BRADLEY WINS!!! Braves 60, Shockers 52, final. If there is any justice in the world, Bradley has an NCAA bid wrapped up now. Tomorrow they will play in the title game against the winner of the next
game: UNI vs. SIU. Go Panthers!

Bradley is ridiculously ice cold *again* (!) and Wichita State (also playing like crap) leads at the half, 24 to 22. Bah. Where have you gone, MVC?

The MVC may be the focus of my basketball attention at the moment, but my two schools will both be in action later today as well: Notre Dame in a win-and-you’re-in game against DePaul at 4pm, and USC in a bubbleicious battle at Cal at 8pm. (Cal is on the NCAA bubble; USC is on the NIT bubble.)

Incidentally, I found a taker for Becky’s and my ND-DePaul tickets: fellow 2L Sarah is going with her brother. So I feel a little less guilty now about missing the game. Sarah, you guys better be LOUD!!!

Above: An MVC fan pleads his case to the selection committee. Below: A wide view of the multicolored crowd (yellow for Wichita State, blue for Creighton, bright red for Bradley, dark red for Southern Illinois and Missouri State) during the first quarterfinal session.


As we engaged in a daylong marathon of basketball-watching at the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis on Friday, Becky and I were witnessing an historic moment in mid-major college basketball:

This might have been the Valley’s biggest day since Larry Bird hung up his Sycamore shorts for the last time in 1979. Four games, all with NCAA Tournament implications. Six teams, all entering play with legitimate NCAA at-large hopes. No alleged mid-major conference has ever had a day like this, with bids on the line from noon ’til midnight.

Kyle Whelliston, who helped convince me to come to this tournament, agrees that it is huge:

There’s no question that the Missouri Valley’s “Arch Madness” in St. Louis will provide the most highly-anticipated [conference tournament] results of the weekend — very few tourneys at any D-I level will have as much impact on the final NCAA bracket. Consider all the potential at-large bids at stake. Two? Three? Four or five!? Most likely one of the first couple of numbers, but it will be a matter of how the Arch Madness bracket plays out.

And we’ll be able to say that we were there. :)

Alas, truth be told, this was not, by any stretch of the imagination, the MVC’s greatest day in terms of the quality of play — particularly the quality of the offenses. Wichita State came out flat and sleepwalked through the first 30 minutes or so, before finally putting away Indiana State, 81-63 (it was 30-24 at halftime). Neither Bradley nor Creighton could hit the broad side of a barn (shooting 31.7% and 30.0%, respectively), but Bradley pulled it out, 54-47 — the Braves’ lowest offensive output of the season, in a win or a loss (!). Southern Illinois had trouble closing the deal against an inferior Evansville team, letting the pesky Aces hang around far too long before ultimately winning, 71-55. And then in the nightcap, the Valley’s hottest team over the last month, Missouri State, went ice-cold, shooting 28.8% en route to a 57-42 loss to Northern Iowa — the team which, IMHO, looked the best of the eight squads in action (their low point total was due mostly to good Missouri State defense in the first half and a slow-it-down, run-the-clock strategy in the latter part of the second half).

Total points scored: 470, an average of 58.75 per team. Composite shooting percentage: 37.2% (156 of 419). Whether the MVC gets three, four, five or six NCAA bids, they won’t get a single NCAA win playing like that.

But of course, it’s clear that these teams usually don’t play like that; the scores of their previous games are enough to demonstrate that. So perhaps it’s something in the St. Louis water, or that flu bug going around. Or maybe the players are all really concerned about the U.A.E. ports deal and the U.S.-India nuclear pact, and thus can’t focus on their games. :) Regardless of the reason, I hope the semifinalists take it up a notch tomorrow. I came to St. Louis already a Valley believer, and remain so; but Becky came here a Valley agnostic, and after a day, I think it would be fair to count her a skeptic. A couple of well-played semifinals would change all that.

(Becky and I are both, it should be noted, having a great time. I daresay Becky is rarely happier than when she’s nitpicking teams’ basketball flaws. Heh.)

Looking past the poor shooting — which can be such ephemeral thing — I thought Bradley looked pretty good (I like their aggressive guard play, their quick passes and their shot selection, even if they weren’t hitting those shots in this instance), and as I mentioned before, Northern Iowa looked good, too. Not great, but good. I’ll definitely give both the Braves and the Panthers some serious consideration as potential upset picks if they make the NCAAs. (The jury is still out on Wichita State and Southern Illinois, whom I haven’t seen play anybody good yet — a problem that will soon be remedied.)

