On this NCAA Tournament Eve, here’s a question I’ve been meaning to pose to my blog audience — or, more specifically, to the sports fans within that audience. What’s the most devastating loss you’ve ever suffered as a sports fan?

After the jump, my answer to this question. But I’m really curious about your answers.

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For the first time ever, the USC SoCal VoCals are going to collegiate a capella’s version of the Final Four: the ICCA International Finals in New York City!

Over the weekend, the VoCals won the ICCA semifinal — basically the Western regional championship — at Marin Center for the Performing Arts in San Rafael, California, beating out the University of Oregon Divisi, the UCLA ScatterTones (ha ha! take that, Mike Tran!), defending national champion BYU Noteworthy, BYU Vocal Point, the Cal-Berkeley Golden Overtones, Mt. San Antonio College Fermata Nowhere, and These Guys from Fullerton and Citrus colleges. (Full results here; scroll down to "ICCA West Region.")

The VoCals’ previous best finish at the ICCA semis was second place in 2001, and they’ve finished third four times: in 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2006. Long-time readers might recall that I trailed the VoCals for a photojournalism project — producing, among others, this photo — during their 2002 third-place ICCA appearance, and later wrote about it in a Daily Trojan opinion article analogizing the competition to March Madness, with which it always roughly coincides.

Anyway, on April 19, this year’s crop of SoCal VoCals will compete for the international championship of collegiate a capella (that’s what ICCA stands for, natch) against the Northwestern University Purple Haze (Midwest Region champs), Oxford University Out of the Blue (Western Europe champs), and as-yet undetermined champions from the South, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Fight on, SoCal VoCals!! Beat those other schools!! Wooo!!

The good news is, the Notre Dame-George Mason game will be the primary ~9:30 game on the Knoxville CBS affiliate Thursday night. Sweet!

The bad news is, contrary to what I guessed last night, USC-Kansas State won’t be the primary ~7:00 game. I guess they think Belmont, a Nashville university with 4,700 students, has a large enough following in East Tennessee that it makes sense to prioritize #2 Duke vs. #15 Belmont over the super-frosh showdown of Mayo vs. Beasley. Ugh.

I just hope our Comcast connection can handle MMOD. (Speaking of which, if you want a "VIP pass," you’d better sign up now — they’re 86% full!)

The 13th annual Living Room Times men’s basketball pool, presented by the UCLA Bruins.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

They’re underway in L.A.

FIGHT ON, TROJANS!!!!! BEAT THE BRUINS!!!!! WIN ME THE BET!!!!!

(I think I’m going to use that bear for every anti-UCLA post from now on. Hahaha.)

UPDATE: USC leads at halftime, 34-29. I’m not too happy, though. Frankly, the margin should be bigger. The Trojans’ defense was great, and the Bruins’ shooting was cold until the last couple of minutes, yet USC’s offense wasn’t clicking on all cylinders. From the 16-minute mark to the 9-minute mark of the half, UCLA only scored 4 points (increasing their total from 7 to 11), which would have presented a great opportunity for USC to build a big lead, but they only managed to get up 17-11 during that stretch. I feel like the Bruins have a good run in them sometime in the second half, and I’d like to see the Trojans build up enough of a lead beforehand that they can withstand it.

Also of concern: Hackett and Jefferson each have 2 fouls. Hopefully neither of them picks up a quick third in the second half. You don’t want to put your fate in the hands of Pac-10 refs!!

Meanwhile, UCLA’s Luc Richard Mbah a Moute went down with an ugly-looking injury. Hopefully he’s OK and will at least be back for the NCAA Tournament.

UPDATE 2: Aaaaand, while I was in the other room helping Becky with the baby, UCLA opens the second half on a 17-4 run. They’re up 46-38 with 14:43 minutes left. Yikes. Oh, and Hackett just got his third foul. And Gibson has 3, too. Crap, crap, crap.

UPDATE 3: Trojans within 5 points with 3:43 to go. Gibson and Jefferson both have 4 fouls. I’m so nervous. I feel like I have such a huge personal stake in the outcome of this game… stupid bets with Mike Tran…

I just really, really hope the Pac-10 refs don’t decide this one.

