Quick Note before I write about some of the newest teams in the Tournament. I'm sitting here, listening to Johnny Cash's "Unearthed" Box Set, which contains Rick Rubin cuts that didn't make it on the 4 American recordings that they collaborated on. I never would have thought it, until I sat here listening to it--Johnny Cash was meant to sing Neil Young's "Heart of Gold". Holy motherfucking piles of Messiah shit, is his version good. GOOD, even.
Another quick note. Yahoo blogger Roy S. Johnson is generally correct in his assertion that some rather lame-ass big conference team will get into the tournament, and that some deserving mid-major team will be left out in the cold (I've got a big feeling it is going to my lads down at Virginia Commonwealth University); and yes, the big conferences get a bit of unfair advantage by starting their conference tournaments late, so any big run by some marginal team will be in the foremost of the Tournament Seeders. But, Roy S. Johnson, I'm afraid your prose is as purple as the wine-dark seas that equally cheated Aeneas sailed. For example, calling the first round of the Big East, Big 12, and ACC tournaments "abomination[s] to the game" seems a little strong. Especially as the #1 (and really, the only) example brought forth by Mr. Johnson is the Syracuse vs. Villanova tilt. I'm not concerned with either team making the field of 64. Villanova beat Syracuse (thus endeth the Orange). And Villanova will not beat Georgetown. End of story for them. Johnson quotes the perpetually petulant Jim Calhoun claiming that the Big East has 8 or 9 teams who deserve to go. Calhoun is clearly drunker than usual. Roy S. Johnson says half that number deserve to go. I'll take the middle position, the one favored by vacillators and cowards, and say six Big East teams deserve to go, and six will--Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Pitt, West Virginia, and UConn. (I do believe 3 of those were nationally ranked the last week of the regular season, and all were at some point during the year).
But let's not heap refuse on the stinking corpses of Syracuse and Seton Hall. Let's praise our newest entrants!
The Portland State Pirates beat my Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (they may have cheated) in the Big Sky Conference Final. Portland State won in convincing fashion, 67-51. This will be the very first appearance of the Pirates of Portland. If they are to have success, the combo of sneaky, stealing guard Jeremiah Dominguez and straight-to-the-basket forward Deonte Huff will have to play like they did tonight. In honor of our fallen Lumberjacks, we post some Monty Python.
In the Northeast Conference, Mount St. Mary's beat Sacred Heart. Welcome one of your #16 seeds. I'm clearly going to root for them, though, as they have a dude named Jean Cajou on their team, and that's too cool of a name to root against. But if you have Messr Cajou playing over the weekend, you do so at your peril.
In Roy S. Johnson unapproved news--the Big East and PAC-10 and A-10 Tournaments started, and barring a minor upset from California beating Washington, and the aforementioned Villanova Scotty Reynolds beating Syracuse, everything went to plan. Bring on the next round!
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