"It's time for another exciting episode of 'You Be The Judge," the show that allows the reader to decide the fate of a fellow human being.
"Here's today's situation, taken from a real-life incident.
"A basketball fan was at his local car dealer this afternoon for a state inspection and an oil change. When he sat down in the waiting room, the television set was tuned to Fox News. While no one seemed to be closely watching it, the fan thought it would be rude to change the station to NCAA basketball.
"However, when all of the people left, he got up and changed the station to CBS and basketball. He was watching the game between Cornell and Temple, an impressive upset in the making. The fan did have a book in his hands, which he had brought in case he couldn't watch the game.
"However, a 60's-ish man came down, and plopped down near the television set, and shortly thereafter he changed the channel ... back to Fox News -- the station that put a small insert picture on the air yesterday of a speed reader going through the health care bill, page by page. (Fair and balanced, my ...) The fan didn't say anything, mostly because the guy was wearing a General Motors jacket and the fan figured he had suffered enough in the past several months.
"But, even so, should the fan have been cleared of murder charges if he decided to take strong action against the rude visitor?
"You Be The Judge!"
Showing posts with label NCAA basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NCAA basketball. Show all posts
Friday, March 19, 2010
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Oprah Winfrey's Day Off
Scene from a life ... in this case, mine:
I was waiting for my car to be inspected at my friendly dealer the other day. There is a waiting area with chairs and a television. After a soap opera ended, I boldly changed the channel to the NCAA basketball tournament, waking up the men sitting in the area. Then I sat down next to a woman.
A few minutes later, her cell phone rang. One of the problems with cell phones is that it's impossible to not overhear the conversations of strangers.
After a minute of chit-chat, the woman said over the phone, "When does this basketball crap finally end?"
I didn't have the heart to blurt out the answer: early April.
After a moment, she said, "I guess I'm going to miss Oprah again today."
I laughed silently to myself and then went back to watching the game and, during the commercials, reading my book on basketball legends Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.
One man's madness is another person's sadness, apparently.
I was waiting for my car to be inspected at my friendly dealer the other day. There is a waiting area with chairs and a television. After a soap opera ended, I boldly changed the channel to the NCAA basketball tournament, waking up the men sitting in the area. Then I sat down next to a woman.
A few minutes later, her cell phone rang. One of the problems with cell phones is that it's impossible to not overhear the conversations of strangers.
After a minute of chit-chat, the woman said over the phone, "When does this basketball crap finally end?"
I didn't have the heart to blurt out the answer: early April.
After a moment, she said, "I guess I'm going to miss Oprah again today."
I laughed silently to myself and then went back to watching the game and, during the commercials, reading my book on basketball legends Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.
One man's madness is another person's sadness, apparently.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
March sadness
There is much to like about the NCAA basketball tournament. There is one thing I don't like.
The format itself is thrilling. It's always great to watch a Game Seven in sports, where everything is on the line for both teams. Well, this is the equivalent of having 64 such games within a few weeks of each other. Thirty-two of them come in the first two days of the tournament.
As Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News once said, there's nothing better in sports than when a shot is in the air when the buzzer sounds, and its outcome -- in the basket or not -- determines which team's season is over. And you can get two or three of those moments within an hour during the next week, if you're very lucky.
Then there's the whole idea of inviting everyone to the big dance. The Ivy League and the Big East are even in the sense that both get a chance to win it all. OK, Cornell's chance is smaller than Georgetown's chance realistically, but both teams still have to win to advance. It's great to see the little schools get to play the big schools on a neutral court, matchups that rarely take place during the regular season.
Such a game came in Buffalo last year, when Virginia Commonwealth faced Duke. VCU probably has been looking up at Duke in terms of attention for decades, but that didn't matter when the score was tied in the final seconds last year. Virginia Commonwealth's Eric Maynor hit a shot to win it, sending its many fans in the building to ecstacy and guaranteeing that Maynor will be eating free meals in Richmond for the rest of his life.
Lastly, we come up with a champion through a fair process. The computers don't determine the two finalists; teams have to earn it. (That's the obligatory BCS putdown.) There is always grumbling about teams that get left out on Selection Sunday, but there are few teams that are in the NIT each year that seem capable of playing for the national championship -- which is the point of the exercise.
I have no idea who might win the title this year. My usual rooting favorite, Syracuse, will be watching again this year. And while the upsets give the tournament some charm, it is good to see four great teams meet in the Final Four for the best possible matchups in the showcase games. I guess I'm rooting for dramatic, thrilling games with few important upsets in that sense.
That brings us to the downer: bracket pools.
It's become a national mania to play some sort of pool at tournament time. For some, the predictions merely add to March Madness, while for others it's the only source of entertainment about it all. If I played the pools, which I don't (I know so little about most of the teams that it seems like an exercise in futility), I'd care about how I was doing. But I wouldn't want to inflict on anyone my feelings about how Drake's first-round loss cost me one of my Final Four picks and thus causing financial ruin ($5 down the drain).
