It's March, Bitches!!!!!

A) I couldn't look at Lady Elaine anymore, and B) it's time to start thinking about March Madness. Here are a few teams I like.

1) The Big-12 second tier. Mizzu plays that hard-to-prepare-for full court press. Their coach (Mike Anderson) took friggin UAB to conscucitve sweet 16s using this style and also made a run last year. They'll probably be a 7 or 8 seed who'll spring an upset. I also like Baylor as a 9-10 seed, and can you believe Texas A&M has won a tournament game in each of the last 4 years? No joke - look it up.

2) Ole Miss. Yeah, I know the Rebels might not even make the dance. But if they do, they've got the 3 guard lineup to scare anyone. I see a nice 10-7 upset for Ole Miss.

3) Ohio State. I'm hoping for OSU to fail in the Big-11 tournament and get like a low 2, high 3 seed in the NCAAs. If they do, the Buckeyes will lay in the weeds and reach the Final 4. I could easily see Evan Turner beat a young squad like Kentucky to reach Indianapolis.

4) Cornell. Out of the Ivy, Cornell will probably get a terrible seed. Doesn't matter. They'll scare the shit out of whoever they play in round 1 and 2. Book it.

5) Vanderbilt. Just look at their records the last 6 years, you'll be stunned. It's a good program. They'll win two games and you'll be asking WTF??

6) The Golden Eagles of Marquette. Has anybody exceeded expectations more than Marquette? I have to give props to Buzz....coming in they had: Lazar Hayward, a couple JUCOs, zero size, zero depth, and were picked 12th in the Big East. MU has crushed those predictions. They seem to play to the level of the competition, so if they play a junk team or a stud in the tourney, expect the game to be decided in the final minute.

Warning: You should probably bet AGAINST these teams as I really don't know what the F i'm talking about. Thanks.

Striker, Murdock, and I will be Curling on Saturday - so expect an awesome post about that experience. The odds of me falling on my ass? Even.

Garbage Drafts From The Last 25 Years

The 2002 NBA draft definitely makes First Team All-Shit for this topic -which hopefully becomes a regular feature post on this fine site.

Top 20 went like this (Editor's Note: I haven't followed the NBA closely since Reggie Lewis died, so please correct me if I'm wrong):

Yao - Good, but injury prone
Jay Williams - Career a car wreck, literally
Mike Dunleavy - Gay
Drew Gooden - Eh
Nikoloz Tskitishvili - WTF? Really?
Dajaun Wagner - A whopping 28 career starts in the NBA. His middle name is "Marquett," so that's a bonus. Yes, sans "e" at the end.
Nene Hilario - Pretty good player, but how would you like to be Nuggets fan...with the 5th and 7th picks you get Tskitter and Nene? LOL. Now THAT'S how you excite a fan base!
Chris Wilcox - I was HUGE on this guy coming out of Maryland. Fail.
Amare Stoudemire - Good
"Racine's Own" Caron Butler - Good
Jared Jeffries - Somehow, he's still an NBA starter
Melvin Ely - I believe he got shut down by Andy Kowske in the NCAA's. That's all you need to know about Melvin Ely.
Marcus Haslip - OUCH!
Fred Jones - He could jump...that's about it.
Bostjan Nachbar - I think he's Tskitishvili's cousin
Juri Welsh - Was he a Buck at some point?
Juan Dixon - Wins award for "Most Predictable Good College Player Who Will Get Drafted Too Early And Suck In The NBA" from this draft. Former winners include Mateen Cleaves, Kirk Haston, JR Ried, almost everybody from Duke, and Marcus Fizer.
Curtis Borchardt - A modern-day Loren Meyer.
Ryan Humphrey - I have zero recollection of this guy in College. He played at Notre Dame. Was he black? White? Center? Guard? Anyone?
Kareem Rush - No clue about his NBA exploits, but I do remember the Brothers Rush always being in hot water with the NCAA. We'll just assume Kareem smoked his way out of the NBA in three years.

If there was a re-draft of this greasefire tomorrow, It would probably look something like this:

Amare
Carlos Boozer
Yao
Tayshaun Prince
Nene
Butler
Gooden
And the rest of the teams would forefiet their picks to save cap space.

So there it is, the 2002 NBA draft...it's SHIIIIIIITTASTIC!!

Random Pair of Shoes I Once Wore

Nike Air Force V.
David Robinson Signature Shoe.
Purchased in 1990 for 8th grade basketball.

Growing up I was a big David Robinson fan. I had Robinson posters on my hall and way too many Spurs t-shirts for a kid in Wisconsin. So when Robinson's first signature shoes came out, I had to have them for what would be my last basketball season. My feet had just recently grown to the point where I had to start buying adult sized shoes which meant more money. The Air Force Vs were top of the line stuff, so they were up there in price. My parents set a $60 limit and I had to pay the rest with my snow shoveling money. I believe these things were at or over $100.

I that they looked awesome and loved them. Until I tried to play basketball in them. In 8th grade I was just your average sized guard and a stringbean. I think these things weighed as much as I did and came half way up to my knee. It felt like I had blocks on my feet. These shoes were definitely not designed for 8th grade point guards. Eventually I talked my parents into buying some $20 pair of shoes at the Nike Outlet to replace these monsters. However, they did look great with the Catholic school uniform.

The one other thing I remember about these shoes is that they game with some giant plastic Nike Air square key chain thing attached to the shoes. I took it off right away, but remember seeing others waring them with the key chain thing still attached. Remember, this was back when keeping all the tags on your baseball hat was cool. Anyhow, I can't imagine these shoes being any clunkier, but adding a key chain would definitely do the trick.

I cant imagine these things were that popular. They were just so clunky. There is a reason Nelly sang about Air Force Is and not Air Force Vs.

A little more info according to NiceKicks.com: The ultra high top cut is a favorite for vintage heads as well as the rubber mesh netting that covers the tongue and on the heel. The big Force logo is stamped on the tongue in case anyone thinks this shoe wasn’t made for a big man and the toe box features micro perforations.