cabbageboy

The Cena/HHH crap could only continue to any degree at Vengeance if it is a HIAC NON TITLE affair. As in they can do the angle of RVD winning the MITB, then cashes it in and gets the emotional win at ONS over HHH. They can do the HHH/Cena thing and totally blow it off at Vengeance (a HIAC match doesn't need the title) while RVD can defend against Edge or Shelton, whoever....doesn't really matter since that would have all of 2 weeks of build.

I thought of that too, but what exactly is the point of Cena going over? I figure they should just job Cena at WM and then job him again at Backlash. I have to say after tonight I am VERY disturbed that Flair might win the MITB.

I think ranking programs all time includes more than "Who has the most national titles?" If I had to rank programs I'd go: 1. Kentucky 2. North Carolina 3. Duke 4. Indiana 5. UCLA It sounds bizarre but I'll explain. UCLA was ultra dominant for a specific era in time, but since 1975 they've had just 1 national title and nowhere near the level of importance of any of those other 4. I put UK at #1 for a variety of reasons. Obviously they have the most wins in history, most tourney wins as well, 2nd most titles. Also, and this cannot be understated, UK's fanbase is WAY more into it than UCLA. It's pretty much a way of life, whereas in Los Angeles UCLA is just...whatever. In fact the level of fan interest is one factor that would put UCLA below the other 4. I thought hard about the order of the others. UNC has to go above Duke for now due to more all time wins and the 1 extra national title. IU has more national titles than either UNC or Duke but I can't in good conscience put them above either. IU has had some very down times in the program, namely the 60s before Knight arrived and pretty much any year since 1994 (aside from 2002).

I really, really cannot see HHH jobbing again at WM. They can't do the "He's too cocky and fucks up" storyline since he's now taking Cena a bit more seriously (after he nailed Big Show with the FU). And to be honest, Cena is ultra stale and needs a good depushing at this point. I do think Rey will win at WM, but he'll end up being the dreaded transition champion to Orton at Judgment Day. Still, I think they have to pay it off here with a Rey win. It's funny that the original MITB lineup I read on insidepulse.com was RVD/Carlito/Masters/Finlay/Lashley/Hardy. They ended up putting Carlito and Masters in the tag match (Shelton/Flair was a rumored IC match). Since it seems like Shelton/Flair were both added filler to the match and none of the SD guys has any business winning, RVD is the logical choice.

I have no idea where the SPR and FMJ comparison comes from. Now if you wanted to say Jarhead seems in some ways like a FMJ clone, I can see that. The two films have the dehumanizing boot camp scenes and then the 2nd half focuses on the war at hand. SPR though? It's almost a total opposite of FMJ in a lot of ways. It's a humane film (which given WW2 is more necessary), much moreso than FMJ. SPR was a more heroic "Let's save this guy" plot, whereas FMJ shows the dehumanizing effects that the training and subsequent war can have. As far as Sin City and V For Vendetta goes, they are alike merely in terms of being graphic novels. The comparisons were bound to happen. Are they much alike? Not really.

I have no idea why they would bring back Kenzo. I still have nightmares about Smackdown in 2004 when they were jobbing Van Dam out to Kenzo and Dupree, while John Cena squashed those very same guys shortly thereafter.

I think a reseeding of this bracket is in order. Let's do GMU and UCLA in the FF as well as LSU/FL. Then we can have GMU and FL in the final. I think as it is the most interested final would be George Mason vs. LSU. Although I actually have applied for UCLA's grad school I can't say I'm thrilled about the prospects of them winning the 12th title. Not with THIS bunch. And yes, I know UCLA has the most titles all time but I don't know how many people really consider them the BEST program ever. They had the one insane run of titles but all time aren't even in the top 5 in wins.

The ultimate irony in this is that George Mason did what everyone thought Gonzaga would do. That is namely to smash the glass ceiling against the mid majors and get to the FF. I will also second the UCLA feelings. I hope they lose the next game. This is not a vintage championship UCLA team, it's a team that is supremely fortunate. I keep hearing about UCLA's amazing defense, but let's be honest about that. Most of their great D is due to being a rarity in the Pac 10...a team that actually plays serious defense. The so called great D against Memphis was more or less Memphis just bricking everything in sight, missing layups, and generally choking. Compare it to the LSU/Texas game, which was also low scoring but really DID have a lot of intense, physical defense, blocked shots, etc.

