Yes, I made a "The Air Up There" reference.

NBA season starts tonight (actually yesterday, but just for 4 teams), and college basketball starts after Thanksgiving. As usual, I will be rooting for my Golden State Warriors and Cal Golden Bears. I recently started following European club soccer/football, and I picked Arsenal and Barcelona as my favorite teams. If Nick Hornby accuses me of bandwagoning, I can simply point out the many years of futility and inept play I've had to endure in my basketball fandom, and I'm sure he'd immediately agree that I deserved to be a "Gooner." I tried being a Manchester United fan, just to see what the view was like from the top, but I didn't like it. I always expect my team to lose, and when they don't, it's like finding a $100 bill on the street and guiltily pocketing it.

It should be a pretty exciting league this season. Lebron should be even better, and he didn't go to the Knicks, thankfully. The young Bulls look exciting, slaughtering Shaq's Heat last night. And jaysey's Portland Trailblazers...um, well they have Brandon Roy.

I'm an NBA fan also. It's both interesting and a little distressing to me how the "transitional period" after Michael Jordan's retirement doesn't seem to be ending. I know the "greatest of all time" doesn't come around too often, but it seems like the league has lost a lot of casual fans. You would think that each generation would want its own heroes, and that players like Lebron and Dwyane Wade would be talented and likeable enough to fit the bill, even if they aren't the GOAT. Maybe MJ himself threw things out of whack with his ridiculous stint with the Wizards.

But anyway, I enjoy the NBA, even though I don't have much rooting interest in any specific team. (My local team is the Knicks, but how exactly can one bring oneself to root for them? The Nets are fun, though.) I agree with liking the Bulls. With all those guys from the very top college programs, they combine the teamwork I like about college ball with the athleticism I like about the NBA. I dislike the Spurs, who combine boring basketball with the constant presence of Eva Longoria.

Y'all! Bruce Pearl, the TN Men's BBall coach was here last night for a BBall game to watch one of our high school players and I didn't know it! Dammit! I could have posted a picture of me and Bruce hugging today if my kids would tell me things. DAMMIT!

He's no Pat Summitt, dad gummit.

No, but rumor has it that Pat is going to come out in a cheerleading suit tonight before the UT/Ky game.

GO VOLS!

After seeing Pearl's Orange blazer last night it kind of hit home how obnoxious that color is when that's all you see in the stands, on the sidelines, or stumbling down Cumberland Avenue with a beverage in hand. It's almost as bad as hearing Rocky Top a gazillion times in a row.

It's great to be a Tennessee Volunteer but but sometimes embarassing and I can see where sometimes we're almost as hated as the Yankees.

I missed the tipoff of the UT/UK game, did Pat show up as a cheerleader?

NO, much to my husbands dissapointment. She may have been there, I didn't see her. Fulmer showed up though, probably for the Nachos. And I sooo agree with you on the Orange. Holy Cow! The Orange is awful. It goes with nothing and very few people can "wear" it.
While everyone is talking about Lofton, I just wanna say Chism has the moves. Some of the shots he took and made looked impossible. And that fake? At first I thought he had messed up and I was about to cuss him.

I'm sure if she were there, they would have shown her. I'm guessing the Bernard King tribute made her shy away from any distraction so that was a classy move not to upstage Bernard.

I used to be Bernie in my own personal backyard version of the Ernie and Bernie Show. Man he was good.

Well, it seems I got you men folk all het up for nothing. I was just informed that Pat let on she and her staff were working on something for the FL game. Lord! Can't you see them doing a routine at the beginning of that game?

Pat said after the Vandy game that she and her staff WILL be doing something for the TN/FL game tonight. It's going to be on ESPN at 9pm.

Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt As A Cheerleader
She even flashes her draws!

Thanks, buffy. I missed it live, because, by the time I clicked over at 9:00 CENTRAL time, it was halftime. I R dum. I did watch the end of the game with clinched buttocks while the Vols' 27 point lead shrunk to 8 before the Gators ran out of time/momentum.

