Madness? No. This is MARCH!

Maybe it's just me, but do you feel like you already have 53 errors on your March Madness bracket?  I literally have no confidence in any of my picks this year, and it isn't even selection Sunday yet.  Yes, the Big East is clearly the strongest division I conference, but they're also beating the living shit out of each other. 

Being a Syracuse fan that watches/attends nearly every game, I wouldn''t bet money on them moving on the orange moving past the sweet 16.  But with the loss tonight in the Big East Conference Tournament they save themselves a lot of energy for the Big Dance.  Taking UCONN into overtime will prove to work against the Huskies fatigue potentially as soon as tomorrow in the championship game, but will definitely take it's toll during the NCAA Tournament.  For this reason, I think that even though the Big East may have 11 teams in the tournament, there won't be one Big East team in the National Championship game.

Now looking on to other top teams; Ohio State, Kansas, Duke, Notre Dame, BYU, San Diego State.  Over the past few games for each team, Ohio State and Kansas have both been lucky to pull out tight wins, peaking at the wrong time.  Duke, who was on the rise to become a #1 seed in the tourney instead of Pittsburgh, just lost Nolan Smith for an unknown time period to what looks to be a lower leg injury.  The defending champs do have depth, but the bench is young.  My favorite team entering the conference tournaments was BYU, one because they came out of nowhere, and two because I'm a big Jimmer Fredette fan.  They're chances were good, that was until big man Brandon Davies was suspended for having sex with his girlfriend.  This has left the Cougars with an open gap that cannot, and will not be filled this year, meaning BYU's national championship hopes look grim at best. 

That leaves the big question mark within this list as San Diego State.  I honestly don't know anything about the Aztecs besides that fact that they lost to a full-force BYU team.  Being the only team that hasn't compiled any true disadvantages within the past week, San Diego State may be this year's Butler of last year.  With the madness already ensuing, this year's tournament seems to have more parity than recent years, and may make it a tournament for the ages.

Rotten Oranges

I nearly made this my first video blog post, but honestly I don't feel like going through all that shit right now.  It's late, I have to be awake at 7:30 AM, and I'm pissed off.  So a regular post it is, to spare myself the embarrassment, and to vent.

Tonight I went to the Georgetown-Syracuse basketball game.  Any fan of a sports team will at some point blame referees for the outcome of a game.  The referees were absolutely terrible tonight, calling probably about 10 offensive fouls - an unheard of amount.  This played a huge factor in the game, but not the biggest.  When you purchase a ticket to a sporting event, do you go so you can sit with your arms crossed?

The Carrier Dome was filled with a fairly thin crowd by Hoya versus Orangemen standards, having just over 26,000 people attend the game.  That itself is pretty embarrassing.  What makes it even worse is what seemed like every seating section around me (lower level, behind the basket) were all sitting down during the final 3 minutes of the game.  Of course Syracuse led the majority of the game, but started losing it around this time.  At this point, I was furious, and disgusted to be see this vital game slip away.  Finally, some ballsy Bro started screaming at all the so called "fans" sitting, unmotivated at the game.  For once the drunk guy standing up yelling profanities wasn't the asshole, everyone else was.

Maybe it would be different if SU wasn't so worried about money by giving those lower level seating priorities to students instead of wealthy, subdued "fans".  See Duke University for example, the Cameron Crazies, seated lower level on the side of the court, control the game.  Syracuse however, puts the student section on the end of the court directly behind the basket, not uncommon by any means.  But in terms of which end they're located, it doesn't even make sense.  The opposing teams shoots on the end opposite of the student section during the most important time in the game, the end.  So basically instead of giving the home Orange a bit of an advantage at the end of a game, Syracuse University completely negates that thought by giving the opposition the relief of shooting at an end full of quiet "fans"m and taking the student section out of the picture.

So if SU really wanted to help their basketball program, they should try thinking for a few minutes.  There is probably something I missed that would clearly point to the reason why the current seating scheme makes sense, I don't know.  I do know that the team's best fans are the students, regardless of revenue they generate fo SU, even though the students do pay tuition out the ass.  They bring intense support every game.  5 losses in the past 7 games after starting 18-0 should be unacceptable, there's only so much the players/coaches can do.  Hall of fame coach Jim Boeheim is on record for calling out the Syracuse fans many times.  It's time for SU to hop off the economic greed train and reward the biggest fans they have instead.