Thoughts on Championship Saturday-Part 4

6:20 We’re watching the A-10 and Pac-10 championship games right now. The CourtMrs is very concerned about Xavier fans at the A-10 with the inside of their mouths all blue. She’s a sweet lady and worries about oral hygene.

6:35 Robin opined that the NCAA play-in game gets too much attention. I offered the idea that the whole concept was a waste. The NCAA was afraid to eliminate one at-large bid when the Mountain West received an automatic bid a few years ago. Is it really worth the aggravation just so one fewer team will bitch on Selection Sunday? I don’t think so.

6:40 Our discussion turned to the issue of whether the NCAA tournament should be expanded to include more teams. Steve seemed insistent on adding teams, Robin offered lukewarm agreement (he thinks that makes him sound wishy-washy, but he was decivisvely lukewarm), and I disagreed. They felt that it would reduce the bitching from teams that were left out, while I feel it would merely change the levels of those that are upset. The only way to eliminate that would be to accept Billy Packer’s inane suggestion of including every team, and we all agreed how silly that would be.

6:45 The guys officially expressed the view that my constant blogging was getting on their nerves. At least that’s how I took the threat of damaging my laptop.

7:15 We’re just sort of killing time waiting for the pizza to arrive and the Big East championship game at 8:00. Both the current games, Cal-UCLA and Xavier-St. Joseph’s are competitive, but we just don’t care who wins. The MAC game is on, but Toledo vs. Kent State is just not doing anything for us.

7:55 After feasting on pizza, we are getting reengaged with the games. The CourtMrs is quite troubled by the poor color and very bad hair that St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli sports. I’m sure he would be touched by her concern.

8:00 Steve’s lovely wife Janice arrived and helped us with the pizza. Robin was gracious enough to step up and accept the blame for Duke winning today. The Blue Devils were winning until he showed up, but his arrival obviously changed things. We appreciated him shouldering the blame.

8:15 The end of the A-10 championship game was exciting. The homecourt timekeeper didn’t give Xavier a break on the last play, but the Musketeers came up with clean blocks on St. Joe’s last two shot attempts. Great clutch plays by Xavier. Maybe now Coach Martelli can get some sun.

8:20 After some discussion, we decided to root for Syracuse in the Big East championship, with apologies to my good friend Sandy, a Pitt alum. I pointed out to the surprise of everyone that Syracuse was now known as the Orange and were no longer the Orangemen. The CourtMrs said, “But they can’t even grow oranges in Syracuse. It’s too cold.

“They grow frozen oranges,” I said.

More later.