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

Pimping 101

Those Catholic basketball players in San Diego done did some shit that would make Dr. Dre proud. If you didn't hear the news then allow us to lay out what happened in lyrical form...

The sun went down when we hit Old Town
on our way to F Street, with Mary Jane in da back seat
Checkin our rearview, cause broke homies they will do
jack moves, attack fools b-ballers smack fools
Tried to set us up for that Zaga game
Fuck around and we could give up a minus 17 thang
but USD don't represent no losin points
My man Brandon Johnson hit dat three to flush da joint
so on, and so on, our bets let us roll on
We be slangin that weed so we can get our stroll on
Didn't nobody wanna be in da mix; now everybody
be at our games cause they know we got da fuckin fix
Shave dat point? Shave dat point?
That's how we make coin and you know you want to join, fool
But we ain't slippin with da dollas we kickin
While our book keep rakin and Gaslamp hoes keep fakin we'll be
Rollin back up Linda Vista, With everybody sayin

Everybody be hating on us

So yes, Kentucky is a fine program and all. A winning one to boot, regardless of what you may think of their current coach. Well, you may think better or worse after you hear what coach Calipari said about other basketball programs -

Other basketball teams don't want to beat us. They want to BE us.

For a man with a myriad of NCAA investigation inquiries at multiple schools and the inability to keep a cohesive team for more than one year that is indeed a bold statement. Let's hope it doesn't come back to bite them in the ass.

Kansas/VCU 2nd half analysis

Please. Make the pain go away.

Kansas/VCU 1st half analysis

Yup. That just about sums it up.

Thank you!

So first, the 3 stages of grief for San Diego State fans:

Denial Aztec: It's over. We lost by 7 points. Go to bed.


Angry Aztec: Did you really think we could win? Maybe you need a drink, it's ok. Calm down.


Sad Aztec: Maybe you're drinking too much. We lost. It's done.

Thank you Steve Fisher for forcing us to believe in miracles. We did not expect much this year and you gave us so much. We will tell Baby M2M of the time the Aztecs were in the Sweet 16.

Thank you D.J. Gay. You truly are a field general when it mattered.
Thank you Billy White. Your X factor 3 pointers saved our asses at times.
Thank you Malcolm Thomas. When we got into trouble foul wise you were there.
Thank you Kawhi Leonard. Only a sophomore and the star of our team. You will be missed.
Thank you Chase Tapley. The combo of you and White crushed BYU in the MWC title. Enough said.
Thank you James Rahon. We doubted your shooting ability. You proved us wrong.

Now the scary part. This team is no more. The team that will be in it's place next season will have only a fraction of the ability. Back to the desert? Yes...

For those who don't follow us on Twitter

If you are seeing stuff about Leslie Visser and how she looked here is what everyone was talking about...

Que rico!

Glue, Stuck to my shoe

But, now I'm wishing,
for my best impression
of my best Angie Dickinson.
But, now I've got to worry
cause, boy you still look pretty
when you're putting the damage on.

Bye bye, Cardinals...

Holy crap, we did it!

San Diego State 72 - Brigham Young 54

Wait. We need some music...



In the period of two hours all demons were exercised. We not only won the Mountain West Conference Tournament for the second year in a row, but we also beat Brigham Young. The last time we beat them was two years ago and tonight we beat them decisively. This makes up for the embarrassing post we had to do to pay up on a bet. BYU should not feel too bad, they are still in as a 2 or 3 seed. That's alright in our book.

Now, may we only play like this in the NCAA Tourney. And we are done for tonight posting wise. We'll see you guys tomorrow. You can follow us on Twitter (see info on your left) but you'll mostly see tweets about us getting drunk.


Go Aztecs.

The Kent State/Akron melee

Akron won the MAC Conference final on some crazy defense in overtime. Apparently Kent State didn't approve of the way the Zips were celebrating. And then all hell broke loose.



Heartbreaking loss by the Golden Flashes marred by misplaced emotions. These teams really hate each other.

Princeton wins on last second shot

ESPN producers are so excited they interrupt their own broadcast during the UTSA/McNeese State game ...



So the Tigers are dancing. And Harvard is sullen again. Game talk heyah.

Our view of Larry Drew is now complete

So we said all this about him back in November. Some thought it was unjustified.

But then he quit the team.

And then he ends up calling North Carolina a mistake filled program that he had to carry.

And he does this rap style.

We totally expect him to next end up being arrested for something.

(HT: Ballin' is a Habit)

Why we love the game

Northern Colorado 65 - Montana 60

On one hand you had two time defending Big Sky champ Montana Grizzlies. They've been to the dance before. They knew what to expect. They are the big boys on the block. On the other hand you had the Northern Colorado Bears (hey, it was bear on bear action). The Bears were the bottom of the barrel. Perennial laughing stock. Worst RPI in the country. Never came close to sniffing an NCAA Tournament bid.

That all changed last night. In a game that had some of us tearing up the Bears clawed and scraped their way to a lead with only 4 minutes left and would not let it go. There were Northern Colorado parents in the stands crying when they won the game. We had so many pictures that we wanted to post but we settled on the above. The Big Sky MVP and Northern Colorado hero who's shots singlehandedly lifted his team to victory, Mr. Devon Beitzel -





Welcome to March Madness, Northern Colorado. Have fun and revel in your time.

Jim Boeheim strikes again!

"I think that's all bullshit, you know. All that stuff, it's all bullshit. We could play next week and get in the same game next week and lose. We could have ten of these in a row and win them, then get in a tournament and have one and you lose it. It's all bullshit."
- The Syracuse coach responding to a question about if tough games help his team

We agree with The Crazy One by the way.

Full audio heyah. And it's bullshit, but in a good way.

Don't mess with Texas. Unless you're Nebraska.

In a day of upsets who could have seen this coming? The Cornhuskers owned the team we said should be #1 until the last couple of minutes of the game. The Longhorns strength allowed them to come back in it but it was a little too late.

Well, one person knew Nebraska would win...

Pittsburgh dislikes this video

St. John's 60 - Pitt 59

What is with the Johnnies and Madison Square Garden? First we were saying they were lucky beating West Virginia at home, then they turn around and make MSG a house of horrors for all opponents. In a game that folks all but gave Pitt the win, the Red Storm hung tough and beat the Panthers at their own game with vicious defense. Then with the game on the line and 11 seconds left this happens...



Yeah, we are putting St. John's as a BUBBLE BUT IN at this point.

Obviously Coastal Carolina is f*&ked now

Their 22 game winning streak? Gone.

Kierre Greenwood, their starting point guard? Gone.

Mike Holmes, their starting forward? Gone.

Desmond Holloway, their leading scorer? Gone.

Something we thought we would never see

Kansas State and Michigan State having to play-in to the tournament!



(Courtesy CBSSports.com)

Bill Self: This is a beatdown

Kansas State 84 - Kansas 68

They said that KSU would need to play for their tournament lives and boy howdy did they. Kansas State played a perfect game on both offense and defense although guard Jacob Pullen needed to score 50% of the Wildcats total offensive production for them to win the game.

On the Kansas side there were looks of absolute shock. Like "Wow, is this is really happening? Weren't we ranked #1 just 6 hours ago?!" We were actually surprised the Jayhawks allowed themselves to get smacked like that.

And it looks like we may get our wish with Texas being ranked #1 next Monday.

College Station is stunned

Baylor 76 - Texas A&M 74

Baylor demonstrates that a #16 ranking doesn't mean much...