Oh.... Oh boy.

Talk about the bracket

First off, congratulations, Minnesota, on your bid to the NIT! Good luck against La Salle.

Now, the important thing is... The NCAA Brackets. This year was odd. The NCAA selection committee was much more transparent win their selection process, and the various pundits seemed to have similar teams in the tournament across the board. And then, the brackets came out, and, well... wtf. Iona was the big surprise, making the dance, of course, but then there were others, like Texas, BYU, Memphis as an 8, Harvard as a 12. Colorado as an 11. I mean, you pit Harvard and Colorado against each other, Harvard wins 7/10.  Now, the individual brackets.

SOUTH
Favorite: Kentucky. Obviously as the 1 seed, I like the Wildcats. I think that this is the bracket that smart people will out think themselves and pick a lot of upsets early (South Dakota State vs Baylor, most notably) but the first round, at least, will by and large be chalk. That being said, A lot of the concern with this bracket is that higher seeds AREN'T as strong as their reputation suggests, and could be bumped early. Thus, Kentucky, the only legitimately very strong team in the South will move on, somewhat easily.

Sleeper: UNLV. Baylor and Duke have scuffled a bit lately. UNLV will be a feisty opponent for these teams. I could see them reaching the Elite 8.

Biggest first round upset: Honestly, the biggest upset I see after a quick look at the bracket is Xavier over Notre Dame.

WEST
Favorite: Memphis? This is a nutso bracket. Poorly seeded, strong upset possibilities, and a team that has been blowing away conference opponents in a multi-bid conference by double digits as an 8 seed. So, yes. If there is a shot for an 8 seed to make a deep run, it's certainly Memphis. I can't really get behind anyone else.

Sleeper: Florida. I like Florida, because they have star players. I could see the Gators making a deep run like Memphis, but they simply aren't as good as the Tigers. Another team I could see reaching the Elite 8 by upsetting a 2 seed.

Biggest first round upset: Regardless of what happens, look for big things from Long Beach State. I have them in the Sweet 16, though the first round should behave fairly well.

EAST
Favorite: Ohio State. Playing like a team on a mission right now. I really like OSU if they can have a weekend to get healthy against inferior opponents, I really like their chances next week.

Sleeper: Um... Wisconsin? Honestly, they are the lowest seeded team I have in the Sweet 16 this year from the east. Strong seeding here.

Biggest first round upset: Harvard over Vanderbilt. Harvard was seeded very low. Vanderbilt NEVER wins in the first round. Upset made in heaven.

MIDWEST
Favorite: North Carolina. Just an FYI, the Heels lost today because they weren't playing at full strength. They are really good. My pick for the winner of the whole thing.

Sleeper: Temple. By default. I don't think they are that good, but I have them playing Ohio in round 2.The right side of the bracket is much easier to figure for me.

Biggest first round upset: Michigan really struggles against size and away from Crisler Arena. This game will feature both things, big dudes and an arena in not Michigan. First round upsets will abound, but it will sort itself out in the second round, unlike certain other brackets I know.

Enjoy the Dance, everyone!

Who needs it more tonight?

Tonight, both the Gophers and Boilermakers play vital games on their Big Ten schedule. Both teams have slid a bit lately and both surely need a win tonight as they enter the home stretch of the regular season. Which team needs a win more tonight?  Neither team is very good, and at this point, the only thing I can think that separates the two teams is that Purdue beat Minnesota. But which team needs to win more tonight? I argue that it's Purdue.
Despite the fact that ESPN's Bracketology has Purdue in and Minnesota out currently, I would say that the truly "must win" game belongs to Purdue. It has more to do with the opponent each team is facing, rather than the situation for the team. Surely, Minnesota needs to win a couple of more games, but it would be hard to say that a loss to the #6 team in the country, Michigan State, would make things much worse for them.
On the other hand, Purdue is playing Nebraska. If the Boilermakers start losing to teams like Nebraska or Penn State down the stretch, they are in a much less enviable situation. The Gophers likely need to beat Michigan State, Indiana or Wisconsin (as well as their season finale against Nebraska) to remain in contention, but losing in any of those three games specifically doesn't make things worse for them. Purdue, on the other hand, would play themselves out of the tournament, perhaps, if they lose to Nebraska today.
I would say that would mean Purdue needs a win more this evening, right? Of course, I would prefer both teams win this evening. Let's hope both squads can make it happen.

So... What's great about this again?

