Mid-Major Jones

It’s 9:46 in the morning of Friday the 14th (phew) and there’s going to be 14 conference title games tomorrow, and five more on Sunday. There’s a whole lot of ground to cover here, so for the three people who are going to read this (my parents and Matthew Deery), let me try to give a little something for each of ‘em. I can’t provide the game times and TV channels for all of them, but hopefully it will be enough to get you properly jazzed for the Christmas Eve Day of the college basketball season -- Selection Sunday. When the big, beautiful bracket is unveiled to the world! Let's get started...   ...

So, two paladins and a nun with a time-traveling wooden leg walk into a bar... Skip it. After Saturday's action, the Eastern Kentucky Colonels became the first team to punch their ticket into the NCAA's Big Dance by virtue of their upset over Belmont in the Ohio Valley title game. Personally, I prefer my tourney upsets to happen in the Big Tournament, but fair enough, Eastern Kentucky! A 16 seed surely awaits. And speaking of upsets in the conference tournaments...  

TUESDAY

Horizon League: 3)...

As I like to tell people, March Madness is my adult life's Christmas. And just like the 12 Days of Christmas, this coming Saturday marks the commencement of my yearly "16 Straight Days & Nights of Nothing But College Basketball In My Life" holiday. During this time of my observance, a) all incoming phone calls are subject to not being answered, b) food (and when necessary, beer) will be procured by delivery method only, and c) all social endeavors that involve me “going out” and/or “being a man about town” are strictly forbidden with extreme prejudice. The official (and deathly serious) plunge into the hoops starts this Saturday...

Well, the Gophers are unequivocally dead to me and I don't want to waste too much of my breath talking about them. Last Wednesday night's loss to Illinois at The Barn was possibly the worst loss in the history of Gopher basketball since I've been paying attention to it. Here's the story: We got trounced... at home... by the worst team in the conference... in a must-win game for our tournament resume. I mean, as far as “devastating losses” go, that one took the all-time cake for Gophers Basketball. I hadn't even recovered from it...

First and foremost, I want to offer an apology to my dental clinic, specifically the receptionist Dawn -- she is the sweetest and most understanding human being none of you have ever met for canceling my much canceled and rescheduled dental appointment for a teeth cleaning. Please do understand that I had every intention of finally honoring this visit today, but upon getting out of my shower minutes before the would-be visit and turning the shower sprocket handles down to zero, I unfortunately found that water was...