Location, Location, Location

Just a quick rant about college hockey before I put this season to bed for good...

Can somebody tell me who the HELL is in charge of organizing the Frozen Four?

Seriously.

I've never been more confused about a Division I college tournament bracket than I was about this year's Regional matchups. I just don't get it...

First of all, how does BC get an overall 3 seed, when they were just #2 in the nation last week and riding an 8 game winning streak that included a (1) a Hockey East regular season crown and a (2) Hockey East conference championship crown? Not only that but how did Yale earn the #1 overall seed??? Yale was ranked 3rd in the polls coming into the tourney, behind both BC and North Dakota and yet somehow managed to make a quantum leap over both schools. Am I missing something? Did Yale's ECAC crown really hold more weight over a Hockey East crown? I highly doubt that. I mean the only explanation is that they did it so that Yale could host a regional site, right?...

Ok so...

If that's the case that the committee fudged with the top seeds in order to match the top teams with the closest regional site, then can somebody - ANYBODY - tell me why BC had to play in St. Friggen Louis??? Especially when two of the four regional sites were in Manchester, NH and Bridgeport, CT!?

I understand that the regional sites are chosen way ahead of time and should have no bearing on which teams get chosen to play in each site, regardless of their proximity but....

Wait. I'm sorry? There IS a proximity consideration when selecting the teams for that region?

According to trusty Wikipedia (because the NCAA tends to be under wraps about this kind of stuff):

In setting up the tournament, the Championship Committee seeks to ensure "competitive equity, financial success and likelihood of playoff-type atmosphere at each regional site." A team serving as the host of a regional is placed within that regional. The top four teams are assigned overall seeds and placed within the bracket such that the national semifinals will feature the No. 1 seed versus the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed versus the No. 3 seed should the top four teams win their respective regional finals. Number 1 seeds are also placed as close to their home site as possible, with the No. 1 seed receiving first preference.

Oh really? So that's how it works? So, why - once again - did Boston College (a team from the Northeast) host a regional site located in the Midwest, while Miami of Ohio (a team from the midwest) was chosen to host a regional site located in the Northeast (Manchester, NH)?? Am I the only one who thought this was more than a little ass-backwards? Did the committee not have GoogleMaps up in front of them while they were making these seedings? Or was this an organized coup d'etat put in place to try to derail the defending champs?...

Conspiracy theories aside, my beloved Eagles lost - er, got crushed - in a game I'd rather not openly discuss about, and really there's no excuse for it. In the end, it's not so much about location as it is about coming in and playing your A game for 60 minutes - and BC just didn't do it. Which sucked, because they had been doing it all year long. Oh well...my hat's off to the boys. Championship or no championship, another fantastic and thrilling year of hockey on the Heights.

No but really, isn't it funny that the two #1 seeds playing away from home - BC and Miami (OH) - both lost in the first round? Just saying...

Tweeting the Blog Back to Life

I have officially done what I told myself I wouldn't do.

I've let too much time pass in between my last post and now. It's not that I haven't had anything to write about - it's actually the opposite. I've learned that the longer you hold off writing, the MORE you want to write about during that span of time. And then you just tweak yourself out deciding which topic to choose. And by the time you finally decide, it's too late, you're too tired, and you're distracted by the Speed Marathon on AMC. It happens.

[Fun Speed trivia: the guy who Keanu Reeves steals a car from to chase the bus down in the first Speed is the same guy Jason Patric steals a boat from to chase down Willem Dafoe's hydroplane in Speed 2: Cruise Control. Once again, something you'd probably only pick up on during a Speed marathon.]

So in the interest of feeling "caught up" and under the constraints of time and audience attention-span, I am going to attempt to briefly discuss everything that has been stirring around in my mindsauce over the past few weeks - in 140 characters or less....

NFL Lockout

Thx to sporcle I learned that ALL 32 NFL teams rank in the Top 50 Most Valuable Sports franchises IN THE WORLD.Tot=$33BIL...I mean, C'mon!

NFL Rule Changes (Kickoffs, Replays)

So you're changing the rules for a game that probably won't be played next year? Don't you guys have something better to do? (See above)

Bruins

Chara decapitates Pacioretty. Montreal police set bounty. Recchi calls out Pacioretty's toughness. B's kill Habs 7-0. Moral: Canada sucks.