I don't know if you remember this, but a few years back, the Great Alaska shootout was a really big deal. I remember Purdue started to make some noise, defeating Duke in the shootout in 2003. Those are big gets! In the years since, major conferences sent in quality teams to compete in the event. IT was one of the premier preseason tourneys, right up there with Maui and the preseason NIT.
This year, tonight's Championship game features Murray State and Southern Mississippi. I would like to say both teams have made impressive runs to get to this point. Murray State defeated Alaska-Anchorage and San Francsico. Southern Miss knocked off perennial stalwarts UC Irvine and New Mexico State. They couldn't even get the good team from New Mexico.
So what happened? It likely has something to do with a crush of tournaments that tend to have better sponsors and locations. If you had the choice of Puerto Rico or Anchorage in late November, what would you pick? But still, it's a nice little get for Murray State or Southern Miss if they win tonight.
I guess.

The Remastered Tournament's Remastered Results

Remember from before the Final Four, when I groused about how the NCAA Tournament doesn't really reward the top regular season teams? It was definitely borne out this year, when Connecticut, a team that finished 9th in conference, ended up winning the national title over a team that ended up second. I don't REALLY have a problem with a team that doesn't win their conference winning the national title, I have a problem with the path for those teams being just as easy as the teams that had dominant regular seasons.
Anyways, I created the tournament and ran it to completion, and there were some surprises and some that weren't as terribly surprising. The unsurprising: The Final Four of the primary, regular season champion tournament was Kansas vs Florida and Ohio State vs BYU, 4 of the top 5 seeds. One of the Final Four ended up in the Final Four in the secondary tournament as well, as Kansas squared off against Notre Dame, Kentucky and Louisville. No real major upsets getting all the way through, though Louisville (who lost to Morehead State in the real tournament in round one) was the 17th rated team in the RPI and was 4th team in the Big East. Naturally, they ended up winning the secondary tournament to face Ohio State, the eventual champions of the primary.
The path to get there shows me that what happened was exactly what I wanted to happen. Ohio State definitely had the easier path, iwth victories over Bethune Cookman, Belmont, Coastal Carolina, BYU and Kansas. Louisville had a longer and perhaps more challenging path, with victories against Iona, Oakland, Alabama, Belmont, Purdue, Kentucky, and Kansas. That is an absolutely grueling path, and if they would beat Ohio State, you would be hard pressed to argue that they didn't earn the national championship.
Of course, they did. Much to my surprise, it was the Louisville Cardinals who ended up winning the top prize in my remastered tournament. I like this idea, and whether you like it or not, I'm going to try it again next year.

The revamped NCAA tournament: Secondary bracket

As I mentioned yesterday, the new NCAA tournament would have a primary bracket, which I highlighted yesterday, and a secondary bracket, which was to be drawn mostly at random. By "mostly at random" I meant this: the highest 34 teams in terms of RPI would be drawn against the lowest 34 (and re drawn depending upon who was still available in future rounds). The first team listed was the seeded team, the second was the unseeded team in the drawing I did last night:
Wichita State vs Oral Roberts, Memphis vs Duquesne, Richmond vs New Mexico, UNLV vs Jacksonville, Texas vs Western Michigan, Butler vs Idaho, VCU vs San Francisco, Syracuse vs Morehead State, Harvard vs Robert Morris, Michigan vs Boise State, Connecticut vs Alabama, Kansas State vs UC-Santa Barbara, Kentucky vs Akron, UCLA vs UNC-Asheville, Cleveland State vs Indiana State, Louisville vs Iona, Purdue vs American, Illinois vs East Tennessee, State, Notre Dame vs Tulsa, Florida State vs Yale, Temple vs Wofford, Missouri vs Montana, Duke vs Texas-San Antonio, Gonzaga vs USC, San Diego State vs St. Peter's, Texas A&M vs Hofstra, Wisconsin vs North Dakota, Clemson vs Boston U., Old Dominion vs Virginia Tech, Georgia vs Alabama State, Washington vs Western Carolina, Vanderbilt vs Hampton, UTEP vs Quinnipiac, Colorado State vs Arkansas- Little Rock.

The Gonzaga-USC game had the smallest gap between the seeded and unseeded RPIs. I'll check back in when I have this simmed down to a sweet 16 of some sort.In the mean time, I'll talk about baseball tomorrow, probably.

