Rowand44

This really doesn't surprise me at all, I almost expected it. Duke's still going to be a 1 seed though, so the only thing that really sucks about this game is losing to unc.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Mar 3, 2006 -> 06:06 AM) Unofficial St. Patrick's Day is about as accurate at portraying the Irish as if...say, I put on blackface, ate fried chicken and watermelon and then washed it down with a forty in a brown paper bag while calling it Unofficial Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I have chosen not to partake in Unofficial. This is on account of my being neither a virulent racist nor an imbecile so obsessed with finding excuses for inebriation that I am able to shun the analytical thoughts emanating from either my conscience or neocortex. Sporting events are worthy of strong drink. Celebrating one's birthday is likewise a legitimate excuse, if one so desires it. But of course herein lies the problem that people feel the need for a REASON. It is as if a life-threatening and brain-curdling twelve-hour binge miraculously becomes good for a person if he or she puts on a silly green hat and customized single-use t-shirt and does it with thousands of other undergrad sheep. Allow me to give credit to today's celebrants who also believe that Chief Illiniwek is an honorable symbol of Native American culture. At least they are consistent in their views. I, of course, see the Chief as offensive to some but completely harmless in any real terms. If it goes, too bad. It's kind of cool. If it stays, too bad. Some people will still be offended. I would love to poll the Unofficial drinkers on their Chief position. Do I expect to find unanimity? Heck no. I blindly guarantee that a significant percentage of these people will say that the Chief needs to go because it is racist. These people are hypocrites, and need to be labeled such. This is the charming part of the bourgeois liberalism that lurks in the GOP-gerrymandered Congressional districts that turn nearly every American urban metropolis into a blue bullseye on a map. As long as it doesn't affect me, my expensive clothes, my cheap gasoline for my expensive SUV and my cheaply bottled Coca-Cola Classic that together comprise a trip to an Illini sporting event, then I am up in arms. But as soon as they try to take away justification for Mickey Mantle-level favoritism on the liver transplant list, then they have gone too far. But have I, in declaring Unofficial St. Patrick's Day an ignorant and racist celebration, gone too far? I believe not. Allow me to provide a quick history of the legitimate St. Patrick's Day. St. Patrick's day is the feast day of Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, the excluded, and protector from snakes (for much of the past half millennium, the first category fit nicely into the second). He converted Ireland to Christianity from paganism and became Bishop of Ireland. This move allowed the Irish monasteries to preserve literacy and much of Western history during the era of the Viking invasions of the late Middle Ages. The legends of Patrick claim that he drove snakes from Ireland (understood now as symbolism for paganism) and used the three-pointed shamrock to explain to the most powerful Irish chieftain the Trinity: the tri-part nature of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Over time, St. Patrick's Day has been transformed from a traditional Catholic feast day into a secular holiday celebrating Irish heritage and culture. Dublin, Ireland, has an annual cultural festival that attracts thousands of people from all over the country and Europe. American cities with large Irish populations, such as New York City, Boston and Chicago have parades. Chicago dyes the Chicago River green (they do so fine a job it stays that way year-round). But this international celebration of Irish culture has been expanded beyond this secular celebration. Granted, the wearing of the green has been accompanied by the drinking of the ale, but the sense of community fostered by this celebration has been demeaned by the perpetrators of this cultural travesty called Unofficial into obnoxiously oafish drunkenness with no socially or culturally redeeming value. Phrases like "Kiss me; I'm Irish" are found everywhere on T-shirts. Non-Irish-Americans and Irish-Americans alike buy into the idea that Everybody's Irish on St. Patrick's Day. While this view could easily take the form of solidarity with downtrodden and oppressed people the world over - donations of money and used possessions to charities or donations of time at soup kitchens or homeless shelters - people (both Irish and not) attach the Irish culture to a simple 4-letter word: beer. Everyone is Irish, so everyone is an obnoxious drunk. They envision Ireland as a nation of alcoholic leprechauns and nothing more. They do this not on St. Patrick's day proper (although I'm sure many do that day, as well), but on an arbitrary, convenient day. Can I blame people for consuming alcohol? No. But thousands of people are carrying out negative stereotypes of the Irish with absolutely no regard for what they are doing. It honestly hurts to see my heritage spat on by thousands of people for the sole purpose of consuming green beer. Irish history is rich and complex, transforming from tribal chiefdoms into thirty-two counties separated into a nation of twenty-six and a captive country of six by British delusions about remaining an empire. People here know basically nothing about Irish history. It's all about the shamrocks, crosses and alcohol. These people wouldn't even be worthy enough to carry Bobby Sands' H-Blocks-issue blanket if they even knew who he was and what he did. Culture to these racists is "f**goty" dancing, not beautiful rebel songs that simultaneously warm the heart and stir the soul. Check out the Wolfe Tones performing "A Nation Once Again," "Joe McDonnell," "The Wearing of the Green" and "Come Out Ye Black and Tans" if you don't believe me. My concern here is St. Patrick's Day as an Irish heritage day, much as Columbus Day and Pulaski Day, respectively, represent Italian and Polish pride days. What Unofficial and its thousands of participants convey as being "Irish" or "Irish-American" is tantamount to celebrating an Unofficial Martin Luther King Day on which thousands of students would smear their faces with black grease paint and proceed to wash down their fried chicken and watermelon with a forty-ounce bottle of malt liquor concealed in a brown paper bag. This is not representative of African-American culture. What it is, however, is an abysmal manifestation of our inward unhealth as a society: this crowd of mutant locusts prefers to reinforce stereotypes that demean a minority population at the cost of reifying falsehoods and ignoring countless contributions. Of course Unofficial MLK Day couldn't fly, even if done with the utmost sincerity. Irish is white, so Irish doesn't count. A leprauchan mascot causes much less division than an Aztec warrior or Plains Chief. It's the way it is. I'm not asking for Unofficial to be forcibly shut down. People should be free to do as they please. I'm not being physically harmed by these drunkards (excluding the potential of drunk driving accidents). It's a mental strain, but that's my issue. That's why I'm ranting here as opposed to in the middle of Green Street, yelling, "Come out ye black-and-tans / come out and fight me like a man / show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders / Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away / From the green and lovely lanes of Killeshandra." If you're Irish, or at least have a bit of an understanding of what the history is all about, then you know what I'm talking about. I know that it might be asking a bit much, but stop being so self-serving and ignorant. Green beer is a fine part of St. Patrick's Day. It goes along with the corned beef, boiled cabbage and homemade soda bread you should be eating with your family after the parade. When you're going to partake in a racist, essentializing day of selfish hedonism (This is America, after all. For most people, it is a when question, not an if.), at least perform a little favor for the people whose ancestors' graves you are publically pissing on. Learn something. Anything. Find out about Patrick, Bishop of Ireland. Research the history of the Republican movement. Congratulations, by the way, to Sinn Fein, as it is this year turning one hundred years old. Learn about the hunger strikes. The British oppression. The proposed razing of the Irish table in favor of restarting it with "civilized" British blood. The experience of Irish immigrants to America and what they faced here upon arrival. Something. Anything. Give my ancestors some respect before you go out and piss and puke all over their memory.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 4, 2006 -> 08:50 PM) Wish I could have seen that Winthrop game. That team has dominated all season, including a win at Marquette (a 20 win big dance team from the Big East). NIU played them on the road in the brackbuster, and lost by 1 point in double OT due to one of the great chokes ever, although it was a great game. Winthrop's only issue this year had been that Costal Carolina team they played today, who had dominated them twice this year. I was surprised to see Winthrop found a way to win today, but it's cool. They could be one of those #12 or #13 seeds that scares the s*** outta somebody in the first round (which they did last year to Gonzaga IIRC). Winthrop is a solid team and definitely will at worst scare someone next week. Besides Winthrop; Penn, Murray State, and Belmont have also earned automatic bids so far.

