Clearly your taste in blogs is the same as your taste in lawyers; only the very best, with just the right amount of dirty.
Better Call Saul is back for season three Monday night.
Friday Morning Randomness
John Mulaney gets you ready for this weekend’s inevitable “Back to the Future” cable marathon.
Four Thoughts After Four Days of the Tournament
It’s Hard to Repeat
Only two schools have won back-to-back titles since the end of the John Wooden UCLA dynasty in 1975. Duke won consecutive titles in 1991 and 1992, and Florida cut down the nets in 2006 and 2007. Here’s a quick look at how every champion has fared in defense of its title over the last ten seasons:
| Season | Champion | Following Season |
| 2007 | Florida | NIT |
| 2008 | Kansas | Lost, Sweet 16 |
| 2009 | North Carolina | NIT |
| 2010 | Duke | Lost, Sweet 16 |
| 2011 | Connecticut | Lost, First Round |
| 2012 | Kentucky | NIT |
| 2013 | Louisville | Lost, Sweet 16 |
| 2014 | Connecticut | NIT |
| 2015 | Duke | Lost, Sweet 16 |
| 2016 | Villanova | Lost, Second Round |
Villanova is the latest school to fall short in its bid to repeat. Four of the last five defending champions to make it back to the NCAA tournament made it to the Sweet 16, though, making Villanova’s defeat in the second round sting a little more. Many bracketologists had them going a lot further.
Conference Champions are Overrated
The 2017 NCAA Tournament field consisted of 23 teams from one-bid conferences and 45 teams from nine multi-bid conferences. With all due respect to Wichita State and Middle Tennessee, let’s take a look at how the conference champions of the nine multi-bid conferences have done so far:
| American | SMU | Lost, First Round |
| Atlantic 10 | Rhode Island | Lost, Second Round |
| ACC | Duke | Lost, Second Round |
| Big 12 | Iowa State | Lost, Second Round |
| Big East | Villanova | Lost, Second Round |
| Big Ten | Michigan | On to Sweet 16 |
| Pac-12 | Arizona | On to Sweet 16 |
| SEC | Kentucky | On to Sweet 16 |
| WCC | Gonzaga | On to Sweet 16 |
Five out of the nine multi-bid conference champions didn’t survive the first weekend. The last conference champion to win a national championship was Louisville in 2013.
Including the 23 one-bid conference champions, the 32 conference champions in the tournament have gone 15-28 and only four remain in the tournament heading into the Sweet 16.
The ACC Disappointed B1G Time
The ACC had nine teams make the tournament, and only one remains (North Carolina). The West Coast Conference also has just one team in the Sweet 16, but only two teams from that conference made the tournament. The Big East has two out of seven teams still alive, the Pac-12 three out of four, the Big 12 three out of six, the SEC three out of five and the Big Ten three out of seven.
While the Pac-12 boasts a higher percentage of its teams still alive, the Big Ten could easily say it had the best weekend of any conference. Arizona is a popular choice for national champion and UCLA has been hot, but it was supposed to be a down year for the Big Ten. It had no teams in the tournament higher than a #4 seed.
I don’t anyone who picked a Big Ten team to win the whole thing but Wisconsin knocked off overall #1 Villanova, Michigan defeated #2 Lousiville and Purdue sent home Big 12 champion Iowa State.
Don’t Sleep on Michigan
Michigan won four games in four days (and defeated three eventual NCAA Tournament teams) to capture the Big Ten tournament crown after almost not making it to DC for the conference tournament. That can’t help but bring back memories from Connecticut’s improbable run in 2011.
While Connecticut didn’t have the same scare Michigan had earlier this month, they did have to defeat five teams in five days to win the Big East championship. That Connecticut team went into its conference tournament 21-9, 9-9 in Big East play while this year’s Michigan team entered its conference tournament at 20-11 and 10-8 in Big Ten play.
The 2011 Connecticut team beat San Diego State and Arizona in Anaheim to advance to the Final Four, and beat Kentucky and Butler in Houston to complete its run. Michigan could face a similar challenge if it defeats Oregon on Thursday. Michigan could potentially face Kansas in Kansas City on Saturday night with a berth to the Final Four on the line.
Happy (Sports) New Year
The Sports New Year starts today. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. I know the Patriots won the Super Bowl last month, but I believe they were crowned 2016 World Champions after the win. Case closed.
March Madness is the return of good weather and day drinking. It combines two things Americans always need – endless gambling and a cure for our minuscule attention spans. Everyone and their mom does a bracket, and games on four different channels for 12 hours a day for four straight days makes this the ultimate TV tournament.
When this tournament ends, we’ll arrive at baseball opening day. That leads to NBA/NHL playoffs, the dog days of summer, pennant races, the return of football, the World Series and then playoff football to get us through the dead of winter once again.
Last year kicked off with Villanova’s thrilling win in the National Championship game, saw Cleveland win something for the first time in forever, saw the Cubs win a World Series for the first time since World War I and saw the Patriots pull off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. It was a hell of a story.
I can wait for next year, and next year tips off today. Enjoy it.
Friday Morning Randomness
We’re big fans of George Carlin here at The 300s. Here are his ideas for some new sports we should have. There’s no video, but it’s till probably some of the funniest Carlin stuff you haven’t heard yet.
Gold Jacket, Green Jacket, Who Gives a Shit?
21 years ago today, Happy Gilmore made its theatrical release.
Let that sink in… pic.twitter.com/lKHxSWaB3f
— Only In Boston (@OnlyInBOS) February 16, 2017
The ’90s was a great decade, definitely the best of the four decades I’ve lived in. A booming economy, the rise of the world wide web, no major wars and Bubba holding things down in the White House. The ’90s also had more than its fair share of great television and movies. Happy Gilmore was a classic in its time the way Citizen Kane and Casablanca were in the early ’40s. They are great products of their respective times.
