Tag: NCAA

Pass the Ball, Sign the Card.

“A new survey finds that 60% of incoming college football players support unions for college athletes. The horror! Were such unions allowed, our glorious cities would crumble to nothing more than shoddy tents stitched together from tattered remnants of Old Glory; our government officials would be loin-cloth-clad elders gathered in the rubble of an old McDonald’s passing a Talking Stick; our naked children would roam the urban wilderness like howling wolves, their minds as blank as their lost Internet connection. We would be without hope, dreams, or a future.”

Or would we? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar makes the case for an NCAA players’ union as a stepping stone to college athletes finally getting paid for their labor. This is a no-brainer to me – Why should everyone get rich off of college players but they themselves?“The athletes are left with the choice of either crossing their fingers and hoping their fairy godmothers will convince the NCAA to give up money that it doesn’t have to, or of forming a collective bargaining group to negotiate from a place of unified strength.”

Robbing Peter to Pay DePaul.

“It all starts with the person who seems committed to win the current spirited competition as the most loathsome person in American political life: Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The same Mayor overseeing the closing of fifty-four schools and six community mental health clinics under the justification of a ‘budgetary crisis’ has announced that the city will be handing over more than $100 million to DePaul University for a new basketball arena.”

Yet another exhibit in the general brokenness of today’s Democratic Party [See also: RepubliDems, Dems without Spines]: By way of Quiddity, Chicago mayor, former Obama consigliere, and one of the Village’s favorite High Democratic muckety-mucks Rahm Emanuel — who apparently was pulling a 19% approval rating in February — tries to offset school and health center closings in his city with a giant new arena for a sub-par basketball team. (Apologies in advance for the unwieldy, shoehorned-in Angry Birds analogy in the Nation piece.)

“The only explanation for this is that Rahm is scratching someone’s back in the DePaul Catholic hierarchy of Chicago…In this case, the hottest rumor is that approval of legalized gambling is on the horizon and the convention center’s locale will be its epicenter. The arena is, in effect, a Trojan Horse for a casino.”

As I’ve said several times before about this sort of shameful behavior — and Rahm is a frequent offender in this regard — if we Democrats are just going to act like Republicans, voters might as well pull the lever for the real thing.

America By Coach.

“You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the largest state school. This is actually a gross mischaracterization: Sometimes it is the basketball coach.”

Deadspin’s Reuben Fischer-Baum conjures up a map of the highest-paid public employee in each state, and, yes, it’s usually a coach. By way of comparison, the college players actually bringing in all the revenue get…nada.

Five Men of Harvard…

…gained victory today. (Sung to the tune of this.) Per tradition, I was out in Seattle over the past weekend for my college group of friends’ annual March Madness festivities. And, for the first time since…well, ever, Harvard actually won a game. This more than makes up for an otherwise sleepy set of second/third round match-ups — the most exciting by far was Butler v. Marquette — as well as my already busted bracket. I inexcusably bought the Gonzaga hype.

Madness — Our House.

(Sorry about the bad pun in the title, but I needed a new earworm in my head to help kill off the segwaying chimp ditty.) Anyway, so, yes, it’s that time of year: The madness is upon us once more. (FWIW, I picked Syracuse to win over Duke in the Final, but have zero confidence in my bracket this year.) Unfortunately — or fortunately, if you consider the past ten months — I’m missing my usual annual reunion of college friends, as it’s gonna be a work weekend…

The Patron Saint of Mediocrity (and the NCAA).

“And now a madness began in me. The madness of a man splitting in half…I began to see a way — a terrible way — I could finally triumph over God!” Well, ok, I’ll settle for winning a few of my pools. Yes, it’s March Madness time once again. I’ll post my bracket here once I’ve consulted the oracles (and the ghost of Leopold) further.

Update: And, after all that, I forgot to post my bracket. It’s here. After the first weekend, I have 12 of the Sweet Sixteen and a possible seven of the Elite Eight. Final Four: UNC over Memphis, with Louisville and Pitt watching.

Worst. Team. Ever.

“When the venerable Donnie Walsh arrived on Wednesday as the Knicks’ fourth president in seven years, he supplanted the least-loved incumbent since LBJ. During the four years and change of the Isiah Thomas era, the team lost more than 60 percent of its games, a ratio that got worse after Thomas added the title of head coach in 2006. Over that span, the Knicks have amassed the largest payroll (peaking at more than $160 million with luxury tax) and the third-worst record in the National Basketball Association. Never has so much been spent for so little in the world of sports. They’ve been called the worst team in the history of pro basketball, but they’re really much worse than that. These Knicks are worse than the fire-sale ’41 Phillies or the expansion ’62 Mets or the ’76 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were perfect in their winlessness. They’re the worst of the worst because of how they’ve lost, in petulance and complacency — and with management that bulldozed any critic it could not ignore.“

But how do you really feel? New York Mag‘s Jeff Coplon comes not to praise the Isiah-era Knickerbockers but to bury them, once and for all. The piece, entitled “Absolutely, Positively the Worst Team in the History of Professional Sports,” is both exhaustive and withering in detail, and well worth a read, if you’re of the rubber-necking persuasion.

Also, in basketball news, it looks like I got a B+ this year in bracketology. Thanks mainly to picking Kansas to win it all (a lucky guess, basically), my bracket scored in the 89th percentile overall.

Bracket Busted.

It wasn’t looking so hot anyway — still, Georgetown’s 96-84 overtime victory over UNC put the final nail in my 2007 bracket…I had Ohio State and Florida in the Final Four (along with Kansas — yes, all #1’s, I know), but UNC holding the trophy at the end. Ah well, perhaps next year. (And, in the meantime, I shouldn’t have a problem rooting for Baby Patrick.)