Wednesday, March 02, 2011

03/02 Quickie: Sheen, BYU, CFB, More

Let's start with this, one of the most profound moments in the history of this blog:

Yesterday, I said that I was picking BYU to win the NCAA Tournament. I was being entirely serious about that.

Last night, BYU's best frontcourt player was booted off the team for the rest of the season (or, cynically, until he apologizes profusely, the coach reminds the "Honor Code" committee about the greater glory for BYU of a college basketball national championship -- or even a deep run in the Tournament -- and he is reinstated).

But, as it stands, this would be the most vicious example of the "Quickie Jinx" in the 8-year history of the Quickie and its accompanying jinx.

I did not think that I would ever be able to top the "Two Words: It's. Over." Quickie headline from 2004 after Game 3 of the ALCS, blared across the top of the front page of ESPN.com.

But this BYU whiplash is so severe, I actually allow for the idea that -- really? -- the Quickie Jinx might just exist for real, and not just as an inside joke.

Anyway, until Davies is reinstated -- and, to double-down on my BYU prediction skills, I'm going to say that by the end of the week, his expulsion is mitigated to a temporary suspension that leaves him eligible to play for BYU in the Tournament -- I will NOT be picking them to win the national title.

The biggest problem for me with that, of course, is that without the clarity of my BYU pick, I am completely at a loss for who to pick to go 6-0 in late March.

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Speaking of which, Championship Week started last night with the very early rounds of the smaller conferences. Here is why I love C-Week:

Theoretically, any team in the country can win the national title, regardless of how they played from November through Februrary.

All they have to do is win 10 straight, starting with the prelim round of their conference tournament. Win a few more and you've got the league's automatic NCAA bid. From there, win 6 straight and you've won the national title. No muss, no fuss.

Cinderella doesn't get going the first Thursday of the NCAAs; it starts right now.

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NFL Labor: I think the NFL will be just fine without its TV money (at least temporarily). A lot better than the NFL players will be without THEIR money.

CBB: I really want to believe in Florida this season. Since the back-to-back national titles, the team has endured a severe karmic payback. But I'm still skeptical. The SEC is so terrible this year, that the Gators' record is hard to calibrate against other teams that will end up on the 3-seed or 4-seed line, like Florida will. I'm hoping the team's experience will help -- plus two NBA-quality bigs in Vernon Macklin and Patric Young -- but the last few seasons have scarred me. I will content myself by following which contending NBA team Corey Brewer picks...

More: Ohio State's Jon Diebler (30 pts on 10 3s last night) is an incredible complement to Sullinger, Lighty and Craft. I'm loath to buy OSU to go 6-0, but 4-0? Probably.

Mets Mess: If the Wilpons really cared about the team and its fans, they would sell the team outright.

Serena health scare: "Pulmonary embolism" and "hematoma" and "emergency surgery" sound insanely scary. Here's to Serena's complete recovery and long-term health.

1 comment:

Brian in Oxford said...

Actually, Ivy League teams other than Princeton or Harvard have no shot at all.

(A decade or so ago, Dartmouth had the nation's longest winning streak because they had won their last few games in March, missed the tourney, and then started out with a win streak in November. And then they played UNC.)