MPrior

No worries, man. Your bracket is cush. Drake or UConn could obviously put up a fight, but they're not as scary as most other 4/5 seeds.

As an avid UNC fan, I sort of agree with you, but you have to understand why UNC fans would be frustrated by a more difficult bracket - the whole idea is to be fair, so that every top seed has a roughly equal path to the final four. That said, I don't think UNC's bracket is necessarily that much tougher than the rest (last year, though, was a different story. That was ridiculous). The only thing that really peeves me is Indiana's 8 seeding. That's absurd, and Arkansas is probably better than a 9 seed too. Either way, it sets up UNC for a more difficult 2nd round game than any other 1 seed, probably.

I don't want to whine too much, because the light side wound up winning, but the refs' absolute refusal to ever call a foul on any Duke player in the paint was also very frustrating. Hansbrough got beat up nearly every time he got the ball down low - heck, he even got elbowed in the face - and it's the first game this year that he didn't go to the foul line all game. Anyway, what a game. I think I will remember Danny Green's dunk over Chris Paulus for many years to come.

I was also at this game. I had decent seats, too, which is unusual for me. Burnitz really was awful that game - not just the crucial error, but he also came up to the plate in key positions and repeatedly looked awful.

It's absurd to call TLR a substance abuse enabler just because players around him have had problems with substance abuse. I mean, maybe - MAYBE - there's something to it, but there's no way you can reasonably claim that there is without a much closer look at the way he runs his clubhouse, which none of us really have. Until then, it's a pretty silly thing to say. All that said, calling TLR a baseball genius because some people claim that his teams have overperformed is also silly. For one, the evidence is biased and anecdotal, and two, even if his teams HAVE overperformed, it would still just be correlative.

I can't help it. I really enjoy it when Duke loses. Especially when it means that Carolina has a good shot at the ACC regular season title, when it really wasn't looking good there for a bit. Not that anyone but me cares, but Quentin Thomas is finally looking like a decent point guard. I'll still be thrilled to have Ty Lawson back, though. I'm a bit worried about Wake Forest if we don't have him running the show.

He would definitely take up two spots, don't you think? Hyuk hyuk hyuk.

On second thought, I don't think that's a smile. Definitely a grimace. Yes, a grimace. For sure. Clearly he regrets his decision.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20080216/i/r3287558074.jpg?x=176&y=345&sig=cuynuCPt.pyr8J_a1IUL0Q-- http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080220/capt.584b80194059469e8274de127e874865.padres_spring_baseball_azmg108.jpg?x=208&y=345&sig=n4RHdPaxm_397.hGCIggKw-- This hurts my soul a little. I know, that ship has sailed, and all that. But it's still...Mark Prior. In another uniform. And SMILING, DAMMIT!

I'm in, if no one else has claimed the spot.

Yeah, I feel real sorry for the guy. Except for the whole multi-millionaire part.

Yes, we sure are awfully lucky to lose the most important player on our team, when his only reliable backup is out for the season, three days before the most important game of the season thus far, and a week before another very significant game. Oh, and Clemson's out-of-sight 3-point line in regulation sure was lucky for Carolina (admittedly, that had a lot to do with poor perimeter defense, but still). There are a lot of ways you could describe Carolina. "Pretty good," "inconsistent," "fun to watch," "poor on defense," "fast," these are all reasonable things to say. But I sure don't see what makes them so lucky. Also, I cannot wait to get the ball out of Quentin Thomas' hands. Even when the stat line looks okay, as it does in this most recent game, he's still terrible. Ty Lawson can't come back too soon. The Clemson game last night, took two overtimes even though you guys took 35 free throws and Clemson took 7. (i understand the hypocrisy of this statement). Clemson had a whole bunch of shots to win the game that rimmed out. First Clemson game- Clemson gambles and misses on the pass and Ellington makes a shot to win the game in the last 5 seconds in overtime Georgia Tech- They miss two open shots in the last 10 seconds that both would have won the game. I guess what I'm trying to say is that only looking at the last couple of shots of a game is a very bad way to determine how lucky a team is. You could just as easily say that GT and Clemson were lucky to be in the position to take those shots in the first place. All that said, I think a discussion of luck in college basketball is largely irrelevant anyway. Ken Pomeroy keeps a "luck" statistic, which is basically a measurement of the disparity between a team's true performance (in terms of efficiency) and their actual record, but even he says it's pretty meaningless.

Yes, we sure are awfully lucky to lose the most important player on our team, when his only reliable backup is out for the season, three days before the most important game of the season thus far, and a week before another very significant game. Oh, and Clemson's out-of-sight 3-point line in regulation sure was lucky for Carolina (admittedly, that had a lot to do with poor perimeter defense, but still). There are a lot of ways you could describe Carolina. "Pretty good," "inconsistent," "fun to watch," "poor on defense," "fast," these are all reasonable things to say. But I sure don't see what makes them so lucky. Also, I cannot wait to get the ball out of Quentin Thomas' hands. Even when the stat line looks okay, as it does in this most recent game, he's still terrible. Ty Lawson can't come back too soon.

