evolution

Random crap from something I actually enjoy, rather than commenting on politics, which is driving me to borderline sociopathy.

• Anyone see that Usain Bolt guy? I saw his run in the 100 meters when they replayed it late at night while I was laying on the couch half-asleep, and I was sitting upright and wide-awake by the time it was done. If he hadn’t pulled up ten meters early to hot-dog, he might have set a world record that would stand for a century or more. As it turns out, he broke another world record (held by Michael Johnson) in the 200-meter race, covering it in 19.3 seconds - which is actually a faster pace than his 100m run.
• Glad to see Shawn Johnson win gold after seeing silver three times. Three silver medals are nothing to scoff at, but it was good to see her get that payoff. Now why was a man twice her age watching gymnastics while alone in the dark? Uhhh….nothing to see here…
• … speaking of which, whoever decided to add women’s beach volleyball to the Olympics is a damned genius. Turns out that. aside from all the obvious attractions, it’s fun too.
• Men’s basketball team - on a mission.
• Can we not make Cris Collinsworth into the enemy of conservatives everywhere?¹ Collinsworth might or might not be a liberal, and I frankly don’t care. Does no one remember when he did NFL for FOX? He’s just a smarmy prick. NBC + smarmy prick = liberal is always a good bet, but Collinsworth is and has always been a smarmy douche that no one likes, which is probably why FOX fired him. Trust me, he’s not worth it.
• Anyone else getting to watch some of the more obscure competitions, like archery, table tennis, tae-kwon-do, skeet-shooting and such? They’re not on in prime-time in America (or not covered then), and that’s at least part of the reason I’m interested in the Olympics in the first place.

1. at least what’s left of it, after eight years of the GOP putting a pillow over its face? [↩]

I don’t know if Mindy McCready is from Louisville or not (and frankly, I can’t be bothered to check), but it made the headline work.

Let me ask you this: Roger Clemens ended up playing for the Yankees to make tons of money and win championships. Do you think that these details would be coming out now if he hadn’t ever played for the Yankees?

If your answer to that question is “no”, then do you think was it worth it?

It turns out that although I enjoy crapping on all things Jayhawk the rest of the time, there is a spot in even my frozen soul for them. Having butchered my official bracket beyond all recognition, I am taking the Jayhawks to win tonight by six points and become the national champions.

UPDATE: Not I, said the emaw.

UPDATE [4:00, second half]: Derrick Rose just banked in a three-pointer shot to put Memphis up by seven. Thus endeth the dream.

I put my blog template back the way it was. My warm feeling is over; I’ve been doing the Simpsons/Nelson laugh to antagonize my neighbors for several minutes now.

UPDATE 3: Boy — is having me pick your team in a big game the kiss of death or what?

UPDATE 4: Wow — a few creative fouls and a couple of shots and now it’s Memphis with the ball and a two-point lead with 44 seconds to go. I bet they’d like to have those points back that they gave up by going to that zone earlier.

I’m still going with the Nelson laugh.

UPDATE 5: Ten seconds to go — looks like Memphis is going to make it interesting.

UPDATE 6: See? Reverse psychology. 63-63. [End of regulation.]

UPDATE 7 [4:23, overtime]: Calipari calls for time to whip some butts back into line. 65-63 Kansas. I don’t know why I’m bothering — no one but no one is reading this. It’s a sick compulsion.

[3:30, overtime]: Chalmers to Arthur for a dunk. 67-63.

[2:37, overtime]: Arthur to Jackson for a layup. 69-63. Timeout for Memphis.

[1:48, overtime]: 69-65 after a ticky-tack foul on Rush.

[0:58.8, overtime]: Rush with a breakaway layup followed by a three by CDR. 71-68.

[0:45.1, overtime]: Chalmers to the line; hits both. 73-68.

[0:29.9, overtime]: Tie-up goes to Kansas, but Collins slips on the sideline and turns it over. I’m not making another value judgment on this one until it’s over.

[0:18.2, overtime]: A clock screw-up and two Collins free throws makes it 74-68.

[Final]: Kansas wins, 75-68, and are national champions. Chalmers is tournament MVP. It’s raining here, and will do so throughout the night, so I don’t know if one can burn a couch, or maybe a car, in this weather.

KU’s Web site is getting pegged, as is the J-Dub. The latter has a live feed from downtown Lawrence, which I am thankfully nowhere near.

No class tomorrow for KU students. KU employees, not so much.

I’ve already got one side wrong, as UCLA lost to Memphis by fifteen.

This is where I, as a Kansas blogger and native, am supposed to go back on my earlier prediction and take the Jayhawks to beat North Carolina, but it’s not going to happen. It’s Carolina by twelve tonight, and then on to the championship game, which will be won by Carolina also.

Er… nothing to see here.

Don’t look now, but the Royals are 3-0 after beginning the season with a road sweep of projected division winner Detroit. The Royals needed a late-inning comeback and some extra-innings heroics on Opening Day, but Brian Bannister along with relievers Leo Nunez and Joakim Soria shut the Tigers out yesterday and Zack Greinke cut them down again today, allowing one run in seven innings.

I almost wish the media wouldn’t mention it until, say, June, so as not to jinx it.

The Royals will be in Minneapolis this weekend.

Here it is, up to the Final Four, which will occur this coming weekend. I butchered the second and hence the third round pretty badly, but I ended up with the right Final Four.

