Retraction

On Saturday, March 21st we reported that the Arizona Wildcats proved that they deserved to be in the Tournament by beating the Runnin' Utes. It was brought to our attention, by Louisville's 103-64 trouncing of Arizona, that Arizona was given a berth by reflex and didn't actually deserve to be there. We regret this mistake.

Reduked to nothing

You hate Duke.

And if you're thinking, "No I don't", then you're lying. Or at least part of you is lying. All of us have held a deeply embedded hatred for the Bluedevils at one time or another. Why? To us, they are the real-life equivalent of the Socs, the silver-spooned rivals of the Greasers. Remember how much you hated that preppy team from the Sandlot? The one that even Scotty Smalls took deep? Yeah yeah, I thought you did--that's Duke. When we think of Duke, players like Shane Battier, J.J. Redick, Grant Hill, and Bobby Hurley come to mind. Piano playing trust fund babies who just happened to be ballers; hence, they went to Duke instead of Harvard.

See? You hate Duke.

The question is, should you and I even care that Duke is fading faster than Kevin Costner's English accent in Robin Hood? The answer is, Yes. College basketball is obviously a cut-throat business mired with slithering agents, ankle-dangling sponsors, and two-faced coaches. Natural selection has brought with it the end of many successful programs--do you really think Indiana fired Bob Knight because of his temper?

So why should we care? One simple word: Krzyzewski.

See, while you and I hate Duke, we love Coach K. We love his quiet, humble nature; we love that his players gradaute (even though we despise them personally); we love that he is the antithesis of his mentor, Bobby Knight; we love that he resurrected TEAM USA; we love that he went to West Point.

He's the very symbol of college basketball. And for all he's done for the game, Coach K is losing his corner of the market as the smart-player's choice for the college game. Younger, hotter coaches like Jay Wright, Jamie Dixon, and Sean Miller are showing that not only can they recruit the Mike Dunleavy Jr.s of the world, they can also get ballers with first-name-prefixes like "La"or "Tre". Outside of Corey Maggette, Coach K hasn't been interested in or able to land top-flight recruits like Tyreke Evans or Hasheem Thabeet. Coach K's bench looks more like a BYU college ward's starting five than what a top 5 program's bench should look like. This didn't matter until the last few years, when every major D-1 school became frantically worried about winning every single year. This Wall Street-esque frenzy brought with it young coaches like Wright, Dixon, and Miller. Suddenly the recruits that Coach K had on lock were presented with multiple options from upstart programs willing to do anything to become perennial winners (outside of the last five years, when was the last time Pitt and Xavier were both good in the same year?).

Now, will Duke come back? Sure. D-1 college hoops is cyclical, so while these newer, hotter programs are on top now, look for the Bluedevils to make a comeback soon. And as sour as that makes me feel, at least it means that Coach K will be on top again too.

Arizona (12) vs. Utah (5)

This is the first time all season that I have actually sat down and watched a basketball game. I figured that with the longest running streak of appearances in the Tourney (25), I should probably show the Wildcats some love. Plus, the Beach Boys always told me: Be true to your school, just like you would to your girl or guy. The Beach Boys, however, didn't say anything about letting your 5-year old son stay up until 10:30 being true to your school with you because I think the Beach Boys knew that any 5-year old would be too tired to function the following day. Where were you on that one Beach Boys? I could have used the heads up.

I was interested to see how my current school (Utah) would stand up against MY school (Arizona).

Arizona came out with a full-court press that Utah didn't know what to do with. The Wildcats jumped out to an early 3-point lead. Utah responded by tying the game at 3, at which point Arizona took over the game and lead by an average of 10 points for the rest of the game. The top scorers in the contest were Nic Wise with 29 points (21 in the second half), and Chase Budinger with 20 points. Jordan Hill dominated the boards with 13 rebounds. Nic Wise also lead the 'Cats with the most turnovers (5). I think at least 3 of his turnovers were made in an attempt to get Utah's center, Luke Nevill, to foul out. Nevill had 4 fouls for the better part of the second half but he never fouled out. Arizona won the game 71-84.

I'm excited that Arizona is moving on to the next round and I'm excited that Wake Forest was upset by the 13th seeded Cleveland State. I think that gives Arizona a good chance of getting into the Sweet 16. I hope they go far. Everyone said they didn't deserve to be in the Tournament but after they way they man-handled Utah last night, I think they've proven otherwise.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Yeah, it's still on there. Don't be afraid.

Sexy People

Please, stop whatever you're doing and visit this site*.

Here are a few samples of what you'll find.

*You may want to put on some adult pampers, or at the very least, line your chair with newspaper.

Yeah, I said it.

I like dancing. It's not that I like to dance. I actually hate to dance. And it's not that I like just any ol' kind of dance either. I'm talking about America's Best Dance Crew. We're talking about a show where guys do back flips six feet in the air. Head spins, barrel rolls, air flairs (it's actually a break-dance fighting move), windmills, and at least two-dozen other moves that I don't know the names of, are all staples on this show.The season finale is this Thursday, March 5th. Quest Crew will be going up against the Beat Freaks to see who the best crew in America is. My vote is for Quest Crew espcially since they busted out some Jazz piano as part of their routine. Check out the hip-hop decathlon on MTV's website to see what I'm talking about. Don't think too much about the "decathlon" in the title, I haven't been able to find 10 of anything. I just attribute that to MTV assuming its audience doesn't know anything. I think the show is starting to outgrow its MTV audience.

After watching for the last two seasons, there is no reason that this show couldn't make it on network TV. I wouldn't mind seeing it replace American Idol.