Teen Wolf: Where Amazing Happens

Could the Mizzou Tigers Win March Madness???

On Sunday night, I was thrilled that I picked 14 of the teams advancing to the Sweet 16. Upon further review however, I recognize that I still came up short. I missed about 8 picks in the first two rounds, which as it turns out is only ok. I couldn't imagine picking every game last weekend (Cleveland State???) much less throughout the tournament, especially considering the long odds behind maintaining the perfect bracket:

Want to make sure you get 100% on your office betting pool? You’ve just got to fill out 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 brackets. Yes, that’s 18.5 quintillion. Even if every person on earth filled out a different bracket, the odds are still remarkably small that any one bracket would be perfect. (link)

Quintillion. Wow.

I keep my brackets via CBS Sportsline on Facebook, so it's easy to see who beat me and the fact of the matter is that a good many folks did. As of the start of the second round, I rank #4,570 out of more than 100,000 participants. Impressively, at the top of the standings, only one person in the entire pool was perfect in their pursuit of bracket nirvana.

That's right, only one person: Hank Sherman. That's it, that's the list! Hank's the lone bracketologist who nailed his picks perfectly (48/48) through the first weekend of The NCAA tourney.

If you don't believe me, here's the proof: (link)



I'll graciously admit defeat, especially to someone that picked 48 winners. Thankfully, Facebook's first weekend champion took the time to answer some of Morganobrien.com's questions about how he pitched the perfect game through the topsy-turvy first weekend of the tourney.

1- Where are you from/how old are you/what do you do/where do you go to school?

I grew up in Richmond, Missouri a small town about 45 minutes east of Kansas City. Now I'm now a 21 yr old student at MU in Columbia.

2- How would you characterize your college basketball prowess (expert, casual follower, etc)?

I would rank it somewhere between obsessed and casual following, more towards casual. My interest grows when the Missouri Tigers play well.

3- Did you really think Mizzou had a shot at the beginning or was that tongue in cheek? If you really like them, what in particular made you think that they had it in them to make the run?

I've watched Mizzou dismantle teams all year. We've had a few embarrassing losses but our basketball team, I believe, can play with the best teams in the nation. Their defensive capabilities have amazed me all year.

4- How did your picks hold up last year?

Last year I think I had around 30 to 35 correct picks out of 64.

5- What have you learned over the course of the past four days that you'll use in future tournaments?

The momentum of a team coming into the tournament was a pretty good indicator of me in how they would perform the first round.

6- Do you have any other talents?

Yeah, I play a small handful of instruments and occasionally write music.

7- Have any of your friends or family had insights into your picking prowess over the past four days--has anyone said anything worth mentioning?

My brother is basically the co-author of my bracket. We watched the selection show together. I just gave him my gut reaction to each match-up and he gave his. Surprisingly, most of our predictions were the same, although he thought I was stupid for choosing Mizzou to win it out.

8- Is Mizzou your favorite team? Who else do you follow?

I've been a Mizzou fan ever since I was a little kid. I also try to keep up on the kU jayhawks because their our main rival. I used to watch the SMS, now Missouri State, bears when I was growing up.

9- Did you play basketball at any level?

I played in the area kids league. I stopped in middle school for band. It took as much practice to play the trombone as it did to play basketball.

10- Did any games have you nervous--eg, the Mizzou game today?

The Miz/Marq game the other day had me going crazy.
I'll probably be sweating each game from now on because the 16 teams left in the tournament are essentially on the same level skill-wise.
-----

It will be interesting following the rest of Hank's run--even he thinks it will be difficult to hold on the lead through "One Shining Moment". We'll have to see if the longshot Missouri Tigers win the NCAA title--with a little of the Sherman magic, they certainly seem like a much more reasonable pick now than a week ago, don't they?

Here's to March Madness, and congrats to Hank (although I hope that he's wrong and the Tarheels prevail).

And the POTUS Picks...

