Tonight is, with apologies to Stephen Hawking, an historic night in the history of time, here in Indiana at least.

For the first time in 30 years, the vast majority of Hoosiers will be changing their clocks tonight, making the “spring forward” into Daylight Saving Time that most of Indiana has resisted for so long. More here and here.

Technically, the switch occurs at 2:00 AM tomorrow morning — or, to be more precise, we jump directly from 1:59:59 AM to 3:00:00 AM, making tomorrow a 23-hour day. But of course, most people change their clocks before going to bed. (Don’t worry, though: the bars won’t close early. Heh. So tonight is your one and only chance — well, until next April — to be at The Backer until 4:00 AM!)

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Okay, I realize UCLA’s defense is very good, but it seems like they also have an uncanny knack for catching teams on nights when they’re playing absolutely terrible offense. You can’t convince me that either Memphis or LSU is actually that bad. (Final score: 59-45.)

Anyway, the game is over, which means by bet debt is paid, and the godawful UCLA jersey photo is finally gone! WOOHOO!

[More discussion of the good defense vs. bad offense question after the jump] (more…)

Mike Tran, who clinched the championship of the 11th annual Living Room Times men’s pool last weekend, clinched at least a 39-point margin of victory — which would be the third-most in Times pool history — when Florida beat George Mason in Saturday’s first national semifinal. He could end up winning by as many as 72 points, shattering the old record of 47, if UCLA wins the national title.

Moreover, in what could be the first of a series of Times pool records to fall, Florida’s win guaranteed that Tran’s margin of victory over the median score in the pool — arguably the best measure of overall bracket impressiveness and pool dominance — will be the best ever in a Times pool, men’s or women’s.

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Are they really the “Fighting” Tigers?

Anyway… BEAT THE BRUINS!!!

P.S. Win or lose, I finally get to remove the awful UCLA jersey photo from my homepage when the buzzer sounds on this game. Thank God!

UPDATE: Billy Packer just said there are some “fine-lookin’ athletes” in this game. Hehe. Okay, Billy, if you say so. ;)

Well, of course Florida won. Mike Tran said they would, therefore it was bound to happen. :)

80s prom fundraiser for manchester rugby!

Quick, everybody on the bandwagon!

GO MASON!!!

:)

…about the test post below, Kristy is going to the women’s Final Four tomorrow in Boston, and I’ve dubbed her BrendanLoy.com’s Official Women’s Final Four Correspondent. So hopefully we’ll be getting a few updates from Kristy tomorrow and Tuesday.

LOL! (Hat tip: DrawingDead.)

testing

FYI, some info about the TV schedule (times converted to EST):

…Johnson’s recollections of Princeton’s victory over UCLA in 1996 will be part of a special, “The Moment: 25 Years,” that celebrates CBS’ 25 years of televising the NCAA tournament. It will be on [CBS] Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Also on the special will be Greg Gumbel looking back at Loyola Marymount’s inspirational run to the Elite Eight in 1990 following the death of Hank Gathers. Jim Nantz recalls the “One Shining Moment” for Michigan State’s Mateen Cleeves in 2000, and Verne Lundquist revisits the game-winning shot by Duke’s Christian Laettner in 1992.

CBS’ Final Four coverage will begin Saturday at 2 p.m. with a “CBS Sports Spectacular” that looks back at college basketball’s 10 greatest games. “The Road to the Final Four” will be on at 3 p.m., followed by “The Moment: 25 Years.” Then at 4 p.m. a two-hour “Final Four Show” will feature Dick Enberg looking back at the UCLA legacy, a piece on Louisiana State and Hurricane Katrina and a 24/7 access look at George Mason’s week.

Mike Tran already knows he has a better NCAA bracket than any of his 217 competitors in this year’s Living Room Times men’s pool. The only question remaining is whether he has the best bracket in Times history.

Tonight’s Final Four games will help decide that. Florida plays George Mason at 6:07 PM; UCLA plays LSU at 8:47 PM. Tran, who clinched the pool last weekend after picking 13 of the Sweet 16, 7 of the Elite Eight and 3 of the Final Four, has Florida and UCLA reaching the title game.

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It was a picture-perfect ending for Brad Miller: the Wolverines lose, and as a result, a Buckeye wins.

Brad Miller, an Ohio State alum who now attends Capital University Law School in Columbus, OH, won the championship of the 2nd annual BrendanLoy.com NIT pool when South Carolina defeated Ohio State’s hated rival, Michigan, in the NIT championship game Thursday night, 76-64. (Here’s a look at Miller’s bracket.)

Miller’s victory came at the expense of USC Class of 1987 alum Gary Kirby, who had led the pool since the tournament’s third day and entered the Final Four as the odds-on favorite to win the pool. But Kirby picked Michigan to win it all, so Miller’s correct pick of the Gamecocks in the title game — which is worth 25 points — was enough to overtake him.

The pool is scored on a 5-7-10-15-20-25 basis. Kirby went 6-for-8 in the first round, 15-for-16 in the second round, and predicted 6 of the quarterfinalists, two of the semifinalists and one of the finalists. But he got the champion wrong, and that did him in. Miller was 5-for-8 in the first round, 13-for-16 in the second round and 5-for-8 in picking the quarterfinalists — all worse than Kirby — and, like Kirby, was 2-for-the Final Four. But he got both finalists and the champion right.

Miller finished with 381 points out of a possible 477; Kirby had 365. Everyone started off wih a “free” 120 points because of first-round byes, so Miller had 261 out of 357 possible “earned” points (73%). That compares favorably to the “earned” point total of the 2005 champion, Tom Keck, who had 166 out of 332 “earned” points last year (50%), demonstrating both the quality of Miller’s picks and the relative predictability of this year’s NIT, which was, for the first time ever, seeded.

Speaking of Keck, the 2003 USC grad and Oregon Health & Science University grad student was rewarded for picking South Carolina to win the NIT for a second year in a row: he made a late surge to finish in third place, with 334 points.

Andrew Long, a 2002 USC grad and Long Beach, CA resident, finished fourth with 326, having picked Louisville to win the tourney. Silver Spring, MD resident Rick Boeckler, uncle of Becky Loy and the odds-on favorite to win this year’s women’s pool, surged into fifth with 325 points because he, too, picked South Carolina.

Miller, Keck and Boeckler are the only contestants who picked the Gamecocks to win the NIT.

Complete standings here and after the jump.

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Was repeat NIT champion South Carolina “one basket away from wearing George Mason’s glass slipper in the Big Dance“? It’s not a totally implausible argument; the Gamecocks certainly did play awfully well in March. (One beef, though: George Mason wasn’t going to be booted for the tourney if South Carolina had beaten Florida in the SEC title game. Either Bradley or Air Force would have been out, not GMU.)

Speaking of the NIT, my apologies for not having the final NIT pool update posted yet. That’s my next task. :)