By the way, the final is at 1 on cbs tomorrow. Go Dawgs!!

QUOTE(whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 4, 2006 -> 07:52 PM) Don't get me wrong, they definitely should get in. But they also have 4 flat out awful losses, and the RPI doesn't take into account the loss to Alaska Anchorage but the tourney committee will. Southern had no good non conference wins, and only has one good road win. All those things are factored in. It really depends on how many teams the committee decides to let in from the MVC. If its 4 than Southern very possibly won't get in. If its 5 they are in. Yup, the bad losses is the one thing that would keep us out. Still, the resume is to good to leave us out. As far as the mvc pecking order goes, we might be 4th being in front of creighton for sure and maybe missouri state. Obviously we'll see but I think we're in if the committe is fair and goes by the best resume's.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 4, 2006 -> 06:27 PM) Their resume is less than impressive. Our resume is almost better then every other bubble team. We got 7 wins against the top 50 by the way kyyle. We're in, there is no doubt in my mind now. Our rpi is right around 35 now, 7 top 50 wins which is just so much more then any of the other bubble teams. Unless the committee just feels like screwing the valley over, we're in.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Mar 4, 2006 -> 11:25 AM) They are a scary team though, I think they can win the tournament if they can put together 3 good games in a row from POB and Sommerville. POB and Sommerville didn't even play that well yesterday, scoring wise. Creighton did a very good job of keeping the ball out of POB's hands. Obviously that'll be a huge factor for them today to actually get O'Bryant the ball. I expect it to be a damn good game but Bradley is to talented and playing to well right now, I think they advance to Sunday.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 4, 2006 -> 12:01 AM) Bradley appears to have a case of a bad in game coach. They have the most talent of any MVC team I've watched, and I'm not even sure it's all that close. They picked a hell of a time to get hot though. They're the biggest, most athletic and most talented team in the mvc, no doubt. I will say though, that if our offense is aggressive like it was today, we're going to be fine the rest of this tourny. Rex, Evansville is going to have a decent team next year. Everyone is back, Matt Webster is a solid player, and Jason Holsinger is a very nice looking freshman.

