The On Deck Circle

This article has been submitted by Big Ten tournament attendee Trevor Smith.

TOURNEY SPECIAL HANGOVER HEADACHES: HEADLINES
There Are No Cinderellas? Tell that to Davidson: Something tells me the spectacular Stephen Curry is a Clipse fan: his performances did their best Pharrell impression this weekend by shouting, “Hello new world, here we come, On them Twinkie tres, with the hood screaming ‘We on our way!’” With 40 on Friday (30 after half) and 30 on Sunday (25 after half), he and the Wildcats took down mighty GTown and reminded us all why the tournament is the greatest sporting event in North America. Del’s son certainly got the memo about legends being born in March, and delivered performances that will echo in the lore of March Madness. As amazing as Davidson’s run is, the good people of Philadelphia would like to remind us that a lower seed is heading to the Sweet Sixteen: Villanova. Thank you to both sets of Wildcats (as well as Western Kentucky, Siena, Kansas State, etc.) for a weekend that surpassed all expectations, high as they were coming in.

Cali Commotion for UCLA, Standford Drama: First, Stanford’s Trent Johnson lost his mind (aren’t the Cardinal supposed to be the smartest school going?) only to be saved by the excellence of Brook Lopez’s baseline, going-to-hit-every-part-of-the-rim-before-it-drops-just-to-be-sure jumper with 1.3 seconds left. Not to be outdone, UCLA successfully closed out their 72nd nail-biter in the last month when Darren Collison saved the day for the Bruins with a running one-hander with 9 seconds left to put away a pesky Texas A&M team. Kevin Love showed the nation why he is the epitome of a marvelous college player and Westwood’s Finest lived to fight another day, even if it should scare the crap out of their supporters that it took such dramatics to put away a 9-seed.

Dynasty No More, the Dukies Look For Answers: Not to second guess Coach K, but perhaps he should have tried to get his troops to play an ounce of second-half team-defense, or key on superstar Joe Alexander, or get Gerald Henderson to drive the damned lane. All of these were absent Saturday, and accordingly so is Duke’s invite to the Sweet Sixteen. It is an amazing credit to their program that every year from 1997 through 2006 they had made it out of the tournament’s first weekend. But Krzyzewski’s team is now in a two-year drought, and even the Cheshire Cat thinks my grin looks ridiculous.

Roy Williams Showdown Looms for UNC, KU Roll: These two seem destined to meet in San Antonio, which would mark the first time they have paired up since Williams left Lawrence for the Carolina breeze in Chapel Hill. Both powerhouse Number 1 seeds pummeled their opponents in the Round of 32 and their meeting in two weeks time has the makings of an instant classic. Of course, I have now placed an Oliver Miller sized jinx on both teams and this dream match-up will give way to the non-brilliance that is Washington State v. Wisconsin.

RIP, My Bracket: Let’s just say that the hundreds of hours I’ve spent watching ball this winter went a long way…to making me look like an idiot. It’s hard to sell yourself as a roundball expert when your bracket defines ‘average.’ I still have three of my Final Four picks alive (UT, UNC, UCLA; GTown out), but things are looking Memphis Bleek right now.

Revised Elite Eight Picks: Davidson, Kansas, UNC, Louisville, Memphis, Texas, UCLA, Xavier
Revised Final Four Picks: Kansas, UNC, Texas, UCLA

ASPIRIN AND COFFEE: ODDS AND ENDS
Mavs Falling Apart: An 88-81 victory by Manu the Poo God and Los Spurs on Sunday dropped Dallas to 0-8 against teams above .500 since they acquired Jason Kidd. The Dirk-less Mavericks are now only a half a game up on G’State for the eighth and final spot in the West. The Mavs’ title hopes now appear bleaker than the chances of Flo Rida having a prolonged career; they have the stink of a team that has quit on its coach.

Alexander the Great: In a recent poll, 1 in 20 Americans knew that Russian superhero Alexander Ovechkin was hockey’s leading scorer with 60 goals and 104 points. The other 19 replied: “What’s this hockey thing you speak of?”

Eldrick’s Streak in Serious Trouble: Maybe he is human…or at least his programming can malfunction from time to time. Tiger is a daunting five strokes back of Geoff Ogilvy (17 under through nine holes) with only seven holes to play on Monday, a lot to ask for even from Mr. Gillette Fusion himself. This will mean nothing of course in a few weeks when TDubs dons his fifth green jacket.

Rolen Takes “Breaking In” Process with Jays Literally: The Jays Third Baseman broke his right middle finger during a fielding drill Sunday and it is likely that he’ll miss the season opener. In a related story, AJ Burnett has a hangnail and is out until July.

This article has been submitted by Big Ten tournament attendee Trevor Smith.