It seems that Bruce and his wife started the Dane Bradshaw scholarship. He was the only senior last night and when they honored him, Bruce said they had dontated $100,000 of their own money for the new scholarship. He said something like, "I was a poor man up until a couple years ago, and it just felt like the right thing to do."

Tyler Hansbrough suffers cheap shot from Gerald Henderson
I'm not sure it was intentional, but I'm am pretty sure Henderson went in hot and intended to "foul hard" or whatever you call it.

I'm so pysched! My team (a mid-major) had no chance of going to the tourney without winning our conference tourney. We did and we got a decent #11 seed. Too bad they are playing in Cali our I would be making my travel arrangements now.

Our women's team are going to the tourney also, but the suspense is just the seeding. (no auto-bid, but we actually have a way better women's program's than men's)

I love March Madness!

Echoooooo....

Anybody in here's bracket totally screwed. Thank you Duke for once again giving me a reason to hate you!

Who's your team? I love women's college basketball.

ETA: Okay, I'm an idiot. I realized an hour later that I could just check for the men's eleventh-seed in Cali. Wow...good ol' Gee Dubya. You guys had a great season. Heck, you beat us (I'm a Georgia guy). We may actually get a chance to tussle again in Dallas. Y'all should roll in the first round and then have Texas A&M for what looks like one of the very best second round matchups.

I don't care what any of the experts say...that region's up for grabs. North Carolina has self-destructive tendencies and I'm just not sold on either A&M or Purdue yet. It should be a fun weekend.

I had a perfect bracket today except for that damn Duke loss. It would have been the first time in years that I managed to go without any losses the first day. Why couldn't it have been North Carolina that got upset? I gladly would have taken that loss. I've hated that team since I was about 6 years old.

Since I got three of the four opening games wrong, I can't really blame Duke for my bracket being trashed (although they were a loss for me too). It's my just reward for choosing based on friends' and family's alma maters, pet names, and school affiliation (I would never pick Oral Roberts!).

I still love the opening days of the tournament when there's a new game like every twenty minutes!

The NCAA can kiss my Duke-beating not-invited NCSU butt. Screw you guys, I'm going home.

My bracket is in decent shape (beside the fact that I had to go with my heart and had GW advancing further than was realistically possible). I had Duke going out to VCU.

I'm looking forward to the women's game - hopefully after our loss so early in the A-10 tourney they are back on track.

___________

Edited 3/19:

Mike, we are one game away from meeting back up next week

I told you I wasn't sold on A&M! Way to go, Gee Dubya!

See you in Dallas!

(Isn't it nice to play the first day, take care of your business, and then just kick your feet up and watch the rest of 'em?)

Awesome. Thank you, Fark. Go Warriors!

I don't pay a lick of attention to the NBA usually, but I sort of got interested in the Dallas/Golden State series. Plus, as much as I admire Mark Cuban's involvement in making socially conscious films, I think he's an ass as an owner.

Seeing Golden State whop Dallas was wonderful, or at least seeing it for three quarters, because I'm on the east coast and that was WAY past my bedtime. I love watching basketball players hit three-point shots. It's just amazing to me, and Golden State was hitting them at will it seemed.

Jedzz, are you a W's fan too? I seem to recall you were a Giants fan, so I assumed you were from the Bay. We don't have to be ashamed anymore!

Bart: I feel so...what's the opposite of shame?
Marge: Pride?
Bart: No, not that opposite.
Homer: Less shame?
Bart: Yeah....

Finally, I can take this paper bag off my head!

Actually, I'm not really a die-hard fan. I'll root for them, but I don't usually like watching basketball, and the Warriors are relegated to being ignored except for checking the scores in the morning paper. However, I made an exception when it began to look like the W's could make the playoffs, and started following the games. I'm sure that will come to a halt next season when they start 1-5.

