March Madness: it seems to start earlier every year

Reading ESPN on-line, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Big Ten listed as "what looks like the best conference in the country". Finally, the Big Ten is started to get some respect from all those ACC lovers out there. And why shouldn't we with Illinois, Michigan St., and a resurgent Indiana.

While I am pleased with the Big Ten love, I do have doubts. Yesterday, Michigan St. played Tennessee Tech in what might have been their most piss-poor performance to date. Actually scratch that. The worst game was in Hawaii where Izzo apparently let the starters booze up and dehydrate themselves before the game so they had to be pulled out with leg cramps. Anyway back to the point. Michigan St. went over 6:00minutes without scoring in the Tennessee Tech game. That's just shameful and to top it off State's defense was half-ass at best. Personally, I think it was crap-ass. This kind of nonchalant, we're entitled to win type play might work against teams with lesser talent, but how they plan to beat Illinois like this on the 5th is beyond me.

But I have an even bigger concern. Princeton is 2-8 this year. With losses to Monmouth where they scored 21 points (or something equally pathetic) and Carnegie Mellon (which I don't think is even a D-I school). I never thought I'd see the day my alma mater crumbled like this (ok, maybe in football, but surely not in basketball). I remember the 1996 win over UCLA (then defending champs) in the NCAA tournament, watching them clean-up the league in 1997, seeing the Tigers get ranked (really ranked! Top 25) in 1998, and beating Big John Thompson's team in the NIT in 1999. I miss those days. Sure it's a rebuilding year, but wasn't last year too?

As a side, non-basketball related note. I am thrilled by the fact that UMich lost in the Alamo Bowl. After all the oohing-and-aahing sports commentators have been givinh Henne and the team in general, it was nice to see their predictions fall flat. All the more special since Nebraska hasn't really been much of anything since Crouch won the Heisman and the "it's okay to beat on your girlfriend" Coach Osborne left. Interestingly, he [Coach Osborne] is/was also in the US House as... gasp... a Republican? Surprised much.