NCAA tournament 2011 — running thread

Just stirring shit, or bitter beyond words. We're supposed to be thrilled with the boring Celtics? My ass. At least the college kids are going full bore, most of the time, which is more than you can say about the precious Celts.

 

GIGGITY!

 

Anyone else hear ads during the radio coverage of the tourney that they are still selling ticket packages to THIS year's Final Four? I was surprised.

 

Dan is very well liked by the management of the Boston Globe. He is not very well liked by Boston sports fans. When writing about just plain people instead of sports and sports teams, like when dealing with a little known athlete, he is often an excellent writer.

 

Bill Plaschke's resume, word for word.

 

If the NCAA ever returned to South Carolina, its only two options would be the dinky Bi-Lo Center in Greenville and the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, easily this country's most depressing state capital. I'll take the North Carolina arenas, thanks.

 

I guess what ticks me off in that column - and this is a pet peeve of mine with columnists - is that he goes to the well of bragging about being ill-informed. Usually, columnists employ that device every few years when the World Cup occurs, or in a throwaway line or three about sabermetrics (which make them look like morons to both readers and the front offices they cover). Shaughnessy decided to bring it out for college basketball. Old trick. New dog. There was a line this week in a New Yorker piece on the top-ranked chess player in the world. It said that he gives off a vibe of being the kid in class who, as a defense mechanism when he is about to fail or underperform, acts like he's too cool to have studied for the test. That's how Shaughnessy comes off, to me. He hasn't done his homework, and he tries to spin that into a strength, rather than a weakness. I'm not buying it.

This isn't meant for Dan Shaughnessy, in particular, but just everyone who is considering writing an "I'm too cool to be informed about Sport X" column: No one is impressed. Nobody.

 

Um, Bob Ryan didn't write that column. If you're going to call someone out, at least take the time to make sure you're calling out the correct person.

 

Hyperbole and all, but...

It's not hard. I know a guy who has pretty much sworn off college hoops for good who can at least name Jimmer and the starting five for the Dookies.

 

It was an easy mistake to make, as he was talking about Ryan in that paragraph and that just stuck in my head.

Fixed it, though.

You could have just noted the mistake without the rest of it.

 

I think this is a fairly common practice at a premium price. They set aside a few seats with hotel or pregame party or something included and charge out the butt for it. Target fans who make last-second plans to go and just have to see their team or something like that.