Victoria Times Bracketology

As is my custom when Tournament time approaches, I have put together a bit of bracketology. Keep in mind, I don't use even close to the same formula the actual bracket pickers use, and I'm no Joe Lunardi (I put this together in an hour and a half, he is paid handsomely to make this his life). The added 4 teams to this tournament led to a few alterations to the seeding. The 11 teams from the Big East also are a pain. Anyways, here are the seeds. Overall #1 is Kansas, then Ohio State, Duke and BYU.
Southwest (San Antonio) - 1 Kansas vs 16 (Florida Atlantic vs Bethune Cookman), 8 Illinois vs 9 Temple, 5 Utah State vs 12 Georgia, 4 Louisville vs 13 Harvard, 3 Georgetown vs 14 Long Beach State, 6 Missouri vs 11 UCLA, 7 West Virginia vs 10 St. Mary's, 2 Purdue vs 15 Coastal Carolina.
East (Newark) - 1 Ohio State vs 16 (McNeese St. vs Texas Southern) 8 Kansas State vs 9 Belmont, 5 Florida vs 12 Memphis, 4 Syracuse vs 13 Missouri State, 3 Wisconsin vs 14 Fairfield, 6 St. John's vs 11 Florida State, 7 Washington vs 10 UAB, 2 San Diego State vs 15 Kent State
Southeast (New Orleans) - 1 Duke vs 16 Murray State, 8 Texas A&M vs 9 Michigan State, 5 Villanova vs 12 (Clemson vs Butler) 4 Kentucky vs 13 Oakland, 3 North Carolina vs 14 Vermont, 6 Connecticut vs 11 Minnesota, 7 UNLV vs 10 Marquette, 2 Texas vs 15 Montana
West (Anaheim) 1 BYU vs 16 Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 8 Cincinnati vs 9 Old Dominion, 5 Vanderbilt vs 12 (Penn State vs Maryland) 4 Notre Dame vs 13 Charleston, 3 Arizona 14 Bucknell, 6 George Mason vs 11 Virginia Tech, 7 Xavier vs 11 Tennessee, 2 Pittsburgh vs 15 Long Island

Kind of a weird tournament. Three teams from Wisconsin? And right now, many are saying the Big Ten might get 5, but using my formula, they get seven. Interesting what happens when people take objective looks at the data, isn't it?

The best result possible

Well, for me, anyways. I am talking about the Minnesota - Purdue game that played this afternoon. It couldn't have turned out better by my estimation, with Purdue winning by 12, 73-61.
As a fan of both teams, I want what is best for both teams. In this case, Purdue stood to win the most by winning this game. With Michigan State falling apart lately, and Purdue's huge loss to Ohio State, Purdue suddenly had no big wins. They needed to get things back on track, and playing a Minnesota team (ranked in the top 20) was just the ticket.
As for Minnesota, they were in exactly the opposite boat. They have been playing everyone strong, including Northwestern who the beat on Wednesday. In addition, they are recently without Al Nolen, who broke his foot. The Gophers can certainly be forgiven a road conference loss in such circumstances. And having watched them, I know they can overcome the injury eventually.
So, I guess where I am going with all this is that Purdue winning, and winning by 10+ proved Purdue's strength and didn't really hurt Minnesota.

Oh good, we're ready to say the Big Ten sucks again

Even though Minnesota beat North Carolina, and Ohio State has absolutely destroyed everyone they have played, I think we are already getting to the point in the season where every pundit in the land starts doubting the Big Ten's chops. It happens every year, and then the Big Dance comes along and the Big Ten "surprises" by getting at least 1 team in the Final Four and usually about 3-4 teams to the Sweet 16. But still, they play a methodical game, and each and every bad loss is seized upon as a sign that the Big Ten is an impossibly bad major conference.
Well, in the past week, we have seen Purdue take a bad loss to Richmond (they must be bad since Robbie Hummel is out! You know, just like he was last year when they made it t to the Sweet 16), Minnesota lost to Virginia (the UNC/West Virginia wins must have been the flukes) and Wisconsin lost in the finals of their early season tournament and Illinois and Michigan State only got third place in their tournament games. Yes, let's all start crapping on the Big Ten, and then talk about how weak the conference is when in fact it's simply very competitive.
Last year, the Big Ten won the ACC/Big Ten challenge, which is underway already (with Minnesota's loss to Virginia), and it must have been a down year for the ACC, since the Big Ten still garnered little respect from basketball pundits. How many games does the Big Ten have to win this year to gain a little love? Probably all of them.

