Becky and her SHA girls are out on the town, having a bachelorette party in a limo. :) I’m at Kristy’s parents’ place, watching basketball.This message will expire on May 25, 2005

Duke 3L Jay Barasch lost the lead for
the first time all tournament long when Louisville upset Washington –
then gained it back when Arizona defeated Oklahoma State.

David Downes, a Newington High School Class of 1999 graduate, briefly climbed into first place in the 10th annual Living Room Times
men’s basketball pool after last night’s first pair of games. But
Barasch, a member of the USC Class of 2001, regained the lead when his
faith in the Trojans’ Pac-10 rival Wildcats paid off.

Barasch now has 247 out of a possible 312 points. Downes has 244,
three back. Stacey Tetreault, a University of New Haven junior, and
Andrew Long, a USC Class of 2002 grad, are tied for third with 237
points.

Complete standings here and after the jump.

Meanwhile, 21 contestants were mathematically eliminated yesterday
from any chance of winning the pool. They are: Matt Thomsen, Chris
Aemisegger, David Kreutz, Derek Walden, Greg Kagan, Matt Kagan, Paul
Lucht, Rick Boeckler, Victoria Lopez, Chris Hehman, Lisa Velte, Ryan
mcBride, Steve Hartranft, Ted Zak, Terry Wood, Bobby Brown, Kaat
Harbeson, Paul Zak, Scott Loomer, Todd Stigliano and Liz Janelle.

Statistically, pool administrator Brendan Loy’s wedding
videographer, John Dooley of Scottsdale, AZ (currently in 8th place),
is now the favorite to win the pool, prevailing in 474 of the remaining
2,048 scenarios (23.1%). Close behind is Tom “Scientizzle” Keck
(currently in 5th place) with 426 (20.8%). Complete scenario info here.

In the “second chance” Sweet 16 pool, seven contestants — Tom Keck,
Dmytro Aponte, Josh Rubin, Cam McLachlan, Kim Stone, Brenden Roche, and
Paul Zak — are currently tied for the lead. Standings here and after the jump (underneath the Living Room Times pool standings); scenario info here.

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We got in very late, and went straight to bed… hence no pool update yet. Sorry. Update coming shortly.

It wasn’t about who they played or how they played, nope, the real reason was because Brendan was now cheering for them!
Look at his track record this year, UConn, Gonzaga, Notre Dame, nearly
every basketball team he roots for LOSES! Shame on you Brendan, shame
on you!

Well, at least one Pac-10 team will be represented in the Elite 8, thanks to Arizona’s 1 point win
over Oklahoma State. It was another close game with the lead flip
flopping between the two teams, but in the end it was the Wildcats who
prevailed.

Although the game was close, West Viriginia held out
in the end, thanks to some questionable decisions by Texas Tech, to
move on to the Elite Eight match that many had predicted would feature
Gonzaga or Wake Forest. The game featured almost a dozen lead changes,
and almost as many ties.

The second round of games are shaping
up pretty interesting so far. Arizona jumped out to an early lead but
Oklahoma has come surging back to bring it within 3 at the half.
Meanwhile in Albuquerque Texas Tech was able to rein in a West Virginia
team that had started to pull away, holding them to just 2 points in an
8 minute span. Stay tuned for final updates as we close out tonights
NCAA action.

Meanwhile in the Chicago regionals,
Cinderella team UW-Milwaukee gave the favored top-seeded Illini an
early scare, staying with them and even leading in the early part of
the game, but Illinois was able to pull ahead and although the Panthers
stayed close they just couldn’t close the gap, losing by a final score
of 77-63. Congrats to the Panthers on an excellent tournament showing.

It was a tough game to watch for citizens of Romarville as Louisville pulled the upset
by a good margin, 93-79. Although the Huskies outscored Louisville in
the second half, it wasn’t enough to the Cardinals’ first half lead.
The turning point in the game was undoubtedly the Lousiville run going
into halftime that started when Nate Robinson was charged with his 3rd
foul. Louisville’s strong 3-point shooting, especially by Garcia,
coupled with the Huskies anemic 3-point scoring and their failure to
capitalize at the foul line were the keys to the game.