While I was out, I espied a rally in honor of the Jayhawk game going on as we speak. I whipped out the evolution cameras and snapped some pictures. I’ll post them throughout the game as I, uh, “process” them.

Another:

One more before dinner:

Might do one more, with the probability increasing to nearly 1 if Stephon Curry does something in the last sixteen seconds here.

UPDATE: He didn’t, at least not this time. Kansas wins, 59-57.

Here you go. Some upsets caused me to butcher a couple of the regions pretty bad. I went 33-15 in the first round.

Alas, the end has come as the Cats lose to Wisconsin, 72-55. The Cats had a difficult time getting shots to fall — even Beasley, though he ended up with a double-double, went 0-for-4 from three-point range. Wisconsin played tough defense, as they usually do, and got their shots to fall. That pretty much tells the story.

I’m happy, though. For a couple of seasons in my adult life, anyway, K-State basketball was not a joke. There were quite a number of exciting moments, and of course we got to experience first-hand the best basketball player any of us have ever seen in these parts.

It remains to be seen whether this program’s elevated status can be sustained, and only time will tell.

The first in what I hope will be a series. I just got home and finished dinner; I listened to the first ten minutes of the game in the car and I’ve watched the rest since. Bill Walker has 14 points, Beasley has sat the bench with fouls although he’s in the game now, and the Cats lead 25-17.

The Cats have looked great defensively, and USC, while immensely talented, has looked a little rattled. This looks like the Wildcat team that started conference play with six consecutive wins rather than the one that lost six of eight to close it out. We have to finish that way — I remember well that a Tim Floyd-coached team with a phenomenal player (Marcus Fizer) once terrorized the Big XII some years ago.

[5:11, first half] How about Ron Anderson’s effort? He’s got four points plus a number of rebounds. 27-19 Cats.

[3:56, first half] CBS just displayed a graphic that said USC hadn’t scored from the field in over ten minutes of game time. Also, there was a little trivia game shown to the crowd — something like “guess that fight song” — and ESPN must be in the house because, of course, they played the KU fight song.

[Halftime] For the Cats: Walker has 17 points, a rebound, and an assist. Anderson has six points, two rebounds, and a couple of steals. Sutton has four points, a rebound, and an assist, and took a charge at the end of the half on O.J. Mayo. The Cats have seven steals and are just winning the rebound battle. The Cats are winning all the battles without Beasley; hopefully he detonates in the second half as he has done before. Mayo has seven for the Trojans as does Gibson. K-State 37, Southern Cal 27.

A&M is up by 10 early, KU rolled this morning, and Baylor has already been sent home by Purdue. Texas and Oklahoma play their games tomorrow.

[18:36, second half] Ouch — Beasley just got his third foul, and Walker picked up his second. K-State by six.

[15:51, second half] Uh-oh. USC fights to within four. We might need Beasley to step into the phone booth soon. And what do you know — ten seconds after this timeout, he scores and gets a call for one more.

[13:06, second half] Free throw good, and it’s 48-47 USC. Disturbing parallels to that Missouri game in which we blew a 15-point lead. The good news is that USC’s stars are getting into a bit of foul trouble. If we don’t continue with some sort of offensive plan it won’t matter.

[11:54, second half] Beasley scores and is fouled again. That’s the plan, guys — pound them inside. USC’s bench is only played eight deep.

[10:00, second half] The long-suffering Stewart cans a three-ball. 57-53 Cats.

[8:46, second half] Just like that, K-State opens up a 7-0 run, and now leads 61-53. This has been an entertaining game.

[7:37, second half] 61-54. The action has picked up considerably. I think K-State tends to fare better in those types of games rather than the plodding, set-piece types.

[5:01, second half] Holding steady here; 64-58.

[4:14, second half] And just like that, K-State puts on a 4-0 run, but USC scores, and now it’s 69-60. The Cats’ crowd is making their presence known. Nice to see a lot of Cat fans made the trip. As I say that, Beasley busts a three, and now it’s 72-60.

CBS has briefly cut to Belmont giving Duke a run for its money, just getting a three and a rebound to pull to one point down and the ball with two minutes to play. A foul and the free throws gives Belmont a one point lead. They just got it back after a Duke missed layup with a one-point lead and 1:40 to play.

[1:30, second half] CBS has cut away again; I guess that means CBS thinks it’s over. They just went back because the Duke game went to timeout. I’ve got Wyatt and Stan on, so I’ll get to savor the flavor anyway.

Duke has the ball with a buck to go, but they just missed a hook in the lane, and Belmont has the ball and a one-point lead with 47.9. Beasley just flushed it to put K-State up by 16. The good guys ran away with it at the end. Taj Gibson just fouled out… and Duke just drove the lane to put themselves up by one with four seconds on the clock. Belmont’s going to get a crack at it…but no. The inbounds pass was stolen. But a missed free throw and there’s 1.7 for Belmont to pull a… Christian Laettner?

[Final] K-State wins its first NCAA Tournament game in 20 years by the count of 80-67. Beasley with 23 points and 11 rebounds, Walker with 22, Anderson 10 points and eight rebounds, Pullen with 11 points and five assists.

Alas, the Duke upset is not to be. ESPN’s second-favorite team wins by one.

The next game is Saturday afternoon at 3:15 against the winner of the nightcap: Wisconsin v. Cal State-Fullerton.