So, I'll be paying attention to the games instead of my predictions this year. I'm glad you are interested in the show, but I hope you'll understand if I stay respectfully quiet during discussions of your picks.
The format itself is thrilling. It's always great to watch a Game Seven in sports, where everything is on the line for both teams. Well, this is the equivalent of having 64 such games within a few weeks of each other. Thirty-two of them come in the first two days of the tournament.
As Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News once said, there's nothing better in sports than when a shot is in the air when the buzzer sounds, and its outcome -- in the basket or not -- determines which team's season is over. And you can get two or three of those moments within an hour during the next week, if you're very lucky.
Then there's the whole idea of inviting everyone to the big dance. The Ivy League and the Big East are even in the sense that both get a chance to win it all. OK, Cornell's chance is smaller than Georgetown's chance realistically, but both teams still have to win to advance. It's great to see the little schools get to play the big schools on a neutral court, matchups that rarely take place during the regular season.
Such a game came in Buffalo last year, when Virginia Commonwealth faced Duke. VCU probably has been looking up at Duke in terms of attention for decades, but that didn't matter when the score was tied in the final seconds last year. Virginia Commonwealth's Eric Maynor hit a shot to win it, sending its many fans in the building to ecstacy and guaranteeing that Maynor will be eating free meals in Richmond for the rest of his life.
Lastly, we come up with a champion through a fair process. The computers don't determine the two finalists; teams have to earn it. (That's the obligatory BCS putdown.) There is always grumbling about teams that get left out on Selection Sunday, but there are few teams that are in the NIT each year that seem capable of playing for the national championship -- which is the point of the exercise.
I have no idea who might win the title this year. My usual rooting favorite, Syracuse, will be watching again this year. And while the upsets give the tournament some charm, it is good to see four great teams meet in the Final Four for the best possible matchups in the showcase games. I guess I'm rooting for dramatic, thrilling games with few important upsets in that sense.
That brings us to the downer: bracket pools.
It's become a national mania to play some sort of pool at tournament time. For some, the predictions merely add to March Madness, while for others it's the only source of entertainment about it all. If I played the pools, which I don't (I know so little about most of the teams that it seems like an exercise in futility), I'd care about how I was doing. But I wouldn't want to inflict on anyone my feelings about how Drake's first-round loss cost me one of my Final Four picks and thus causing financial ruin ($5 down the drain).
So, I'll be paying attention to the games instead of my predictions this year. I'm glad you are interested in the show, but I hope you'll understand if I stay respectfully quiet during discussions of your picks.
Monday, March 12, 2007
March madness indeed
There's nothing like March Madness for 63 college basketball teams across the country. They get to compete for a national championship in the NCAA tournament. National television audiences follow, alumni are thrilled, and the chance at a memorable upset or a wonderful run (or in the case of George Mason last year, both) await.
Then there are the other two teams that get to participate in the play-in game.
The NCAA used to have a field of 64 teams, which was quite logical and neat. Then another conference became eligible for an automatic qualifier. So what did the NCAA do? No, not drop one of the at-large teams that gets picked on selection Sunday. It takes two of the lowest-ranked teams and has them play off on a Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, for the right to advance to the main tournament.
One of the teams will lose, so their NCAA experience consists of a hurry-up trip to Dayton to play in a game few care about. The other goes to face nearly certain elimination against a top-seeded team, having had little time to rest in the hurry-up week that preceded the game.
The issue has come up a lot lately in Western New York, as Niagara was given the dreaded play-in game on March 11. The Eagles get to go to Dayton on the 13th to face that natural rival, Florida A&M. As we used to say in college, those schools HATE each other.
But it's a bad idea no matter who is playing. Let's say the last at-large team in the field this year was the 18-12 Stanford. Yeah, it's nice for Stanford to get in, but it's not like the Cardinal has any chance of going all the way this month. So Stanford gets an extra game or two, while someone's experience is spoiled. Doesn't seem like a fair trade to me.
Then there are the other two teams that get to participate in the play-in game.
The NCAA used to have a field of 64 teams, which was quite logical and neat. Then another conference became eligible for an automatic qualifier. So what did the NCAA do? No, not drop one of the at-large teams that gets picked on selection Sunday. It takes two of the lowest-ranked teams and has them play off on a Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, for the right to advance to the main tournament.
One of the teams will lose, so their NCAA experience consists of a hurry-up trip to Dayton to play in a game few care about. The other goes to face nearly certain elimination against a top-seeded team, having had little time to rest in the hurry-up week that preceded the game.
The issue has come up a lot lately in Western New York, as Niagara was given the dreaded play-in game on March 11. The Eagles get to go to Dayton on the 13th to face that natural rival, Florida A&M. As we used to say in college, those schools HATE each other.
But it's a bad idea no matter who is playing. Let's say the last at-large team in the field this year was the 18-12 Stanford. Yeah, it's nice for Stanford to get in, but it's not like the Cardinal has any chance of going all the way this month. So Stanford gets an extra game or two, while someone's experience is spoiled. Doesn't seem like a fair trade to me.
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