I Dislike Your Favorite Team

OK, so I didn't watch too much of the football that transpired today. I was, at various points in the day, engrossed in College Hoops, playing poker, or rocking out to the best game for the PlayStation 2 ever, Guitar Hero II (with a fucking audience, dear reader). I know Indianapolis won in fairly boring fashion over the Ravens. I know that I missed a barnburner in Nawlins, with the Saints winning. Parathetically, can I just say how weird it is to type anything regarding the Saints winning a playoff game? It wasn't all that long ago that there fans were wearing paper bags over their heads. Now some would put the credit on a game plan featuring the hard running of the Deuce Deuce. Me, I think it is the inspiring story that they are currently scripting. Every team should have a natural disaster in their city. I imagine in the locker room, they are discussing which actor should be playing them when Disney inevitably makes a heartwarming "based on a true story" Sports Underdog Movie. We are getting to a point where there are so many of those that it should be its own category at the Oscars. OK, maybe not the Oscars. People's Choice would be all over it though.

I know that my strategy of staying sober at a poker party only works if you don't gamble like a drunk guy, which I completely did tonight. I know as good at it feels to reel off new high scores in Guitar Hero, it feels better when you do it in front of people who have played the game, and appreciate what you are doing. Even if one of those people is tipsy, and chock full of caffeine, and wearing a West German cold weather bodyhugging track suit. I know, and now you do, too, dear reader, that I have some weird fucking friends.

I know many of my friends mock me because I have "too many" favorite college basketball teams. To them, many of whom blog for this very site, at least in theory, I say this: I grew up 8 miles outside of DC. There are lots of Division I programs within a quick drive. Unlike the flyover state of Wisconsin, that has all of four Division I programs. Four! Or Minnesota, which when it comes to basketball probably doesn't have more than two. And really, the University of Minnesota is getting close to having their team revoked, because of the suckage. I grew up around a lot of good teams. When you are 10 years old, how do you pick between the Ralph Sampson led Cavaliers or the Patrick Ewing led Hoyas? You don't dammit!

And today was a good day to be a fan of teams around DC. This was an awfully long build up to some college scores, but I'm excited. Can you feel it? I can feel the excitement. I'm tingly. Let's (finally) get to it. And Good God, is this first one sweet. Apologies to Ed Cone, who supported my Duke Hate, but only because he's a fucking dirty hippie Tarheel.

(1) North Carolina 88, (unranked until Monday) VA Tech 94--This is quite simply, an awesome week to be a Hokie. They beat Duke in Cameron, and beat NC at home. They are the first team to do that since NC State, back during the Julius Hodge era (admittedly, that was about 2 1/2 years ago). I'd like to quickly note that Greg Oden owes a nod to Julius Hodge, for pioneering that whole "I'm 18 years old but look 45" vibe. The score is a disservice to two things--one) how badly the Hokies were kicking the shit out of the Tarheels for about 32 minutes of this game--they were up 23 in the second half. Secondly, the score doesn't reflect how scary and how full of impending doom I was as the Tarheels completely erased that margin. The Hokies were doing odd things in the last 3 minutes of the game, too. Missing free throws, taking quick shots--doing all the things that made a NC comeback seem inevitable. A true nailbiter. Great game, and go Hokies! They will have possibly one of the single biggest jumps in ranking seen in quite awhile. I've become a fan of VT guard Zabian Dowdell, and not just because of his awesome name. I don't think the ACC is going to be talked about in the same breath as the PAC-10 any time soon, but this goes very far in proving how deep this conference really is.

Keeping it in the ACC, (17) Clemson got its undefeated season taken care of, courtesy of the mighty Maryland Terrapins, 87-92. As some insightful blogger suggested, Clemson were not of the quality to be the last undefeated team, and even that Maryland would beat them. Again a game that saw a team up by double digits, the other team claw back furiously, put the result in doubt, before finally folding up the tent. Ekene Ibekwe was the the difference maker for the Terps, along with Daryl Strawberry's kid, who had 14 points and 6 assists. Maryland cracked the top 25 in one poll, was barely unranked in the other--come Monday, they should be right around 22 or so in both major polls.

In general, today was just a fun day of Hoops--you didn't have to be an ACC-focused, DC Metro area biased fan to dig today.

(5) Ohio State 68 (16) Tennessee 66--OK, I'm dubious of Tennessee, which is almost always the right way to go with dealing with the Volunteers. And they did lose this game, but I came away a bit of fan of Tennessee. Tennessein' is Tennebelievin'. They are a bit lacking in front court fire power, but Lofton is a hell of a playmaker. Tennessee will beat some very very good teams. Greg Oden was pretty damn impressive in this game, leading Ohio State in points, boards, and assists. As Seth Davis said, "imagine what this kid will do when he can play with both of his hands." It took a 3 pointer in the closing seconds for the Buckeyes to close this out.

(6) Kansas 68, Iowa State 64 --I'm also super dubious of the Jayhawks, and I should admit that I've never cared for them, dating back to some weird animus for Danny Manning. Frankly, I think some pretty dubious calls decided this game. Brandon Rush got away with at least two offensive fouls in the final minutes. Kansas overcame some really shitty free throw shooting (at least in part, because Iowa State was even shittier). Kansas' big men will need to be better from the line in the future. Especially...Sasha Kaun. Sasha Kaun. Sasha. Sasha Kaun. (That will be kind of funny if you imagine the Chaka Khan song that starts off this way). His name is humorously close to an a completely unrelated and almost forgotten Black Woman's name! Sasha Kaun. All the same, though, fuck Bill Self and fuck the rock, chalk, Jayhawks. #6, my ass.

I'd like to write more, but it appears my internet tubes are all clogged up. So I'll just provide some links to some other really good games.

UCLA beats USC with a last second shot from Affalo.

LSU squeaks by Auburn.

Air Force comes backs on Wyoming to win

Stanford's Anthony Goods beats recent PAC-10 darling Washington State.

Nevada beats Hawaii without Nick Fazekas, but just barely.