Escaping in March

With earthquakes, nuclear and economic meltdowns and all of the other good tidings channeled to us through our television, thank goodness for college basketball. We could ponder why the Japanese engineers built a nuclear power plant to withstand a 9.0 quake while engineering the backup power to keep the plant from melting down not to withstand the ensuing tsunami. We could wonder what Plutonium-239 having a half life of 24,000 years means to us. The story of Wall Street moguls pocketing unindicted millions while 9 % of working minions are unemployed is compelling. This weekend, we would rather focus on Butler versus Virginia Commonwealth.

Escapism is a Yard tenet. Work and mortgage payments rarely permit such travel but one can dream. Since the first vestiges of March, college hoops has provided a 24/7 happy place from the wrath. The devastation in Japan is biblical. New Zealand has not recovered and that is suddenly old news. Good news is that 216,000 citizens found work while 13 million cannot. The Butler Bulldogs and the Virginia Commonwealth Rams are playing in the national semifinal on Saturday afternoon. CNN? We don’t need no stinking CNN.

The NCAA national basketball tournament goes deep beyond the arteries of the major sports cities into the capillaries of America. Saturday afternoon, Richmond Virginia and Indianapolis, Indiana will shut out the world and root for their respective local teams. The Yard will be right there with them for every shining moment. March media provided little solace from the events of the day. Tragedy was everywhere and our hearts wept for the unfortunate. College basketball was our escape during March.
Butler and VCU are our compelling stories. VCU beat USC in the play in game last summer or something just to get in. They have won one more game than anyone left in the dance VCU was soundly lambasted by ESPN’s Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas for having the audacity of accepting the 67th tournament bid. If Bilas had his druthers, the Commonwealth would have demurred on the tourney and given their bid to a much more deserving Colorado or Alabama team. There are never “one and dones” at VCU or Butler. Players go to those schools to pursue careers other than the NBA. Hoops are for these moments not the next level. The one and dones are in the UCONN-Kentucky game that follows.

Kentucky coach John Calipari is widely recognized as the best coach for players who will play one year and then go to the NBA. The University of Kentucky must be so proud of their coach’s prowess with incoming freshmen. He also holds the NCAA for vacating the most Final Fours because of recruiting violations as well. Actually, he has vacated the only two Final Fours that he has coached. Jim Calhoun will be suspended for five Big East conference games next year for recruiting violations. The Yard is pulling for Butler to do what they should have done last year and win it all. We were pulling for them last year because we hate Duke. They are a better story with this year’s run.

When college basketball was between rounds, it was also nice to see the Lakers “flip the switch” before the second round of the playoffs on their way to a championship. The Lakers stumbled into the playoffs last year with three straight losses. This year they tumbled into the All-Star weekend with three straight losses culminating in a Greek tragedy at the Quicken Loans arena starring the Cleveland Cavaliers. Mitch Kupchak pondered breaking up the team. Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum were the only people he was talking to but he got everyone’s attention. Artest was behaving and saying all of the right things. He was shooting 37% and lost on the floor. Andrew is seven feet of lost in the City of the Angels. He has a lot of potential and he should not risk finding it in Cleveland as Baron Davis has been exiled to do with a bum hip and bad beard. Both are leading the charge since Mitch’s comments.

It is one thing to take their usual bitch slap tour of Texas and beat San Antonio and Dallas by double digits. It is quite something special to come of the pasting of Dallas, fly to Salt Lake fall behind by 17 and rally to win by 11. The Lakers are never good on the second night of a back to back and most notably when flying to the city where fun goes to die. Falling behind by double digits in games like this has been a Laker tradition since the days of Magic and James. Rallying to win by double digits is an exception for this two time defending champion. Get the bus ready, there will be a parade in June on Figueroa.

Final Thoughts: Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale speak about a mid-Majors resume like they are applying for a job. They seem to be saying that there is a career path to becoming a major-Major and get CBS’s respect. Jay, you are starting to morph into Billy Packer. Be careful, he got sent packing. Dickie V, try to talk without your hands just for one shining moment or at least block out a bit more of your mug with those mitts. You also made a great prediction about Louisville making a long run in the tournament. We know Pitino is your big buddy but his Cardinals did not make it to lunch time on the first day of the dance.