Much to Brendan’s chagrin, the University of Tennessee Lady Vols have won their seventh women’s basketball NCAA Championship tonight, defeating Rutgers 59-46.

This is certainly not the best of Coach Summitt’s teams at UT, but they do have some excellent players, led by Candace Parker. However, the team played as such, a unified team of players, not just 4 girls and one superstar. Congrats to the Lady Vols!

And, for a little late-posted extra goodiness, here’s the team with the trophy:

This morning I put on my Rocky Top t-shirt without even thinking about the fact that the one University of Tennessee team I'm barred from liking due to my Connecticut roots, the Lady Vols, are playing for the national title tonight. Oops! Go Rutgers! :)

UPDATE, 9:33 PM: I’m exhausted, and so am going to bed now, with Tennessee leading Rutgers 29-18 at halftime. Final tournament and pool updates will have to wait till morning. Just a reminder about the scenarios: if Rutgers wins, Josh Krause wins the pool; if Tennessee wins, Scott Fort wins.

And the massive, Man Walks On Moon-sized banner headline in today's Tribune is… somebody bought the Tribune! Heh.

A man shot a woman today at CNN Center complex. A witness who is a CNN employee saw a male shoot a black female twice at the Omni hotel, which is part of CNN Center.

Visit CNN for the latest.

‘Twas the Full Pink Moon last night, and Becky and I got a lovely view of it when we came out of the movie theater after watching Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory (which is hilarious, BTW). It (the moon, not the movie) had small moon pillars above and below the lunar disc, which made it look very cool. The photo below doesn’t do it justice, as I had to overexpose the moon to make the pillars visible, but for what it’s worth:

It seems Reggie Bush has been banned from the Playboy mansion for an unspecified “conduct violation.” The violation reportedly does not involve a Playmate, but beyond that, details are sketchy. As the linked post says, “maybe Yahoo Sports will launch…a more vigorous investigation.” In the mean time, there is no word on whether Bush’s banishment means USC will have to forfeit its place in the 2005 “Girls of the Pac-10″ issue. :)

Is the campus-wide Stations of the Cross worth going to? It’s tonight at 7pm, with the procession starting at the Grotto. Seems like it might be kind of interesting, even for a lapsed Catholic / agnostic. :)

Although this was the worst NCAA Tournament in years, last night’s annual post-title-game highlight reel, “One Shining Moment,” was actually the best in some time, IMHO.

(I swear I didn’t make it freeze on that particular frame. But I like it. Hehe.)

After several years of cluttering the song with stupid digital distractions like making the basketball glimmer and using waaay too much slow motion, while neglecting obvious necessities like showing us the most memorable moments of the tournament (last year’s “One Shining Moment” didn’t actually show Northwestern State’s winning shot!!), this year CBS went “back to basics,” giving us a pretty straightforward collection of video highlights. In particular, the back-to-back-to-back airing of the tournament’s three most memorable shots (by VCU’s Eric Maynor, Ohio State’s Ron Lewis and Georgetown’s Jeff Green), with the original play-by-play calls, was excellent — that’s what “One Shining Moment” should be all about. Well, that, and shots of cheerleaders’ butts.

(I actually specifically remember watching them do that dance in St. Louis. Heh.)

The shot of tragically deceased UNC mascot Jason Ray was a nice touch, too. I still could do without the surplus of slow-mo closeups of players’ faces in nondescript situations, and I miss the way “One Shining Moment” used to have a predictable story arc (generally speaking, back in the ’90s versions of the song, the first verse would show early-round upsets and dramatics, the second verse would focus on the tourney’s second weekend, the bridge would transition between the second weekend and the Final Four, and the final verse would highlight the Final Four and title game); everything is more jumbled together now, like Georgetown’s Coach Thompsons hugging at the end of the Elite Eight… barely 30 seconds into the song. But those are quibbles. Overall, I commend CBS for doing a much better job than they have in the last several years, especially given that the source material was less compelling than usual.

Now if only they would get rid of Billy Packer. (Hat tip: Patrick.)

P.S. You can download each and every “One Shining Moment” video going back to 1987, including this year’s, from the iTunes Store.

P.P.S. And yes — I’ll say it so you don’t have to — I am the biggest dork in the universe.

P.P.P.S. Stop staring at the cheerleaders’ asses, you pervs! ;)

P.P.P.P.S. One more gripe with the video: where’s Winthrop? I don’t think they made it in there at all!

The Hawaii football team, led by Heisman Trophy candidate Colt Brennan, may be stuck playing three Division I-AA teams due to a scheduling snafu:

[A]thletics director Herman Frazier is still two teams short of filling the 13-game schedule, including the Sept. 1 season opener at Aloha Stadium.

Hawaii opened at Alabama last year and hosted Southern California to open 2005. The Warriors opened the previous four years with Division I-AA teams.

With schedules finalized at most schools, the Warriors may be left with playing two Division I-AA teams, which would neither help the program nor Brennan’s Heisman Trophy chances, even with lopsided wins.

Hawaii already hosts Charleston Southern on Sept. 22.

That sucks.

Oh hey, that reminds me… during a trip to the St. Louis Zoo recently, I discovered incontrovertible proof that the BCS is full of crap. That’s right, we’ve always known that college football’s method of selecting a national champion is extremely sh**ty, but now I finally have photographic evidence of that fact. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… the BCS port-a-potty:

I’m here all week, folks.

