Eliminated

I’m so glad the NCAA title game was close and entertaining. After a tournament chock full of mediocre contests, it’s so fulfilling that the last game of the season was so memorable and not a dud that would leave a bad taste of a blowout or bad basketball in your mouth. It’s definitely sad that we won’t have college rock for another 7-8 months, but at least it ended with a thrilling finish that will leave us a positive memory of the 2007-2008 season while we endure the cruel dog days of late summer regular season baseball. It’s definitely better than the way the college football season ended; with a blowout game featuring two teams many people doubted even deserved to be playing for the national championship anyway.

I’m not going to do much title game analysis, because better writers than I have already done so at great length. I will pat myself on the back however for the enormous success of the first ever edition of the Eliminator. Obviously, I’m not the only one that said poor free throw shooting could doom Memphis in the Tournament, but I did say it way back in February. In fact, Memphis was the first team I Eliminated, and one of the reasons I came up with the idea in the first place. If you will walk with me down memory lane, this is what I said about the Tigers on February 29^th:

You can’t win 6 straight Tourney games shooting the rock like that at the line. They may make a run to the Elite 8 or Final 4, but there’s no way Memphis win’s the title.

Thank you, thank you very much. Obviously the Eliminator wasn’t perfect though, as I only narrowed it down to four teams (Kansas, Carolina, Tennessee and Texas) and I was way off on my title pick (the Longhorns). But it was helpful in narrowing down which teams I would eventually pick to win it all, and I will definitely continue to do so in the future.

Some brief thoughts on the two Final Four games…

Concerning the Memphis-UCLA game, the Oceanliner would like to give credit to Billy Packer for his post-game analysis. I realize he can be a moron on occasion/often, but there are times when he is very astute and it comes through that he may actually be earning some of his pay. As the clock was winding down on the Memphis victory, Vanilla Nance asked Packer why the Tigers had pulled away. Billy responded with something along the lines of:

Well Jim, I thought the whole key to the game was UCLA not taking advantage of the foul trouble of the Memphis big men in the second half. Right after halftime, both Dorsey and Taggert had 3 fouls apiece and UCLA should have fed the ball to Love every chance they got. The Bruins missed a golden opportunity to feed the ball to their best post player and further the Memphis bigs’ foul trouble.

In my opinion, this was absolutely spot on. I even remember throughout the second half, whenever UCLA was bringing the ball up the floor, Packer would say “They need to feed the ball to Love in the post if they want to get back into this game”. This strategy error by UCLA is especially glaring when you look at what Kansas did to Memphis in the championship game, when they scored 44 of their 75 points from the paint.

Concerning the Carolina-Kansas game, for the first 15 minutes it looked like the basketball gods were tea bagging Gutie right in the face in emphatic style, laying a 40-12 smack down on his Tar Heels in response to the Wealth Manager’s inexplicable arrogance and stupidity. Then, to give Gutie a little hope, they let Carolina back within 4, but then promptly shoved their nuts in his face again for an easy 18-point win. I think a lesson has been learned here my friends.

One thing puzzled me while looking at the Carolina-Kansas box score, and that was the stat line for Marcus Ginyard:

32 minutes, 0-3 FG, 0 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 foul, 1 turnover, 0 blocks, 0 steals

It begs the question of what he was actually doing when he was on the court. I mean literally, what was he doing. I did a double take when I saw he had played for 32 minutes, because I hadn’t remembered hearing his name or seeing him the entire game, and I watched the whole thing. He only did 10 things all game, and he was in for 32 freakin minutes. Generously assuming that it takes 1 minute to do “something” in a basketball game, that still means Ginyard was a ghost for 22 minutes. He neither helped (no points, 3 boards, 2 assists, 0 blocks, 0 steals) nor hurt (1 foul, 1 turnover) the Tar Heels at all. So I’m still wondering, what (literally) did Marcus Ginyard do when he was on the floor against Kansas?

Well that’s it for this week folks. I am very excited about this weekend, as the Oceanliner is making his debut at the brand spanking new Nationals Park. Eminent roommate Schlingbaum got tickets from his pops and the Ribrary Courts triumvirate will be watching the Nats take on the Bravos on Sunday afternoon. I can’t wait. Until next time friends, same Oceanliner time, same Oceanliner channel.

