Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

T R E 4 5 O N

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

We still have time to mess this up!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tournament Open Thread

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    D-Chance.

    The team who beat the team I was supporting is beating up another team rather badly, so it takes away some of the embarrassment.

    NASCAR is in Bristol. 500 laps of bump-and-grind and "trading paint".

  2. 2.

    burnspbesq

    Indeed there are – both men’s and women’s.

    If USC wins today, and thereby goes farther than UCLA in the tournament, the combined force of all of the Bruin heads exploding is likely to register at least 5.5 of the Richter scale.

  3. 3.

    burnspbesq

    Warning to Villanova and its fans: the Big Least Thugball tactics that succeeded so brilliantly against UCLA won’t work against Duke.

  8. 8.

    Laura W

    @burnspbesq: Maybe blowing them away?
    I was looking for Bonnie doing "Feeling of Falling" from Road Tested for you (dedicated to Lowell George) but it doesn’t exist on youtube. Check this out from THIRTY years ago. yeeeesh. Seeing Ronstadt on the CBS Sun Morn segment on Phoebe Snow a couple weeks ago was a trip and 1/2.

    Edit: I’m obviously in over my head in terms of even commenting on the games, but does Ariz waste a lot of valuable time passing the ball around or is that on purpose?

  9. 9.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Laura W:

    (Where is the preview on this site? It’s bad enough to not have permission to edit your own comments, now I can’t even see how many mistakes I won’t be allowed to fix.)

    Look below the comment box, under the submit button. At least, that’s where I see my previews.

  10. 10.

    Punchy

    KU winz by 11. Cleve St., whom i’d like to see win, just gets rolled by Zona. Hope to fuckin GOD Misery gets smoked by Marky-Mark

  11. 11.

    Laura W

    @Kirk Spencer: Oh thanks! I’m was just whining and bitching about it being gone all of a sudden today. Sounds like many of us are experiencing the "You do not have permission to edit your comment" problem once we hit submit the first time and try to get back in to fix errors.
    I actually got in this time to do some editing, so took my bitch out.
    I didn’t want John to scold me.

  13. 13.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Laura W: Yeah, I’ve noticed the complaints.

    I haven’t had the problem today, but it has happened to me in the past. What I finally noticed when I actually paid attention was that EVENTUALLY the button appeared – though the time is based on posting time, so I don’t get the full five minutes. I suspect it is one of the last scripts to execute, and it’s hanging because something else isn’t complete. More specifically, because one of the ad-blocks is still waiting for the remote sender to finish sending or timing out.

    Blame the commercials.

  14. 14.

    jwb

    A fair number of double-digit seeds in today’s games, including #12 Arizona vs. #13 Cleveland State. Ray Ratto at the San Fransisco Chronicle thinks the tournament should be set up so brackets could be changed so in this case Louisville would play Cleveland and Siena would play Arizona.

    I think top seeds get enough favoritism as it is.

    Yes, the point seems to be to make it as difficult as possible for the little guys and as easy as possible for the big guys. Sort of resembles the financial mess in its way.

  15. 15.

    OriGuy

    Blame the commercials.

    I had JavaScript debugging on in IE at work (because I was debugging my JavaScript.) It’s incredible how many sites have script errors, usually in the ads. I had to click through 10 popups to load 538. Apparently any idiot can get a job scripting ads to drop into blogs.

  16. 16.

    burnspbesq

    @Laura W:

    Syracuse plays a zone defense, and they play it well. In order to attack the zone, you have to get the defenders moving laterally, and then move the ball faster than they can recover. Patience is a virtue when attacking a zone.

  17. 17.

    Mwangangi

    I live with an Arizona grad. He threatened my continued health if we (‘Cuse) didn’t beat the his former rivals. He cared more about my game than he cared about his.

  18. 18.

    Laura W

    @JenJen: So you could be my Sister in Suck.
    D’oh.

    @burnspbesq: I knew that.
    (Well, no, I did not, but I understand it! That’s a start.)

  21. 21.

    ThresherK

    Speaking of seeding and favorites: The Michigan State women, a #9 seed, got to host #8 Middle Tennessee State.

    What is a #9 or #8 seed doing hosting a game?

    The Lady Spartans (sic?-but that’s another story) won after MTS’s leading scorer fouled out. I believe this player was called for charging three times.

    What has to be done to keep the committee from scheduling a lowish seed at home next year? Is it "gobstop the machine time" and root for #1 seed Duke lose to Michigan State in the next round?

    (Disclaimer: No interest in any team there.)

  23. 23.

    grendelkhan

    Open thread? Did someone say open thread?

    I’d like to mention that popular anger at the latest crop of Smartest Guys who’ve fucked everyone else over is not socialist, no, no… it’s National Socialist! I bring you the modern classic, GM Roper’s "Can Kristallnacht Be Far Behind!". Look, and despair.

