There's a new dress code this year

The best sign of the ACC Tourney:

Deadline approaching

Be sure to get your brackets entered into ESPN before noon on Thursday. I noticed this evening that a number of brackets list a total of 0 PPRs (Possible Points Remaining). If that is yours, it means you probably didn't save your entry correctly. And kudos to the person who created the scoreboard on the side panel. Now the blog is finally useful.

GT: Great Tournament

My guys are peaking at the right time, and the loss to Duke in the ACC tourney (lucky shots, bad calls) will inspire them to even great heights.

Must say: watching UNC fans cheer like crazy in the NIT when they were merely hanging on against W&M's Tribe was amusing. How the mighty have fallen.

And don't knock Andie McDowell. She was one of my first movie crushes after her amazing portrayal of Jane in "Greystoke", co-starring with the consummate method actor, Christopher Lambert. Only later did I find out that her voice had been dubbed over by Glenn Close. And to think she was in Rock Hill for several years going to Winthrop! Can't believe I missed the chance to meet her.

Looking forward to a great tournament and even better smack talk!

Randolph

Who are we?

Maybe it's just because I'm forgetful, but I like to be reminded of who the relevant teams are this year... No BC, Davidson, Memphis, GW, USC, or (cough cough) Citadel this year. For just the 38th straight year, Yale missed out, too. Winthrop's tournament run sadly followed the same trajectory as Andie McDowell's recent career. But we've got: Syracuse Washington Georgia Polytech Tennessee Pittsburgh Dook Any others we need to be acutely aware of (i.e. not counting secondary allegiances and temporary crushes)? I am still developing my Buckeye love, and would be glad to see them do well, but they come second to Syracuse. Please add to the list.

Looking for Inspiration

With my team (BC) not in the running this year and not having watched a single b-ball game all season, I was lacking in inspiration when I went to fill in my bracket. The fact that I wanted two brackets this year only exacerbated this feeling. So I filled out one semi-serious bracket (MookMcD) based on, well, I'm not really sure what. Then, I went back and made a bracket choosing schools whose names had the most letters in common with mine (Mary McDow Rincon). In the case of a tie, I chose the higher-seeded team.

Note: I did this without using any scratch paper to tally letters, and based on the abbreviated name on the ESPN website. I concede that there are a couple of mistakes, but I'm done with the bracket part and eager to move on the the smack-talking part.

-Mook

Hello McDowHoops 2010

If everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, then everyone is Southern Scotch-Irish Presbyterian for March Madness.  That's right, McDowHoops is back.  But the clock is winding down, so it is time to heave your game winning three pointer before the buzzer sounds. 

Have you followed basketball at all this year?  I surely have not.  I am living in Zanzibar, and the whole island did not have electricity from December 10 until March 8, a twelve-plus week period that coincided with basketball season.  I have heard something the Ohio State University is making waves with a new guy named Turner, and that's just the Philosophy Department.  It turns out that basketball knowledge is useless in office pools, as the New York TImes explains (based on a recent article in The Journal of Applied Social Psychology).  So please enter not to show off your knowledge, but to prance a little on the smack-walk.  All you need to do is complete your entry on the ESPN site and you're on the way.  

Last year's big winner was Maggie Gumb!nner whose humility and restraint in blog posting is to be deprecated.  While we admire her soothsaying, we'd like more smacksaying.