Happy Gilmore is also, arguably, the best Adam Sandler film. It is the one film I can quote endlessly with friends, and have them respond in turn with another classic Chubbs Peterson quip.
A lot of ’90s nostalgia can get me feeling pretty old, but I don’t feel as bad when I realize that this movie came out before I hit 10. Looking back on Happy Gilmore 21 years later, here are three quick takeaways.
- Julie Bowen (Virginia Venit) looks better today than she did in 1996.
- Bob Barker may be the World’s Greatest Master of Ceremonies, but his fight scene in Happy Gilmore brought him adulation from a whole new demographic. It’s hard to imagine all those college students in the audience at The Price is Right in the late ’90s without him kicking Adam Sandler’s ass first.
- One more thought on the fight scene. When commissioner Doug Thompson suspends Happy from the tour for getting into a fight with a game show host on national television, what was his archrival Shooter McGavin doing in that meeting?
I could go on and on, but you should just pay tribute and watch this classic tonight. It’s the only movie I have on DVD AND VHS. So grab a footlong cold cut combo and settle in for this 92-minute time capsule from the great decade of the 1990’s.
Ranking the Patriots Super Bowl Calls
We talked about it on The 300s Podcast this week, and I think the time has come to rank the game-winning calls from the five Patriots Super Bowl wins. Here’s my list, and my thoughts on the broadcasters and their calls. Apologies in advance for having to watch some of the clips on YouTube, but at least all the links are in one place now.
5. Super Bowl 38 – CBS – Greg Gumbel
Back in 2003, Jim Nantz was still on studio duty hosting The NFL Today and Greg Gumbel was the lead play-by-play announcer for CBS. Gumbel is a sold broadcaster, but there’s not much here. Neither the call after the field goal nor the call after the kickoff add much. There’s something to be said about letting the moment “breathe” and letting the pictures tell the story, but some narration here would have been great.
4. Super Bowl 39 – FOX – Joe Buck
Joe Buck’s first Super Bowl broadcast. I think Buck takes far more criticism than he deserves, but he falls into the same trap here that Gumbel did at the end of Super Bowl 38. It’s nice to let the moment breathe, but some excitement or commentary would have helped distinguish this interception with nine seconds remaining in the Super Bowl from an interception in Week 9.
3. Super Bowl 36 – FOX – Pat Summerall
This call gets a lot of flack. I remember not liking it much at the time, either, but it has grown on me. Sure, a little more excitement or commentary would have been nice. But this moment benefits the most from the broadcasters letting it breathe and letting the pictures tell the story of complete bedlam after time expired. This was also Pat Summerall’s last game as FOX’s lead football broadcaster. Watching game replays today I half expect him to start talking about the leather helmet days and about when men were men.
2. Super Bowl 51 – FOX – Joe Buck
The easiest call in sports might be the walk-off home run, and this is the closest equivalent in football. Buck does a good job to call the play, shows some excitement, and sums things up pretty well at the end. “Brady has his fifth! What a comeback!”
1. Super Bowl 49 – NBC – Al Michaels
Not the first time Al Michaels has taken the top spot on a “best sports calls” list and hopefully not the last. I love the excitement in his voice, and am very impressed that he was able to spit out the name Malcolm Butler so easily. Butler wasn’t exactly a household name at that point.
EXTRA POINT
Not sure what the NFL television contract situation looks like right now, but I’d love to see ESPN/ABC get another Super Bowl soon. No one beats Sean McDonough in moments like these.
Friday Morning Randomness
In case you missed it during the lead up to the Super Bowl, ESPN aired a terrific 30 for 30 on February 2, “This Was the XFL.” If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a great watch.
This opening scramble definitely took me back to early 2001. It’s a shame no one has figured out yet how to keep a spring football league going. There are dozens of independent baseball leagues and teams, why can’t someone do the same with football?
Anyway, enjoy the nostalgia rush that is the XFL. Too bad I can’t go down to Building 19 to look for a Memphis Maniax jersey today.
MLB to Get Serious about Speeding up Games
ESPN – Is this the year baseball raises the strike zone? Is it the year the sport does away with the practice of lobbing four balls toward home plate to issue an intentional walk? Major League Baseball has made formal proposals to the players’ union to usher in both of those changes.
ESPN – MLB will test a rule change in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League and the Arizona League this summer that will automatically place a runner on second base at the start of extra innings.
The days between the Super Bowl and MLB Opening Day are the dreariest days of the year for sports talk. Even for the diehards, breaking down regular season hockey and basketball games every day can get tedious. Topics like MLB’s pace of play can get a lot of attention in February.
You gotta admire MLB’s attempt to steer the conversation on the pace of play discussion. “Games lasting longer three hours have nothing to do with endless Southwest Airlines commercials. Nothing at all. It’s all those intentional walks and extra inning games slowing us down! Yeah, that’s it!”
Actually, only 7.6% of MLB games last year went to extra innings. Of those extra inning games, 40% ended after just 10 innings. Only 32 games went past 12 innings last year.
There were 932 intentional walks last season. That may seem like a lot, but that’s out of 2430 games played across the league last year. That works out to one intentional walk every two and half games or so. On a night when all 30 teams are playing, you might see about 6 intentional walks.
Speeding up extra innings and/or intentional walks does not seem like the best way to regularly speed up the pace of play or cut down game times significantly. I think if MLB wants to get serious, they’ll have to consider George Carlin’s rule proposals from 1986.
If that doesn’t work, maybe we can cut a few Southwest ads after all. I don’t know that many people need to fly from Manchester to Albany for 49 bucks any time soon anyways.
Friday Morning Randomness
Let’s hope Brady does Sunday.
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