This year it was section 106 of the Staples Center. My brother and I swapped seats in that section’s sixteenth row and Arizona outscored Xavier en route to their second consecutive Elite Eight. It was our second annual (but really billionth) seat swap instigating a Sweet Sixteen comeback. Previously I’d called it sorcery. We even tried it again on Saturday but the only sorcery inside the Staples Center that night was exacted by Sam Dekker. The Sheboygan Sorcerer.
And isn’t it all silly?
With three Pac-12 teams into the Sweet-16 and another taking Wisco to the brink, I think it’s clear that Pac-12 is indeed the #ConferenceOfChampions. Indubitably the best in the country, right? BACK THE PAC. BACK THE PAC. BACK THE PAC.
OK, let’s be serious, that’s a ridiculous assertion. The reality is that three Pac-12 teams have won two games and three Sweet-16 teams lost to Washington (Oklahoma, remember?). Doesn’t make this any less fun, however.
The important thing is that LG has moved on to more important advertising campaigns like no heartlessly showing Derron Williams FTW. The worst. Continue reading
“Unfinished business.”
Four times Kaleb Tarczewski sad these words as he declared his return to Arizona. He doesn’t’ say much so the repeated phrase presumably meant a lot. I know it resonated with me. After all, we were just weeks removed from a devastating outcome in cursed Anaheim. Kaleb, Brandon Ashley and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson would join TJ McConnell in finishing the 2014 deed. And that’s how this season began: with the expectations of 2014. Continue reading
The second day of Pac-12 hoops was chalk. The day following the near advancement of the 12, 11, and 10 seeds we saw – pretty definitively – the 1, 2, 3, and 4 seeds move to the semis. I suppose that makes sense. The bad teams got beat by the good teams and one of the really good teams brought a whole lotta friends.
Day 2: Continue reading
Yesterday the conference announced it’s awards. These were voted on by the coaches, a means to acknowledge the work of their peers. The same group that competes with one another, tells one another they’re out of their weight class, take all of the California recruits, chastises the pace of another’s play, know nothing about police situations, or whom just simply don’t like each other. I mean, Apple ain’t soon declaring the Galaxy winner of a usability test, are they?
So, yes, this group justly voted for the conference superlatives so you should put a lot into them.
Here’s how I would’ve voted things (here’s how I voted before the season): Continue reading
It’s raw. It’s perhaps not technically sound. But what would it be if not unexpert. WANE: Technical Difficulties is back. Spencer and I get back on the podwagon a week deep into 2015 (there’s New Year’s talk) and a week deep into conference play (SPORTS!). We begin season two.
LISTEN:
(you can also jam it here, on Sound Cloud):
Pac-12 basketball is back and promptly things returned to how we know them. Which is nothing. The Bay schools let the Huskies know that they ain’t gotta go home, but they had to get the heck outta here. UCLA fans have fired up the same sentiment for their coach. Jordan Matthews? Well this week we’ll call him butter, cause he’s on a roll. Regarding our rankings, Utah remains at the top, a slaughtering of the LA schools their work, that looked just as cool as…well you know. A little of the good stuff:
The last week of Pac-12 hoops has looked real 2011-12. The conference wore losses to Stony Brook, UNLV, Hawaii, and Cal State-Bakersfield. No one is impressed. It was like there was an onslaught of Holiday parties and everyone showed up to work the next day prepared to send two emails and take a 90-minute lunch at Hooters (guilty). Of course Stanford beat Texas in Austin, which we predicted. But the Cardinal also took a two week break at the beginning of December to handle any Holiday partying. Additionally, they’re just weird. We’ll call it the KU-Dayton Theory.
In other news, someone got me a copy of The Interview [fist bump emoji]. Kim Jung Un has not showed up at my house. Yet.
Happy New Years Everyone. See you on the 15. Conference play starts this week. Continue reading
When these teams squared off a season ago, Michigan was unranked and playing with a broken Mitch McGary. Four months later they had no Mitch McGary and were outfight B1G champs albeit the unfortunate carnage of the Harrison family in the Elite Eight (doesn’t losing in the Elite Eight suck?). The Michigan Wolverines are a real deal basketball program and losing to the New Jersey Institute of Technology is not indicative of really anything. So strike that from your memories.
Of course these two schools are now forever-ish linked by the career of Rich Rodriguez. Arizona still hasn’t been to a Rose Bowl and Michigan doesn’t have a football coach. This is basketball season.
And so, for the final edition of this home-and-home series, I’m asking the hard question of UM Hoops blogger, Dylan Burkhardt, umhoops.com. The game is Saturday. The lesson starts now.
(here are the Q’s he asked me if you’re interested)
My questions. His answers. Continue reading
Nice to be back. I’m not about to walk us through my Friday night. I already exposed you to too much of my life in last week’s essay. So rather than tell you I absorbed pizza and beer and two screens worth of Pac-12 hoops, let’s just run through some astute observations and leap to gross conclusions about the season based off of one weekend. Rational? I just watched Interstellar so it’s all relative.
I only watched the first half of UCLA’s Friday game because they won by 1000 and the opening minutes of Sunday’s because of 2 hours and 45 minutes of hoping Matthew McConaughey would run into Cyrus the big bull in Space. But when I was tuned in I saw Norman Powell – he who we know needs to be an Alpha Bruin – swallow a rebound, run coast-to-coast, absorb contact and finish with utter authority. He’s Cyrus the bull, taking 15 FTs en route to 25 points on Friday. He perhaps cooled off on Sunday but not much, still collecting 13 points. Continue reading