Well, every year I always do my goofy upsets bracket and even in that one I had George Mason losing to Murray St. This has to be the single weirdest and out of nowhere tourney run ever. I mean George Mason? I took a look at their results and they lost to a crappy Wake team this year, Miss St. (an SEC jobber), and Creighton (decent but didn't make the tourney). Suffice to say there wasn't much in that resume that screamed out "We're beating MSU, UNC, and UConn!"

I had George Mason out the 1st round to Michigan St. actually. The justification was the Skinn suspension deal...I thought without him they had no shot of going anywhere. To be honest I never really got behind GMU much until today's game. I thought they pulled the amusing Bradley Sweet 16 type run and I was actually torn between them or Wichita St. in that game. My FF flat out sucks ass. I only had UCLA, and that was mainly due to hating Memphis too much to pick them. I had FL out in the Sweet 16 due to their various chokes over the years (though deep down I thought they were the most complete team in that region...I need to trust myself). I had LSU out the first round in my 4/13 upset special to Iona, but that was more of a joke pick than anything. I thought LSU was Georgetown level good...just a solid, tough out. But someone who would be out. The interest in the FF lies solely in the GMU/Florida game. I could wipe my ass with that UCLA/LSU game since it has no intrigue and frankly from what I saw yesterday the game itself won't be worth a shit. Just a plodding, boring brickfest along the lines of that Michigan St./Wisc. debacle from 2000. I'll take LSU in that game mainly because I don't think UCLA has any hope of stopping Glen Davis, and frankly LSU at least won a couple of games vs. Duke and Texas in legit fashion. UCLA needed a huge choke from Zaga and then a disasterous Memphis performance to be this far. If I had to take a team I'd say Florida though. They just look stellar right now.

That game was just wonderful. I was just going completely insane about the time when Denham Brown made the last second layup. I was like "No! I refuse to see this again tonight after that shit Friday against Washington! How can two teams both completely fuck it all up and let UConn come back from 4 down???" Then shockingly GMU didn't just fold as I figured they would. Of course then they almost gave it away AGAIN. I swear I thought that last second 3 was going in. I'd like to see George Mason win it all now. Weirder things have happened. Or maybe not. But man, if I am Hofstra I'd be so pissed right now. Beat these guys twice this year and didn't get in.

Ben Howland must, and I mean MUST have found a tape of that U of L vs. Memphis game from last year. Not the notorious Darius Washington missing the FTs game, but the forgotten shitfest earlier in Memphis that was 53-44 (U of L won). I kept thinking all night that this game was eerily similar to it in the total sucktitude. That said, we're in for the nightmare of all time: Ben Howland doing his ultra shitty Pitt style with UCLA athletes. Oh, and can we please stop hyping Rodney Carney now? What'd he have tonight, 4 points? By the way, in that horrid U of L/Memphis game from last year, he was held scoreless. I'm not going to say he was as bad as Redick, since Memphis was like a whole team of Redicks tonight. The other night some people gave me shit in here for saying it was a bad thing that both Duke and Zaga went down. I refer you guys to these two games today and the future shitfest that will be LSU/UCLA as a counterpoint. That game is going to fucking SUCK. And whoever wins is just a token squash victim for UConn or Nova in the finals. Actually, that LSU/Texas game wasn't terribly played....it did have intense, physical defense. But this Memphis/UCLA game tonight? The only thing that saved it from being "Worst Game Ever" was the fact that Memphis jobbed.

I seriously dug that Rey/Finlay match tonight, though the booking is truly baffling. Given the shoot style promos that all 3 guys cut on each other last week and then seeing them all job in the past 7 days makes me think one thing. Namely that none of these guys should be main eventing a WM. Is anyone here really on any kind of roll? Rey: Won the Rumble but has done jack shit besides that. Lost a few times to Mark Henry before the Rumble, lost to Orton at No Way Out, lost to Finlay tonight. Pardon me if I don't think he's exactly credible in the main event. Orton: Didn't win the Rumble, beat the aforementioned Rey, but before that got stomped by UT in that feud and was Booker's proxy bitch in a US title feud. Not exactly on any sort of a roll. Angle: Yeah he won the title in a battle royale, but spent the previous 4 months jobbing to John Cena and Shawn Michaels on Raw. Oh, and he jobbed to Mark Henry tonight in a non title match.

