Muddy Sunday: Habitat 4 Humanity Mud Volleyball

Here at Ladies…, we don’t just like boys who play sports. We love to see girls get out and play too! Every year on Blue & Gold weekend Keenan Hall hosts a mud volleyball tournament in order to raise money for Habitat 4 Humanity. For all the flack ND receives (mostly deserved) from sports fans, the amount of philanthropic activities that go on around campus is just staggering. The hall staff in my dorm put together a team and though we did lose all 3 games, we had a blast. It makes a great lazy Sunday-watching-the-Cards/Cubs-game-post.

These are my Amazing Race viewing companions

(Courtney, me, Clare, Corinne and Kat)

NBA Hotties – Central Heating Edition

Hello.  Perhaps you do not know me.  Let me introduce myself.  My name is Jeff Foster and I am the center for the Indiana Pacers.  Tell me about you though, enough of about me.  Stare deep into my eyes, lean into me as I lean into you, and tell me everything.  It is just you and I in this locker room… how did such a smart and good looking cheerleader wander into the men’s locker room? No matter.  You’re here now and you are all I can focus on.

NHL Northwest All-Division Hottie Team: An Avalanche of Hot Guys

This post has been really educational for me. I decided that I like hockey (especially in person) awhile back when I went to one of Notre Dame’s hockey games. It was surprisingly fun and as I said, the smoothness and fluidity of the game coupled with the violence of the players is…..well, kinda hot. It’s a much sexier sport than I thought it would be. Also, it is full of hot guys. Like, CHOCK FULL of PILFs. Hee hee. I feel the need to single out the Colorado Avalanche. They make up 4 of my 6 All-Division Hottie Team and I could’ve included more but wanted to spread the wealth around. I’ve decided that this is a good enough reason as any to start rooting for them (I also like their home jerseys a lot). Also, as Sam Seaborn says, “Let’s forget about the fact that you’re coming a little late to the party and embrace the idea that you showed up at all.”

West Coast Conference HangovYAAAAAAWN

What’s that? The WCC Tournament ended on Monday? Pardon me…I must have dozed off. The top two teams, both with double byes, played for the championship and the higher-seeded team won? Criminy, I really need to invest in a Tivo setup.

Now, do you really want to see my rearranging and rehashing of the many fine wire stories covering the West Coast Conference Championship? Or would you rather read one story actually written by a journalist and then look at pictures of yawning animals?

Thought so.

Ivy League Hangover

Penn is your winner, again. They win most years, then go on to lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament. In the last 10 years of the NCAA tourney it’s been Princeton 4 times, Penn 6 times. The Ivy League representative is seeded anywhere from 11 to 15, but never dropping to a 16 seed. Ivy League rep, “So you’re saying there’s a chance!”

A couple tidbits on the Ivy League that I discovered while perusing the photos of their players: Brown has a forward who looks like Sloth from The Goonies. I thought about including a picture, but decided that would be mean. Daniel Trepanier (left) from Columbia is the White Michael Irvin. Finally, Princeton gets a special award today. The Ugliest Team I’ve Looked at Yet Because DAMN They All Appear To Have Herpes About The Face Award. Yikes. (Except Zach Woolridge, he’s pretty cute and appears to be herpes-free).

SEC Panty Raid: *hic*

The Southeastern Conference Tourney kicks off tomorrow night at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. If it weren’t my home conference, I might not even watch this year. The teams are big, slow, and mean, with the exceptions of Tennessee and Florida, the only two schools to crack the Top 25. Not what you’d call electrifying court presences.

So rather than discuss actual basketball, I thought I’d leave it up to the collective juju of each university to make my predictions. Let the games begin:

Big East Panty Raid

Tomorrow afternoon, a plethora of hotties from up and down the Eastern Seaboard will fill Madison Square Garden for the 25th annual Big East tournament. Only the top 12 teams get bids to the Big East tourney (sorry, USF, Seton Hall, Cincy and Rutgers) and the top four get automatic bids to the quarterfinals.

My Pitt Panthers have a three seed, a fact that makes me want to throw myself on the floor and writhe around in agony. The only thing stopping me from doing so is the fact that Notre Dame has a four seed. Ha!

