I Bleed Blue and White

No, I do not believe that. Especially not after Jon Scheyer spent the majority of this beatdown complaining to the refs instead of doing anything of actual significance. But, at least one man believes that the aforementioned Dookie is better than Villanova’s own Corey Fisher. On to the links…

No word on if he was yelling 'rape!'

• Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News would be the man who inspired this post. Not to mention that he left Greivis Vasquez off the list completely. Sheesh.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer talks with Brian Lynch about his wife’s comeback to win the US Open.
• Jeff Goodman of FoxSports says Jay Wright is his choice for the top recruiter in college hoops. As Goodman points out, Wright probably does the most with the least to sell. Personally, bring home Mike Gilchrist and I’ll agree with Goodman.
• ZagsBlog reports that Memphis wants the SEC first, and the BIG EAST if that doesn’t work out. A Rutgers-to-Big 10 and Memphis-to-BIG EAST scenario is posed. Personally, I wouldn’t miss the them.
• The NCAA Tournament is returning to Philadelphia for the 1st and 2nd rounds in 2013. So you can officially mark 3 BIG EAST games down at The Wachovia Center instead of the usual 5 that year.
• Gary Parrish at CBSSports thinks the National Champion will have one of impact freshman. Considering we have at least 3 that look to play a big role, that bodes well for us.
• Villanova 2011 target Tony Wroten Jr. tore his ACL playing football, and will be out for the basketball season. We’ve still got love for you Tony. Get well soon.
• Curtis Sumpter will be playing for BCM Gravelines in France this year after playing for fellow French team Chorale de Roanne last season.

…In all honesty, I love seeing basketball becoming more popular throughout the world, and I love how both Sumpter and Ray are still playing professionally, and doing quite well…keep it up boys…

Last night as I settled into bed after watching the season finale of Eastbound and Down, I was watching Dick Vitale talk about the Sweet Sixteen on ESPN. Although he didn’t go as far to say that his beloved ACC is overrated, he did have some choice words about the Big East. Vitale named Villanova as a team lower than a Top 2 seed that could win it all, and named ‘Nova-Duke his most intriguing matchup. Kudos Dickie.

With that in mind, here are some links.

• President Obama, despite his tendency to pick the chalk, realizes the Big East reigns supreme…Philadelphia Daily News (Dick Jerardi)
• The time has come to acknowledge Villanova as one of the nation’s elite (finally!)…Philadelphia Daily News (Mike Kern)
• Will the zebras get whistle-happy or choke on them? Sadly, the answer could decide Thursday’s game…Philadelphia Daily News (John Smallwood)
• Duke is impressed with ‘Nova, and looking forward to the game…Philadelphia Inquirer (Frank Fitzpatrick)
• 25 points followed by a double-double leads to a ‘not-hot’ rating for Dwayne Anderson…ESPN (Andy Katz)
• At least one man is worried about his Duke pick…CBSSports (Gary Parrish)

…Thanks to Brian for the links…

The new writeup for the CBSSports BlogPoll is now up, and editors Jerry Hinnen and Brian Cook have done another fine job. Villanova came in at 10th place, which is up one spot from a week ago.

I was busy during in with the awards this week, winning 1 (I’ll give you one guess) and finishing in the Top 5 for 2 others. I finished in 4th place for Mr. Numb Existence, which is given to the voters with the most similar ballots to the final product. I had a feeling that I would be involved here for some reason, although I really can’t explain it.

Next up, I finished in my usual slot for the Coulter/Kos Award as the most biased voter. Horray for me. Jerry keeps warning me of impending disaster, but I’ll ride the hot streak as long as I can.

“Back for another week on top of the Coulter/Kos chart is Wildcat blog I Bleed Blue and White . For the past two weeks IBBW has tempted fate by running away with the CK Award, only to be curiously rewarded with a string of impressive and/or dramatic ‘Nova wins and now a cushy 3-seed for the ‘Cats at home in Philadelphia. So we’ll see if (or when) IBBW gets the usual brand of CK Award-based comeuppance, but you should know this: the last time ‘Nova received a 3 seed in the East Region was 1995, when the Kerry Kittles-led ‘Cats went down to 14th-seeded Old Dominion in three overtimes. Just sayin’.”

The ‘95 mention is completely uncalled for Jerry, but I doubt we’ll see much of a problem from American. At least I hope so. Okay, yeah, I’m a little concerned now.

Finally, I finished 2nd for Mr. Stubborn. The description of this award is “you’re damn sure you’re right, no matter what reality says.”