My Better is Better Than Your Better

Not only is this the tagline to the awesome series of Nike commercials that are currently running, but "My Better is Better Than Your Better" should also be the tagline to this year's Final Four. All year long these four juggernaut teams have been showing the country why their better is better than everyone else’s better. North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA and Kansas all won their conference regular season and their conference tournaments. They are a combined 143-8. These four teams are so loaded it’s not even funny. The number NBA players on these four rosters is staggering: Derrick Rose, Joey Dorsey, Chris Douglas Roberts, Kevin Love, Darren Collison, Russell Westbrook, Josh Shipp, Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson…the list is absolutely ridiculous. This doesn’t even include bigs like Dean Thompson, Alex Stepheson, Sasha Kaun and Robert Dozier who could end up being serviceable post men in the Association some day. I wrote in an earlier post that this was a top-heavy tournament, but good God, I never expected it to be this lopsided. These Final Four teams hammer their opponents into submission and then keep going.

Your agility owes my agility 20 bucks

Agility is just part of what Memphis used to completely dominate a pathetic looking Texas team, who were the Oceanliner’s pick to cut down the nets. How’s that working out for me? The Memphis team is comprised of absolute freaks of nature, but they are also ridiculously good at basketball. Simply put, Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas Roberts manhandled the undersized DJ Augustin and AJ Abrams of the Longhorns. It was a joke. Rose and D-R were so much bigger, so much stronger and yet still just as quick as the helpless Texas backcourt. It was men playing against toddlers on the perimeter. Then you look inside and it was just as mismatched. Joey Dorsey vs. Connor Atchley? Please. Dorsey is one of the most jacked players in the country and threw Atchley around like a rag doll. Seriously, when Dorsey took his shirt off after the game his back and shoulder muscles were bulging out of his body. He looked like a freak defensive end and not a power forward. That dude is scary as hell. He is definitely part of the Adrian Joseph and Latrell Spreewell mold that makes you think, “Man, it really wouldn’t surprise me if this guy stabbed someone before the game.”

My quick smells like French toast

Quick is Ty Lawson exploding up and down the floor for Carolina. With Lawson at the point the Tar Heels are the fastest team in the country and run circles around the competition, if you can call it that. The rest of the team isn’t exactly a bunch of slouches either. We all know about Hansbrough, Ellington and Green, but its not like Thompson, Stepheson, Marcus Ginyard and Will Graves suck either. They would be dominant starters at most other schools. No, it’s just Quentin “Human Turnover Machine” Thomas that sucks. Seriously, he’s really bad.

There is one thing that should make Carolina fans worry however, and that is one of their own openly flaunting the basketball gods. I received a text from the Wealth Manager during the Washington State game that read:

Nobody can hang with the heels...i love it

Gutie was walking the fine line between confidence and cockiness, so I decided to be of help and replied

The bball gods dont like arrogance, id be careful

Apparently Gutie isn’t one to believe in karma, as he replied with a slap in the face of Zeus himself:

I defy the bball gods...mark my words

Such pompousness, such gall! Such flaunting of the established code of basketball ethics and fanhood! If the Tar Heels lose, we will obviously know why. Gutie’s brash and callous text angered those deities high on basketball’s Mount Olympus, and they responded accordingly.

My speed is already watching the next commercial

Speed and strength on defense is why Kansas held off a tough Davidson team. The Jayhawk defense on Stephen Curry in limiting him to 9-25 shooting was the difference. This was especially evident on the last possession, where the Kansas guards refused to let Curry get even a sliver of a glimpse at the basket, forcing him to give up the last shot to Jason Richards, who bricked horrendously from 25 feet.

This stellar perimeter defense will be imperative for Kansas against Lawson and North Carolina. But the match up I’m most looking forward to from the Carolina-Kansas game is one that may not even happen but I’m praying it does: Brandon Rush vs. Danny Green. Both these guys are so polished, so smooth, so quick, so athletic and so good that it would be a treat to see them go at it for hopefully much of the game. I don’t know how the two teams will match up defensively, but a Rush v Green battle would be amazing as a basketball fan.

Your speed moves like a gravy boat

I don’t have anything on the UCLA-Xavier game, mostly because I didn’t watch it. But I did want to add this extra line from the Nike commercial, because it is great.

All in all, let’s hope this Final Four lives up to the hype, because the games really haven’t been that great. But maybe everything was just building to three of the most mind bogglingly good games we’ve ever seen. I for one, can’t wait.

Well, that’s it for this week folks. If you are not planning to watch the Final Four this weekend, well you can either change plans to do so or stop reading this brog. Hope everyone out there is doing well. Until next time, stay safe, keep it real and go Nats.