UPDATE 4: UCLA by 3, USC ball, 39 seconds left. My heart is pounding. I swear I’d be less nervous if I had a couple hundred dollars on this game, rather than having my pool’s honor riding on it.

UPDATE 5: DAMMIT.

DAMMIT.

DAMMIT.

That was a weird strategy at the end there…

Ugh.

Dammit.

USC 59, ASU 55. UCLA 88, Cal 66.

You know what this means: my season-series bet with Mike Tran will be decided in a dramatic Pac-10 semifinal rubber match, an intra-city battle royale at the Staples Center tomorrow night at 9:00 PM EDT.

As specified by the terms of the bet, if UCLA wins, I have to change the name of my men’s basketball pool to “The 13th annual Living Room Times men’s basketball pool, presented by the UCLA Bruins.” I have to include the “presented by the UCLA Bruins” in every full-fledged pool update that I post on the blog, and UCLA also has to appear somewhere in the pool’s official logo.

If USC wins, Mike has to go to Tommy Trojan and get his picture taken in front of Tommy, doing the victory sign and wearing a USC shirt of some kind (with “USC” in big letters, clearly visible). He has to get me this picture by next Wednesday, and I get to post it on my blog as often as I want during March (and early April, i.e. Final Four weekend).

FIGHT ON, TROJANS!!! BEAT THE BRUINS!!!

…goes UAB’s bubble. And Dayton’s and Villanova’s, probably. Good news all around, so far, for the VCUs and Illinois States of the world.

But what about Arizona State’s bubble? Fight on Trojans! Pop Beat the Sun Devils! (Actually, I hope ASU loses, then makes the Big Dance anyway.)

UPDATE: Uh-oh… another controversial ending to a Pac-10 game?

I don’t know what the rules are on over-the-back fouls, and the FSN announcers are doing an absolutely horrible job of explaining what’s going on. Can someone fill me in? I really hope the Trojans aren’t winning this one illegitimately.

UPDATE 2: USC won 59-55. Here’s the ending:

What do y’all think?

Cal will get a rematch tomorrow of its controversial season regular-finale against UCLA.

That’ll be at 5:30 PM on FSN, right after the 3:00 game between USC and Arizona State. I’m hoping to get to work early tomorrow, and to work through lunch, so I can come home for at least the second half of that one. :)

If the Trojans and Bruins both win, then my bet with Mike will be decided Friday night. If, on the other hand, either team loses tomorrow, the season series remains split 1-1 and the bet’s a wash.

Also tomorrow, at 9:30 PM on ESPN: Notre Dame vs. Marquette or Seton Hall. All in all, it’s going to be a big day in Irish Trojan land…

USC Daily Trojan staffers will get to ask Bill Clinton questions as part of a mtvU series designed to "take some of the top college reporters from across the country and have them
grill key policy makers and influencers." The forum will be taped on Sunday, and "highlights" will be posted on mtvU.com Sunday evening, followed by a full broadcast on March 26 at noon. The other college newspapers participating are the Howard Hilltop, Smith Sophian and Tulane Hullabaloo. More info here and here.

Blogger Alex Weprin writes, "The hope is that in selecting top college journos, the forums will be serious,
substantive talks, and not gossip," so "I wouldn’t expect too many ‘boxers or briefs’ questions here."

USC’s Pac-10 tournament seed hangs in balance as UW and Wazzu head to overtime. If Washington wins, the Trojans will be the #3 seed, with a quarterfinal game against tonight’s Arizona-Oregon winner and a likely semifinal against Stanford. If Wazzu wins, they’ll be the #4 seed, with a quarterfinal game against Arizona State and a likely semifinal against UCLA.

All this because of USC’s impressive win over Stanford earlier today, which gave them a shot at the #3 seed.

UPDATE: Despite multiple chances to win, the Huskies coug it, and Wazzu wins 76-73 in 2 OTs. So it’ll be #4 USC vs. #5 ASU in the first round of the Pac-10 tourney, with the winner taking on either #1 UCLA, #8 Washington or #9 Cal in the semifinals.

