Best wishes (or whatever's appropriate) for those of you celebrating Passover, Holy Week, and like holidays.

For a locally-raised Catholic, you may be surprised to find that Passover does trigger a couple of things for me. Both deal with memories, but moreso one than the other. I'll explain.

Manchester, as I think I've noted before, is pretty WASPy. The number of Jewish folks in town were probably countable on your hands, and I think you'd probably have at least one finger left over. Thus the Judaic world would probably have made little to no impression on me growing up except for my debate coach/AP English teacher.

Tim Averill was born a Kansas Protestant, but converted to Judaism when he got married. And he embraced the religion, rather than just treating it as pro forma to wedlock. Part of his expression of faith was to share it with his students. This sounds like the sort of thing the ACLU gets in line to stop, but he did it in ways that did not, to me at least, violate my First Amendment rights.

The first was that he taught a quarter-long unit on the Holocaust. This was almost like diversity education before diversity education became all the rage, but Mr. Averill's focus as a teacher allowed us to, as much as people our age and in our place and time could, understand the issues and horror of the Holocaust. This is not my primary Passover memory from him, but as you can imagine it's connected in my head pretty solidly.

When I was in junior high, Mr. Averill held a Passover seder to coincide with our reading of Chaim Potok's The Chosen (I know there are people out there who find Potok tedious, but I remember liking the book at the time). What I remember less about the seder is what was served and what the meaning behind everything was, but more the idiots in the class who disrespected Mr. Averill, not necessarily out of hate, but out of ignorance. To be honest it was probably slight, and I'm sure none of my classmates who did this even remember, but it sticks in my head. To me, it's symbolic of most inter-whatever relations we have in America. Some people care and want to learn, a fringe truly hates, but most don't have the common courtesy to let people do something "different," often for the simple case of it being different.

My other Passover memory-related thing is a little more upbeat.

Growing up, I had a friend named Sean Townsend who lived down the street. He was the first true Coca-Cola fiend I'd ever met. Not so much in collecting things or otherwise steeping himself in Coke lore and history, but in his devotion to the brand and the consumption of the beverage. My house was pretty ecumenical where soda was concerned (price being the key factor), but Sean was the key person to turn me on to Coke for good.

As you can imagine, we both were strongly against the New Coke change, and we both applauded the return of the original. Except that it wasn't really the original. Increasingly, the Coke we were drinking was made with high fructose corn syrup. There may have been other changes to the flavorings (how would we know, the formulas surrounding them being secret), but the "original" certainly wasn't the same beverage.

Which leads us to Passover. While corn syrup is kosher for everyday use, for Passover it's not. Thus, for Passover, Coke bottles a version that goes back to using cane and beet sugar, which it originally used. This is, according to some, a way to get back to the original taste we grew up with.

I had the good sense to pick up a bottle of Passover Coke this week, and I have to say the results are mixed. I do think the Passover Coke tastes different, but not by much. It may be more of a "mouthfeel" difference than taste; the liquid feels thinner and more carbonated. It's probably just me. In any event, the occasions when I remember to get Passover Coke do at least allow me to remember a good friend, one who is (I think) living in the Boston area now. You'd think I'd have called by now. Oy.

Before anyone asks, I did not have Billy Wilder in my dead pool. To be honest, I thought he was already dead. Kind of like Abe Vigoda (yes, he's alive still).

So we got our first shipment of Residence Life Cinema movies in the office today. It's kind of a neat program- you basically rent movies to show on your campus TV station (the one here is basically a video bulletin board that simulcasts the radio station) at your convenience. Cost is pretty good, too, about $100 a month per movie, a great deal when you consider what it costs to rent a film (and the rights to show it) for a theatrical viewing on campus.

Titles are a mixed bag of recent releases. Riding in Cars with Boys is currently playing, and we also have The One, K-PAX, The Musketeer, and some that are a little older (like The Insider, back when Russell Crowe managed his anger better).

We also have some short educational films that we show as well. Most are fairly typical titles- avoiding college stress, alcohol awareness, etc.- but there's one that just stands out.

Its title: Join the Crowd

Now I have no idea what this movie is about; for all I know it's about joining the crowd to stand against hate. But the title just smacks off all those social engineering films they showed our parents in high school to make them good Eisenhower Republicans. Is it any wonder we had the Summer of Love and the Me Decade after an all-out assult for normalcy?

Speaking of social engineering films, I highly recommend Mental Hygiene, a book by Ken Smith that provides not only a great compendium of films and synopses, but some history into the genre and the studios that made them.

If you're really wanting to get into it, though, point yourself over to Fantoma Films to get one of the three volumes of such movies they offer (this link goes to the social engineering volume, but there are also volumes on sex & drugs, drivers' ed, and "on the job"). And they're on DVD!

You've probably heard by now that Milton Berle has also died, apparently of colon cancer.

He, too, was one of my picks for the dead pool. Hmm, maybe I do have that power. Perhaps I should warn Harry Morgan and Barbara Billingsley?

