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

Busted

Well, Kentucky did it to us and we are officially out. We have to admit this has been the worst we have ever done in the past 3 years outside of the VCU pick. Still it doesn't detract from the awesomeness that is the NCAA Tournament. Good luck to the 8 remaining teams.

Bracket update

We are nearing destruction. Duke hurts us big time and we have only two teams in the Final Four. This has turned out to be the worst year for our bracket picks.

But not busted yet (using official M2M definition of the term "busted").

The Royal Bracket

So everyone knows that President Obama is doing quite well with his bracket picks (that he took the time to do instead of solving that whole Israeli/Palestinian thing). Some are pretty upset at this. But we know the truth of how he did so well. He has Secret Service agents read blogs and then feed him the intel.

He even got San Diego State right.

Bracket update

Notre Dame and Syracuse were teams that damaged our Elite Eight brackets but besides that no major changes from yesterday. East still looking like the genius picks followed by West.

Bracket update

First, Luke Winn is kinda right. The Aztecs are a shaky #2 seed. Remember, we felt they should have been a #3 to #5 seed. Looking at the bracket above we did not have them getting to the Sweet Sixteen because of the issues that came up glaringly in the Temple game (missed shots, unable to convert turnovers, unable to maintain leads). We said as much in our game update.

That being said we are extremely happy and couldn't be prouder at the fact that we are going to the Sweet Sixteen. We had every right to celebrate like we had won the Final Four. Because we and a lot of other people in SDSU Nation did not expect them to get this far. Go Aztecs.

Next, the Pitt thing. Ouch that hurts but we are still in it. Remember, our definition of a busted bracket is if one (or both) of your National Championship game teams lose before said game. The East is shaping up to be our best region, meanwhile the Southeast looks like absolute wreckage. Who could have predicted Richmond would look so studly? All in all this is shaping up to be one of our down years in bracket picking. We'll see what happens today.

Bracket update

Second Round analysis: Obviously the East and Southeast were our best picks and where we have the most brackets in tact. On the inverse is the other regions. Chalk is winning out so far in this tournament. We are not busted yet but we'll see what this weekend holds...

And yes, we still love that Georgetown pick (or non pick depending on how you look at it).

Bracket update

Most Damaging Picks: Louisville tanking against Morehead State and St. John's getting waxed at the hands of Gonzaga.

Most Genius Picks: Wisconsin denying Belmont the upset.

Status: Still in the game.

Our official 2011 March Madness bracket picks

Without further adieu our predictions...

Now, this First Four shit -

East #16: We have Alabama State beating UTSA and then promptly losing to Ohio State
East #12: We have Clemson beating UAB and then promptly losing to West Virgina
Southwest #16: We have NC Asheville beating Arkansas-Little Rock and then promptly losing to Pitt
Southwest #11: We have USC beating VCU and then promptly beating Georgetown

Yes, you read that right. Georgetown is going down. The Hoyas have been the most disappointing team we have seen this year. Remember, we stopped watching their games because they had gotten so bad.

Other notes: Yes, we will forever love San Diego State but we have to be honest. Penn State is to us like a full strength BYU. Talor Battle and their cast of giant killers will unfortunately prove to be too much for the Aztecs. But at least we have a good shot of making it out of the first round for this first time in school history!

Also, this marks our most boring bracket. All four #1 seeds will be in the Final Four. Good luck everybody.

Fighting the battle of who could care less

Syracuse +5. Meh.

Will you never rest
Fighting the battle of who could care less
Unearned unhappiness
That's alright I guess

Can anyone tell us what these two teams were playing for last night?? They both are getting into the dance. They both are getting the same seeding. A loss by either team would not change this. Couple that with sloppy sloppy Big East style play and you had a game that, well, was just a game. The final minute could not make up for it. That's alright we guess.

Obama knows basketball

Here it is folks, hot off the press. President Barack Obama's official 2010 March Madness picks.

Thoughts: Murray State over Vandy?? Cornell over Temple??? Get back to health care motherfucker...

Note to Secret Service: We kid. Please don't arrest us.

Millie the Dog is better than Stewart Mandel

People will use any scientific means at their disposal to fill out their NCAA Tournament brackets. This is serious shit. And who the hell is Old Dominion?

Meanwhile Sports Illustrated's Stewie Mandel once again comes off as arrogant explaining how his picks are superior to everyone else and how you can be just like him.

The official M2M NCAA Tournament picks

Read them and weep boys! Yes, we do have 3 out of the 4 Mountain West teams making it to the second round. Yes, we are actually betting on our team to beat Tennessee. Yes, we do have Ohio State winning it all. Yes, we're comfortable with that. We're enlightened.

We are also part of Ballin Is a Habit's bracket challenge with a bunch of other blogger types. This should be fun.

Busted

Busted Bracket (M2M definition): When either of the two teams you predicted to be in the championship game lose.



And we're done. But not done watching the rest of the madness!

3, 2, 1

Today, 3s against 1s.

Tomorrow, 2s against 1s.

Someone must fall.

Sing it James Brown

"This is a Big East world! This is a Big East world! But it would be nothing, nothing without an ACC team to care."



We are still looking ok. Some damage was done (Duke got ass whipped). But all in all, pretty solid. And how about that Missouri / Memphis game? You had frustrated Memphis fan from watching all those missed 3s, crying Memphis players after the game... Now that's college hoops! At least there were some happy people.

This is where we stand

East and South are intact. *Gabby self pat on back* Charles, your side looks kinda beat up.

Charles: Look, I used logic and reason. Too bad that doesn't factor in here.

Instant poll: Should we fire Charles? *LOL*

How you holding up?

We are holding up just fine. We have only messed up on one Sweet Sixteen game game thus far (the Louisville game). We would like to point out that our resident "analyst" here at M2M picked that region. Smooth, Charles, real smooth.

Get ready for day four. It's gonna be glorious.

You want some more

Day three of glorious madness. How about those overtime games last night? Congrats Siena and Wisconsin!

Welcome to day two

Games start at noon. We'll see you at 9 pm. Work, you know.