March Madness 2016 Is Here!

Had enough politics?  (Here's an interesting piece if you haven't.)  The rest of us, though, can rejoice that March Madness is upon us at last!  SO, SO HAPPY.  Feast your eyes on the official brackets for the men, and get ready to cheer for your favorites!

March Madness 2015 Crowns Duke the Champion

Fine, fine, the hated Blue Devils and diabolical Coach K beat Wisconsin and took the championship.  Congratulations.  Now here's that song, because it's not March Madness without it!  (Sorry it's just a link, but the NCAA wouldn't let me embed it. Booooooo.)

March Madness 2015: Wisconsin vs. Stenographer

Word games in addition to basketball games!

Supermoon, Solar Eclipse, Vernal Equinox, March Madness, Starbucks Race Hustling, and Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome All In One Day!

Well, I guess the only thing I can do as commentary is post this Onion story. 

It's been a lunatic day, in which learning that Starbucks is actually encouraging its baristas to engage customers in discussions about race relations wasn't even the craziest thing that happened.  The inevitable backlash has, admittedly, provided its own form of Schadenfreudelicious entertainment. (Of course the incomparable Iowahawk has a quip.)

Elsewhere, my head is spinning from all the post-Israeli election howling from various people and quarters and media outlets.  I really can't take any more of it, because all the yelling and yammering has coalesced into one wordless collective shriek.  Maybe later I'll try to consider the fallout and talk about foreign policy again, but for now let's just call the furious reactions together "Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome" and let it go at that, mmmkay?

Finally, let me add: THANK GOD March Madness has finally started.  It's the only madness right now that makes any damn sense at all.  

(PS: Go, Anybody-But-Duke!)

Nerd News: Student Athletes, Profit, and the NCAA

New ruling: the NCAA can't forbid student athletes from profiting.  Well, college sports have become a HUGE bazillion-dollar business ... a business that basically doesn't pay its talent on the field.

Nerd News: Is March Madness in the Curriculum?

Sometimes the temptation is just too great.

March Madness: Duke's Out In the First Round

I didn't even have time to blink, much less get my Duke hate on, before the Blue Devils got eliminated from the Big Dance this afternoon.  And just who beat the #3 seed and basketball powerhouse?  Mercer. WHO?  Yeah.  Mercer, the 14th-seeded school that I had never even heard of.

You know, gigantic upsets like this are what make March Madness so great!  

By the way, that howling you hear is the sound of millions of college hoops fans lamenting their now-ruined brackets.

As for Duke ... BYE BYE BYE!

UPDATE: Need a tutorial in dancing the Nae Nae on the grave of Duke's tournament dreams?  We aim to please here at MM Blog!

"Go Blue" Takes On A Whole New Meaning

Look at these fans at the Michigan-Michigan State game!  Kudos, b*tch!

Friday Fun Video: A Master Class in the Art of the Videobomb

Kudos to the playful members of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team:

March Madness Ends!

Championship game now between Louisville and Michigan.  I am LUDICROUSLY excited. I love me some college hoops!  I've been working hard on research and writing all day so I can watch without guilt!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Louisville for a thrilling, hard-fought victory against a spirited opponent.  This is what a championship game is supposed to look like!  And now, the traditional ending to March Madness:

Baskets for Basket Cases

All I'm going to say is, THANK GOD we have new March Madness games again!  I'm pretty much an exhausted basket case from the last couple days.  I don't want to hear about academics, politics, Supreme Court decisions, various people behaving like jackasses, or anything else.  I'm going to watch college basketball tonight until my eyeballs bleed.  Thatisall.  Join me.

May the Force Be With Your Brackets

March Madness is here!  Time to fill out your brackets. Even Darth Vader is excited:

March Madness Finals!

It comes down to this!  Kansas versus Kentucky, and my hoops-loving peeps and I are beside ourselves.  I'm picking the Jayhawks tonight, and then tomorrow I pick the Lady Bears.  Nerds are too poor to bet much, but I have a nice dinner out riding on tonight's game.  Then when it's all over, I'll be back to my usual bloggy griping about politics and foreign policy.


UPDATE: It's all over!  Kentucky gets bragging rights for the year.  Here are highlights to the traditional "One Shining Moment":

For a parodic look at the lowlights, see this.

Nerd Journal: Final Four!

HOOPS HYSTERIA TODAY!  Thatisall.  I shall cheer for Kansas because California Dreamer is!

Disgustingly Cute March Madness Brackets

March Madness + six-year-olds = disgustingly cute ad campaign for AT&T.  You can also catch all the cuteness on its Youtube channel.  For now, though, here's Bella on the Kansas Jayhawks, who ten minutes ago defeated the Tarheels to advance to the Final Four!

Nerd Journal: Let Me Obsess About March Madness!

Hoops hysteria hits the Elite Eight and I am simply beside myself.  I watched 3 games last night while chatting online with friends who were doing exactly the same thing.  I'm totally exhausted.  But happy!  March Madness RULES.  Unfortunately, my mountain of work remains perilously high and mostly untouched (yikes).

Awesome March Madness: Brady Heslip's 9 three-pointers

Baylor beat Colorado 80-63 to advance to the Sweet 16, but all I could really think about during the game was, "Is Brady Heslip a cyborg?"  The Canadian-born student was playing like a maniac, sinking nine -- nine! -- three-pointers.  Stuff like this is why I love March Madness!

March Madness: Miskatonic University Edition

I can't think of another real reason why Duke and UConn are already out of the tournament.  (What?!  I didn't even have time to get my Duke-hate on!)  Look at the brackets.  It must be Cthulhu and the rise of the dark gods as Miskatonic University meets March Madness! (Besides, isn't this a fab image that I just got from a school friend of mine??)

Nothing but net.

MARCH MADNESS!

I looooooooooooove me some March Madness.  I'm also tickled by this  -- Foreign Policy's World Leader March Madness brackets!

Nerd News: College Sports as Multibillion Dollar Racket?

The question is timelier and more topical than ever in the wake of the Penn State scandal.  A historian has a few thoughts.