Fin

So there are folks like @rushthecourt and @ballinisahabit who have been covering college hoops proficiently and professionally. I have been honored to call them along with several others "blog mates" even though I'm not as technically knowledgeable and my modus operandi has always been to be as stupid silly as possible when talking about basketball. I remember during Bracket Busters week many years ago I was watching the Memphis/Louisville game. All Darius Washington had to do is make his foul shots and the Tigers would be in the Tournament. When Washington missed his final shot and broke down on the court I wanted to talk to someone, anyone about it. That got me started blogging. A few years later I approached some bloggers to do a weekly blogpoll. I only expected about 5 of them to participate but imagine my surprise when over 20 bloggers signed up. Then advertisers started e-mailing and began PAYING me for my blog. Then other bloggers began asking me questions and inviting me out to events. Then With Leather mentioned me, then Sports Illustrated came calling... Those were the heydays of my blogging experience and I thought (and wished) that it would never end.

Well, I guess all things good and bad do come to an end. So it is with some sadness I announce that I will not be continuing this endeavor going forward. There are a few reasons for this:

1) Work. For those who don't know I work in the Finance/Investment arena and the way the market has been and with my new responsibilities of managing even more money my work life has become all consuming.

2) 11 month old son. He's been kicking my ass. The time I do not spend at work is devoted to him. We can always sit down and watch college hoops but there is a big difference between watching and writing. As soon as my laptop is out he takes it and jumps on it. I don't know how other bloggers with kids can do it.

3) General malaise. I just don't have the same passion to write anymore, probably due to the first two issues.

So what I found out is that Twitter is more convenient for me to comment on basketball (or football or politics or cooking). That is where I will be found from now on. I may post here occasionally but don't expect it.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me throughout the years, like my West Coast posse! It's been real, it's been fun. And...

GO AZTECS

The Official March to Madness 2010-2011 Preseason Poll

1) Michigan State
2) Duke
3) Pittsburgh
4) Baylor
5) Villanova
6) West Virginia
7) Kansas State
8) Kansas
9) Syracuse
10) Illinois
11) Temple
12) Florida
13) Ohio State
14) Gonzaga
15) Missouri
16) Tennessee
17) North Carolina
18) Butler
19) Texas
20) Kentucky
21) Vanderbilt
22) Washington
23) Clemson
24) Xavier
25) Virginia Tech

Notable exceptions:

Purdue - Without Hummel the Boilermakers turn into an also-ran team. No snarkiness here, just a sad loss.

San Diego State - This is an omission out of fear for the most part. But you guys are SDSU alumni and fans way to show your support you guys suck for not backing your team go to hell OMG Aztecs #1!!! Yeah but we've been here before. Until the Aztecs give us a marquee win, beating a non conference ranked team which they have never done, we will always ALWAYS reserve praise.

No, you can't.

Other notables: None. We did this ranking sober believe it or not. But these things are about as useless as tits on a boar.

Bracket Challenge update

So at the start of the NCAA Tournament we mentioned being part of a pick 'em bracket challenge with fellow bloggers Ballin' is a Habit (the organizer), Storming The Floor, March Madness All Season, Rush The Court among many others. You might remember a few us us during the old blogpoll days. Well, here are the results so far...



At least we are not at the bottom (which was going on for the first few days of the tournament) but nowhere near the top unfortunately. The interesting thing is all those "Kansas winning the tournament" picks. We came so close picking the Jayhawks as well but the thing that stopped us was just how streaky they were this season. Never was the team of two years ago. Maybe we'll make up some ground during the Sweet 16/Elite 8.

Leave your jokes here.

Not trying to kick up dust...

When we started the college basketball blogpoll around these parts it was for two reasons; 1) there should be a basketball blogpoll and, 2) we wanted to pay homage to the college football blogoll which we were very found of. So, our official view is that it will happen again this year. Unofficially, we are waiting just like you:

Some peeps have asked "why don't you just start it up again?" With our new job that moved us across the country (in the middle of a recession, mind you) we don't really have the time.

Yoda would say patience... We have lots. Tranquilo.

BlogPoll Week 6

Not a power ballot, bro...

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Memphis
2	North Carolina	2
3	Louisville	3
4	Connecticut	1
5	Pittsburgh	3
6	Oklahoma	3
7	Duke	3
8	Gonzaga	4
9	Missouri	13
10	Michigan St.	2
11	Wake Forest	2
12	Arizona St.	3
13	Florida St.	7
14	Villanova	3
15	Washington	2
16	Marquette
17	Purdue	6
18	UCLA	4
19	Xavier	2
20	Butler	3
21	Kansas	14
22	Baylor
23	Robert Morris
24	Mississippi St.
25	Utah
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Syracuse (#18), Illinois (#19), Clemson (#24), Creighton (#25).

Comments - This was done in direct correlation to the final selection for March Madness. If you take take that into account that, our ballot will make sense. And this marks this first time we ranked a MWC team in here. They deserve it. Now we move on to filling out our bracket. This should that another two hours.

BlogPoll Week 5

Not a power poll people...

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Memphis
2	Pittsburgh	5
3	Oklahoma
4	North Carolina
5	Connecticut	3
6	Louisville	1
7	Kansas	2
8	Michigan St.
9	Wake Forest	2
10	Duke	4
11	Villanova	5
12	Gonzaga	2
13	Washington	1
14	UCLA	7
15	Arizona St.
16	Marquette	2
17	Butler	2
18	Syracuse	4
19	Illinois
20	Florida St.
21	Xavier	8
22	Missouri	3
23	Purdue	3
24	Clemson	7
25	Creighton
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Louisiana St. (#12), Miami FL (#23), Boston College (#24), St. Mary's (#25).

Comments - None. we are just too tired right now. It's 1 am over here. Memphis still deserves number one spot. And we were foolish to rank an SEC team.

Oh the indignity

Called out on CBS for our mistake in ranking Michigan instead of Michigan State:



And yes, we were a little distracted by that horse-whipping. Hello NIT!

BlogPoll Week 4

This is not a power poll...

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Memphis	2
2	Connecticut
3	Oklahoma	1
4	North Carolina	7
5	Louisville	2
6	Duke	3
7	Pittsburgh	6
8	Michigan St.
9	Kansas	4
10	Gonzaga	11
11	Wake Forest	1
12	Louisiana St.	12
13	Xavier	3
14	Washington	6
15	Butler	4
16	Villanova	10
17	Clemson	3
18	Marquette	8
19	Missouri	14
20	Purdue	2
21	UCLA	4
22	Syracuse
23	Miami FL
24	Boston College
25	St. Mary's	2
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Michigan (#8), Arizona St. (#15), Illinois (#17), Texas (#22).

Comments - It just gets worse and worse trying to figure out the top 25 teams. Memphis? We defy ANYONE to explain to us rationally why they shouldn't be #1 over all the other teams we ranked #1 and they fell right afterward. Everyone else? We tried our best to reward success and punish failure. But with so many teams failing...

Michigan? A mistake. Lo siento.