That doesn't have to be the end of Morrison's career though. It's assumed he'll go pro but he's only a junior, right? I really could care less about these games tomorrow. LSU/Texas sounds like a good football game, but in hoops I could care less. And seeing Memphis win tomorrow to go to the FF is a thought that makes me sick to the core.

You know, I think it's about time someone said this: Mark Few cannot coach for shit. Having seen Gonzaga's tourney losses I can safely say that with evidence to support it. Since 2002 Few has consistently had his teams ill prepared (think of the 2002 whining over the 6 seed and subsequent loss to Wyoming...and also the 2004 beatdown from Nevada). Or if not ill prepared his teams flat out choke due to him being seriously outcoached. That would be last year when Knight coached circles around Few as Texas Tech rallied to win a game they had no business winning. And now tonight the coup de grace, blowing a 17 pt. lead to UCLA with some of the most unbelievable late game blunders I've ever seen. As a U of L fan my motto for that Oakland region is "Anybody but Memphis." I actually have UCLA in my FF, so this helped me. That said, UCLA is more lucky than good and I can't see their luck continuing against Memphis. I saw the earlier game and Memphis is simply flat out better. I must be the only one who doesn't share the glee over Duke and Gonzaga both losing. Hell, at least that game would have been a hugely anticipated FF matchup and drawn ratings galore. Now? We get Texas vs. UCLA, or Memphis vs. LSU or whatever and that has all the heat and pizzazz of Kansas vs. Marquette from 2003 (when both UK and Zona lost in the Elite 8).

Edge was right when he said he and JBL are the two universal heels on the roster. HHH shouldn't be mad since he himself has a definite share of fans who cheer him. In fact, HHH doesn't really downplay it all that much anymore. That said, I don't see any viable way to get Edge back in the title scene on Raw with HHH around. He's going to have to be traded to SD in the draft, where he can quickly be the top heel on that roster with little difficulty (as long as they get over this Orton fetish). The other way would be the scenario where HHH takes some time off when Steph has the baby. HHH could drop the title at ONS to Van Dam or something, then RVD and Edge can feud for the title. Personally I would have kept the title on Edge and done Edge/RVD at WM. Unlike what we have now it'd have a highly popular face going against a very hated heel.

Teke, that would have been me that said the "I can't imagine Redick's last game being against LSU." It wasn't necessarily meant as smack (I'm hardly a Duke fan), but more of a comment to say "If JJ is really this amazing player there's no way he'd go out against LSU." As in if he wasn't going to win it all it he'd need to justify himself by going nuts vs. UConn in the title game in a 2 pt. loss. You know, when it comes down to it I'd much rather have Patrick Sparks in a money game than Redick. Not even close. My God, Redick literally cost Duke the game tonight with that shitty 3 for 18. And you know what was weird? I didn't give a shit. I wasn't laughing my ass off at Duke losing, since the entire game felt really off kilter. I could just look at Duke from the beginning and tell they didn't have it. In fact it would have been a major miscarriage of justice had they won. It also wasn't that unexpected really, since several people had predicted LSU and we all know Redick can choke like a bitch. When Duke lost to IU in 2002...now THAT was funny as shit. Tonight though? For some reason I just didn't care. Duke is becoming today's version of DePaul under Ray Meyer in the early 80s. Come in ranked #1, then lose quickly. I mean yeah Duke gets to the Sweet 16 every year, but that's just them getting their usual 2 squash games in Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, etc. Once they step foot out of the Carolinas, they are screwed.

The "Hey" theme worked after he was tossed from Evolution, since it had the "Hey, Hey, nothing you can say is gonna change what you've done to me." Thing is, now he's back to being an asshole heel, so it really doesn't fit.

