Basketball Christmas: Saturday Open Thread

Either West Virginia is sleepwalking or the hangover has made me hallucinate.

Of course, I'm still residually drunk from yesterday. And Thursday, I suppose.
Just mixed my first Jim Beam Black and Ginger Ale.

but the refs seem disinclined to buy their DIdier Drogba flopping tactics.

And that's a big shot by Nicholls from WVU.  Duke up 3, 16:00 to go.

This guy's the only reason WFVU is in the game.

Then Juilliard Hightower calls a quick foul on WFVU.

my name was Craig Bolerjack, or ever Jack Bolercraig.

I can't be the first person to put this together, right?

He didn't leave his feet as soon as the driver got near him, he stayed on his toes and waited for the smaller player to go up first, then made the play. Very good discipline.

Finally, my predictions come to fruition.

Now, I predict Giada De Laurentiis will come to my house with a very special pasta dish.

We almost had a Brian Kinchen moment.  Nice work by Wentzel to hold it together.

WFV locals are watching the game with guarded optimism and furtively eying their cans of gasoline. DANGER LEVEL: ELEVATED

WFVU converts an easy two to go back up by 6.

who is somehow not a greasy Italian despite his name, is close to being on pace for a triple double if he keeps this up.

You know you're going to get called for a pick 45 feet away from the bucket, but lean that shoulder into their sparkplug anyway!

This message from Captain Obvious.

...Coach K looks like Templeton from Charlotte's Web, but with a suit.

Even Kevin Harlan just said Ed was a bit over the top there.

Ed Hightower is Coming To Dinner

Color guy: "We're gonna see some heart and intensity and great defense and hustle and..."

WFVU: (executes easy backdoor layup)

Juillard just dropped double guns on Mazzulla with the foul call.

DANGER LEVEL: SEVERE

Couches are already being dragged into street, soaked with flammables. Avoid all loveseats until warning sirens cease operation.

There's a mental image I can do without.

You make baby Jesus laugh like He was playing peek-a-boo with his dad, Godman.

When was the last time Duke was minus-10 or more for the entirety of an NCAA tourney? They're at minus-9 right after hitting that 3.

No Beasley, no chance.

Wisky/KSU occupies the time.  Methinks Wisconsin slows them down and get the win.  They're up 7 with 8:32 to go in the first half.

KSU has done two things that are borderline genius.

First, Wisconsin loves to rough you up, and nobody works the officials as effectively as Bo Ryan.  KSU has countered by beating the hell out of Wisconsin on the same basic premise:  They won't call a foul on every possession.  But KSU's fouls aren't mere reach-ins; Kansas State is literally beating on Wisconsin in the hopes of wearing them down and pissing them off.  I would assume they hope Wisconsin can be rattled out of the slow-down game if they're angry.  Don't know if it will work, but it's interesting.

This game is a crawl right now.  Wisky leads by 12 with 7:30 to go.  Purdue is down 3 to Xavier at the half (or, for my purposes, tied with Xavier).

Nice of CBS to rub Bohannon's Iowa-ness in our faces.

Wisconsin is going to cruise into the Sweet 16 (go BXI), but if I were an NBA exec, I'd be trading anything I can to get my hands on Beasley.

C'mon Purdue.  Win this game and I'll take back all those bad things I've said about your mannish women.

And this Robbie Hummel kid is like Jake Kelly with a bigger nose.

Less than 6:00 to play

Put everyone high, kick it to the wing, go baseline and draw contact.  Why isn't Painter doing anything about it?

And, by the way, it took Rock Chalk more than 3 minutes to get on the board against UNLV.

God, these announcers suck.

The last 2:30 of the Purdue/Xavier game is going to take more than 20 minutes to play.  There have been 4 separate clock/substitution issues that have taken time to sort out.  Say what you will about Julliard, but at least he gets a game done at a reasonable pace.

Stanford (-3) goes into overtime, despite making every effort to lose this game including getting their coach tossed and refusing to play zone defense despite having 2 7 footers.

So far I've had cash riding on two of them.  81-80 Marquette, just under 1:00 to go, and CBS somehow fits two commercials into a 30-second timeout.

I hope everyone watched Michael Beasley and Bill Walker at K-State, Joe Alexander and Joe Mazzula at WFVU, and the Lopez twins at Stanford.  When you've watched basketball as ugly as we have this season, it gives you just a glimmer of hope.

Think I've been gambling too much?

...but they've finished UNLV.  In fact, it looks like they'll cover that -13.5.  Never thought that would happen.

I had other pants to replace the pair I lost on the Notre Dame first half line.  I'm not wearing pants solely of my own volition.

You all take care.  See you tomorrow.