Connecticut doesn’t have their own channel this year.  They’re still seeded #1 and there is no reason at all that they can’t win another Championship.  On the other hand they only have to advance a single round to beat the boys and remind them who is the true Basketball power of Connecticut.

Realistically, wave goodbye to Prairie View.

All the action is on ESPN2, perhaps I’ll have a chance to wax poetic about the purity of the Women’s game later.

Today’s Contests

You can listen to it here.

You know, darts.  Just as much drinking as Bowling, don’t have to wear rented shoes.  Or worse yet own your own set and a ball and corrective glove.  Have a real set of darts.  You can hide them in your pocket.

Zoom, zoomy, zoom, zoom.

We’ll start slowly with the generally agreed upon facts before we get to the rabbit holes, the first of which is that Red Bull supports about 4 programs and dominates Formula One except for prestige where Scuderia Marlboro UPC is capo di tutti even though they haven’t had a fast car in years.  They have both abandoned the Formula One Teams Association to suck up to Bernie.  There are also the gritty Brits, McLaren, who have one driver who can pass (Hamilton) and one driver who’s easy on the equipment (Button) either of whom could handily win if McLaren weren’t so fucking stupid about their race management.

Everyone else is just filling the field.

Of the also-rans Mercedes and Renault were the closest to competitive, Mercedes has good buzz, Renault is now Lotus. Team Lotus is now Caterham F1 Team, Virgin is now Marussia.

Rubens Barrichello is driving IndyCars this year and my Dad is very excited about the season, says there are a lot of changes.  I think you know how I feel about hopeyness.  Bruno Senna is driving for Williams.

Bernie Ecclestone is still an enormous rich festering boil on the face of the universe but his pustulence seems minor in comparison to Rupert.  Bahrain is on because you just can’t have enough Shi’ite slaves piss in your drinks and then there is Perry’s Billion Dollar Boondoggle (let’s fire all the teachers) Hole in the Desert.  20 thrilling races in all lasting until November 25th.

Hopeyness

No more blown diffusers.  No, really.  We are so over that having replaced it with the next innovation in downforce.  Pirelli promises tires that wear out even quicker and the difference between them is even less.  Helium (which makes your air guns work 30% faster) is now banned.  You can unlap yourself under a safety car.

There are 15 more days of in season testing which can only improve things.  If you’re too tight fisted to test you deserve to be uncompetitive.

• Speed Racecast
• Formula One Site

Seeders did a good job.  Only 2 upsets at all in the first day of play.  UConn out and sanctioned.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted; hope you like that Throwball.

Yesterday Evening’s Results

Tom Izzo is not a troll.  I studied at MSU under Falcone who thought I was hopeless and was right about that.  They held the service for my Uncle who got decapitated in a plane crash at the chapel.  Funny story that, they mis-identified the body and sent it off with another family.  When they got down to the bits and pieces they had a rib and a scrap of lung.  “Did your husband smoke?”, they asked my Aunt.  “No.”  “Then this is not him.”  When they finally got it sorted out they didn’t want her to view the body which was kind of funny because she was a biochemist working in oncology and had seen any number of cadavers.

Tonight’s Action–

ps. Melbourne Qualifying @ 2 am.

Tear up those Cinderella brackets, yesterday afternoon was a good day for the seeds- no upsets at all.

Yesterday Afternoon’s Results

Today’s Afternoon Action

• Armando’s Overall Predictions
• Armando’s ‘Go ‘Gators’ Cheerleading

Hoyas–

The team name is derived from the mixed Greek and Latin chant, “Hoya Saxa,” (meaning “What Rocks”) which gained popularity at the school in the late nineteenth century.

I used to sing it a capella.

So the Huskies are a 9 seed and it’s better than they deserve.  Calhoun is very ill and they’re facing 2 years of sanctions.  And they’re leaving the Big East because a mediocre Throwball team is considered more important than an Arena filling Hoopies program.

Thanks for nothing UConn.

Did I mention defending National Champions?

This schedule looks impossible to me but I have 2 sources.

It blows my mind that Syracuse is a #1 seed.  They’re not that good.  Oh well, Beoheim will find a way to screw it up from the foul line just like he always does.  7 footer Fab Melo will not be playing AND they have the coveted trueTV spot.  Go Orange.

Last Night’s Results–

Round of 64 Day 1, Afternoon–

A better fight song–

I know it’s very bad form to quote one’s own reviews, but I would like to mention something that The New York Times said about me a year ago which I’ve always treasured — they said:

Mr. Lehrer’s muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste.

Now we come to that peculiar bit of americana known as the football fight song. I was reminded not too long ago, upon returning from my lesson with the scrabble pro at the Harvard Club in Boston, in the days of my undergraduacy long ago when there used to be these very long Saturday afternoons in the fall with nothing to do — the library was closed — just waiting around for the cocktail parties to begin. and on occasions like that, some of us used to wander over to the… I believe it was called the stadium, to see if anything might be going on over there. and one did come to realize that the football fight songs that one hears in comparable stadia have a tendency to be somewhat uncouth, and even violent, and that it would be refreshing, to say the least, to find one that was a bit more genteel. And here it is, dedicated to my own alma mater, and called Fight Fiercely, Harvard.

Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight! Demonstrate to them our skill.

Albeit they possess the might, nonetheless we have the will.

How we shall celebrate our victory, We shall invite the whole team up for tea (how jolly!)

Hurl that spheroid down the field, and fight, fight, fight!

Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight! Impress them with our prowess, do!

Oh, fellows, do not let the Crimson down, Be of stout heart and true.

Come on, chaps, fight for Harvard’s glorious name, Won’t it be peachy if we win the game? (oh, goody!)

Let’s try not to injure them, but fight, fight, fight! (let’s not be rough though)

And do fight fiercely! Fight, fight, fight!

So did anyone watch last night’s games?

Yup, that’s what I thought.  I do have the results-

Play In Day 1

Tonight’s contests-

Play In Day 2

I’ll be less available than usual as I have a meeting to attend.

Update: Nate Silver’s analysis.