…that campus eateries at Notre Dame aren’t allowed to sell Red Bull “because it’s associated with drinking”? But they can sell other energy drinks, I guess because they aren’t as commonly mixed with vodka. Seems pretty stupid to me. (The things you learn from hanging out in the law-school lounge early in the morning…)

Apropos of all the recent rankings talk, here’s an interesting blog post about the fine art of gaming the U.S. News & World Report law-school rankings. It appears UCLA is a prime culprit. (Hat tip: USC 1L.)

Let’s just put it this way: the best 24 episode in the past week, by far, was South Park’s “The Snuke” (which can be purchased for $1.99 from iTunes here). Not even a close call.

Spoilers from last night’s real 24 episode after the jump…

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In the wake of Florida’s 84-75 victory over Ohio State, which made the Gators college basketball’s first repeat champion in 15 years — a pair of titles that sandwiched a national championship for the Gators football team — NCAA President Myles Brand announced that intercollegiate athletics have been cancelled for the remainder of 2007, with the University of Florida declared the champion of all sports.

“There’s really no point in continuing this charade,” Brand said. “Florida is obviously going to win everything, and actually forcing them to play the games will just make their fans more obnoxious than ever.”

Florida fans responded to the news by performing an uninterrupted one-hour rendition of their infernal “daaah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-GO-GATORS” fight song, followed by 837 consecutive “Gator chomps.” During the course of the celebratory display, several hundred fans of Georgia, Tennessee, Florida State, Miami and various other Division I universities reportedly jumped off bridges and out windows to their deaths.

The cancellation of the remainder of the 2007 NCAA season means the BCS will have to select the participants for its 2008 bowl games on the basis of extremely limited data. Sources said the most likely title-game matchup was Florida’s first string vs. Florida’s second string, while the Gators’ third string would likely take on Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. Oddsmakers quickly tagged the Florida backups as a 14-point favorite.

Well, now, this is interesting:

A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines.

Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds.

In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective, The Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment.

Better understanding of the seriousness of the US action in Arbil - and the angry Iranian response to it - should have led Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence to realise that Iran was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such as highly vulnerable Navy search parties in the Gulf. The two senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Kurdish officials. …

The attempt by the US to seize the two high-ranking Iranian security officers openly meeting with Iraqi leaders is somewhat as if Iran had tried to kidnap the heads of the CIA and MI6 while they were on an official visit to a country neighbouring Iran, such as Pakistan or Afghanistan. …

US officials in Washington subsequently claimed that the five Iranian officials they did seize, who have not been seen since, were “suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraq and coalition forces”. This explanation never made much sense. No member of the US-led coalition has been killed in Arbil and there were no Sunni-Arab insurgents or Shia militiamen there.

The raid on Arbil took place within hours of President George Bush making an address to the nation on 10 January in which he claimed: “Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops.”

I’d like to know more about our reasons for targeting these men, our evidence against them, etc. But on the surface, I don’t think I like this very much. Certainly, we should be working aggressively to stop Iranian proxy attacks on our troops, but kidnapping high-ranking Iranian officials? Isn’t that how wars get started? Unless that’s what the Bush Administration wants… in which case, they should really have a chat with Congress before they commit a causus bellum…

P.S. Of course, Iranian proxy attacks on our troops, if proven, are themselves a causus bellum. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wise to go to war over it, though. And yet if we had successfully kidnapped a pair of high-ranking Iranian officials, that would have put the ball squarely in Iran’s court, in terms of whether to take the bellicose bait.

After seven years of futility and frustration, a USC Trojan has finally won a Living Room Times NCAA basketball pool.

Sports Illustrated writer Arash Markazi, a 2004 ‘SC grad, won the 12th annual Times men’s pool with an all-time record 409 points out of a possible 477, clinching when Florida beat Ohio State, 84-75, in the national championship game. Markazi’s bracket was perfect for the entire second and third weekends of the tournament, the only time that has ever happened in a Times pool.

Scott Robertson, who would have won the pool if Ohio State had beaten Florida, finished second with 389 points. Joe Resper and Kendra Krauss tied for third with 387 points. Lauren Moy finished fifth with 385. Rounding out the top ten: Mike Marchand (379 points), Jeff Morrison (376), Randy Styles (374), Ginny Zak (371) and Scott Fort (367).

All of the top ten contestants, as well as 11th-place finishers P.J. Wanecski and Rachel Luberda (366 points apiece) and 13th-place finisher John McBride (365), surpassed the previous men’s pool record of 362 points, set by Brian Kiolbasa in 2005. (14th-place finisher Brian Dupuis equalled Kiolbasa’s ‘05 point total.) That is largely a reflection of the relative predictability of this year’s tournament. An “all chalk” bracket, picking all the favorites, would have tied for 18th out of 264 contestants, with 357 points.

Complete final standings are here and after the jump.

The win by Markazi, who worked with Brendan and Becky Loy (left) at the Daily Trojan, ends the “Trojan Curse,” which dated back to 2000, when USC-affiliated contestants began entering the annual Times men’s and women’s pools. Dozens of Trojans had competed in the 13 pools since then, and three had gone into a national-championship game with a chance to win the pool. On two occasions, it had taken a mighty second-half title-game comeback to prevent a Trojan from winning. But until now, no USC contestant had finished the job. Now, thanks to Florida’s repeat championship and Markazi’s outstanding bracket, one finally has.

In addition to successfully picking the winners of all the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four games and the title game, Markazi also predicted the tournament’s biggest early-round upsets: #11 VCU over #6 Duke, #11 Winthrop over #6 Notre Dame and #7 UNLV over #2 Wisconsin.

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