Even considering the source, I’m kinda blown away that the Human Whoopee Cushion presumes everyone was watching the NCAA selection show and ignoring Japan/USA. For one thing, the latter began earlier. For another, there’s this amazing invention called TiVO — perhaps they’ll introduce it in the New York area one of these days.
And as much as I love seeing the guys from Minnow State Polytech sit in their folding chairs and watch the TV set watching them, when faced with a choice between an actual, live sporting event of even minor consequence (and I think the WBC qualifies on both counts) or a program consisting of guys talking about a sporting event that’s yet to begin, the live contest wins. Unless it was a Illinois game versus Tim McCarver interviewing Jascha Heifitz.
(your 2005-06 Mid-Continent Conference Champs, Oral Roberts University)
Ken Pomeroy’s measured assessment of yesterday’s selections and ommissions :
One thing that slipped by me last week was that this is the best field ever. There is only one team of the 65 that is outside the RPI top 150, and that™s Hampton who still has to play their way into the first round. There was a startling lack of major upsets in the conference tournaments. What does this mean? If a 16 ever beats a 1, it will be this season. To compound matters, the committee really got sloppy in giving Oral Roberts a 16-seed. To compound matters further, the Golden Eagles have drawn the weakest one-seed in Memphis. 16-seeds are 0-84 all-time. It™s safe to say Oral Roberts has a better that 1-in-84 chance of beating Memphis. Much better.
This tournament is more wide open than in recent years. There™s going to be some chaos in this first week. The gutless wonders out there picking a Duke/UConn final make me laugh. I mean that could happen, but it™s not as likely as a lot of people are making it out to be. Picking Memphis to go to the Final Four may be bracket suicide. They got a bad draw in the first round, but that shouldn™t be a big deal. Arkansas lurking in the second round is a big deal – the Hogs are the toughest potential second-round opponent for a one-seed.