In response to your earlier question, yes, I'm a huge UNC fan. In response to this quotation, people actually bet against Duke in this game? Much as it pains me to admit it, Duke is probably a better team than UNC WITH Ty Lawson, at least until UNC starts playing some defense. Without him, I'm surprised we were only down by five with a minute and a half or so to go. Actually, believe it or not, I'm encouraged by this game. It always sucks to lose to Duke, but it seems pretty clear to me that if Ty Lawson had been running the point rather than Quentin Thomas (who really shouldn't be running the show), we would have won. I don't know if we'll win in Cameron, but I still like our chances. I thought Quentin Thomas played fairly well yesterday, but I agree that Lawson would have been much better. The thing that would help the most, IMO, with Lawson coming back is taking some of the defensive attention away from Ellington and Green. Really? He was terrible. He had a couple of nice plays, but that was more than made up for with his numerous boneheaded ones, in addition to his complete inability to distribute the ball. As far as the rest of your point, I think that's a definite advantage of Lawson's return, but I don't think it's close to the biggest. The biggest might simply be that Lawson could probably defend Paulus. Plus, I think Lawson's ability to put the ball where he wants it would've helped Ellington and Green as much as diverting defensive attention away from them - they spent the whole night trying to create plays on their own, cause Thomas wasn't helping much. Anyway, here's hoping Ty's back for the Clemson game, and that we put up a better fight later this season in Cameron.

In response to your earlier question, yes, I'm a huge UNC fan. In response to this quotation, people actually bet against Duke in this game? Much as it pains me to admit it, Duke is probably a better team than UNC WITH Ty Lawson, at least until UNC starts playing some defense. Without him, I'm surprised we were only down by five with a minute and a half or so to go. Actually, believe it or not, I'm encouraged by this game. It always sucks to lose to Duke, but it seems pretty clear to me that if Ty Lawson had been running the point rather than Quentin Thomas (who really shouldn't be running the show), we would have won. I don't know if we'll win in Cameron, but I still like our chances.

I kinda doubt there's any space left, but if there is, I'll join.

All this means is that when Carolina loses to Duke tomorrow, I'll have an excuse. I agree with you that Lawson is the engine that makes the team go. I love watching him play.

The people who didn't catch it and thus posted serious responses made it funnier. Very true. What was even better was the wording: it went from "huge hole @ss" to "fine @ss." I was very pleased.

You know, I hadn't even realized he'd been missing, which makes me feel a little stupid. It should be OBVIOUS when Dick Vitale is not announcing games. Man I can't stand him.

Heh...it starts at 8 your time on Saturday morning. Good luck :lol: It was hell getting up for it, but it was worth it. Can't go - only current students with active Bruin Cards or those with tickets for the game are allowed in. :( Raisin - I've got an active Bruin Card (yeah, I'm taking classes at UCLA now - a story for a different thread. My allegiances, however, have not changed). I doubt anyone would let you in with my card, though. Plus, it's a little late for that. I'll be up at around 7 tomorrow morning anyway if you want to try it. I'll PM you my number. I realize that whole thing should probably have just been PMed, but now that I've written it I'm too lazy to fix it. On a basketball note, I am enormously pissed that UNC refuses to play even tolerable defense. They've got the best offense in the country, and lots of athletic guys who should be able to play defense. I'm afraid we'll lose to Duke twice this year, which would be intolerable.

Wait - how much better than DeRosa is he exactly?

Usually I get fed up with everybody's criticisms of UNC's defense - everybody always says they're terrible defensively, when frequently, they're very good. I think last year they were in the top three or four teams in the nation in defensive efficiency. However, this year, their defense is legitimately mediocre. Brandan Wright was a huge defensive presence, and we're missing him much more defensively than we are offensively. Deon Thompson and Alex Stepheson need to play their size, and Hansbrough, while I love him, isn't the greatest defender either. Plus, Bobby Frasor, one of our better defensive guards, went down for the season. As for the rankings, I like being #1, but I'm probably in agreement that they're not the best out there. Then again, the rankings are pretty meaningless at this point, and there's no clear #1 anyway. Also, I hate to say it, but Duke may be, yet again, one of the best teams in the country. By offensive and defensive efficiency alone, they're the best team out there by a wide margin. Obviously, that's overly simplistic, but I'd watch out for them to be better than people expect, despite the loss to Pitt.

My feeling, which should be taken with a big ol' grain of salt (I never feel informed enough about these things), is that Huckabee will win in Iowa, but won't come close to actually winning the nomination.

Go back while you still have the chance! Don't follow the light!

I've never been too high on Pie, but I still think you're overstating the case here with the groupthink and trading Pie for crap stuff. I have significant doubts as to whether Pie will succeed much at the Major League level (and no, this is not due to his brief time in the majors this past season; it has more to do with his poor plate discipline and his inability to hit lefties), but I still would only trade him for a good return - i.e., a significant player who would help our team out, like Greene, or Bedard. I would not include him in any trade for Roberts, for example. Secondly, despite my misgivings, I still have high hopes for the guy, and if he's still in the organization when 2008 rolls around, I absolutely think we ought to start him in CF and stick him there for at least a while (the one possible exception being when there's a tough lefty on the mound).