Friday, March 23, 2012

The Elite and the Delete of NCAA hoops

Wow. Not so lowly 13 seed Ohio U came within a bobcat's whisker of putting North Carolina's tar heels into high heels, and whisking them right off the dance floor. Could you imagine the repercussions if that had happened? Definitely elite viewing for TV fans. As were most of the other games, but like the one mentioned above, in the end, the higher seed prevailed.

As for delete? I've been feeling this rant coming on, so please excuse me while I get it out of my system.

Uh oh, wait a second..... It could be that actor Alec Baldwin, who's been seen repeatedly during the tournament with those silly Capital One commercials, the intended object of my rant, has fallen to his death off a cliff in New Zealand while filming a movie.

Assuming the early reports from New Zealand are accurate, I didn't know that when I sat down to write this post, just a couple minutes ago. So nevermind about the delete thing. It was meant to be about the commercials, not someone's life, but it still wouldn't be appropriate if the sad news bears out to be indeed valid. Because no other news organizations have picked up on it yet, I hope this is just another cheap publicity stunt, or yet another internet prank. If so, I will be back with a vengeance regarding those commercials. For now, I just hope he's OK.

However, as they say, I suppose the show must go on. Some interesting match-ups loom in the regional finals. Syracuse/Ohio State should be a dandy. Same with North Carolina/Kansas. If Louisville keeps playing the way they have been, they should have little trouble dispatching Florida. And who's going to bet against Kentucky when they take on Baylor?

But anything can happen. A lower-seeded team could get hot shooting 3s while the favorite is merely average. A key player here or there could get in foul trouble, or worse yet, injured. You never know.

I dare say the juiciest potential match-up would be in the national semi-finals. Louisville vs Kentucky. Both teams from the same state. A rivalry as good as it gets. Head coaches Rick Pitino vs John Calipari, two high-profile guys that aren't exactly known to have life-long loyalties to any one city or team. Both make ridiculous salaries, both probably spend more on clothes than your average CEO or First Lady, and despite all the yelling, and racing up and down the sidelines during the course of a game -- neither ever has a hair out of place. And, of course, both are thought of amongst some as merely hired guns -- mercenaries. If it comes to that, in my opinion, it's too bad one of them has to win.

Idle thought -- Roy Williams, the head coach of North Carolina for the last few years, sure talks a lot different these days than he did when he was with Kansas. The southern drawl and all, y'all. Yet coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, just down the road from UNC, has been there forever, and still no southern accent. What's up with that?

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