USC leads Stanford, 45-35, with 16:51 left at the Galen Center. If the Trojans win and Washington State loses to UW tonight, USC will be the #3 seed in the Pac-10 tournament, and any possible Loy-Tran bet-deciding USC-UCLA game wouldn’t happen until the conference final. If USC loses or Wazzu wins, the Trojans will be the #4 seed, setting up a possible semifinal matchup with the top-seeded Bruins.

In other news, last year’s Notre Dame-conquering Big South champion, Winthrop, earned another auto bid to the NCAAs, joining Cornell on that short list and sending regular-season champ UNC-Asheville to the NIT as that tournament’s first automatic qualifier.

Later today, three Tennessee teams will try to earn automatic NCAA bids of their own, as Cinderella story #6 seed Tennessee State, 15-16 and #215 in the RPI, faces #1 seed Austin Peay, also from Tennessee, in the Ohio Valley title game (ESPN2, 5pm), and Belmont, yet another Tennessee school, faces Jacksonville in the Atlantic Sun final (ESPN2, 7pm)

I’d be remiss in my basketball-blogging duties if I didn’t point out that Gonzaga beat St. Mary’s yesterday to take the WCC lead and probably wrap up an NCAA at-large bid, if they need it. As long as the Zags beat 6-7 Santa Clara tomorrow night, they’ll win yet another regular-season conference title.

Also, Notre Dame eked out a win over DePaul. Joe Lunardi currently projects the Irish as a #4 seed, Gonzaga as a #6, and USC as a #7. (But that was before ‘SC lost to Arizona State yesterday.)

Fans in the Arizona student section, a.k.a. the “Zona Zoo,” got themselves in hot water earlier this month for loudly chanting “F*** the refs!” during a nationally televised basketball game against Stanford. The university responded with an effort to crack down on such misbehavior. As part of that effort, interim head coach Kevin O’Neill sent out a video message to his school’s students earlier this week, urging them to “be positive” in their chants:

O’Neill also apparently gave the students an in-person lecture about the vulgarity issue before last night’s game against USC. And he told the Daily Wildcat in an article published yesterday: “I’m going to encourage them not to use vulgar profanity directed at anyone. The bottom line is we have the largest student section I’ve ever seen, but I think we need to carry ourselves in a first-class manner indicative of what our university, athletic department and basketball program are.”

But alas, during the waning moments of USC’s 70-58 win over the Wildcats last night, some bozo in the Zona Zoo decided it would be a good idea to throw a full water bottle at the USC bench — nearly hitting head coach Tim Floyd. Here’s the video:

To his great credit, O’Neill quickly grabbed the microphone, vigorously scolded the perpetrator, and apologized to Floyd and the Trojans. Good for him. Hopefully Arizona can get this nonsense under control.

On an unrelated note, I love how ESPN named O.J. Mayo the “Rogaine Player of the Game.” LOL! I’m sure he deeply appreciates the honor.

BEEEEAT CARDINALS!!!

That is all.

UPDATE: Um, so yeah, it’s not going too well. Louisville 42, Notre Dame 27 at halftime.

UPDATE 2: Louisville won, 90-85. They were way ahead for most of the game, but Notre Dame mounted a valiant comeback late, with five three-pointers in the last minute-and-a-half — three of them by Luke Harangody, who hadn’t hit a three all season! Harangody ended up with 40 points.

UPDATE 3: USC-Arizona is now underway on ESPN. The Trojans lead early, 26-14.

UPDATE 4: Trojans pick up a huge road win, 70-58. Sweet!

Barack Obama isn’t the only frontrunner who will be on national TV tonight trying to defend his recently acquired top-dog status against a rival’s onslaught. At 9:00 PM EST — the same time as the Democratic debate on MSNBC — the #1-ranked Tennessee men’s basketball team will face #18 Vanderbilt on the Commodores’ home floor. The game will be on ESPN, and Bruce Pearl will be in his orange blazer.

Go Vols & Go Barack!

P.S. I’m looking ahead a bit now, but take a gander at the Big East standings, and then ponder for a moment Thursday night’s big game: Notre Dame at Louisville, 7:00 PM on ESPN. Holy cow. Mike Brey’s boys playing, maybe, for a Big East regular-season championship? I love it! Oh, and did I mention it’s part of an Irish Trojan doubleheader? USC visits Arizona at 9:00 PM Thursday, also on ESPN. Sweet.

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