Saturday, March 31, 2007

The Final Four and Some Other Notes

-- I figured I'd open up by talking about a commercial that's on all the time during the NCAA Tournament. I'm sure you've seen it; it's that stupid Esurance commercial where the woman or whatever is playing basketball against robots. First of all, I wasn't even aware that robots played basketball, other than Greg Oden of course. But second of all, what exactly is this commercial supposed to be selling? It can't be insurance. Are the people who come up with their ideas sniffing glue? I understand that they wanted to get into the moment of the tournament by making a commercial about basketball. Hey, awesome, but the commercial makes me dumber everytime I see it. This commercial alone is ruining NCAA basketball for me. Thanks a lot Esurance.

-- I read a great article earlier today by Keith Law of ESPN. He usually takes great stances on things, and I completely agree with his point of DUIs vs. steroid usage in baseball. How is one area not ok but the other, which is more dangerous, accepted and brushed under the rug? Definitely worth reading.

-- If you haven't seen the ending to the NCAA Division II National Championship basketball game between Barton College and Winona State, you might want to check that out. It has one of the best finishes I've ever seen. Also, pay attention to the amazing reaction by one of the excited announcers as he screams "GOOOOOOOOOOOD." Great clip.

-- I watched the Ohio State-Georgetown game earlier today. The 1st half wasn't exactly the best basketball I've ever seen, but the 2nd half was great. Once Oden and Hibbert were on the court going head to head, the game started to move along and had a much better feel to it. Even though Hibbert slightly outplayed Oden, at least on offense, Ohio State's guards just dominated Georgetown's. Conley was great and Ohio State kept attacking, especially while Oden was on the bench. I was really impressed with them, and it should be an interesting game no matter who they played in the championship.

-- On a similar note, I felt kind of bad for Georgetown after the game. For some reason, they continue to interview losing coaches right after the game. Why do they do this? What was JT3 going to say, how happy he was and that he was really glad to be in this situation? Maybe they should just leave the coaches alone to go talk to his players in the locker room. Interviewing losing coaches, for all sports, is really stupid and needs to stop. They feel bad enough, and it makes everybody else watching feel worse.

-- I watched the UCLA-Florida game while writing some of this, so I figured I'd leave some of my observations from the game here:


1st half ramblings:

-- Billy Packer is being really annoying, but I have no other options or choices for what to listen to. They should offer multiple combinations of announcers so you can choose who you want to listen to. And I bet no one would pick Packer.

-- Lorenzo Mata and Joakim Noah are facing off in this game, and they are two of the ugliest/weirdest looking people I’ve ever seen. This has to be the worst combination of basketball players on the court at the same time since Hedo Turkoglu and Tyrone Hill squared off in a battle of ghastliness.

-- UCLA plays probably the best defense in the country. There's been a real slow start to the game, which, I guess, was to be expected

-- You know, I watch CSI occasionally, and not one time did I ever wonder: Wow, wouldn’t the show be so much better if Method Man was in an episode?

-- Seven minutes into the game and Florida has two points. With a score of only 6-2, it's not exactly the most exciting game I’ve ever watched. Seven and a half minutes in and Florida finally has a field goal. Woo!

-- For some reason, Ben Howland leaves Afflalo in the game and he picks up his 3rd foul with 12 minutes left in the 1st half.

-- Noah makes a great anticipation play on a move by Collison and he hustles after the ball to almost get a steal and Packer sums it up by saying “he should have just picked up the ball.” Maybe he should say what he really thinks next time.

-- New rule: You can’t sell Miller High Life if you make customers pay $11.50 for a hamburger. That’s good to know for when I open my own restaurant chain. And also, does anyone watch Survivor? And if so, why?

-- Noah shows another dimension that he brings to the Gators when he grabs a rebound and leads the fastbreak down court. He can handle the ball really well, and he should be a good pickup for someone in the NBA. Very versatile. I also think that if Florida wins this game, that him and Horford will give Oden and Ohio State fits in the paint.

-- I’m convinced that the the guy in the Coke commercial with the ritual for VT sports has some sort of disorder, maybe Obsessive-compulsive. And why does he hate their field hockey program so much? Very mean. Somewhere, Mr. Nick Bennett, VT's field hockey team hates you.

-- I think marketing in sports has gone way too far. I just saw one of Florida’s coaches and he had a notebook/clipboard with Nike written on the cover. Unfortunately, no view of his possible Nike pen was available, though.

2nd half ramblings:

-- Three 3’s in a row by Humphrey, Roll, then Humphrey again. I haven’t been this proud since I last watched Hoosiers.

-- I hate every Chevrolet commercial. I think this is a good time to throw that out there.

-- UCLA is just completely struggling to manage any points in this game. They only have 28 with 13:55 left, and Howland just used his team’s LAST timeout of the 2nd half. This isn’t looking good at all. Looks like a rematch of the NCAA football championship will be coming.

-- Humphrey just broke the all-time NCAA mark for career 3-pointers in the NCAA Tournament. And I think he’d make a better pro than JJ Redick because he can actually play some defense. Just a great player on this team.

-- Remember that GM Super Bowl commercial from earlier this year with the robot that gets laid off? You probably don't, so here it is. Well, they just showed a version completely different than that one. In the newer one, the robot only works other various stupid jobs and never goes to a bridge and ponders committing “suicide.” Whoever thought of that first idea was a complete idiot and should have been fired. Just think about it. The robot is supposed to be like a laid off worker who is destroyed enough to almost commit suicide because he/she can’t find a good job. What could be less funny and more offensive than that? Great idea, let’s use it!

-- There’s about nine minutes left in this game and it’s pretty much over. This just seems like a JV team playing against Varsity. UCLA is a great team, but they just seem to be one scorer short. Maybe they’ll be back next year. That’s enough writing about this game. Ohio State-Florida should be pretty entertaining...

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