Red Sox

Pedroia buys a hot dog during a spring training game and goes completely unrecognized...So we have that in common.

Celtics:

Watching the C's during the reg season is like watching Nenad Krstic's hair grow. When do the playoffs start?...

March Madness

Nominations for 1st born son: Jimmer, J'Covan, JaJuan,, E'Twaun, Shabazz...I should make a bracket. There's also these: click.

St. Patty's Day Parade

Nothing says SPD like bagpipes, green beer, 10' unicyclists, Justin Bieber working the sausage stand and pictures of people taking pictures.

The Adjustment Bureau

It's official. Emily Blunt is the ONE.

Charlie Sheen

Mr. Sheen beat out the Tokyo Earthquake for the most searched keyword on Google last week. Another sign of the apocalypse (no pun intended)

Apple Released the iPad 2

Now with stronger cloth lining for those extra tough times of the month!

Phew. I feel much more caught up now....

[Stay tuned for the much-awaited "Glee" post.]

Sexiled

Everyone has that one night in their lives that they'll regret forever. Right?

Maybe you had a few too many slippery nipple shots at the bar the night before and woke up in a blurry haze the next morning lying butt-naked in a public garden next to Lolita, the 4'5" Spanish midget from the local Foxy Lady. It happens to everybody. We make mistakes. We're only human.

But for Brandon Davies, being human may have just cost him his basketball scholarship.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Davies, the BYU sophomore forward out of Provo, UT, had been dismissed from the team indefinitely for his conduct off the court. At first, all the university would not go any specific details about the transgressions that led to the dismissal. Then on Wednesday, word finally got out that the sophomore had been released from the team and suspended from the school for breaking an "honor code" upheld at the institution. When I first heard this, my initial thought was that Colonel Jessup was in the building. Honor code? Did he give away Coca Cola's secret recipe or something?

As it turned out, Davies was dismissed from the team as a consequence to one of those nights he'll always regret. But in this case, there was no alcohol or public indecency or Spanish midgets. Brandon Davies was suspended and kicked off the basketball team for having sex...with his girlfriend.

Now I know BYU is supposed to be all uber-religious and strict and straight-edge when it comes to all this stuff but...really? The man has intercourse with his girlfriend and that's enough behavior to warrant a permanent dismissal from the team and possible dismissal from the school? The dude wasn't drinking, wasn't smoking, and really wasn't doing anything illegal. And yet, he gets one of the stiffest punishments I have seen given to a college athlete in a long, long time. It just doesn't make sense.

Yeah yeah, BYU is full of Mormons and Mormons don't believe in drugs, alcohol or premarital sex. But let's be honest here, this kid was probably going to marry this girl next week anyway. More than half of the kids walking around that school are married already and many of them have children too. And wait another year, I bet some of them will be married again. And again. I just don't get it.

Without trying to go into the logistics of the actual religion and its actual rules and beliefs, I'm just going to say that I think the thing that gets to me the most is the inconsistency this action

sets against the rest of the league. I mean, think about it. In the past year alone, how many times have we seen college athletes getting suspended just a couple games for recruiting violations and taking gifts from boosters and getting into barfights, etc? You'd be stupid to think that all college athletes are alcohol and drug-free. And you'd be really stupid to think that college athletes don't have premarital sex. Much of the time, their "destructive" behavior goes under the radar. And when they do get caught, it's usually only a brief suspension. Is it fair that BYU is 100 times stricter? No. But is it the risk you take when you choose to go to a college like that. I guess so.

And let's get to the real issue at hand. Because it's not like this happened to any little division III program in Chaunceyville USA. BYU was ranked #3 in the nation and coming off a huge victory over conference rival and #6 ranked San Diego State when this happened. They were almost a shoe-in for a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney in a few weeks. Now, they have to play without their 3rd leading scorer and best option inside the paint. Now all opposing teams have to do is focus on defending wonderboy Jimmer Fredette and they'll have a chance to win.

Exhibit A: tonight's game. New Mexico 82, BYU 64. (in Provo)

The only "honor code" being broken here is BYU giving away their own secret recipe.