The issue with payed college athletes

For the past couple of years, really since the advent of the blogger era, one of the common themes from bloggers is that college athletes should be paid. The two sports that they point to, basketball and especially football, make a lot of money for colleges across the country, and there is a growing segment of the population that is lobbying for athletes to be paid.
Let's run down the traditional arguments against a paid college athlete: It defeats the purpose of amateurism. College athletes ARE paid, with scholarships other students would love to have, as well as the showcase for their future profession, should they go into professional sports, or even the name recognition that will open doors for them in the short term. The money from these proceeds go back into the school and their athletic funds, not some wealthy business owner.
But still, those arguments aren't enough, and the proponents of additional salary for college athletes continue to plead their case. Colleges make so much money off of football that the athletes deserve a piece of the pie. This would be a more legitimate argument if this was the case across the board.
In an era where people complain about Boise State and TCU not getting a chance, what do you think would happen when the SEC or Big Ten could start paying their students off their profits? It would ruin competitive balance, as Boise and TCU and all other schools fail to match larger conference payrolls. The reason that we need to hold off on paying athletes, aside from the reasons I illustrated two paragraphs ago, is that in order to keep things fair for all 120 teams in FBS, or the 300+ teams in Division 1 college basketball, you can't pay the top athletes, because not every school would be able to do so.

Villanova: Your national Champions!

On the heels of the NCAA determining that they will only add three teams to their set up, I finally got around to finishing up my simulation of the 347 team (all of the teams, actually) basketball tournament, where seeding was based on RPI and etc. I used Whatifsports as usual, and played the first two rounds at the higher seed, with all other games at a neutral site. I already spoiled the end, but I will gladly tell you that the elite 8 consisted of Kansas, Murray State, Virginia, Florida State, Mississippi, Villanova (the eventual winner, of course), Texas and Syracuse, with Kansas, Florida State, Villanova and Texas making the final four.In the end, Villanova defeated Kansas 77-71, Never mind that this was a contest between two teams who, in the real world, both lost in the second round. Actually, none of the final four teams made it out of the second round. Syracuse was the only elite 8 team that even made it to the Sweet 16 in the real world.
To get to their national simulated championship, the Wildcats had to square off with and defeat, in order: Louisiana-Lafayette, Vermont, Illinois, Richmond, Wake Forest, Mississippi, Florida State and Kansas. That particularly grueling path saw them take on 5 teams that actually made the dance, which is certainly more than I had guessed.So congratulations Villanova, Whatifsports thinks you are good for something. Of course, this also proves that more teams in a tournament almost never means you get a better team as the champion. But let's not spoil the moment.

A 347 team tournament update

 As previously established, I am completely insane. I set out to simulate a 347 team tournament, all the teams in division 1 basketball seeded exclusively on their RPI. The lowest 182 teams had a "Play in" game, if you will, to pare it down to 256 and a more traditional format. I've now simulated it down to 64, your standard tournament bracket (using whatifsports, of course). Here are a few stats:
- The highest seed eliminated so far is Kentucky who lost to Virginia.
- The lowest seed remaining is the Jacksonville State Gamecocks of the Ohio Valley conference, one of three teams from that conference in the final 64.
- Speaking of Jacksonville State, they are one of 7 teams (11% of the remaining field) that played one of those opening round games.
- Still speaking of Jacksonville State, they are a member of a group of 30 teams that didn't make the real tournament, but are members of this pared down group.
- 29 teams did not come from BCS conferences. Mid majors the WCC and Horizon league had 4 and 3 teams each. The A-10 had 4 as well. Other conferences with bids: Big Sky (2), CAA (3), MWC (3), OVC (3), Southland (1), C-USA (1), MAAC (1) WAC (1) MVC (1) Southern (2) Ivy (1)

That said, here is a look at the tournament brackets. Never mind the attributed seeds, that's just where they played into with no reseeding. I lefts the seeds so I would know where to put them when I put this into bracket form.  Without further ado, here is the poorly put together, terrible looking bracket for the remaining 64 teams of this 347 team experiment. Fill out yours TODAY!

1	Kansas				Virginia	1
16	Connecticut				Arizona State	16
8	Oklahoma State				Montana	8
9	Arizona				Clemson	9
4	Purdue				Pittsburgh	4
13	Wright State				Portland	13
5	Hofstra				Drexel	5
12	UNLV				Loyola Marymount	12
6	Maryland				Brigham Young	6
11	Jacksonville State				Florida State	11
3	Colorado				New Mexico	3
14	Murray State				Northeastern	14
7	Vanderbilt				Ohio State	7
10	Rhode Island				Detroit	10
2	UCLA				Georgetown	2
15	Florida				Sam Houston State	15
1	West Virginia				Duke	1
16	Marshall				Mississippi	16
8	Texas				Siena	8
9	Gonzaga				LSU	9
4	Texas A&M				Tennessee	4
13	Charlotte				San Francisco	13
5	California				Xavier	5
12	Morehead State				Idaho	12
6	Wisconsin				Richmond	6
11	Washington State				Weber State	11
3	Butler				Villanova	3
14	Illinois State				Illinois	14
7	Harvard				Appalachian State	7
10	Charleston				Wake Forest	10
2	Syracuse				Kansas State	2
15	Minnesota				Virginia Tech	15

