UPDATE 2: The Lady Vols win!

The final score was 64-48. I guess they used up all the drama in their Final Four win over LSU:

Paging William Shatner...

By Brendan Loy

Fun with Scrabulous:

Oh, come on, that should totally be a word. :)

Won't someone please think of the children!

By David K.

Homer is out, the Hoff is in down in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez recently demanded "The Simpsons" be pulled from its 11am timeslot because it has been deemed inappropriate for children.  It's replacement?  Baywatch.  Cause nothing says wholesome family entertainment like Pamela Anderson running down the beach with her life preservers along for the ride!

So was it some conservative t.v. watchdog group or upset parents who forced the change?  Nope, the station insists it had recieved no complaints about the show which has been a huge success for them in that timeslot, the highest viewership in that timeslot in the stations history.  And you thought New York was a nanny state!

I am offended by your offense

By Brendan Loy

Ladies and gentlemen, the game of "gotcha" that has characterized the 2008 presidential campaign to date has officially jumped the shark.

The levels of pique, outrage, faux-outrage, and hypersensitivity -- and the cynical manipulation of all of the above -- on all sides, and in all camps, have just gotten absolutely ridiculous. Enough already. Honestly.

P.S. I admit that I have been guilty of this myself once or twice. But, going forward, I promise to do my best not to play the "gotcha" game about trivial, non-substantive matters. If I break this vow, feel free to slap me.

P.P.S. Also, and perhaps more importantly: the fact that some police officers in this allegedly free country feel they have the right to fine people for "disorderly conduct" any time they "do something that alarms or disturbs another" -- even if the "alarming" or "disturbing" conduct is nothing more than arguably offensive speech -- is genuinely frightening. Ever heard of the First Amendment?

Would you pay $275...

By Brendan Loy

...for this seat?

Rock, Chalk, Ripoff!

UPDATE: Some commenters suggest the picture may be Rock, Chalk, Photoshopped.

UPDATE 2: Sports by Brooks, which originally published the image, says the image is Photoshopped, but not in a bad way. SbB says the photo is comprised of of "three images we put together that gives you the lovely panorama from section 330." In other words, it's Photoshopped, but it's also legit!

A good omen?

By Brendan Loy

Last night, Kansas won its first national championship since 1988. You know, it occurs to me, there's another storied national powerhouse that won its last national championship in 1988. Hmm... could the Jayhawks' return to glory be a good omen for the Irish?

One Shining Moment

By Brendan Loy

The Leprechaun made the cut!

Pretty decent, by recent years' standards. But I still object to the trend of cramming together all the buzzer-beaters and other assorted awesome shots in the musical bridge two-thirds of the way through the song. It cheapens each highlight to put them back-to-back-to-back like that, and it results in the first two verses feeling stuffed with "filler" -- too many shots of mascots, fans, cheerleaders, and slow-mo close-ups of balls and nets and players' and coaches' faces, and not enough, you know, basketball. Spread the love!

P.S. Don't get me wrong, I love the shots of mascots, cheerleaders and the like. But they have a place, and that place is during the intro music and maybe the first verse. Not the later parts of the song, unless they have some actual significance to the storyline of the tournament (like the shot of Stephen Curry's mom). For instance, the clip at the 1:23 mark of some guy dancing with the mascot of George Mason -- a team that was unceremoniously bounced in the first round -- is totally out of place. How about putting a basketball highlight there? (Although, that said, I have no objection to the shot of the USC Song Girls immediately afterward... hehe.)

And did I miss it, or is CDR's unforgettably awesome dunk over Kevin Love not in the highlight reel? WTF?? I could forgive the absence of Dorsey's bank-shot 3, since CBS obviously has limited time to finish editing the thing, but the absence of that Final Four highlight is inexcusable! Clearly, the song was mixed by a UCLA fan who wanted to spare Kevin Love's fragile emotions. ;)

And yes, I realize I think about this way too hard. :)

P.P.S. One last thing. What is it with Jim Nantz and his lame-o canned lines, so painfully obviously prepared in advance, announcing each team's championship? "Rock, Chalk, Championship" was actually not as bad as some of them, like "Leave it to Cleaves" (Michigan State 2000), "The 'Meka of college basketball is in Storrs, Connecticut" (UConn 2004, a punny reference to Emeka Okafor), "It started in March, ended in April, and belonged to May" (North Carolina 2005, an even punnier reference to Sean May), and of course, the worst of all, from 1999:

Folks, you gotta believe, because just when people say you can't, you can, and UConn has won the national championship!

Ugh. Would Nantz-Packer please just retire already?

The shot

By Brendan Loy

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

The Kansas Jayhawks defeated the Memphis Tigers 75-68 in OT to win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.