I should put that on my business card.

…Thanks to Jerry and Brian for doing this again…we’re off duty for the Tournament, but we’ll be back for one final g0-round after it’s all said in done…I still think we should do it monthly in the off-season…there’s comedy to be had…

Last week the announcing pairings for the NCAA Tournament were released, and now the always reliable Awful Announcing has let us know what fans will suffer.

Philadelphia has drawn the team of Dick Enberg or Carter Blackburn and Jay Bilas. I’m not really sure what “or” means. Has Enberg been around so long that he can just show up if he’s in the mood? And I don’t recall ever hearing Blackburn call a game. But sign me up for Blackburn, because I’m no fan of Enberg.

Hard to be upset with Bilas. He loves ‘Nova and he’s always got great insight into the game regardless of what’s going on. Plus, him and Digger Phelps nearly brought Dick Vitale to tears last night. So he’s got years of free passes for that.

The ‘Nova fans apparently aren’t the only people who like our draw. In fact, I guess it’s become so obvious that we have one of the best draws in the tournament that I’ve read several people who think we’re not just a darkhorse to win our region, but possibly even a favorite? Did I just say that?

• Pat Forde’s pre-tournament Forde Minutes discusses a lot of different things about the tourney, but he names Villanova as one of 9 teams that can win it all.
• Dana O’Neil discusses what happened the last time the Big East looked this dominant entering the tournament. If Villanova wants history to repeat though, they’ll have to do it as a more well-known commodity.
• Gregg Doyel covers the East Region for CBSSports. He thinks Villanova will win the region, although he says Dante Cunningham was “awful” as a freshman. Not sure I’d use that word to describe a guy who was the 6th or 7th man on an Elite Eight team.
• Rich Hofmann of the Philadelphia Daily News says Villanova is the model of consistency. Jay Wright told the ‘Nova faithful last night to “never let this feeling get old.”
• In this video, CBSSports’ Gary Parrish discusses the East Region. He defends Villanova playing at home, which the host calls “unfair” (what?).  He then goes on to pick Duke though, so screw you Gary.

I’ve got some class, but then we begin researching American.

As we approach the NCAA Tournament, here is my second-to-last ballot for the CBSSports BlogPoll. I don’t take conference tournaments too seriously, so my ballot isn’t going to have much movement save a few teams that I was impressed with. Here’s my take on things with some commentary below.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Louisville	4
2	North Carolina	1
3	Pittsburgh	1
4	Connecticut	1
5	Memphis	1
6	Duke	3
7	Villanova
8	Michigan St.	2
9	Oklahoma	1
10	Missouri	3
11	Gonzaga
12	Wake Forest	4
13	Kansas	1
14	Washington
15	Florida St.	4
16	Syracuse	4
17	Marquette	2
18	UCLA	2
19	West Virginia	2
20	Purdue	2
21	Butler
22	Xavier
23	Arizona St.
24	St. Mary’s	1
25	Louisiana St.
Last week’s ballot


Dropped Out: Clemson (#24).

I gave some bumps to the teams that managed to do enough to win to win the meaningless conference tournaments. I was rather impressed with Florida State’s run to the title game, and Toney Douglas is going to be a man on a mission in the NCAA Tournament. Watch out. As for Purdue getting bumped down after winning the Big 10 title, I’m sorry. I’m just not impressed whatsoever at that conference. The fact that they got the same amount of bids as the ACC and Big East is a travesty.

Villanova stays the same, but basically because I know everyone else is going to move them down for losing to the #1 overall seed. That way I’m locked in for the Coulter/Kos Award yet again. I’ve got to keep the perfect streak in tact. I’m an award fiend, don’t hate on me.

If you’re wondering how Saint Mary’s is still in my bracket despite missing the tournament, I left them in there and even gave them a bump because I think they should have been in. I understand it was a horrible bubble and some teams made a run and screwed a lot of bubble teams. And even though listening to Dick Vitale cry about them was like having teeth pulled I still feel for them.

Anyone think Syracuse is getting past Arizona State and James Harden in the 2nd round? Not after they basically amputated their legs this past weekend.

Why am I reading so much about Gonzaga being a Final Four team? They have to go through North Carolina and Oklahoma. Good luck with that Zags.

I love ‘Nova’s draw. Especially a potential Sweet Sixteen matchup with Duke. But Duke could go down before that, to Texas. If AJ Abrams can get something going, goodbye Dookies.

