Reliving the Madness

I decided to wait until the start of March Madness to resume posting to The Peach Basket blog. For an opening weekend, the action lived up to expectations. Yahoo! has a great blog dedicated to college hoops called "The Dagger"; don't ask me why it is called "The Dagger", for that would be similar to asking me why I called this blog "The Peach Basket" o_O

After every weekend, I'll run down ten things I noticed from the previous weekend's action and try to add some colourful commentary. Speaking of commentary...

1. Charles Barkley: The outspoken former NBA all-star and basketball commentator moves from the comfortable, colourful of "Inside the NBA" to the family oriented, clean cut, sanitized world of college hoops. The input of Barkley, and fellow fish out of water commentator Kenny Smith, is alright but the lack of insight leaves me feeling like I did not learn anything new from watching. Greg Gumbel is at his annual best holding the show together; the experiment of four networks showing college basketball is a success, but the patient is in serious condition. Here is hoping it gets better.
2. Guess That School: Every year, there is a new school entering the national spotlight of the NCAA Basketball Championship that no casual basketball fan outside of the school's campus town knows about. I know where GONZAGA and BUTLER are, but what about DRAKE (I love the DRAKE!), XAVIER, and GEORGE MASON? I remember AMERICAN from last year; now that is a trick question ^_^
3. Did I Miss Something?: Apparently, the tournament started on Thursday with second round playoff action...If I got the memo, as it appears everyone else on Earth did, then I would know the four playoff games held prior to what I thought was the "first round proper" were part of the "first round proper". So, I was wrong...again o_O
4. I Just Like Saying The Name: Imagine you are Captain Kirk in the nexus in the 1996 film, Star Trek: Generations, and your pet dog from nine years previous walks in the door to your log cabin. In a guttural voice, you smile and call out his name: BUTLERRR! ^_^ Say it with me, BUTLERRR!
5. Pyramid Scheme: According to my younger sister, who helped my Mom pick teams for the office pool tournament, teams with more vowels than their opponents have a higher chance of winning. So, ARIZONA should beat TEXAS, and PITTSBURGH fans shouldn't get their hopes up...! Hey, what do you know? o_O
6. BUTLER: BUTLERRR! LOL :) !
7. Fashionistos, baby: Something the marketing geniuses in the NBA, and even the NHL, should take notice of: Nice Uniforms. No ridiculous piping coming and going from all angles, no multi-coloured garbs that detract from the action on the court, and a grand total of two (or three?) jerseys per team! Everything else is a FASHION CRIME!
8. Underdog stories: I love hearing about the underdog stories that come from obscurity, flirt with greatness, and then disappear into the night. It keeps you on your toes, and makes the game exciting ^_^ Any chance we could see another "Villanova def. Georgetown" again? I hope so... ^_^
9. Did He Jump or Was He Pushed?: I don't like commenting on coach firings in a sport I am not as comfortable with, in a level of play I only care about come March. I do know there was some improper conduct leading up to the tournament by former Tennessee Volunteers basketball coach Bruce Pearl, and he did apologize for it. However, the school chose to go in a new direction. From what I read of Ryan Greene's article in "The Dagger", Pearl did a good job with the school up until the incident; I wish him the best going forward.
10. Alright, One More Time: BUTLERRR!

I hope you enjoyed this look back ^_^ See you next week!