Miracles

Do you believe in miracles? No, I’m not talking about the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, the litany of darlings in this year’s NCAA Tournament (Davidson, Western Kentucky, Villanova), or even the fact that “Two and Half Men” is the highest rated comedy in the country. Seriously, how do people like that show? No, I’m not even talking about Sean Singletary’s 6 points in the last 6 seconds (including a banked 3 to tie) against ODU in the quarters of the College Basketball Invitational on Monday. The miracle I’m referring to is Ryan “Pett” Pettinella going three straight games with more points than fouls. I had written off this Oceanliner original feature 4 games ago when Pett fell into his deepest hole of the season and reached minus 15 on the Richter scale. But slowly, steadily and frighteningly for free throw coaches, Pett has scored in the plus for 3 straight contests now and has cut his deficit to minus 8 heading into tonight’s Final Four game (of the CBI) against Bradley. If the Hoos win tonight, it gives Pett at least two more games after that to try and rally from the darkest hole imaginable, and maybe three. This is only possible because this inaugural CBI has a final that is a three game series. Yup, you read that right. So let’s all keep our fingers crossed. I would be truly stunned if Pett finished the season with 5 straight more points than fouls games to get himself back into the red, but it would be a fantastic finish.

It would such a fantastic finish that my coworker and I started thinking about who would play the title characters of this drama if it were turned into a major motion picture. The most important role is obviously Pett himself. After careful consideration, I think Chris Klein (the lax jock in American Pie) would play the title role beautifully. Just check out the similarities between these two “studs”:

Next we need the filler for Dave Leitao. This role cannot be taken lightly, as it is Leitao’s furor and passion that pushes Pett to try and finish his senior year with more points than fouls. I’m thinking Sam Jackson here. Next we need a grim character to play the UVA Sports Information Director who midway through the season realizes what a dubious record Pett is about to set. This one was easy. No one is grimmer and more hardass at the same time that Fred Thompson in Die Hard 2 as the air traffic controller.

“My God…Pett has more fouls than points and we are halfway through the season. Christ help us all.”

It’s pure harmony. Some of the other characters are shoe ins as well. Lars would obviously play himself. No one could match his level of awkward intensity and tool-isheness. Plus no one could replicate his very strange sweat patterns. Julia Stiles would have to play a cheerleader that ends up sleeping with a black guy; that’s just what she does in movies. We would have to work in Sean Patrick Thomas in as well, as he only has UVA to hold onto anymore. He would fill in nicely as reserve players Solomon Tat or Jerome Meyinsse, or both. I am still brainstorming on other roles in this masterpiece. Please feel free to leave any suggestions as to who should star in this bio epic.

In all honesty now though, has anyone seen the end of the UVA-ODU game where Singletary had 6 points in the final 6 seconds to seal the win? Insane. Here is the link to watch this crazy video:

http://www.virginiasportstv.com/?v=1674&f=.mov

Singletary is amazing. As I said before, we play Bradley tonight in one semifinal, and if we advance we will play the winner of Tulsa and Houston in a 3 game series final. Too bad none of it is televised.

Moooooving on. So the final Eliminator never really happened (sorry to crush everybody by not providing last minute bracket analysis). It’s a little late now to update, but I’m going to do it anyway, and you’ll just have to believe that this is what I was going to say before last Thursday. It helps that two of my Eliminator picks are already out, for the exact reasons I predicted. Here is a direct quote from my February 29^th column: “At some point the 3’s will stop falling, and that’s when the Devils will lose.” Against West Virginia, Duke missed 15 straight triples at one point. That’s all there is to it. Georgetown was another Eliminator pick, mainly because of Roy Hibbert’s marginality. He had a Pettinella like night against Davidson with 6 points and 5 fouls. Buh bye Hoyas.

