Exposed Brackets - #1

As promised, here is the first bracket explanation. My roommate always fills hers out using a complicated combination of her basketball knowledge, team mascots & colors, feelings about people (coaches, players, alumni, etc.) and whatever else she throws in. And of course, she always seems to be right in the top of the pool. I was unable to get a readable version of her bracket on here, but you can read her explanation and get a feel for it:

"First, I should probably give you a little background on my bracket completion process. While some of choices are probably a little tainted by popular opinion and what the 'experts' think will happen, I try to base my choices largely on my own personal likes and dislikes rather than what is truly likely. This includes my feelings toward team colors and uniforms, mascots (the Southern Illinois Salukis are my favorite, from a mascot perspective), fun team nicknames (like the ‘Zags), fun things I can should (such as ‘Bama, Baby!', which I was sadly deprived of this year), players whose names I especially enjoy, and my feelings toward people I know who attended any given school (and this can work for or against teams).

And now, some of my 2007 NCAA tournament picks:

(11)VCU over (6)Duke in the first round
This was really more a pro-VCU than anti-Duke pick. I don’t dislike Duke, I just don’t have much interest in them. Plus, the Blue Devil mascot doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t think it’s the worst mascot, but it’s far from the best.
VCU, on the other hand, has a lot going for it in my book. First, it’s in Richmond, VA, and I’ve been there—twice. My friend Rachel actually lived there for a year and had a job that was somehow affiliated with the university, and it was nice having her around (even though I didn’t actually see her that often.) I like Rachel=I like VCU. See? Second, their mascot is the Ram. It’s not one of my favorites, but I like it much better than a Blue Devil. Also, it reminds me of the St. Louis Rams. I much prefer the Kansas City Chiefs to the St. Louis Rams, but it still has that Midwest/home state connotation for me, which adds to VCU’s case. Finally, VCU really seems to be all about working together as a team and playing unselfishly, and I appreciate that.

(6)Louisville over (11) Stanford in the first round
My gut reaction, though I don’t typically consider whether one mascot would actually beat another in a fight, is that multiple Cardinals must be better than a singular Cardinal. More is better—duh. But upon further research, I discovered that A)Stanford doesn’t even have a mascot, and B) the previously mentioned Cardinal refers to the school color. A tree is also sometimes used in Stanford’s logo, but it’s part of the band or something ridiculous like that; there is NO official school mascot. If you don’t have a mascot, you don’t get any love from me. I really don’t have any feelings toward Louisville one way or another, but I have them winning based on the simple fact that they have a mascot.

(4)Virginia over (13)Albany in the first round
This was probably my toughest first round decision. Albany’s mascot is the Great Dane. Obviously the Great Dane is a dog, and if you know me, you know that I LOVE dogs. It’s always hard for me to pick a school with a non-dog mascot over one with a dog. Plus, Scooby Doo was a Great Dane, and I’ll always have a special place for him in my heart. But, UVA actually still wins out for me. While I’m pretty neutral on a Cavalier, I know a lot of lovely people that attended this school, and that carries a lot of weight for me in this case. I’ve been to Charlottesville twice, and had the Best Day Ever there. Plus, I saw the team play this fall at their new arena, so there’s that personal connection for me. So, much as I love a Great Dane (and one in particular), UVA comes out on top for me.

(2)Georgetown over (1)Kansas in the championship game
I like Kansas. I grew up in a predominantly Missouri Tigers home, but sometimes rooted for Kansas even against Mizzou, depending on my rebelliousness during any given season. I still maintain that I will pretty much always root for Kansas unless they happen to be playing against the Tigers. I like them, and I have them going far. But, I have the Georgetown Hoyas coming out on top. Why? First, their mascot is a bulldog. It’s a dog, and it was also my alma mater’s mascot, so I feel the most personal connection to this mascot. Second, Georgetown in general is the team I have seem play in person the greatest number of times (probably even when you factor in attending my own alma mater’s games!). Third, I don’t know a lot of people who went to school there, but I know a few, and they make a good impression. Finally, I really enjoy the fact that it’s a local school, and not some campus I’ve never seen in some city I haven’t visited.

