by John Walters
Bracket Carnage
Moments before Maryland and West Virginia tipped off to christen this year’s NCAA tournament, CBS (above) did a fun segment in which they used a certain set of parameters (there were about five data points, as I recall) to show which schools had no chance to win the tourney. At the end of their winnowing, only the above 10 schools met all the criteria.
To win the tournament.
Not a single one of the 10 advanced to the Final Four. Who did?
FAU. Miami. San Diego State. UConn.
Moreover, we have a 4-seed (UConn), a pair of 5-seeds (SDSU and Miami) and a 9-seed (FAU) in the Final Four. Three of the four schools have never advanced this far. Conventional Wisdom has opted for the transfer portal this month. It’s…
What’s next, you ask? A female school shooter?
If the Owls face the Hurricanes next Monday night, it’ll be the two nearest campuses (49.5 miles) ever to play for the championship.
If the Aztecs play the Huskies, it’ll be the two farthest campuses (2,977 miles) ever to play for the last shining moment.
Dear Brigitte
As I’ve typed before, one of the reasons I’m always tuning to TCM (or now, also FXM) is the chance that I’ll be enchanted by the odd old movie I’d never even heard of before. Enter Dear Brigitte, a cute 1965 offering starring Jimmy Stewart (A-list all-timer legend) and Billy Mumy (yes, it’s the “Danger, Will Robinson!” kid from Lost In Space… basically, for the time, the backup redheaded kid, the poor man’s Ron Howard).
Briefly, Stewart is a beloved but futzy professor of poetry whose nuclear family lives on a houseboat in Sausalito. Mumy, his 8 year-old son, is a mathematical genius, a virtuoso. But all that he desires in the world is to meet Brigitte Bardotte.
As I watched, I could not help wondering whether Ben Affleck and Matt Damon had seen this film before writing Good Will Hunting. I’ve never heard either mention it, but the mathematical genius bit story line has some overlaps. If not the French sex goddess overlap.
It’s Jimmy Stewart near the end of his career, and it’s sweet and funny and—spoiler alert— the title character does at last make a cameo. So tune in for that if for no other reason.
The Women’s Tourney
Three big storylines:
• Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the best player at the college level for a year or two now, explodes for 41 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assist as the Hawkeyes eliminate Louisville to advance to the Final Four. No player, male or female, has ever eclipsed 40 points in a tourney game and recorded a triple double.
•South Carolina remains unbeaten (35-0). The Gamecocks, defending national champs who meet Maryland tonight with a Final Four berth on the line, are 70-2 the past two seasons, the two defeats coming by a total of three points.
• UConn is out. The Huskies fail to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2007. That’s before LeBron won his first title (or Steph), before the subprime mortgage crisis erupted, before anyone had even heard of Taylor Swift. Geno Auriemma has led the Huskies to 11 national championships, but none since 2016.
Geno turned 69 last week. How much longer will he continue?
Jon Stewart Provides Yet Another Lesson In Journalism
Here’s Stewart pushing back on Fareed Zarakiah, an erstwhile celebrated Newsweek writer (I hear those guys are really smart), when Zarakiah asks if Donald Trump should be arrested. Diplomatically as he is able, Stewart wonders how come cable news is devoting more time to that question as opposed to explaining earnestly to their audience what the crime is that he’s being investigated of committing, what the evidence has revealed, etc.
Stewart’s gently nudging Zarakiah to move away from the “feels.” Do your job. Report the news. Inform. Don’t do a taste test. Why is this so difficult?
Dollar Quiz
- What band name-checks a celebrity mentioned in today’s blog? And what is the song?
- Only one Pac-12 school has never been to the Final Four. Name it.
- What six elements are most prevalent in the human body?
- What famous philosopher was Alexander the Great’s tutor?
- What Ivy League school has been to two Final Fours (more than all the others combined)?
1. Pretenders
2. Arizona State
3. Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Calcium, Phosphorus
4. Aristotle
5. Dartmouth
Forgot to include the song title : Message of Love
TJ,
Too good. Again!
Need to credit my niece on the elements, who was sitting with me yesterday while answering your questions. She’s in PA school and steered me away from some guesses she thought were incorrect 😊