This is where you will just have to believe me, now that I’m talking about teams that are still in it. This is an incredibly top heavy tournament in my opinion. I think the best 8 or so teams are head and shoulders above the competition. I think it is impossible that a 1 or a 2 seed doesn’t cut down the nets this year. This means Wisconsin, Louisville, Wazzu, Xavier, Stanford and Michigan St can all kiss their title hopes good bye, along with the obvious low seeds like Villanova, Davidson, Western Kentucky and West Virginia. Now Duke and Georgetown are already gone as two seeds. And from past Eliminators we know that UCLA and Memphis will not be national champions. Again, UCLA will lose because of a horrendous officiating call and Memphis will lose because they can’t hit free throws (15-32, 46% against Miss St; good golly miss Molly). That leaves four teams with a chance for a title: Carolina, Texas, Kansas and Tennessee. The Vols have looked like garbage, but I can’t eliminate them based on 20/20 vision. That’s it, there’s your Eliminator. Yours truly picked Texas to win it all over Kansas in a rematch of the awesome Big 12 Title Game, but I’m scared to death of the Tar Heels right now. But hey, that’s why they play the games, and I can’t wait.

In one more note for this week, you can count me as the one person in America that’s not on the Stephen Curry bandwagon. Well, me and all the Gonzaga and Georgetown fans. Sure he’s good and all, but Curry is just too freakin weird looking for me to be a fan. I’m scared when I see him up close. Both his parents look normal, hell his mom is even kinda hot, but Curry himself looks like an albino cancer patient. His skin pigmentation really throws me off. His ears seem too big for his head, or he needs to grow longer hair (if he can). So that’s how I feel about that.

Well that’s it for this week folks. I took a one-week break from posting, mainly because I was lazy. But now it is springtime, and hopefully I will start posting with frequency now as nature starts blooming. Speaking of spring and blooming, I would like to congratulate a certain Mr. Fish and his engagement to Kathryn. I think it’s freakin awesome, and I know they will be happy. So on that positive note, stay safe, keep it real, and toss that rice.

Ranchero No Share-O

It’s all yours-o, not theirs-o. You know, corny commercials are really hit or miss with The Oceanliner. Some are really painful to watch and literally make me cringe with awkwardness. Others, like those new Quiznos Ranchero ads, crack me up every time. I don’t know what it is, but there is a fine line with me between corny-good and corny-horrendous. Like those new freecreditreport.com commercials with the songs. I personally find them amusing and catchy, but I could definitely see if some people wanted to drive their car off the road the next time they heard it.

F-r-e-e that spells free, credit report dot com, baby...

Love it. The little head bob the guy does at the end in his car is a perfect way to end it too. I have also liked the two other I have seen (pirate host at a tacky restaurant, living in parents basement). Keep em comin. Until I start to hate them.

Speaking of commercials, we are in the midst of one of the worst periods I can remember of incessant blasts for movies that look absolutely awful. I think it started with the losers that promoted Jumper, where you would see 5 spots a day for a movie that A) looked horrific (way to go Sam Jackson) and B) didn’t come out for another 2 months. It has gotten worse in these weeks following the Osacrs, when I assume movie execs are dumping the dregs of their lot on to the poor public. Over the past couple of nights I’ve seen trailers for Doomsday, Shutter (man that Pacy from Dawson’s Creek is gonna be a star!), Step Up 2, Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson has fallen hard), Never Back Down and Bachelor Party 2 (straight to DVD!). Each movie made me shake my head in a combination of incredulity, sadness and disgust. Like I said earlier, I hope this is just a garbage dump stage between Oscar season and summer blockbusters, otherwise the movie industry is in a depressed state. Somehow, 10,000 BC made $35 million in its opening weekend (you know a movie is bad when you see the preview and you have no idea what the movie is about) and College Road Trip made $14 million (you know this movie is bad because it “stars” Martin Lawrence and Raven Simone). I knew it was a sad state of affairs when the most attractive movie option at the moment for me was a toss up between Vantage Point (Dennis Quaid is a hero! Forest Whitaker is a tourist!) and Horton Hears a Who.

This may be my Oelschlager heritage coming out, but I think a recessive Eurotrash gene has resurfaced in my family, as I am somehow unable to turn off awful techno-pop when it comes on the radio. Sandstorm? Love it. That remake of Listen to Your Heart? Can’t get enough of it. The techno version of the Braveheart song? Addicting. So if you were driving on the Beltway this morning around 8:30 and saw some lunatic bouncing around his blue Grand Cherokee like a madman, you can relax. It wasn’t me having a seizure; Hot 99.5 decided to play Everytime We Touch by Cascada and I had to crank it. I had no choice, it was reflexive. I need help.