OK So maybe there is an East Coast Bias

At the beginning of the tournament, the Big East and the Atlantic Ten were all conferences to watch. The WCC and the Pac 10 were poorly regarded (even by this site). So far in the tournament, of the 8 teams from the Big East, we are left with only three teams. The A-10 is left with 1 of their three remaining teams after Richmond and Temple were upset. Meanwhile, bot the Pac-10 and WCC are 6-0 in the Dance. So, uh, our bad.
The only thing assuring that an A-10/Big East team will remain at the end of this round is the fact that Xavier is playing Pitt. Meanwhile, Missouri could be West Virginia and Gonzaga could top Syracuse. In fact, the way things are going... Gonzaga WILL beat Syracuse. I'm not one to ignore trends.

Hey, let's just get ridiculous

The past two days have been a blast, which explains why I am so far behind tonight in getting something up and readable on the interwebs. I've been enjoying the basketball way too much. Basketball + tournaments are just way to much fun. No wonder why the NCAA wants to expand to more teams.
Taking it to the logical conclusion, how fun would a 347 team tournament game be? Have 91 play in games, then go with a 256 team game after that. Just seed it based on RPI or something. It would be crazy, of course, and nobody would truly enjoy the madness because everyone would get a shot.
That's why it would need to be simulated. Yeah I'm doing that. I'll let you know how it all shakes out. I'm lame.

More in depth bracket talk

This year I am sticking with two brackets. One involves my gut, the other a bit more math. Below, I will break down the bracket and give you my gut reaction and what the math says. "Sleepers" simply means first round upset.

MIDWEST:
Sleepers:
Gut - Georgia Tech
Math: Georgia Tech, Northern Iowa
E8
Gut - Kansas over Georgetown
Math: Kansas over Georgetown

The Midwest was almost exactly the same in both brackets. I did have Georgia Tech and Maryland in the S16 with my gut, and Michigan State and Ohio State with the math.

WEST
Sleepers:
Gut - Florida State, UTEP, Florida
Math - UTEP
E8
Gut - Pitt over Vanderbilt
Math - BYU over Syracuse

This is the toughest to pick. God bless you if you do well here. In the math, as you can see, BYU made a run all the way to the Final Four, with UTEP in the Sweet 16. I have FSU beating Syracuse if they make it that far. I think if Syracuse gets out of the first weekend, then they will be tough to stop.

EAST
Sleepers
Gut - Wofford, Washington, Missouri
Math - Washington, Missouri
E8
Gut - Kentucky over New Mexico
Math - Kentucky over New Mexico

Don't sleep on New Mexico. As you can see by the math putting BYU in the Final Four, that's a tough conference, the WAC. Also, Marquette is one of the most overseeded teams in the tournament.

SOUTH
Sleepers
Gut - Louisville, Utah State, Old Dominion
Math - Siena, Old Dominion
E8
Gut - Baylor over Louisville
Math - Duke over Villanova

Wow, is this one tough too. According to my calculations, Old Dominion should have actually been seeded HIGHER than Notre Dame. Amazing.  My gut has Purdue simply squaring off against some easy competition and losing to a Louisville team because of the "Purdue turns to crap every third game" pattern. Louisville is also a bad matchup for Duke, and Siena is egregiously underseeded.

In the Final Four, I picked Kentucky over Kansas every time, because, well, that's just what I think (and what the math thinks) will happen. Good luck, and happy bracketeering!

Initial NCAA Gut reactions

1) Kentucky will win. They have all the requirements. Experienced coach, all star player (who even has an idiotic dance!) and a persistence atop the polls this year.

2) Lowest seeded Round 1 winner: 13 seed Woffoad. Lowest seeded Round 2 winner: Georgia Tech

3) Final Four: Kentucky, Kansas, Pitt and Baylor (?!) I think there will be revisions.

4) So many people have talked about Siena beating Purdue, I'm to the point that I am back on the "Purdue wins easily" bandwagon.

