[Note: Brendan emailed the screenshot below with this comment: “I didn’t have time to do a [full] preview of the NCAA hockey tournament . . . . Huzzah bracket transparency!” Click the image to expand it. -AD]
The prequel and pretension past, along with the run-of-the-mill fodder, we found ourselves– thanks to a reader tip– staring down the barrel of epiloguist Jen Floyd Engel’s perspective-granting long lens in the form of her piece for Fox Sports, “Blaming Saints is height of hypocrisy.” Looking back on the NFL bounty story, Engel seeks to contextualize the thematic strands of that story with those of another and mix in a bit of stern-faced judgment for total effect. Standard-issue English 110.
I can’t specifically recall reading anything of Engel’s before, although I surely have, but the first stumbling point for me came before I even made it to the text. Maybe I still am crotchety after Charles P. Pierce’s bit on this matter, but as someone slightly out of the mold in the nomenclature realm, I have to wonder why Engel goes (presumably) nickname, middle name, last name. If she wants distinction, isn’t Jennifer Floyd Engel the way to do it? For example, Pierce doesn’t use Chuck P. Pierce (although Google suggests he sometimes uses Charlie, but where he does, he drops the middle initial (Google doesn’t know Pierce’s full middle name)). But ok, enough.
After “soak[ing] in all of the moral outrage and denunciations” of NOLA football, Engel shares with us her “first thought”: “Who will play Barry Bonds in this ‘sports tragedy’”?
Huh? Hopefully no one! Why would anyone bring Barry Bonds into this? Watch out sophomore seminar in comparative literature, here comes one now.
We’re up to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which means that you’ve probably figured out by now that your approach to predicting this thing has– to be generous– a few imperfections. It also means that we’re one-third of the way through the tournament, and we’ve whittled a field of sixty-eight down to sixteen.
Before the action resumes on Thursday, let’s take a gander at the current standings in ALDLAND’s Mad as a March Hare March Madness Challenge. We had twenty-one entries, and the top ten looks like this:
Click here to see the full standings.
My initial observations upon surveying the field are that the first and second place entries, Bingo Bango and SemiNOLA are a cut above the rest. Even though a 70.5 accuracy rate suggests that SemiNOLA should be pretty good through the rest of the tournament, the fact that s/he already picked FSU to win it all and has a miniscule 520 possible points remaining means that those of you who picked SemiNOLA in the derivative brackets bracket probably are in some trouble. Along those lines, the entries with the best odds, based on past performance and PPR are Bingo Bango (secret formula predicts a first-place finish, currently in first); mjpascha 1 (T-2/T-3); WrckMTech 2 (T-2/T-3); lranthony1 1 (4/T-3); and FBDOCameron 1 (5/T-3). Careful readers will note that ALDLAND writers Brendan and I are not in the top ten, predicting games at astoundingly poor accuracy rates of 19.5% and 25.6%, respectively.
Finally, early leaders in the best-entry-name category go to Golbourne Supremacy and Escaped from a Tchiengang.
Enjoy the games this week.
Last Friday marked the draw for the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. The initial sixteen teams in the knockout rounds became eight after last Tuesday and Wednesday’s games, and the survivors were randomly drawn against each other. From here on out there are no redraws, and the bracket will now look like this:
Apoel Nicosia v. Real Madrid
Apoel Nicosia were surprise winners over Olympique Lyonnais in the first stage of the knockout rounds, advancing by virtue of winning the penalty shootout after the teams were tied 1-1 at the end of the second leg. Meanwhile, Real Madrid saw off CSKA Moscow to the tune of 5-2. Real Madrid has all the horses, and could probably beat Apoel handily without star Cristiano Ronaldo in the lineup. Apoel is going to have to channel its inner VCU circa 2011 to advance.
Prediction: Real Madrid advances, 2-0 at Apoel, 4-0 at Real Madrid.
Marseille v. Bayern Munich
Marseille advanced over Italian side Internazionale in the first leg, while Bayern overcame a surprise 1-0 deficit in the first leg against FC Basel to triumph 7-1 when all was said and done. Bayern has been in good form lately, notching a whopping 20 goals in its last three matches. Marseille, meanwhile, has been languishing at the middle of the Ligue One table.
Prediction: Bayern advances in another lopsided series, 3-1 at Marseille and 3-0 at Bayern.
Benfica v. Chelsea
Benfica dispatched Zenit St. Petersburg in the first round by a margin of one goal. Chelsea overcame a 3-1 first leg deficit to move on over Napoli. Chelsea has looked better in recent games since firing manager Andre Villas-Boas. Benfica has secured a spot near the top of the Portuguese Liga table. Neither team is a world beater, but Benfica seem to be the better bet here given Chelsea’s recent change in direction. Watch out for Chelsea’s Fernando Torres though, who notched a brace in his last game out, breaking a seemingly endless goalless drought. Will his fortunes change now that he has some confidence behind him? Probably not, but Chelsea fans can certainly hope.