Meet the Big East All-Hottie first team after the jump.

Big West Conference Panty Raid: Screwy Bracket, Screwy Names

The Big West Conference tournament is totally weird. The conference has 8 schools, which is the perfect number for a tournament, right? 8-4-2-Champion! But the Big West has decided to be all “different” and “edgy” and “West Coast.” On day one, they have the #8 seed play the #5 seed and the #7 seed play the #6 seed. On day two, the #3 seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the #4 seed plays the highest remaining seed. On day three, the #1 seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the #2 seed plays the highest remaining seed. Then on Sunday the two remaining teams enter Thunderdome armed only with squirt guns and kumquats. It’s so bizarre. Here’s a link to the bracket, if you’d like to check it out for yourself. For more panty-raidy goodness, follow me…

Missouri Valley Conference Hangover

Nothin’ special to see here and Bubble Teams around the country can breathe one more sigh of relief.  All 4 top seeds made the semi-finals and the top 2 seeds made the finals. Creighton made the finals easily; Missouri State could never really find an answer for Creighton’s shifting defenses. Southern Illinois, however, had a tougher time and only beat Bradley on a last-second bucket. It would not surprise me to see the MVC get 4 tournament bids now; a lot will depend on how the other tournaments around the country shake out.  If my review of the title match sounds like a live-blog, that’s cause it is.  I actually got to watch all of the game with no interruptions. 

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Panty Raid

The MAAC is a good league, with six out of their 10 teams having a winning record and a seventh having a .500 record in conference. The three remaining teams though have records with at least twice as many losses as wins. The overall winning record has a different story, as only the top four teams have winning records. What does that prove? That the MAAC is pretty much like any mid-major conference-one dominant team, a bunch of worthy competitors, and some pretty bad teams.

Southern Conference Panty Raid

The SoCon is one trippy league. Every year a new team makes it to the top to win the automatic bid and go to the NCAAs. Davidson is trying to nix that trend by winning the league for the second straight year. But they will have some competition as the top of the conference looks to be a crap shoot with the better teams beating each other. The rest of the league? Not so much as the other 7 teams all have a losing conference and overall record. That’s right, seven teams in a conference of 11 have losing records. Who needs the ACC when you can have the SoCon?

West Coast Conference Panty Raid

Except for San Diego, the institutions of the WCC don’t play football, so I can’t say I have much use for the conference in general, but being of Catholic extraction, I do feel obligated to dispense a few facts before commencing the sexytime stare-down.

• The 2007 WCC tournament begins on March 1 at the Chiles Center in Portland.
• Gonzaga holds the regular-season conference title after last night’s win over San Diego.
• However, several pundits (aww, the WCC has pundits! How droll!) point to Santa Clara’s margins of victory throughout the season and predict the Broncos will take the tournament trophy.
• San Francisco’s entire team has been disqualified from All-Conference Hottie Team contention due to the background in their roster headshots.
• Saint Mary’s roster boasts a player named Tron. Outstanding.

On with the meat parade:

The Ohio Valley Conference Panty Raid

How to sum up the Ohio Valley Conference? One good team, several okay teams (at least in conference), and a bunch of, well, suckey teams. Out of 11 teams, only 4 has an overall winning record. One team is exactly .500 overall. The rest? Well, they’re not so good. Austin Peay (16-4) is first in the conference, followed by Eastern Kentucky (13-7), Tennessee Tech (13-7), Murray State (13-7), and Samford (12-8). The other six teams have losing records both in conference and overall. Yeah, can we say mediocre?

The Big South Panty Raid

Here is the first thing you need to know about the Big South: Winthrop is good. Very good. So good that they are undefeated in conference play, won the conference outright with games to play, and will get to host the tournament on their home floor.

You read that right: They will get to host the post-season tournament on their floor because the Big South rewards the best play during the season by letting the top four teams host the first round on their home courts. The semifinals are held on the regular season champion’s floor and the final is at the home of the highest remaining seed. So it is at a team’s advantage to win the regular season, since they will pretty much get home court advantage as long as the winning continues.