More well thought out proclamations coming on Tuesday. Just wait. And don't fill out your brackets before then.

Projecting the bracket

What did I do late on a Saturday night? Why, I projected the NCAA bracket, of course. Without further ado, using my own special formula, here is my projected bracket: (this projects Akron as the winner of the MAC, which means that, miraculaously, Kent State slips in as an at large) The last 8 out, in Lunardi style, were Mississippi State, Texas Tech, Illinois, Wichita State, St. Mary's, Arizona State, Charlotte and Seton Hall. Let's see if this copy paste's like I want it to. The city inside every pair of games would be where the games are played in the first 2 rounds

	MIDWEST		EAST
1	Kansas		Kentucky	1
16	Jackson State/Lehigh		Robert Morris	16
	Oklahoma City		Milwaukee
8	California		UTEP	8
9	UAB		Missouri	9
5	Wisconsin		Michigan State	5
12	Connecticut		Georgia Tech	12
	Spokane		Spokane
4	Vanderbilt		BYU	4
13	Kent State		Marquette	13
3	New Mexico		Butler	3
14	Akron		Woffod	14
	San jose		San Jose
6	Texas		Texas A&M	6
11	Cornell		UNLV	11
7	Richmond		Xavier	7
10	Florida State		Clemson	10
	Buffalo		Providence
2	West Virginia		Villanova	2
15	UC Santa Barbara		Morgan State	15
	WEST		SOUTH
1	Purdue		Syracuse	1
16	Stony Brook		North Texas	16
	Milwaukee		Buffalo
8	Wake Forest		Virginia Tech	8
9	Louisville		Rhode Island	9
5	Baylor		Tennessee	5
12	Florida		Old Dominion	12
	New Orleans		New Orleans
4	Temple		Ohio State	4
13	Oakland		Murray State	13
3	Pittsburgh		Georgetown	3
14	Weber State		Sam Houston State	14
	Jacksonville		Providence
6	Gonzaga		Northern Iowa	6
11	Dayton		Siena	11
7	Utah State		Maryland	7
10	Oklahoma State		San Diego State	10
	Jacksonville		Oklahoma State
2	Duke		Kansas State	2
15	Coastal Carolina		Jacksonville	15

 

That wasn't so bad. Share your thoughts in the comments.

NCAA gut feelings

Lets say, for a minute, that the NCAA tournament is laid out in a similar fashion to what is seen from Joe Lunardi. Well, maybe not exactly like Joe Lunardi, but his team.

1) Ohio State is a Final Four team, thanks in large part to Evan Turner, a player that can take over a game.

2) The WAC is deceptively athletic, and it's champion will, if not win their 1st round match up, they will put quite the scare into their opponent. In Lunardi's game, it's Utah State vs Gonzaga. Sure win for USU.

3) The WCC is almost comically overrated, on that same token. Gonzaga or St. Mary's are losers waiting to happen.

4) It really depends on who Murray State plays. If they play a major conference opponent, they are done. If not, they could score an upset. IF they get in the tournament.

5) Northeastern, if they win the CAA is a good upset candidate as well, given their ability to hit from deep. Always key in the tournament.

6) Don't be fooled by middling major conference teams who have home wins against strong teams or make runs in their tournaments to get in. It happened with Georgia a few years ago. I think maybe Louisville,

Those are my 6 points to look for when filling out your brackets. Maybe I'll do a day one live blog or something.

Time to focus on the positive

You could say that it's a good year already for Purdue fans. I suppose that's true if you aren't a Colts fan. Back in West Lafayette, the local CBS affiliate would show Chargers games simply because of Drew Brees, favorite son of the Boilermakers. Well, I like Brees, but truth be told, I'm a Colts fan and really was never a fan of Purdue until AFTER I got there. Just because I am a fan now doesn't mean I have to adopt their history. I grew up a Gophers fan and saw Purdue nip Minnesota in pretty much every sport, every year.
Well, of course, like a good student/alumnus, I am now black and gold blooded, and their every victory brings me joy and every defeat leaves me empty. The good news is, after the Indianapolis loss, I get to turn to college basketball, which is really a truer love for me than almost any sport.
All of that is a wordy introduction into the fact that Purdue is in a virtual 4 way logjam at the top of the Big Ten. They beat Michigan State last night in East Lansing in convincing fashion. Suck it, Bennett.

While you have been watching football....

NCAA basketball appears to have started. I honestly can't think of anything relevant to add to this, because the season snuck up on me so. No word if I will be able to think of other excuses later in the season...