Speaking of Northern Iowa, here’s a picture I got of UNI’s Brooks McKowen nailing a 3:

More pictures to come in an eventual full photo gallery of our weekend here.

Oh, and if you’re wondering how the heck I took the action shot below with my cell phone… I didn’t. I took it with my digital camera using a telephoto lens, and then I downloaded it to my computer once we were back in the car, and took a picture with my cell phone of the photo on my computer screen. :) Here’s the original.

P.S. Oh, I almost forgot to mention… my bracket is looking pretty good. :) Go Bradley & UNI!!!

Northern Iowa wins, 57 to 42. W00t! My bracket was perfect today! :) Tomorrow: #1 Wichita State vs. #5 Bradley and #2 Southern Illinois vs. #6 Northern Iowa. Go Braves and Panthers! :) Now we are en route to cousin Lisa`s house.

Not to interrupt the Basketball or anythinglikethat But: there are still too many Americans who don’t quite Get the doctrine-neutral Point of the War against state-sanctioned Theocracy . / Joe Loy , guestconstitutionalizing.

Town to be built on Catholic principles:

Friday, March 03, 2006
BRIAN SKOLOFF
The Associated Press

NAPLES, Fla. - If Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control.

The pizza magnate is bankrolling the project with at least $250 million, calling it “God’s will.”

Civil libertarians say the plan is unconstitutional and are threatening to sue.

The town of Ave Maria is being constructed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in about 40 years. Both are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida…

…During a speech last year at a Catholic men’s gathering in Boston, Monaghan said that in his community, stores will not sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies will not carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will have no X-rated channels.

Homebuyers in Ave Maria will own their property outright. But Monaghan and Barron Collier will control all commercial real estate in the town, meaning they can insert provisions in leases to restrict the sale of certain items.

“If they attempt to do what he apparently wants to do, the people of Naples and Collier County, Florida, are in for a whole series of legal and constitutional problems and a lot of litigation indefinitely,” warned Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida…

…Frances Kissling, president of the liberal Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice, likened Monaghan’s concept to Islamic fundamentalism.

“This is un-American,” Kissling said. “I don’t think in a democratic society you can have a legally organized township that will seek to have any kind of public service whatsoever and try to restrict the constitutional rights of citizens.”

Read the small remainder of the whole thing. / Fie. Americans must eventually Decide: ARE we, as we like to assert, truly fighting for Freedom? Or, are we simply Squabbling over the preposterous question of Who has got the Better collective Claim to Ownership of Almighty God?

Here I am with isuquinndog (a.k.a. Mike). … Anyway, Southern Illinois 71, Evansville 55, final. Up next: a bubbleicious battle between Missouri State and Northern Iowa.

Looking up at the Arch.

Bradley wins! 54 to 47 was the final in a game where the offenses looked much better than the score would indicate, IMHO; the execution was pretty good, the shooting was just ice cold. Anyway, Bradley vs. Wichita tomorrow. Up next: SIU vs. Evansville.

Wichita State wins the opener, 81 to 63. Indiana State kept it close for a while, but then the Shockers woke up. Up next: Creighton vs. Bradley. GO BRAVES!!!

St. Louis!

The Stanford Band has begun the process of picking the next Tree. The winner will be announced on Sunday.

The disgraced ex-Tree is apparently still involved in the process somehow, as she stated:

Looking back on the week, I think it went smashingly. I saw a lot of public nudity, insanity and humiliation, as well as the usual sex, drugs and rock and roll. The candidates all proved they’re heavy metal and it’s a shame that out of a pool of so many mind-blowing contestants only one, come Sunday, will be the Tree.

The article adds, “The details of the selection process — who exactly chooses the next tree and how — are shrouded in secrecy.” Heh. Kinda like picking the Pope. :)

Paula Abdul, alcoholic terrorist? Heh.

Guestblogger: Josh Rubin

I woke up and got the paper this morning, to find this article on the front page of today’s Washington Post. I believe that the only comment I have for it is “duh.”

Two-time Libertarian Party presidential candidate Harry Browne has died of Lou Gehrig’s disease at age 72.