Earlier this week, President Obama made his picks for the NCAA tournament with ESPN's Andy Katz.

The Commander-in-Chief selected Louisville, Memphis, Pitt and Carolina to round out the Final Four, with Carolina edging Louisville for the national title. Here's a link to The First Bracket.

The guy signs my paychecks, so I appreciate him already. This is icing on the cake.


Ballin'

Unfortunately, not every team could crack the President's Final Four. One notable omission was Duke, a fact not missed by Coach Krzyzewski (a morganobrien.com fave--I'll always appreciate fellow captains over school ties).

Coach K had an interesting take (and not totally unexpected by those who know his politics):

“Somebody said we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four,’’ coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a lighthearted moment Wednesday as Duke prepared to face Binghamton in an East Regional first-round game in Greensboro, N.C. “As much as I respect what he’s doing, really the economy is something he should focus on more than the brackets.’’ (link)

Sounds like Reggie Love, former Duke two-sport standout and the president's body man, needs to better advocate for his alma mater.

Carolina Ballers and Scholars

Ah yes, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, home to the scholar athlete. As if I needed another reason to brag, my beloved alma mater exhibits excellence on the court and in the classroom:

Tournament teams improve APR scores
Associated Press
North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Connecticut share a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament. Their graduation rates have less in common.

The numbers ranged from 86 percent at North Carolina to 33 percent at UConn, according to a report released Monday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

Louisville was at 42 percent and Pitt at 69 percent.

The study also found that fewer tournament teams have failing Academic Progress Rates than last year. Twenty-one of the 65 tournament teams have APR scores under 925, the cutoff below which the NCAA can penalize schools. Last year, 35 teams had APR scores below 925. (link)

Oh, and did I mention the Southern Belles?

Will Lyons, Academic All Star

Got some great news today regarding the academic and athletic prowess of my cousin, Worcester Polytechnic Institute basketball star Will Lyons:

Babson Park, MA --- Three WPI men's basketball student-athletes have been named to the 2008-09 NEWMAC Men's Basketball All-Academic team.

The Engineers had the most student-athletes selected for the All-Academic team. Ben Etten (Hollis, NH), Will Lyons (Wilbraham, MA) and Jeffrey Robinson (Granby, CT) were selected to the team. It was the first All-Academic selection for each player.

Honorees must have met the following criteria: earned a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5/4.0 scale or 4.35/5.0 scale after the 2007 fall semester, achieved second year academic status at her institution, and been a member of the varsity team for the entire season. (link)

Well that's settled. I can't shoot and rebound like Will, a 6'4" senior forward, and now I realize that I don't match his classroom stats either.


The Swingman

It bears mentioning that this comes as a bittersweet reward for Will, as he earned this accomplishment on one leg. His hoops career met an untimely end after suffering a ligament tear in his knee earlier in the season.

Geeze, after having one cousin on Who Wants to be a Millionaire last week, and now this, I'm starting to develop a complex. I can't imagine what's next for the Prochilo clan. Maybe I'll try out for Jeopardy or something. Oh, wait, we already have someone in the family that's done that.

WPI enters the NCAA DIII tournament with a first-round matchup against Husson (Bangor, Maine) on Friday at 6 pm at WPI's Harrington Auditorium. An interesting sidenote, the second game of the doubleheader pits UMass Dartmouth against Baruch, setting up a possible second round matchup of WPI and my father's alma mater...

God Bless the New York Post

Sometimes, I can't believe what I read in the papers. Not that what's there isn't true--simply, I can't believe that some details actually make it to print. Like Rome under Nero...

Yesterday, two articles covering high-profile cases jumped out at me from the pages of the New York Post.