And yes, there is an actual point to this post, so I will stop with the strange Oceanliner anecdotes. It is time to update the Eliminator, those teams which are not going to win the NCAA Tournament. Last week we said good bye to Duke, Memphis and every Mid Major that’s makes it (this now includes Cornell, Belmont, Portland State, Winthrop, George Mason, Butler, Siena, Drake, Mt. St. Mary’s, Austin Peay, Davidson, Oral Roberts, Western Kentucky and San Diego). It’s time to add two more teams to the No Soup For You list. Drumroll please…

Georgetown

Roy Hibbert is not a very good basketball player. He played in the same conference as Episcopal in high school and I remember seeing him play when I was a senior and he was a junior. He was terrible. The man literally could not run or catch. Ole Roy has definitely grown into his body, but he still looke like Old Man River. He is still awkward as hell, will definitely not take over a game and is very overrated. I mean, this is a guy who averaged 13.6 points and 6.4 rebounds this year, and he’s supposed to be some kind of superstar? Why are people calling him a lottery pick? The only reason is because he’s 7’2”, which is hilarious because someone who is that tall needs to be able to play basketball too. He has improved exponentially since high school, but he’s not NBA caliber and he can’t take over a college game like Oden could. The Hoyas had their best shot last year when they had a legitimate college ace in Jeff Green (who’s now averaging 9 and 5 in the Show by the way). Now they don’t have Green and Hibbert is still average. These ingredients are not going to put together a Champion. Sorry G-town, you’ve been eliminated.

UCLA

It is tough for me to eliminate the Bruins, especially since they have the inside-outside presence needed to win a championship. It’s even tougher for me to eliminate them because they have been essentially disqualified for actions that were of no fault of their own. UCLA was the beneficiary of two absolutely horrendous officiating calls in their two back-to-back nail biter wins against Standford and Cal. Again, this was no fault of their own. But every NCAA champion needs a little but of luck along the way, and the Bruins have already used up all of theirs. The college basketball gods look down on this sort of thing and must equalize. UCLA has already gotten two miracle calls, and they will not get the others needed to win the Tournament. I’m even going to even go as far as to predict that an egregious, game altering, last second call is going to go against UCLA come Tournament time, and they will be helpless to prevent it. I feel bad for UCLA, because the college basketball gods have to smite them down. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. Bu bye Bruins.

If you hadn’t noticed already, NC State is pathetic. They have lost 9 games in a row. Early season losses came to New Orleans and East Carolina. In their loss to Miami today in the first round of the ACC Tourney, JJ Hickson actually had a good game. He had 27 points on 8-15 shooting. Too bad the rest of his “team mates” combined to go 8-33 from the field (24%) and score only 23 points themselves. That’s just painfully bad.

Anyone catch Bob Knight doing some analysis for ESPN? I didn’t listen to a word he said because what he was wearing cracked me up so much. While Digger Phelps and whoever was hosting were all dapper in their suits, Knight had on a collared shirt and a windbreaker. Priceless. It looked like he had just come in off the golf course. No way is The General going to be The Man’s bitch and put on a suit. The windbreaker even had an ESPN logo stitched on it. Great stuff.

Well that’s it for this week folks. The Oceanliner is very excited about the Virginia-Georgia Tech game tonight. Be sure to tune in at 7pm on the deuce. That’s 6pm for you in the Central, Gutie. Hopefully the Cavs can prolong their season. Either way it will be fun to watch Sean Singletary ball it up at least one more time. So until next time friends, same bat time, same bat channel.

The Tea Bag

Hello everyone, happy Monday. Let’s start this week off with something everyone can enjoy. And by everyone I mean people who love watching Duke lose, of which the Oceanliner may be Vice President. I love a good posterizing. I love a good posterizing that features a monster dunk. And I most certainly love a good posterizing featuring a monster dunk that results in Greg Paulus getting tea bagged on national television while simultaneously silencing the Cameron Crazies.

Insert a thousand words here. No prose can capture the beauty of that picture. If Superman himself were to tea bag someone, that is what it would look like. It’s as if Danny Green had practiced his whole life for that one moment. Note the eerie similarity between Green’s pose during The Tea Bag (yes, this is officially The Tea Bag now) and the sweetest logo of all time.

Sometimes the universe aligns in just the right moment and gives us history. The Tea Bag is one of those moments.

Danny Green is quickly becoming one of my favorite players in college basketball. This is not wholly due to his authorship of The Tea Bag, but it’s part of it. Green is a pure gamer and I love watching him play. He can shoot (48% from the field, 85% from the line and 38% from deep this season), drive (The Tea Bag), run the floor, rebound (5.4 a game in 22 min off the bench) and defend (1.3 steals a game, 7 blocks against Duke). He is a stat stuffer and provides instant energy for a Tar Hell team that is already stock full of it. Green reminds me of The Matrix Shawn Marion with his versatility and athleticism. Green even has the cocky swagger that Marion does not. Needless to say, I am very excited to watch Green and the Tar Hell Co. over the next three weeks.

