We’re going literal this week: it’s Friday, and there are some fellows in the basketball world who are feeling (and looking) pretty good. Feel free to click the above for a soundtrack appropriate to the coming joy…
h/t Will Leitch
It is nearly time for the NCAA tournament, and by extension, the Ladies… Bracket Brawl (look for a sign up post late Sunday). Since my alma mater is on year three of Absolute Hopelessness Where Men’s Basketball Is Concerned*, I like to spend conference tourney week selecting underdogs to root for come March Madness Thursday. I keep hoping that one of these years I’ll pin my hopes on an underdog that becomes a true Cinderella, but as of yet, I always bank on teams of the play-valiantly-but-lose-the-first-weekend variety. So join me on my quest to find this year’s VCU, won’t you?
*It’s a real thing. And extra painful when, immediately before the onset of said Hopelessness, you had Blake Griffin.
I would be happy to see more of this from Singler, but YMMV.
I’m jumping my usual post day by about twelve hours just so I can remind you that you can still sign up for the Ladies… Bracket Brawl right up until tipoff Thursday (12:15 EST). Just click the link and enter the password: ladiesdotdotdot.
In the meantime, here’s a quick visual guide to some of the teams and storylines that will be occupying your TV over the next four days (at least).
Uh, that’s Duke over there. I miss that period when they flamed out in the early rounds every year. Kyle Singler (#12) is the latest in the Duke mold of Awesome Collegiate Players With No Real Chance At A Pro Career.
After watching the craziness that was the Boise State/Virginia Tech game this past Monday, I noticed that Boise State wasn’t hurting for any hotties on their squad. While I felt a bit dirty checking out the young(er) boys, I decided it would be a disservice to not share these boys with the Ladies… readers.
So take a trip with me to Boise, Idaho where potatoes and hotties abound.
Gordon Heyward thinks y'all should have bet on Butler.
I really suck at April Fools’ Day jokes. Besides, the way this NCAA tournament is playing out, we all look like big enough fools right now, no? I must say I’ve never been in a bracket pool where everyone’s champion lost before the final weekend of play, but that’s exactly what has happened to us Ladies and our dear readers. Perhaps we should have taken Butler more seriously.
Did you pick West Virginia? Did you know Darryl Bryant broke his foot and is out for the rest of the tourney? Do you still like that pick?
Wow. So, um, when I said it was the most wide-open tourney in years that was … possibly the only thing I’ve said about the tournament that’s actually been right so far. The Ladies … Bracket Brawl, like so many other tourney pools this year, is a collection of shredded brackets. The good news is, with everyone doing so poorly, everyone still has a chance to catch up. Well, I don’t, but the rest of you do. Let’s look at the standings after the first two rounds:
So in all my basketball watching (and non-watching in protest of my Terps losing), I have noticed quite a few hotties that, until the Tourney, have been flying under the radar – specifically the boys of Northern Iowa.
Now, I try not to ogle too much seeing as this year’s seniors were born in or around 1988. Yikes! Babies they are. But, hey, I’m a female, and I’ll look if I want. You know the quote by Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused? “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man,” Matt’s character, Wooderson, waxes poetic. “I get older, they stay the same age.” If only (most) women embraced that logic, except substitute “high school girls” for “men’s college basketball players”.
Unleash your inner cougar, or just plain ogle if you’re a youngin’, after the jump.
TCU's Jerry Hughes would like a word with you.
It’s kind of weird to be an alum of a “football school” in a year when said school is …not that good at football, or at least not as good as we usually are. For the first time in a while, no amount of computer poll weirdness, upsets, or bizarre tiebreakers are going to get my Sooners in a BCS bowl. And we’re not the only ones in this boat (Hi, USC!).
As of this week (and for most of the season, really), the top contenders for the BCS Championship game are Texas (hate, for obvious reasons), Florida (hate, for last year), and Alabama (hate, for Nick Saban). So I thought I’d look at the “underdogs” still in BCS contention — underdogs here not necessarily meaning a non BCS conference school, but a team that isn’t (or hasn’t been in the BCS era) a football power. And of course, there are pictures.
[Note: I had this big multi-category weekend preview post planned, and then I woke up Thursday with the dreaded “Flu-like symptoms.” Apologies for any fever-induced factual errors.]
Growing up in Oklahoma may not have made me a cowgirl, but it did make me a huge college football fan. Recent thefts of NBA franchises aside, college football is professional sports in Oklahoma (insert NCAA violations jokes here; it’s okay, I can take it). As long as it’s not my Sooners, however, nothing delights me more than a big time football program losing to a tiny I-AA (or FCS, as it’s now known) school. You know, like this:
This couldn’t possibly happen again, right? Surely, all of the Top 25 teams playing FCS (nope, still not used to it) will have spent the last week being warned by their coaches about underestimating their opponent, right?
I don’t think anybody, from the hardcore college hockey fans to the ones just watching it for the first time, expected the results that came about on Thursday night. Especially the first semi-final game. At least in how lopsided it was. You know what’s hot? Having a hat trick. Here’s to you, Nathan Gerbe.
Boston College beat North Dakota for the third straight time (damn) 6-1. Maybe there should be a moratorium on these two teams playing in the semi-finals for now on, ok? Can’t they be bracketed on opposite sides? Continue reading
Ladies... 