Personally I think the officiating of the game was a little iffy, I
think Louisville was able to get away with alot more than Washington,
but it wasn’t nearly enough of an issue to excuse the Huskies’ other
errors or Lousiville’s strong play. Now I will cheer the Cardinals on
to the championship because darn it, if we are going to lose, it better
be to the national champ!

Oh, and anyone who tells you that Washington was overrated should
first know that Louisville was vastly underated. I’d say they deserved
at least a 3, probably a 2 or maybe even a 1.

CORRECTION: As Mike pointed out in the comments, I looked at
the second half numbers wrong. The Cardinals outscored the Huskies
44-42 in the second half, which despite being a much better showing for
Washington than the first half, still isn’t outscoring them.

I just got the Sweet 16 “second-chance pool” data online (uploading
it via cell phone while riding in the car). Of course, with the games
just barely underway, there are no results yet — but here’s a summary of picks. North Carolina (25), Illinois (19), and Duke (8) are still the most popular predicted champions, just like in the original pool,
but North Carolina has overtaken Illinois for the #1 spot. Also,
Washington is suddenly getting a lot more respect (6 champion picks, as
opposed to 1 in the original pool). Arizona gets 4 picks, Oklahoma
State gets 3, and Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee get 1
apiece.

68 people are competing in the Sweet 16 pool (coincidentally, the
exact same number as the women’s pool). Stay tuned for results later
tonight or tomorrow!

We’re en route to Buffalo. We’ll probably get in sometime after midnight…This message will expire on May 25, 2005

Becky and I are travelling to Buffalo for Easter Weekend to visit
her friends, so my access to the Internet will be sporadic and
unpredictable. Thus, I can’t promise the sort of constant pool updates
that I had during the first two rounds. Specifically, I’ll be on the
road tonight during the Sweet 16 games, listening on the radio
(hopefully). I might be able to log on via cell phone and post updates,
but no promises.

Also, I’m afraid my “Sweet 16 pool” will not be online until
sometime tomorrow… there were some technical glitches that I am still
working out. So I’ll get that info up ASAP.

As for the main pool, here are the scenarios explaining what it
would take for each contestant to stay mathematically alive after
tonight’s games:

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Now that the courts (!) have decided to agree with themselves, yet
again, on the matter of Terri Shiavo’s feeding tube, I’m drawn to
another question.

Is it more humane to allow Terri to starve for weeks, not knowing
for sure whether or not she feels pain, or is it more humane to assist
her passage? Which position is morally sound?

Why would I put my dog to sleep if he could no longer eat or move or
think, but I would hesitate to grant a person that same mercy?

I know y’all are probably sick of hashing out Shiavo’s circumstances
and, barring something extraordinary, this will be my last post on the
matter.

I think this one sentence says it all:

Unfortunately, there appears to be a severe shortage of brainpower at the highest level in France.

LOL! You know you were thinking it.

I’m a little bit late here, but it’s better late than never, I suppose.

James N. Brophy, my coach for all three years I was a member of the
Newington High School swim team, passed away this past Monday. He was a
great positive influence on my life. True, I haven’t kept in contact
with him over the years, but he did make me believe that I could do
things that I hadn’t ever done before … like swim for hours on end.

I’m not sure I can adequately do his life justice. He coached at
Bulkeley High School for nearly 30 years before having a bit of a
falling-out with the administration (that didn’t keep them from naming
their brand-new nautatorium the James N. Brophy Nautatorium in the late
1990s at the annual Bulkeley Relays). After a brief stint at
Glastonbury, he moved on to Newington and did the best he could with
the crappy team we had. From what I understand, not long after I
graduated and passed my co-captainship on to someone much more capable,
the team actually had a winning record. Not bad, considering when he
took over we were sometimes lucky to have 2 wins in a season. I know he
will be sorely missed in the Connecticut high school swimming
community. I, for one, will certainly miss him.

The Hartford Courant’s obituary of Coach Brophy can be found here.