iggymcfly

They've got to set up a play for Morrison here. He's made like his last 7 shots, while Raivio and Turiaf are ice cold. If they can just get Morrison in the lane, he'll tie up the game.

Thank god for Adam Morrison. He and Batista are the only ones that are even trying out there. I knew I hated Turiaf, and he's showing why today with his shitty performance.

Damn NIT got started early this morning. I was really looking forward to watching Cold Pizza, so that I could hear Woody Paige rub it in about how Vermont beat Syracuse when he guaranteed it, and Skip Bayless said there was no way in hell it woud happen. That's not really relevant to this topic, but I thought of checking for it when you were talking about PTI.

No, I think it was his sophomore year where they were "experimenting" with it, and it was about two feet closer then where it is now. It was completely ridiculous.

Seeing 13 and 14 seeds from mid-majors making the Sweet 16 is fun. Watching some 8 seed with 12 losses get hot, knock off some top seeds and make the Elite 8 or the Final Four is boring. Now, on the other hand, if you've got a preseason Top 5 team that picked up some losses in brutal ACC play while battling myriad injuries and now happens to be 20-11, well it's more than OK for them to get to the Final Four.

Well, apparently when I was making stupid impulse picks, I had a ten second lapse where I thought that Stanford might beat Mississippi State, so I'm actually at 24/32 in both pools now. Even worse, I'm missing a Sweet 16 team in every bracket. I really need a good weekend to get back into shape.

OK, I'm 25 out of 32 for the first round. I may have lost a shitload of Sweet 16 teams, but all my Elite 8 teams are fine, so I've got plenty of time to take things in the right direction. As for Georgia Tech, they let GW stay around for quite a while just like I figured they would. However, they never let GW get a lead and as soon as it got far enough in that they were worried, they went on a big run to put them away. I think they're actually ahead of where they were at this point last year when they were struggling to get by N. Iowa in the first round. I think they're in perfect shape to take out Louisville, and then after a few days off, they should be able to beat the UW/Pacific winner too. They haven't done anything all that impressive yet, but I think they're right where they need to be as far as a run to the Final Four is concerned.

Juiced Up is more than happy to select: SP Victor Zambrano

Duke's another team that isn't making it to the Final Four. Always good to act like you know who's going to win a particular bracket right after your pick to do it loses in the first round. By the way, Duke will win that bracket. Vermont might even be their toughest hurdle in making it to the Final Four.

What a shot by Sorrentine! He was about ten feet beyond the arc, and he just dribbled the clock down, knowing the defender wouldn't guard him from that far. That's just beautiful.

This Syracuse/Vermont game doesn't really affect my bracket at all, and I didn't bet on it or anything, but I really hope Vermont wins. There hasn't been a good upset all year, and I really like this Vermont team a lot.

Foul on Warrick! Wow! GO CATAMOUNTS!

Uhhh, you mean Vermont?

GT will not make the Final Four. Wake, OSU, or Illinois will handle them. The OSU/Illinois winner would play Tech in the Final Four. Georgia Tech's toughest game in getting to the Final Four will likely be against Gonzaga.

No, I remembered it. I even put $40 on the money line, so that when Georgia Tech wins, I'll make like $15 on the bet.

I was thinking, there's something about having an easy road that helps a team stay rested and play well throughout the tournament. Both UConn and GT had a lot of easy games early last year. With that being said, it would be really nice if Georgia Tech got to play Lafayette and then Pacific before facing Gonzaga. Who knows, with that road, maybe they'll get lucky and knock off Illinois.

You've got to be kidding. Illinois trailed in the second half against Fairleigh Dickinson. They probably looked worse in the first round than any of the top-level teams.

I'm probably about the only fan of a non-Duke ACC team that actually kinda likes Duke. I hate Carolina, and I always think of Wake as Tech's main ACC rival going back to the days when Duncan and Marbury would battle it out for the title, but I've never had a problem with Duke. I can actually remember the day I decided to become a Duke fan back in '93 at the age of 8. I'd usually just cheer for underdogs no matter what. #1 Duke was playing DePaul, and I remember thinking, well maybe just for one sport, I'll cheer for the best team. Just like that, Duke become one of my favorite basketball teams. Also, for some reason I always liked Michigan, so when Carolina beat Michigan for the title (in the infamous Webber timeout game), that pretty much sealed it.

If you read what he actually said, Edge said that he tried steroids for a while, but quit doing them because it hurt his in-ring performance. That would mean that his injuries probably have nothing to do with steroids. If he was going to lie about it, you'd think that he would just say he'd never touch them. Given the form of the admission, I'd say that he's probably being completely truthful.

Duke's playing like shit. I don't think my chances are very good of getting a cover here.

I never heard any even semi-serious discussion about moving the line closer. I could see moving it back a few inches, but I think that for the most part, it's OK where it is now. If you play good perimeter defense, you won't have a big problem. What's ridiculous is if you look at tape from when Jordan was in school. They had the three point line inside the circle, to where a 3 pointer was a glorified free throw. I'm surprised that they even attempted 2 pointers that year.

I did good with ISU and NC State, but I really need Florida to hold on here, because I can't afford to lose three Sweet 16 teams in the first round.

Well, this is good timing, because I just saw "My Little Eye" and it's the first movie I've seen in a long time that was actually scary. If you do watch it though, I recommend that you don't read up on it or anything. Probably the main reason I thought it was scary is that when I started watching it, I thought it was just a light drama.

If Benoit got the kind of reaction to ten second promos that Batista did, he would have plenty of chances to cut longer promos. They knew that promo work wasn't one of his strengths so they tried to use other methods to build him up. And I never said they put the same effort into building Benoit up that they did for Austin or Rock. They didn't even put in the same effort, they did for Batista or Orton. However, the main purpose of the main event of WM XX was to establish Benoit as a top-level draw. Thus, it can be said that establishing Benoit was a main goal last spring. If you want to say curtain-jerking Bad Blood was a stupid business decision because it hurt Benoit, then that's perfectly valid. At this point, establishing Benoit is no longer a major goal. He is established somewhat and has no trouble being taken seriously in a main event, but Benoit is not the center of the program. Since establishing Batista is now the top priority, it makes sense that they do something to differentiate him from Benoit. Even if Benoit's no longer a focus, his "undefeated" record against HHH will take away from the accomplishment of Batista being able to do the same thing. From a business perspective, it makes sense for Benoit to put over HHH before Mania.

Nah, Louisville's been facing jobbers all year long. They should feel right at home in a 4/13 game. When they face Georgia Tech however (and they will, that GW pick's terrible), it will be a completely different story. If it's any consolation, New Mexico's the best mid-major in the country. They're totally beating 'Nova tomorrow.