Just got back to my hotel after a day full of some good basketball. We played our best game in a long, long time. We actually played aggressive on offense which hasn't happened in ages. I've been hard on Tatum all year but he was absolutely fantastic tonight. Another big key was Jamal Foster, today and the game against UNI he has really extremely well. Foster is the tallest guy we got and he's played some very quality minutes the last few games, he's going to be a huge key tomorrow when Falker gets in foul trouble and he comes in to guard Stout. UNI was not very impressive today even though they won by a comfortable margin, I think we're in good shape tomorrow, we play like we played today and we win with no problem. As for Bradley-Shocks, you'll see the Braves on Cbs sunday.

QUOTE(q\/\/3r+y @ Mar 3, 2006 -> 12:43 AM)

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Mar 2, 2006 -> 11:27 PM) Evansville is so bad and I want a new coach there so bad, I am not sure I can actually root for them tomorrow night. They've played better as of late and have everyone returning next year, they could be pretty solid next year. We gotta take care of business tomorrow, can't lose to Evansville twice this year, if we do..POP.

First game in the books: Indiana State beats Drake 72-63 after scoring 10 in the first half. The Trees play the Shocks tomorrow.

I'm not a big fan of BC, I think they'll have to get a favorable bracket to get past the first weekend.

The Hornets had a good 2nd half today.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Mar 1, 2006 -> 11:16 PM) I just can't buy Texas or LSU. Their guard play leaves a lot to be desired. Kentucky is definitely not doing it. They haven't played well all year, I don't see them starting now. I can sort of see BC, but they're going to have to shoot pretty well. Before you guys give me crap, I said NC State because they are deep and shoot well from behind the arc. Those are the types of teams that seem to do well in the tourney. Plus, they have enough size to hold their own. Darrel Mitchell is pretty damn good and Temple is decent, they also have Tasmin as a wing and then obviously Big Baby and Thomas down low. They're a pretty solid defensive team and a damn good rebounding team. I really love LSU and obviously expect them to make a long run. As for Texas even though Gibson hasn't played well as of late, I expect him to get back on track, I like Gibson a lot. Paulino is pretty decent though he's not a true pg imo, the one thing he does do well is take care of the ball which will be vital come tourny time. We'll obviously see though, I can't wait. Two weeks from tomorrow.

QUOTE(THEWOOD @ Mar 1, 2006 -> 10:56 PM) UCONN.....BC....OSU....KENTUCKY Well atleast we all know who won't win their pool.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 1, 2006 -> 09:45 PM) A&M is a 100 percent lock to get in if they can win at s***ty TT, that would put them at 20-7 (10-6) and no way they are kept out then, even if they lose the first game of the Big 12 Tourney. FSU has a win over #1 Duke, was robbed of a win at #1 Duke, and is also a 100 percent lock if they win at Miami to finish 19-9 (9-7). At least one of them is in, i'd be very surprised if both aren't. Kentucky is also a lock now, 19-10 (9-6) very good RPI, and they are Kentucky. Both have rpi's in the 50's, sos's around 100, A&M has 2 top 50 wins while FSU has one. They both have a shot to get in but both are far from locks imo.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 1, 2006 -> 09:36 PM) FSU and Texas A&M should both get in now after those wins. They both still have some work to do. A&M's resume is pretty s***ty, they're gonna have to beat Ttech and win atleast a game or two in their tourny imo. FSU needs to beat Miami and atleast 1 in the acc tourny.

Well today sucked.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Mar 1, 2006 -> 09:05 PM) LOL. Somebody tell me what happened in the Texas game? There was 8 or so seconds on the game clock and 2 on the shot clock, P.J. must have thought the 8 was the shot clock and just dribbled around until the shot clock expired. Then A&M drains a trey to win it at the buzzer on the next possession.

UK wins. Upset Wednesday and a horrible day for teams on the bubble who didn't play tonight.

UK up on the Volunteers with 8 seconds left.

Now how dumb does Tucker feel?

P.J. Tucker is a dumbass, but we already knew that.