So there you have it. I’m going with the Georgetown Hoyas because, when I weigh in all the factors, I like them best. "

Back from the hiatus

Wow, this has been a long hiatus from blogging – and I’ve actually had a lot to say. The biggest problem with being a midnight blogger is that midnight is when I should be in bed. Rarely happens, but I’m trying to make it a more common occurrence. Anyways, this is going to be a two-post post:

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Go KU!
Anyways, as many of you know, tonight was Selection Sunday. Obviously, since I’m a big basketball fan, I have a lot to say on the upcoming tournament, but that’s going to come later this week. For right now, a quick comment on today’s Big 12 championship:

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!!!!! KU won an incredible game against the Texas Longhorns in the Big 12 championship today* – they came back from being down 22 in the first half to winning in overtime. And this was just one week after the two teams met in the regular season – where Kansas came back from being down 12 at the half to win it - amazing. The ‘hawks are playing some great team basketball right now, and I’m excited for what comes next. And congrats to whoever gets Kevin Durant in the NBA draft – he is amazing!

*Special thanks to Mike D. for letting C and I watch the game on his awesome TV

Now off of basketball.

Thoughts on Sin City

The past month or so has been pretty busy. My mom came in town to visit one weekend, my brother was out here coaching in a tournament two weekends after that (his team won – woohoo!!) and my dad came out the same weekend to join in support for my bro’s team. Add in work, catching up on some reading, lots of basketball, and the start of American Idol, and I have been a busy girl. In addition to all of that, last weekend, two friends and I took a trip to Vegas, just for fun.

The Vegas Strip is a crazy city within a city. It’s like going to an amusement park, only there’s no set admission fee and you just pay to play, free drinks are easy to come by, and there are fewer of kids under age 10, although there were more families there than I would have expected.

My friends and I aren’t really the type to go crazy and have a “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas kind of weekend,” but we spent a lot of time checking out the various casinos and still managed to go a bit outside our comfort zone (we watched men strip down at the Thunder from Down Under show).

This wasn’t the first time I’ve been to Las Vegas, so I had a bit more time to come away with detailed impressions. Here’s what I came up with:

• Restaurant to try:
  Mon Ami Gabi at Paris. It was suggested to me by my college friend Amy, and was one of the best choices we made all weekend. Sit outside and you can see the Bellagio fountains, and the frites are a yummy cross between french fries, potato chips and those shoestring potato things that come in a can.
• Most fun penny slots:
  Deal or No Deal or Monopoly. If you can get in the group Monopoly game at the Bellagio, play for a while – it’s definitely worth it for the group play shots. Also, the Monopoly slots by the bathrooms across from Tangerine at the Mirage were lots of fun for me. If you find a penny or nickel Deal or No Deal machine, play until you get to the Briefcase game – it’s SO entertaining!
• Best bathrooms (at least for girls):
  Paris. This might seem like an odd category, but over the course of 3 days of eating, drinking and walking around, we saw lots of bathrooms. The ladies’ rooms at Paris not only feature doors that look like you’re going into a different room, but they also have the green/red indicator that lets you know whether or not the stall is occupied. Big bonus, especially for busy bathrooms. Honorable mention goes to the ones at Flamingo, which had translucent doors with a leafy/reedy design that I thought was very pretty.
• Most fun bar:
  Check out the flair bartenders at Harrah’s Carnaval. Even if you don’t go in, make sure you stop by to check it out, because the bartenders are truly entertaining. Two of their bartenders are in the top 4 flair bartenders - check it out: http://www.barflair.org/
  

Ok, that’s going to wrap it up for now. Look for a post in a couple of days comparing my roommate C’s bracket picks to my own. I’ll let you know how