Even if college basketball has regressed dramatically in recent years -- and The Crew is emphatic that it has -- the first Thursday and Friday of NCAA tournament is still the best two-day stretch on the sports calendar.
Sure, the quality of play this season was, at times, simply ghastly (See last night's performance by Cal, or, for that matter, the Pac 12 all year, which was far less entertaining than watching two elderly people bathe), but that's likely to become a distant memory come 9 am PST Thursday, when the first set of games tip off.
Indeed, it's a fantastic, uniquely American couple of days, a time when millions miss work, gamble money they don't have and drink far too much alcohol -- something about which The Crew, of course, knows plenty.
Whatever happens, it's setting up to be big tournament for us, now having lost three plays in a row for the first time this year after Lamar was a no show against Vermont Wednesday. We blame Lamar coach Pat Knight, who is an asshole.
Couple thoughts/stats/links before we have make a couple picks, plus a Super Plays...
We'd say the media has covered the Peyton Manning story irresponsibly, but it's actually far worse than that. ESPN, for instance, reported over the weekend that Denver and Arizona were the favorites to sign Manning. That lasted about two hours, after which they said Miami was the frontrunner.
To be fair, ESPN is not alone. They're just the most conspicuous. Every a-hole with a Twitter account, an agenda and a couple shitty sources have him, at various times, leaning in about 15 different directions.
Manning is one of the most tight-lipped, reserved superstars of our era, like Tiger Woods rarely revealing anything of substance to the media, with whom he has distant relationship. All the noise, therefore, you hear about his next destination is just that, noise.
Mike Klis of the Denver Post has been especially embarrassing, sounding more like a rabid fan posting on a Broncos message board than a reporter who covers them for a major newspaper. If he painted his face and got a John Elway tattoo on his calf, it would be less subtle than some of the things he's written in the last week.
He knows nothing. When Peyton Manning is standing at podium somewhere or Jay Glazer, Fox Sports' peerless NFL insider, reports it, then believe it. Until then, tune it out...
A lot of people did some great work this week getting you ready for the tournament, and unlike ESPN, we'll actually give these people credit:
Nate Silver, who writes the Five Thirty Eight blog for The New York Times has a breakdown of each team's statistical chances of advancing, round by round...
Beyond the Bets put together some notes and trends for all the first round games (Tuesday and Wednesday were play-in games, NCAA)...
Our boys at Wagerminds.com posted a printable bracket with point spreads, which might help you in your pool...
Caesar's sportsbook director Todd Fuhrman seeded the tournament from a bookmaker's point of view. Also, some hack wrote something for that same blog Wednesday...
A few other interesting notes: Kentucky, the no. 1 overall seed, was 12-20-1 ATS this season, the worst of any team in the field, according to Covers.com. New Mexico, which went 22-8, was the best. No team since 1998 has covered more than 24 times in one season...
Courtesy of RJ Bell of pregame.com, the odds of all four no. 1 seeds making the Final Four is 82-1, longer than you might think. The over/under for seeds, in sum, making the Final Four is 10.5. Last year, VCU was was an 11 all by themselves...
Super Plays of the Day
Montana +9
UNLV -5
VCU +6.5
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