Well, Michigan State dethroned the defending champs, and that means there are only a Terrific Ten contestants heading into the Elite Eight with a chance to win the Times men’s pool. The Spartans’ win eliminated USC junior Dan Port, leaving senior Mike Wiser as the only USC student with a chance to win the pool.

The Terrific Ten is: Ryan McBride, Todd Stigliano, Kevin Hauschulz, Sara Hamilton, Mike Wiser, Justin Vale, Larry Caplin, James Peters, Cam McLachlan, and Ted Zak.

I’m going to a party now, but I will post a full pool update later tonight… or maybe tomorrow… with full standings, scenarios, and information on the pool implications of tomorrow’s games.

This has nothing to do with basketball, but I forgot to mention it yesterday, so I figured I’d post it now. When I was in the Daily Trojan office yesterday afternoon around 4:30 PM, some sort of large military helicopter flew by, not very far away. It was heading north toward downtown, but disappeared behind USC’s education building, so I don’t know where it went or what it did. I did, however, get a photo of it:

I wonder what it was up to? It looked like one of those big transport helicopters… but why would it be flying around over downtown L.A.? Is the U.S. military invading Dodger Stadium or something?

Syracuse wins, barely! Danny Pilz and Paul Zak are eliminated. There are now 11 contestants still alive to win the pool — four members of the Newington High School Class of 1999, three friends or family members of Becky Zak, two USC students, and two Internet surfers without any personal connection to pool administrator Brendan Loy.

Still alive: Ryan McBride, Todd Stigliano, Kevin Hauschulz, Sara Hamilton, Dan Port, Mike Wiser, Justin Vale, Larry Caplin, James Peters, Cam McLachlan, and Ted Zak.

If Michigan State beats Maryland, Dan Port is eliminated. If Maryland beats Michigan State, no one else is eliminated tonight. But at the moment, Michigan State leads, 47-34, with 11:31 to go.

If Maryland and Syracuse win, Danny Pilz and Paul Zak are mathematically eliminated.

If Maryland and Auburn win, Sara Hamilton, James Peters and Todd Stigliano are mathematically eliminated.

If Michigan State and Syracuse win, Danny Pilz, Dan Port, and Paul Zak are mathematically eliminated.

If Michigan State and Auburn win, Sara Hamilton, James Peters, Danny Pilz, Dan Port, and Todd Stigliano are mathematically eliminated.

Texas pulls out a thriller, 82-78, to become the fourth #1 seed in the Elite Eight. That eliminates three more contestants: UConn junior Kristen Everson, Villianova senior Brian Newbold, and USC senior Shannon McHugh.

Oklahoma 65, Butler 54, final. That means Matt Kagan and Jeff Cultrera are mathematically eliminated. It is also means Northeastern University senior Ryan McBride is now in second place, 13 points behind Rockville High School freshman Justin Vale.

Too bad about Butler, which is 15 seconds away from losing. But hey, they had a great run. Years from now, I’ll be bragging that I correctly predicted they’d reach the Sweet Sixteen. Just like I still brag about Valparaiso, Gonzaga, etc.

Not looking great for UConn, either. But they still have time. C’mon, Huskies!

This new Allstate commercial — featuring Christian Laettner & Mike Krzyzewski, Patrick Ewing & John Thompson, and N.C. State & Jim Valvano, set to the tune of No Man is an Island — gives me goose bumps every time I see it.

Like the title says, I’m such a dork.

I response to my post about anti-war professors and to Becky’s excellent column on the same topic, a bit of praise from an unlikely source: my mom. Although thoroughly anti-war herself, she comments:

Good point, Becky! I attended a forum at ECSU where I work and all three (faculty) speakers and virtually all those who rose to speak from the audience were anti-war. A single young woman spoke up urging support of the troops — her fiance is stationed in the Middle East. Almost the last speaker finally addressed the one-sidedness: From the floor mike, he said “I didn’t know I was coming to a peace rally” and then he defended the Bush administration in their actions. I thanked him afterwards. It needed to be said.

Then there’s Andrew, my archconservative friend and thus a much less surprising source of praise, who writes:

Who’d of thunk it? A year after Andrew is graduated and gone, the anti-left voice of reason has been filled by–gasp!–Becky and Brendan! Keep movin’ rightward, yeehaw!

Hehe.

Finally, a solid Al Qaeda-Iraq connection?

Meanwhile, in basketball, both #1 seeds are leading, but neither underdog (hehe… underdog, indeed) is out of it yet. Go UnderBulldogs! Go UnderHuskies!

Close games so far. UConn leads, 8-5 with 15:28 to go in the first half, and Butler leads, 19-18 with 6:17 left. In case you missed it, here are the pool implications of tonight’s games.

With apologies to Toby, I’m rooting for dogs today. The #12-seeded Butler Bulldogs, up against #1-seed Oklahoma right now, are my Cinderella pick of the year — I predicted they would reach the Elite Eight, so I’m pulling hard for them against the Sooners. And the UConn Huskies are, of course, my home-state team.

Go Bulldogs! Go Huskies!

Was the Kuwait City explosion caused by a missile or a bomb? Nobody seems to know yet. “It’s totally unclear what the cause of this explosion is,” Wolf Blitzer says.

I’m starting a new blog post here. Click here to read my previous updates, from between 2:50 and 3:20 PM Pacific time.