Prediction: Benfica advances 2-1 at Benfica, 1-1 at Chelsea.
AC Milan v. Barcelona
I reacted like the famous rage guy when I found out that Barcelona had drawn AC Milan in the last eight. Other than Real Madrid, this was probably the hardest team for Barca to face. AC Milan drew 2-2 at Barcelona in the group stage before falling 2-3 at home to the Blaugrana. AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be looking to show up his old coach, Pep Guardiola, while Barcelona’s Lionel Messi seeks to set a record for goals scored in one Champions League campaign. Barcelona is also looking to become the only team to win back to back Champions League titles. Both teams have quality all over the pitch, and this promises to be the best matchup of the last eight.
Prediction: Barcelona advances 1-2 at Milan, 3-1 at Barcelona.
Here’s how I think the bracket will play out after the quarterfinals:
Semifinals
Barcelona over Benfica: 2-1 at Benfica, 3-0 at Barcelona.
Real Madrid over Bayern Munich: 2-3 at Bayern, 3-1 at Real Madrid.
Champions League Final
Barcelona over Real Madrid: 3-2.
Today’s Jam, filed from 6,200+ feet:
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Bonus March Madness vocal Jamz: The Six Best NCAA Tournament Calls of Gus Johnson
Yesterday, the voice of the Hip Generation, Chuck Klosterman, rated the NCAA men’s basketball tournament “slightly overrated.” In doing so, Klosterman identified an emergent feature of the tournament that I’ve been talking about for at least three years: the improved accuracy with which the tournament committee seeds the teams, leading to fewer “upsets.” Why? Satellite TV. Huh? The committee is watching more games of more teams. They’re more educated about more teams, so they rank them more accurately. Can you give me an example? Sure. Gonzaga likely has always been about as good as they are today, but the little school in Spokane with the funny name (it has a Z in it you guys!) used to come out of nowhere and “upset” teams because the ‘Zags were underrated. You used to be a fool not to mark Gonzaga down for two wins. Now, though, someone in Indianapolis could watch every Gonzaga regular-season game if he or she wanted, something people likely couldn’t and certainly didn’t do five years ago, and so Gonzaga’s come back to the pack as they’ve been more accurately seeded.
The NCAA selection committee has gotten too good at its job. . . . The committee now seeds the tournament so precisely that the early rounds lack dissonance. We’ve exaggerated the import of the process. The brackets are way more accurate, but less compelling. In the not-so-distant past, the limitations of media kept college sports unpredictable. Easy example: Throughout the 1980s, it seemed like the New Mexico Lobos were habitually being shafted. In 1986-87, they won 25 games and still ended up in the NIT. And when analysts would try to explain why that happened, they’d concede that the members of the committee had not seen enough of New Mexico to give them the benefit of the doubt. They would almost admit they knew almost nothing about the program (and at the time, that felt like a problem). That could never happen now. I’ve somehow seen New Mexico play three times this year, and it’s not even my job. With unlimited media, nothing remains unknown; the committee makes fewer mistakes, and the seedings have become staggeringly reliable. Which was always the goal. The only problem is that the realization of that goal erodes the inherent unpredictability that everyone craves. The surgery was successful, but the patient died.
Well, when you put it that way, the choice seems pretty obvious.
If you are looking to win a lot of bread, ALDLAND’s Mad as a March Hare March Madness Challenge may not be the bracket pool for you. If you’re into less monetized springtime sports fun, though, swing on over here to sign up. There’s still time– just make sure you have your picks in before Thursday noon.
A lot of movie stars have gotten into racing cars in their spare time, but few, if any, were as good at it as Paul Newman.
The actor began racing in the early 1970s, not long after starring as an Indianapolis 500 driver in the 1969 film “Winning.” He continued to take to the track until shortly before his death in 2008. In between he amassed a long list of wins and impressive finishes in sports car racing including second place in the classic 24-Hour race at Le Mans, France in 1979.
Now RM Auctions, a company specializing in collectible cars, will offer Newman’s last race car, a 2002 Chevrolet Corvette, this Saturday at its Amelia Island, Fla., sale.
The car, which began life as a Trans Am racer, was piloted to three wins, eight top-five finishes and five poles by racing great Butch Leitzinger during the 2002 season. It has a 346-cubic inch V8 engine under the hood that puts out 700 horesepower.
Newman and his business and racing partner Michael Brockman acquired the car the following year, painted it in Newman’s longtime signature red, white and blue livery and ran it in the Sports Car Club of America series. Newman continued to race competitively, at or near the front of the grid, from 2003 through 2007. He won his last race at Lime Rock, Conn., just about a year before he died.
The auction house estimates the car will fetch between $250,000 and $350,000. However, its connection to Newman could push bids considerably higher.
(via WSJ)
(HT: @telegrphtelegrm)
No, it doesn’t have anything to do with appearing in Maryland-area used-car commercials.
Grantland’s Ben Detrick has the story:
ALDLAND 