First was the piece on the now-notorious Long Island doctor that donated a kidney to his allegedly adulterous wife, and now he wants either the kidney back or $1.5 million. Great story, makes for great copy, but the Post loves to take things to the next level:

KIDNEY WOMAN DENIES AFFAIR
By SELIM ALGAR

Adultery, paranoia and ladies undergarments were all hot topics inside a Long Island courtroom today where a surgeon who gave his wife a kidney is asking her to give him $1.5 million in compensation since they're getting divorced.

The lawyer for Dawnell Batista, 44, asked Judge Jeffrey Grob to place a gag order on the case after her estranged husband, Richard Batista, held a news conference last week accusing her of adultery.

Though Grob denied the motion, lawyer Douglas Rothkopf also argued that his client was the victim of a "hyper-suspicious" husband and that no adultery had ever taken place.

"He would rummage through her underwear drawer sniffing her underwear (emphasis mine)[to see if she had cheated]," Rothkopf said inside a Mineola courtroom.(link)

I mean, you're a doctor. For starters, isn't there a more clinical (less barbaric) way to tell if your wife's been unfaithful? Couldn't you hire a PI?

The second story regards Knicks center Eddie Curry, who's found himself on the business end of a gay sexual harassment suit. Now I don't know if Eddie's guilty, and the details of his personal life really aren't anybodies business, especially if this is true:

KNICK SLAPPED WITH SEX-HARASS SUIT

By MELISSA JANE KRONFELD and BRUCE GOLDING

Knicks center Eddy Curry was slapped with a shocking sex-harassment suit Monday by his former driver, who claims the 6-foot-11 hoopster tried to solicit gay sex from him.

The stunning court papers claim Curry, a married father of three, repeatedly approached chauffeur David Kuchinsky "in the nude," allegedly telling him, "Look at me, Dave, look" and "Come and touch it, Dave."

Curry also made Kuchinsky perform "humiliating tasks outside the scope of his employment, such as cleaning up and removing dirty towels [Curry had ejaculated into] (again, emphasis mine) so that his wife would not see them," the Manhattan federal court suit says.

(Link)

Towels? Come on, Eddie. I get the whole "greening" trend (towels leave a lesser carbon footprint than, say tissues), but there's gotta be a more discrete way of handling one's business. And why does that factoid have to end up in the story?

Needless to say, you didn't get these types of stories in the Albuquerque Journal...Only in New York, only in New York.

Lebron's new campaign: Brace Yourself

This weekend, Nike began teasing the latest campaign surrounding Lebron:



I'm looking forward to the big reveal next weekend 01.18.09. The internet is buzzing about Lebron possibly performing with Lil' Wayne--who's set to perform in the Buckeye state next weekend. However, countdown2lebron.com poses a more likely theme:

Far more likely is that 1.18.09 is the date of the conference championship games in the NFL. LeBron has already filmed footage and its been speculated that he is going to make an announcement about his desire to play football.

According to some photos floating around (see below), this seems the far more plausible explanation:



Hat Tip: Countdown2Lebron.com

Billy Lyons: The Sixth Man

This kind of enthusiasm might get me rooting for the Celts!

Decisions, Decisions

Finalizing plans to head to Lahaina for the Maui Invitational.  Unfortunately, after perusing the brackets, the first round has me ankle deep in conflict city:

Click for High Res
On the first day of action, I've got the mighty Tar Heels facing the Fightin' Marianists of Chaminade, battling in the war of my alma maters (kind of).  Later that same day, the schools of my two roommates, Officer Andrew "Cochise" O'Brien and Mrs. Morganobrien.com, square off when Notre Dame (featuring a redshirting Ben Hansbrough, Tyler's bro) and Indiana tussel.

Lord knows what types of matchups will happen in the finals and consies.  Should be a good time, I just hope I don't run into my ex, Sarah Marshall, while I'm there.

NOTES: I bet IU and ND were excited they flew to Hawaii to play one another.  That said, it was probably easier to fly to Hawaii than drive from Bloomington to South Bend, considering the always-under-construction connection of unpaved roads and tractor paths that connect the North to the South in the Hoosier State.