The latest CBSSports BlogPoll has been compiled and posted by Jerry Hinnen. Villanova comes in at #11, which is exactly where they were ranked last week. Despite my best efforts to move them up, it appears as if the bloggers still feel like Kansas and Duke are better options. Really guys? I thought we had an unspoken agreement on the ranking of Duke.

As promised, I finished first again for the Coulter/Kos Award for most biased voter, although the Illinois bloggers who run Making The Dance gave me a run for my money. Jerry provides some commentary on the action.

“Is it possible to jinx a jinx? Last week in this space I touted the dire power of the CK Award and boldy warned of a bad week on the court for I Bleed Blue and White -affiliated Villanova, only for the Wildcats to curb-stomp Notre Dame in South Bend and coast to a double-digit victory over Providence. Maybe by presuming to be so confident in the CKA’s cursing abilities, the curse cursed me by cursing the “runner-up” team in last week’s poll, Inside Creighton Hoops ’s Bluejays, instead? This week, I’d say both ‘Nova and second-place Illinois will need to watch their backs.”

A good read as always, and even though my fellow bloggers let me down this week, I forgive them. Now let’s start scheming on how to make Jon Scheyer cry.

With conference tournaments underway for the mid-majors and the tournaments for the majors set to begin, I’m not sure how many more of these polls we’re going to have. But I like them, and I’ll do them all through the off-season if we’re allowed.

(Actually, that would be great. Think of the reasons we could come up with to raise and drop teams. It’s endless. Make it happy Jerry.)

Below is my week 5 ballot. Commentary at the bottom.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	North Carolina	1
2	Pittsburgh	2
3	Connecticut	2
4	Memphis	1
5	Louisville
6	Michigan St.	2
7	Villanova	2
8	Wake Forest	2
9	Duke	2
10	Oklahoma	4
11	Gonzaga	3
12	Kansas	1
13	Missouri	1
14	Washington	10
15	Marquette	2
16	UCLA	6
17	West Virginia
18	Purdue	3
19	Florida St.	3
20	Syracuse	5
21	Butler	2
22	Xavier	3
23	Arizona St.	2
24	Clemson	4
25	St. Mary’s
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Louisiana St. (#18).

Jerry Palm does his latest bracket projection for CBSSports. Palm’s bracket is based on what he thinks the bracket will look like, not what it would look like if the season ended today.

Palm has Villanova as a 3 seed playing in Philadelphia, against projected MAC champion Miami (OH). Villanova’s 2nd round matchup would be the winner of Tennessee and Penn State.

If you check out Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology, you’ll see that he has a similar draw the Wildcats. Lunardi also has ‘Nova facing Miami (OH) but facing the winner of Tennessee and Maryland instead.

…I generally like Palm’s projections more than Lunardi’s, but that is besides the point…it appears that it is becoming the norm for the analysts to project Villanova into Philly, which is great…

The latest CBSSports BlogPoll is the best poll that I’ve seen yet, proving yet again that we, the bloggers, are the smartest of the people who provide the commentary on college basketball, or in other words, the smartest of the idiots.

Villanova landed at #11, which was a one spot drop from last week. Editor Jerry Hinnen asked how this was possible, however, when going over the results for the Coulter/Kos Award for most biased voter. Friarblog tried to unseat me, but has much to learn in the ways of the unabashed homer. I finally placed #1 for the award this week, after 3 straight weeks of placing at #3. Regardless, my overall streak in the category is still intact, and I won’t stop ’til we take down Cal Ripken Jr.’s IronMan record. Anyways, here’s what Hinnen had to say regarding ‘Nova’s ranking.

“I’m frankly not sure how ‘Nova only managed to drop just one spot after squeaking past a truly abymsal DePaul squad and coughing up one at home to Georgetown this week, but aforementioned Wildcat blog I Bleed and Blue and White is one place to start. The ‘Cats dropped a single place to ninth on IBBW’s ballot, making them one of only four voters to keep ‘Nova that high and earning this week’s CK Award. Maybe IBBW should have picked a week when his team wasn’t about to play a desperate Notre Dame team on the road?”

Touche Jerry, touche. I probably should have been a little more humble in ranking Villanova, especially on the eve of their bout with the Fighting Irish. But I guess I’m just banking on Kyle McWeedsmoker…err McAlarney, being too high to find the Joyce Center. Either that or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sueing Luke Harangody for shot infringement.

Hinnen also discusses my hate for Memphis (I’m not the only one!) among other things in the latest entry. Make sure to give it a read.