Strange Games, Expected Outcomes

The Elite Eight is set with only one game of eight won by the lower seed (Louisville).  Tonight the two double-digit seeds in the Midwest were tough outs.  We had our first overtime of the tournament.  One game saw almost 200 points scored by both teams.  And the night’s final game was a test of who tried harder to lose.

Game Thoughts

• I wear my sunglasses at night – So I can, so I can…watch the Baylor Bears and those awful highlighter yellow uniforms.  If you have a digital television (and who doesn’t these days), you might have also noticed how much the camera hates those unis.  Whether it provides a competitive advantage or not, Baylor dispatched the Xavier Musketeers for their trip to the South Region final.  And in other news in the South Region…
• UK wins in a track meet – This game was a statistician’s smorgasbord.  These two teams stuffed the stat sheets with everything from points to fouls, and there sure seemed to be a lot of fouls called on Indiana, but the Unibrow did spend 75% of the first half on the bench with two fouls himself.  Indiana lost, as expected, but IU fans have reason to rejoice.  Basketball is back in Indiana, and back for good.
• They might be giants – The descendants of Anak still roam the earth, and most of them play for North Carolina.  They were so big, Ohio had little choice but shoot threes all night.  And shoot threes they did – 32 to be exact, making 12.  Still, Ohio took this game to overtime, and were it not for a missed free throw just before UNC’s final possession, we might be talking about the upset of the tournament right now.
• Someone had to win this game…No matter how hard both teams tried to lose.  In an ugly, sloppy, bizarrely played low-scoring affair, Kansas nearly pulled off the ’92 Michigan Meltdown, committing 5 turnovers in the last 4 minutes and nearly giving the game away.  The Boneheaded Play Of the Day #1 award goes to Kansas’ Elijah Johnson for fouling 90%+ free throw shooter Scott Wood on a three point attempt with 1:56 to play and down 6.  NC State brings the game within one, but Leslie made a bizarre bottom-of-the-backboard blown layup on an offensive rebound.  After NC State goes to sleep on an inbound and gives Kansas an easy basket to go up three, State has one more possession to tie it up.  That’s when NC State made the Boneheaded Play of the Day #2 when a cross-court pass forced Scott Wood to step out of bounds, denying them even an opportunity to take a shot.  Strange, strange ending to a game nobody wanted to win.

Random Observations

• What’s up with the bizarre camera angles?  The ceiling cam.  The balcony cam.  The cross court cam.  The back court cam.  The fish eye cam.  The basket cam.  The tilted-court Bat Man cam?  The only thing missing is the Kapow!
• Every time I see that Chevy Volt commercial I ask myself if some Political Action Committee is holding cue cards for that guy.
• Your kitchen’s on fire!  The Allstate Mayhem dude continues to crack me up.
• Direct TV perfects the Non Sequitur.  I don’t know if it’s intended to be commentary on the general populace’s inability to think logically, but Direct TV’s step by step “proofs” that having cable causes everything from baldness to bankruptcy to exploding homes are textbook examples of the non sequitur.

Round Three Awards

Ok, I’m tired, so no clever introductions to the awards this time.  Enjoy.

• The History Is Written by the Winners award goes to Kentucky’s Doron Lamb, who said in the post-game interview, quote, “Last time they beat us [when] they made a lucky shot.”  Really?
• The Golden State Warriors Stuck in the Cellar award goes to Paul Sopke, who has never climbed higher than 519th place throughout the entire contest.
• The My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student award goes to Matt “My wife could beat your wife” Hand, a not-so-thinly-veiled swipe at Jonathan “My wife was #1 again” Hand.
• The Perfect Seven award goes to Teresa Gschwind, Don Townsend, and Phil Sadaka, all of whom picked seven of the Elite Eight with their original picks.  Even including re-picks, no one picked all eight games correctly.
• The Completely Random Hot 100 award goes to John “Slam Dunk” Wilcox, who gets an award simply because he is in sole possession of 100th place.
• The Trust Me, I’m a Doctor award, sponsored by Dr. Pepper, goes to Aidan “Dr. Bracketology” Gillig, currently in 66th place.
• The Perfect 10 award goes to Brock Zagel, who just seems to have an affinity for 10th place.
• The Lookout Below award goes to Dennis Kennedy, who went from a high of 19th place to a low of 484th.
• The Fat Lady? I Don’t Hear No Fat Lady award goes to Trevis Litherland, who climbed from dead last to 31st.
• Finally, the Same Old, Same Old award goes to ongoing contest leader Sam Brauen, who has put a little bit of space between himself and the field, with second place 11 points behind him.  It’s not enough, though, as the weekend’s games are worth 8 points each.

Ok, folks, time to recharge before the weekend’s regional finals determine the 2012 Final Four.  Until then, I am and will continue to be…

The Wizard of Whiteland

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