Let’s conference

I'm holding individual conferences with my students today and Friday, so my next two blogs may be sort of disorganized since I'll have students interrupting me every few minutes. Though, I suppose that won't be much different than how I usually blog because I'm pretty easily distracted while blogging.

The NCAA tournament begins (in earnest) tomorrow. I'm not always super-excited about first round games because a lot of them are blowouts. For example, UNC is probably going to play Radford without their most important player, but I still doubt it will be a "game," so to speak. I suppose the closer-seeded matchups might be more exciting. I'm particularly interested in watching Arizona beat Utah Friday evening. (Don't steal my upset pick (especially if you're in my bracket pool).)

I'm surprised how insignificant the NIT has become in the past few years (since the NCAA bought it in 2005). I know it hasn't really "mattered" for a long time now, but it seems to have lost even more significance in the past few years. In fact, as far as I can tell, ESPN.com doesn't even have an NIT bracket to look at. I'm extra-surprised by this considering there are some really good teams in the "hunt" this year: Kentucky, Davidson, Penn State, Notre Dame, Saint Mary's, etc.

The US team just got past Puerto Rico last night to get into the next round of the WBC. If you haven't seen Shane Victorino's move from 2^nd to 3^rd in the 7^th, you should definitely check that out. It's on the video in the story linked above. To be honest, I haven't found myself really "pulling" for USA in either of the tournaments so far. Don't get me wrong; I love America. But I have such strong feelings and allegiances towards certain MLB players that I tend to root based on those. So, in 2006, I pulled for Albert Pujols and the DR more than anybody. And when I was watching the highlights for last night's game, I was pretty excited to see Brian Roberts' key steal in the 9^th, but I was really disappointed that Yadier Molina didn't gun him down.

The flood of students has considerably slowed my blogress. I've been blogging for around three hours and have around 400 words. And I'm trying to eat some Cheez-its and grade one more paper (at least).

I picked up GTA: Chinatown Wars yesterday, though I probably shouldn't have. I'll probably write a little more on this Friday when (a) I have more time, (b) I've played a little more, and (c) I might talk about my upcoming paper for my rhetoric class which is a comparison between GTA IV and Saints Row 2.

QotD:

Which NCAA game are you most excited about in the first or second round (depending on when you answer)?

My take: For tomorrow, I'm excited about Cal/Maryland and Clemson/Michigan. But, overall in the first round, I'm most excited about 'Zona/Utah on Friday.