  24. 24.

    Punchy

    ThresherK’s comments took me 1 minute to read. Considering its about women’s "basketball", I want that wasted minute back. Tip: bet your car, house, wife, and kids on UConn to win each game, then thank me in April for all that extra scratch.

  25. 25.

    burnspbesq

    @ThresherK:

    The Bracketology gods are trifling with the Duke women this year. Not only do they have to play Michigan State at Michigan State in the second round, Duke’s head coach formerly coached at Michigan State. And if seeding holds, they will play Stanford in the regional final – on Cal’s home floor.

  30. 30.

    4jkb4ia

    Purdue and Michigan State only two Big Ten teams left, i.e. only two good teams in conference anyway.

  31. 31.

    Comrade Darkness

    I’ve learned my lesson. Next time instead of flipping a penny, I’m going to pick teams by what name I think is cooler.

    Xavier wins it all!

  34. 34.

    Comrade Stuck

    @JenJen:

    White House to Declassify Bush-Era Torture Memos – Newsweek

    Thank you! That little tidbit of news makes my day, maybe even week.

  35. 35.

    4jkb4ia

    @Punchy:

    I saw a little of the Marist-Virginia game last night. The vibe was much more low-key, but it was clearly basketball being played. I suggest watching UConn the next time they are on.

  36. 36.

    D-Chance.

    CBS does such a good job of sucking the life out of any tourney broadcast. I really do miss the old ESPN efforts, where they did the four-way split screens and acted as if they really gave a damn about the games instead of the advertisement slots.

    And Wild Thing dominates at Thunder Valley. No one even close to his car all day long.

  39. 39.

    Steeplejack

    @4jkb4ia: Is Mizzou on TV? That’s my alma mater. They have been dead to me since the football season collapse, but I’m now willing to give them another chance.

  41. 41.

    JenJen

    Go MIZZ!

    I’m having a decent day (except Syracuse can suck it). Still looks near-impossible to catch up to the Balloon Bracket leaders, though. Grrr.

  42. 42.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    So what is everyone having for dinner tonight? Us? Roasted chicken with sage and onion stuffing, mashed taters, roasted taters, green beans and baby carrots, gravy, cranberry sauce (for DH) bread sauce (for me) and home made dinner rolls. Best part about the meal is that DH will quite happily have chicken, cranberry sauce and stuffing sandwiches for days afterwards, we get a whole bunch of mileage out of a $4.00 fresh chicken. (After that it will be into a curry for me, then the bones will get boiled in the stock pot for a day or so and fed to the dogs – do not be alarmed, if you cook chicken bones long enough they turn to mush and do not have the brittle, shard like quality which makes them dangerous for animals). So what is everyone else having for dinner tonight?

  43. 43.

    Laura W

    @JenJen: You are seriously RockRockin’ it, JenJen.

    Wha’ happened to my USC game? Are we not going back there NOW?

  46. 46.

    Laura W

    @JenJen: I’m gonna go tell everyone in the other open thread that YOU have the grill fired up and ready ta’ go! Apparently we have all the dogs, sausage and condominiums.

  48. 48.

    JenJen

    What in the HOLY LIVING HELL is Louisville doing!? You have got to be freaking kidding me!!

    Laura, I made way too much food. I also have beer!

  50. 50.

    Laura W

    @burnspbesq: You’re quite calm. USC is my sole hope for any kind of face saving in the BJ tourney.
    A few of these games are way too close for my….aaaaaarrrrggghhhh!

  52. 52.

    JenJen

    @Laura W: Sounds delightful. I’m going to watch the rest of these games, probably throw a few things and use foul language, watch Obama talk about his totally-failed Presidency on 60 Minutes, followed by a little Amazing Race, and of course, Big Love for dessert. :-)

  53. 53.

    Laura W

    @JenJen: I’m just gonna sit here and drink the other two bottles. Stoopid Trojans!
    Remember…after Big Love, "Business Time" with Flight of the Conchords!

  55. 55.

    burnspbesq

    @Laura W:

    You’re quite calm.

    This has been a thoroughly amazing weekend for us Dookies.

    Both basketball teams are alive. The baseball team won two of three from second-ranked North Carolina. The lacrosse teams both won. We had a wrestler make the NCAA finals for the first time ever. We had a fencer win an individual NCAA championship. We even scored points at the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships.

    GTHC.

  56. 56.

    burnspbesq

    Schedule for the next round (all times EDT):

    Thursday
    Purdue-UConn 7:07pm
    Xavier-Pitt 7:27pm
    Mizzou-Memphis ~9:37pm
    Duke-Villanova ~9:57pm

    Friday
    Arizona-Louisville 7:07pm
    Syracuse-Oklahoma 7:27pm
    Kansas-Mich St ~9:37pm
    Gonzaga-UNC ~9:57pm

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