Usually, I roll my eyes at bandwagon jumpers, but this is such a neat story that I'm willing to live as a hypocrite for now.

Jezuz, Kobe is a big fucking cry baby spoiled brat asshole. Just GO!

GAH!

Never should have let Shaq go. Sure, he was a lazy son of a gun at the beginning of the season, but he was a STAH!

Go Cavs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank God they won. I wouldn't have subjected myself to Pistons-Spurs. I'll at least watch now.

This is the most painful NBA finals to sit through. And I'm not even rooting for anyone, per se. I just want to see some good basketball. I love LeBron, but the only thing I'm a witness to is the Spurs beating the snot out of Cleveland. I predicted SA in five, but I didn't think it would be like this.

I'm still bitter about Miami ganking Dallas in six last year, but for some reason I didn't even care when they went out this year. Maybe I'll feel the loss in 2010 or something.

For me, the only acceptable outcome would've been the Cavs winning and LeBron stepping up to officially accept The Anointing, you know? San Antonio winning yet another title in four of the ugliest basketball games ever played is pretty much the worst case scenario come to life.

Both teams combined shot 38% tonight. Just brutal.

It is indeed nap-tacular. I really like the Bill Walton-less announcer team, but LeBron or no (I guess the one silver lining is that he's getting this out of his system so that he can do better in future Finals), the games are just crap. Goddamn Spurs.

Chamique Holdsclaw, whom Mike and buffy will obviously remember -- once thought to be on track to becoming the premier women's basketball player of her generation -- suddenly retired (at the age of 29) for undisclosed reasons, after having battled depression and multiple family health problems in the last couple of years. Hope she's ok.

I've never seen another basketball player, male or female, with the kind of prodigious balling gifts 'Meek was blessed with...and who, at the same time, consistently displayed less easily-discerned "fire" and passion for the game. I never pegged her for a lengthy pro career.

That said...I, too, hope she's okay.

The air about town is still excitement for the fact that this very young team made it to the Finals. Normally, the fair-weathered Cleveland fans would be griping about how LeBron isn't all he's cracked up to be....that Cleveland embraced Gibson and now he's let us down...we'd have done better if Hughes had been healthy, etc. I'm proud the city is collectively holding their head up and saying "good for them for making the Finals".

I'm assuming San Antonio will let the Cavs have this next game, so they can win the championship on their home court.

Seven NBA championship rings for Robert Horry. The only non-Celtic with that many rings.

Seven rings. That's just sick.

Did anyone see the NBA All-Star Celebrity basketball game on Friday night? It was on where we were having a few drinks and it was like a fever dream. One team had Terrell Owens, Master P, Taylor Hicks and James Lafferty (Nathan from One Tree Hill) on it and was coached by Gabrielle Union while the other team (with Deion Sanders, Chris Tucker, Floyd Mayweather and Ando from Heroes) was coached by Alyssa Milano. Taylor Hicks biffed both of his free throws towards the end but then Master P made both of his to pull them ahead by 1 which is how they ended up winning (despite Taylor Hicks turning the ball over in the last seconds).

I just found it hilarious with the added bonus of both teams wearing argyle basketball uniforms.

No, I missed it! I just totally forgot it was on. I really enjoy the day before the All-Star Game. It's like a wacky carnival: the celebrity game, the three-point contest, intergender H-O-R-S-E, the point guard competition that I think I am the only person in the world who actually enjoys it, and of course, the dunk contest (Mike, did you appreciate Dwight Howard's Superman dunk?) The actual game is kinda blah, and in any event is just a basketball game, and thus not nearly as cool. Master P played pro ball for an independent league, so unless it was a total publicity stunt by that team (certainly possible), he is probably pretty good.

So despite the fact that there was a lunar eclipse last night, we knew that the Apocalypse wasn't nigh because Shaq missed a free throw. All is right with the world.