One Shining Moment

It's college tournament time, bay-bee!!

I invite everyone to join my ESPN tournament challenge bracket site and make your picks. It doesn't matter whether you want to make your picks based on research, talent, records, uniform color, or mascot (does a "Bonnie" beat a "Billicken?") -- in the end, it's all a random guess anyway! So come join the fun with a little March Mathness!


And speaking of fun, here's a re-seeding that Jonathan Grant of Chain Gang Elementary put together. He took the 68 teams in this year's tourney and put them in order of average SAT score. Go Harvard!

Hope to see you there!

An open letter to Coach K

Dear Coach K (rzyzewski),

First, let me offer my congratulations on once again getting your team into the NCAA tournament -- something that your biggest rival, the Tarholes, were unable to do. Your team this year has shown inconsistency at times, but they have pulled together when it has counted, holding everyone off to win the ACC championship. Singler, Scheyer, and Smith have been awesome, and it has been great to see the emergence of Brian Zoubek as a presence in the paint.

Let me get to the point of my letter. As you may or may not know, I am getting married in July, and while that is still a ways off, I would like to request my wedding gift from you now. While you have not actually received a Save the Date or an invitation, please know that, if you are available, you are certainly invited.

As a gift for our special day, I would love to ask that you win the NCAA Championship this year. But that seems a little much. So instead, I'll merely ask that you take it to the Final Four. No embarrassing losses to Louisville, Purdue, or A&M. If there is a rematch against Villanova, please take your rightful revenge and knock them out of the tourney.

So to sum up, early wedding gift -- Final Four. Oh, and if you DO make it, and could swing courtside TICKETS to your games? That would be spectacular as well.

Good luck and God bless.

Sincerely,

John Pearson

No baller left behind

I found this little gem over on Equity is not Optional, via So You Want to Teach?

It is a great basketball equivalent to what our kids and teachers are going through in public school nowadays. Also, it seemed to fit the theme of the month, baby! ;)

The basketball version of what is going on in education right now.

All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship their basketballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.

All kids will be expected to have the same basketball skills at the same time, even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in basketball, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY BASKETBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!

Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren’t interested in basketball, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don’t like basketball!

Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th games. This will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind. If parents do not like this new law, they are encouraged to vote for vouchers and support private schools that can screen out the non-athletes and prevent their children from having to go to school with bad basketball players.

Think YOU had a bad day?

This is a picture of one moment during the Duke-Virginia Tech game from Saturday afternoon. Deron Washington, of VT completely hurdles Greg Paulus, number 3, of the Blue Devils. Mind you, Paulus is 6'1", so it's not exactly like jumping over the old bike rack.

The next time I get really frustrated at my kids, and down in the dumps, I'll be able to think to myself, "Hey, at least no one has ever jumped completely over my head and forced me to come face to crotch."