That isn't entirely accurate about C-USA's formation. C-USA in its genesis was a combination of what was left of a crappy Metro (mainly U of L and a bunch of JTTS types like Tulane and Charlotte) and a fairly solid Great Midwest conference (Cincy, Memphis St., St. Louis, etc). Those teams were Metro at one point but left in that whole SEC expansion era...FSU went to the ACC, S. Carolina the SEC, and those others formed the Great Midwest along with Marquette. By 1995 it was obvious that the Metro was declining so U of L was at the forefront of the merger with the Great Midwest. After all, something was missing without having Cincy and Memphis as rivals. Some teams that were deemed too small as media markets (think Va Tech and VCU, though ironically Va Tech ended up in the ultra powerful ACC years later) were sent packing and not even invited. So. Miss was kept on mainly for football. A few indie teams and leftovers from the SWC like Houston were invited. Anyone know why U of L, Memphis St., and everyone left the MVC in the 70s? I never really knew the story there.

It's an interesting thing to ponder, what would have happened had Bret simply relinquished the belt after S. Series 97, rather than get screwed. Personally, I think things would have gone just about as planned. They would have moved the title to Shawn (they can have a tourney with him and Shamrock as the finals, Shamrock being a Cinderella finalist) at the D-X PPV. From there you build Austin up as he recovers from the neck injury, then you just do the Tyson WM build. I don't think much of anything would change in the long term. The only thing that would change is Vince's effectiveness as the evil boss. WCW would have likely still gone in the tank and the WWF would have dominated, just a bit later than it turned out.

Dare I say that perhaps basketball is getting back to the way it was in the 60s and 70s? I took a look at the top 20 polls from years back then and it wasn't at all bizarre to find the likes of OVC teams, MVC, Big West, even friggin Centenary made the top 20 one year. It should be noted that the Missouri Valley at one time was in fact a bad ass league that was certainly a major conference. U of L made some FFs out of the MVC, Memphis St. did as well. Drake made the FF in 1969 or so I think. Indiana St. made it in 1979, albeit after the MVC was blown up when the good teams left to form the Metro.

I agree. Let's face it, in some way virtually every angle or booking decision of the past 9 years has had something to do with Bret Hart. He made Austin's career and also by being screwed made Vince's onscreen character that he is still running into the ground today. I've often wondered if Bret was bitter simply because he was screwed, or if it was because he was screwed and Vince used it to launch the WWF to new heights. If they had totally fallen apart after Montreal, I wonder if Bret would be so bitter.

Heh, there could be another marine training movie with R. Lee Ermey except this time it's the entire movie and not just the 1st hour (followed by a boring 2nd hour). I have thought for a while that someone should do a remake of The Prisoner of Zenda. We're due for one anytime now. It'd probably draw better than Count of Monte Cristo did since it's more lighthearted. Give me Viggo Mortensen as Rassendyll and Johnny Depp as Rupert of Hentzau and that'd rock.

I am baffled as to why anyone is trashing the 3 way. With a bit more time and a couple more innovative spots it could have been really terrific. It was still easily the best match on Raw last night. I do agree that Shelton is totally heatless without his mom though. That match had several good bits: --As mentioned, the finish was creative. It seemed like something out of the X Division. --RVD and Flair seemingly getting busted open hardway and then actually working each other's cuts. I dug Van Dam kicking the crap out of Flair's forehead. --An amusing bit where Shelton gave Flair the thumb to the eye. I mean what exactly are they supposed to do? The big spots have to be saved for the actual MITB match at WM. I'm split as far as SNME and Raw goes. I thought SNME was a shit show that came off almost like an infomercial for WM with all the talking segments. Raw I thought was pretty decent last night, though I continue to not give two shits about the whole Vince/Shawn angle. I am flat out terrified that we might see a redux of the McMahon/Helmsley Regime again. It's all right there too....Steph being pregnant and mentioned on TV, HHH now onscreen with Vince and Shane.

Let's cut to the chase here about something. The theory is that UT needs to put people over. The thing is...who exactly? If you look at that SD roster I'm not sure exactly who is worth jobbing UT out to. I might say Lashley in a year or so but not right now (he's getting a rub from another grizzled veteran, Fit Finlay). And the fact remains that Orton simply isn't worth salvaging at this point. When there is literally nothing a guy can do to get over, not even badmouthing a much loved and deceased star, then it's time to give up. HHH killed the guy's heat and credibility, so just give up and move on and push some other untalented 6 ft. 5 OVW trainee. I mean Orton is the very definition of a guy who 10 years ago would have been released if for nothing else to save his own career. If there was a WCW I can assure you he'd have gone there after the one-two punch of HHH and UT both burying him.