Speaking of tea bagging, I’m so relieved that there is at least one person in the media who is not lining up to service Brett Favre on his Peter King sponsored retirement tour. Glubiak forwarded me this link to a piece written by ESPN’s Sal “The Vowels in My Last Name Don’t Make Sense” Paolantonio. If you enjoyed the beginning of my last post you will enjoy this as well. Or if you just want the other side of the Favre bandwagon.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=paolantonio_sal&id=3281535&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1

In one final note about the Duke-Carolina game, Dicky V is quickly becoming one of the worst color commentators in the business. There is hardly a shred of any actual analysis anymore. All Vitale does is gush and scream about 1) the college atmosphere 2) the passion, heart and effort of the players, and 3) the omnipotence of the coaches. It is nice to expound on these virtues once a game, but Vitale went on a rant about these things every 3 minutes. I never once heard a interesting or poignant piece of analysis or any semblance of X’s and O’s. ESPN needs to sack up and tell Viatle to actually do his job or he’s canned, but of course this will never happen.

On the other hand, I was very impressed by the pre, mid and post game comments by UNC alum Hubert Davis and Duke grad Jay Bilas on ESPN about the best rivalry in sports. On Game Day, both gave props and respect to the other team while still strongly defending why they believed their respective alma maters would prevail. At halftime, both presented frank and unbiased analysis about what they had seen (Davis: “If North Carolina continues to play good defense, they will hold on for the win”. Bilas: “Duke must handle the ball better if they have any shot of coming back in this game”). Most impressive of all though was after the game when Davis didn’t gloat (like Boo-yah or Keyshawn would have done) and Bilas didn’t act like a sore loser (“Carolina played harder and deserved to win this game”). There was none of the contrived argument that ESPN loves to promote these days. Plus you had vanilla-but-effective Rece Davis moderating and Digger’s ridiculous hat as high comedy. Throw in one of the best play-by-play men in the biz right now (Dan Schulman) and the smoking hot Erin Andrews roaming the sidelines and you get some of the best coverage of a major sporting event that ESPN has done in a while. It’s just too bad Vitale brought them all down to a 2 from a 10 because of his incessant idolatry of college, its students, players and coaches.

I hope everyone got a chance to watch the UVA-Maryland game last night and the terrific end to Sean Singletary’s brilliant career. It was a satisfying ending to a disappointing regular season to beat the Terps by 15 at home on Senior Night with 44 leading the way while getting his jersey getting retired. Not only that, Singletary was just named to the All ACC First Team for the third year in a row. Singletary garnered Third Team All America status last season, the first time since Ralph Sampson that any Wahoo has earned that recognition. It looks bleak that he will repeat on that team with the way the season has gone, but we all need to recognize how good of a plyer we have watched in Charlottesville over the past 4 years.

Painfully corny note of the week. It hurts and saddens me that some loser UVA fan at the game last night got on TV at least 5 times with one of the worst signs in recent memory. “Thanks 44 the memories” it said. So stupid. So painful. If the number was just 4, it would have been alright because the play on words would have actually made sense and it would have earned a small smile. But since it’s 44, it doesn’t make sense and it sucked. Plus the dude was wearing a backwards cammo hat. F.

Let us all be thankful that Ryan Pettinella also played his last regular season game for the Cavs last night. If he had two more years left instead of having transferred from Penn I would weep every day for the next two seasons. Pett had a vintage game against Maryland for his standards. Unfortunately this means playing horribly, picking up 3 fouls with no other stats in 7 minutes. Horrific production. Pett finishes the regular season minus 15 points to fouls. Pett is really not good at playing basketball.

Well, that’s it for today folks. The college basketball scheduling gods have managed smiled on the Cavs in terms of the ACC Tournament. Be sure to tune in Thursday night at 7pm on ESPN2 as we take on a very beatable Georgia Tech team in the first round. Should the Hoos win, we play Dook the next night at 7. I am very grateful that I will be able to watch these game(s). Thank you college basketball gods. Be sure to look for an Eliminator update later this week. Until then my friends, stay safe, keep it real and curve your hats right.