Blitzer says eyewitnesses “think they saw” a missile coming in from Iraq’s Al Faw peninsula.

UPDATE, 3:32 PM: The Command Post, a blogger-run web page that updates the latest war news quite quickly, has a report on what CNN’s Sanjay Gupta said. The author, John, asserts, “It seems unlikely that a terrorist would intentionally detonate an explosive that would cause no injuries.” True, but it also seems unlikely that Saddam Hussein would intentionally launch a missile that would cause no injuries. Perhaps the best explanation is “irregular” forces in southern Iraq?

UPDATE, 3:34 PM: CNN is showing Abu Dhabi TV pictures of damage at the mall. There are holes in the ceiling that could perhaps have come from a falling missile. But the pictures thus far aren’t showing anything terribly definitive or interesting.

UPDATE, 3:35 PM: Now Gupta says eyewitnesses say that something landed in the canal nearby… and the explosion “went straight upward and then came right back down on the shopping mall” without damaging the retaining wall. Huh?

UPDATE, 3:36 PM: Officials on the scene are not wearing gas masks, and there is no sign of chemical or biological weapons, Gupta says.

UPDATE, 3:40 PM: This website has some photos of the Souk Sharq mall, if you scroll about halfway down the page.

UPDATE, 3:44 PM: This picture indicates the Souk Sharq mall has a Body Shop. Hmm. If a missile blew up the Body Shop, broke open a bunch of perfume bottles and lotion containers, created a combination of odors that were never meant to be mixed together, and released their noxious combined fumes into the air, would that count as a chemical attack?

UPDATE, 3:47 PM: No injuries at the mall… “but the Muzak system was tragically lost,” one wiseass blogger comments on a Command Post update.

UPDATE, 3:50 PM: All or most of a pedestrian bridge over the canal is gone, Gupta reports, adding support to the theory that the missile (or something) exploded in the water.

The notion of an Iraqi missile fired somewhat vaguely into downtown Kuwait City, and hitting a canal and incidentally damaging a closed shopping mall, makes a lot more sense to me than a deliberate attack on a closed shopping mall by either terrorists or Saddamites.

“ABC Radio is reporting that a tail section of a rocket was found at the site,” according to another Command Post comment.

UPDATE, 4:02 PM: Fark.com has lots of comments about this. A lot of them aren’t very intelligent. A few are clever, however. “Hopefully this won’t lead to war,” writes one farker. “Holy Shi’ite,” exlaims another. “If they damaged starbucks or the gap…it’s gloves off time,” a third states.

UPDATE, 4:06 PM: “A missile fell into the sea and exploded near a major shopping mall in Kuwait City early Saturday, but officials said it caused no injuries and little damage,” the Associated Press reports.

UPDATE, 4:09 PM: All right, basketball time. I’m going to stop updating this Kuwait City post now. I’ll start a new post above if events warrant.

Go UConn!!! Go Butler!!!

A missile struck the center of Kuwait City early Saturday, Kuwaiti authorities told CNN.

Note: These CNN breaking-news alerts are automatically forwarded here from my e-mail inbox. As you can read above and below, there is doubt about whether this was a bomb or a missile. Presumably CNN will send out another breaking news alert if the known facts change, and if so, that alert will also appear on this page automatically.

Wolf Blitzer is reporting that there was an explosion a few minutes ago in Kuwait City, and live pictures show smoke rising from the skyline of downtown. Looks like maybe a terrorist attack, though an Iraqi missile strike is also possible. Hmm.

UPDATE, 2:56 PM: Now Wolf Blitzer is saying that Kuwaiti officials are initially saying it was a missile strike on downtown Kuwait City.

UPDATE, 2:58 PM: He adds: “We’re trying to find out precisely where, precisely how much damage, and precisely what’s going on.” Heh.

UPDATE, 3:00 PM: Blitzer says the missile was coming in at a very low angle, which may be the reason anti-aircraft Patriot missiles didn’t get it and air raid sirens didn’t go off.

A random thought: if, by chance, it contained a chemical or biological warhead, how long would it take before we’d know that?

UPDATE, 3:05 PM: None of the major networks are breaking into programming right now to report on events in Kuwait City.

UPDATE, 3:06 PM: Wolf Blitzer said the bomb hit a popular shopping mall. But, uh, it’s like 2:00 AM there, isn’t it? Do people shop at that hour?

UPDATE, 3:09 PM: “We’re not 100 percent convinced yet that it was a missile. That’s what Kuwaiti officials are saying.” –Wolf Blitzer

UPDATE, 3:13 PM: It was the Souk Sharq mall, described in this article as “Kuwait’s premier mall,” that was hit.

UPDATE, 3:14 PM: CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, on the scene, says the explosion “appears to have come from the ground,” not from the air — i.e., not a missile. He calls it “a very, very significant explosion.” Now everyone is running, he says. He doesn’t know why. Do they expect another explosion??

UPDATE, 3:16 PM: He added that there is debris everywhere, but he doesn’t see any injuries. No ambulances racing around, just a bunch waiting around. Duh, stupid terrorists, nobody shops at 2:00 AM. But anyway, good news there.

UPDATE, 3:20 PM: Gupta adds that there is water (a harbor, I guess?) 100 meters away from the mall.

Updates continue above.