Hoops Du Jour

Ok, a quickie on March Madness. I didn't do all that bad last year:

Kansas over North Carolina (take that, Roy)
Texas over not-UCLA

Kansas over Texas

I screwed up with Texas, but KU did beat North Carolina (and how! Let's not forget that it was, at one point, 40-13). I didn't—and don't—respect Memphis, so I probably underestimate them again this year. (Although looking at my brackets, I seem to be wrong about this, as well!)

I'm not too much bigger on Louisville.

I won't bore with the details, but I've got two different brackets filled out. While this may be seen as hedging my bets, the one in bold is the one I'm going with:

Michigan State over Memphis
Oklahoma over Minnesota

Michigan State

This is the "Tubby gets his revenge" bracket, where all those losers in Kentucky realize he's a pretty damn good coach. Since I think the Big Ten is pretty useless in basketball, I went out on a limb here.

Memphis over Louisville
Pitt over North Carolina

Memphis over Pitt

This is the "safe bracket" pick. Boring. Since both are almost certainly wrong, well . . . .

My surprise teams, other than Minnesota going much farther than folks expect, are:

Missouri, Texas A & M, Florida State, and Butler.

While I wish the Jayhawks the best, and still have time to fill out another bracket that has them winning (beating, say, Michigan State and Louisville), I shan't be too greedy. I'll be satisfied by last year's Championship for awhile.

Enjoy the games, folks!

Previews of Coming Attractions

Baseball season is soon upon us, thank you Jesus. I told my friend Tim—one of the many who makes the term "long-suffering Cubs fan" redundant—that I would be blogging soon on the national pastime. "Soon" probably means next week.

In fact, I have a couple in mind. One, what's wrong with baseball, and, two, the more traditonal predictions.

Before those, I will have to address the burning issue of our time: the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and whether the Kansas Jayhawks are really cool, or, as my daughter says, "übercool."

In the meantime, I recently saw Rachel Ray was discussing "racy" pictures. I guess spoon-licking while smiling is "racy" for the Food Network. I guess, as well, that it's a slow news day—or so determined by the watchdogs of the press—when Rachel Ray is news. It reminded me of an earlier contretemps, so I thought I'd post this groovy picture.

I'll be back soon, and with content!