For those of you who've been asking about the radio show, the archives of the second show and yesterday's show are now available on the Babson College Radio web site. Go to the "on-air" header, and click on the "audio archives" link. From there it's easy.

Not sure where the spring break (3/20) show is. I thought that was the first one we'd actually recorded properly.

Dudley Moore passed away today. Notable in itself for his career and that he actually didn't die of an alcohol-related malady (he being Britain's answer to Dean Martin, at least in imbibing), but also in that it's giving me a tiny pang of guilt.

Why? I entered my first dead pool ever this year, and he was on my list. I know, I don't have that sort of power (oddly enough, a topic raised last night on Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which is worth a look). But I still feel bad.

Now, I also have Osama bin Laden on my list, and I really hope to cash in there.

Quick poll update. At this point it's a two horse race, as one of my loyal readers has taken it upon herself to make Texas win, while another is pushing Stanford.

Still plenty of time to participate in the carnage.

Greg Sorenson pointed out another possible Oscar time-saver: get rid of the host. Use the announcers in the host role of bringing out presenters and the like. It's been tried before (last time being 1989), but now may be the best time to give it another go, especially if you use folks on the Glenn Close/Donald Sutherland level. They're well known, but not so big that they'd be de facto hosts.

People may miss the host-driven openings, but I think we could all do without the minute or two bridges during the show that, honestly, only seem to let Whoopi crack up at her own jokes.

Another possible Oscar host: Nathan Lane. He was very funny on Sunday, perhaps a little too close to the mark on some folks, but he has the great fallback of being mostly a theater guy. He can piss off as much of Hollywood as he wants, and he can just trot back to doing The Producers or something.

Another Oscars has come and gone, and in the day that it happened it feels like I aged about 8 years. So why don't we start off with...

It's not the length of the boat, it's the motion in the ocean Whoopi Goldberg wasn't kidding when, during her opening monologue, she noted that we were going to be together for a while. For those of you who had the good sense to go to bed, the show ran about 4 hours, give or take. Mostly take.

The problem I have thinking back on the show is that I'm not sure where they could make serious time savings. But, as a public service, here's what I'm thinking:

Ditch the pre-game ABC, apparently feeling pressure from E! and other cable outfits that had the idea to work the red carpet before the show started, instituted their own show about 5 years ago. That leaden affair, featuring Geena Davis, has devolved into a pointlest yakfest left in the hands of Chris Connelly, Leeza Gibbons, and newcomer Ananda Lewis. It's a case of subtraction by addition if ever there was, as Connelly and Gibbons ask the typical Access Hollywood level questions, while Lewis added nothing. At least on E!, you had the cattiness subtext to all of Joan Rivers' "interviews".

Anyway, by doing this, ABC can start the show closer to 8 pm Eastern, and hold on to more audience later in the program.

Do something with the commercials Two ideas that Laura DeVeau dropped on me this morning: either move the ads to an "intermission" block, or have some sort of advertising on screen during the ceremony. I prefer the latter; consider a small banner along the bottom of the screen, changing every so often for a new sponsor. Soccer does something like this, and David Letterman once did a commerical break-free show doing something very similar.

I can see some arguing that it "cheapens" the broadcast, but (a) it's the Oscars, not the Nobel Prizes, and (b) it wouldn't be any less cheap looking than Cameron Diaz or Gwyneth Paltrow. Heck, they could do two tiers of ads: one for the on-screen during ceremony ads, and standard ads held during, say, a once per hour 5 minute break. That may even generate more ad revenue if priced right and hyped correctly.

Less special stuff It's a hard point to make when last night's "special stuff" included honorary awards to Sidney Poitier and Robert Redford, and a rare Woody Allen sighting, but a more judicious use of the special bits may still be needed. The intro and outro bits about actors' favorite movies (or the first movie that got them interested in film) was nice but not strictly necessary. And in the case of having Catherine Deneuve and Britney Spears go back to back, the unintentional comedy was appreciated but not required.

Oh yeah, Cirque du Soleil. Five pointless minutes added, as far as I could tell, to give seat fillers a chance to work. Must be a union thing.

Halie and Denzel Yes, historic. Surprising? Not so much. Consider Denzel: up against two actors who generate very mixed feelings (Sean Penn and Russell Crowe), an actor not many people have heard of in a movie not many people saw (Tom Wilkinson) and an actor who may still be in the process of being taken seriously (Will Smith). Denzel also had the help that at least three of these folks had to work with other folks who were nominated, while he was the clear central figure of his movie (you could even argue that Denzel's ability brought Ethan Hawke up to Oscar caliber, which is something to say).

Halie Berry had some similar help. Renee Zellweger was nominated for a comedy, which rarely produces a best lead award. Judi Dench was nominated for a movie that apparently enough people saw to give Jim Broadbent an award, but didn't motivate voters to cast one her way. That and I think people may be getting a little sick of seeing her name on the ballot.

Nicole Kidman was the clear people's choice, but was nominated for the wrong film. She should have been nominated for The Others; her win for Moulin Rouge at the Golden Globes was (a) in the separate comedy/musical category, and (b) was the Golden Globes, which can differ greatly with Oscar (remember Evita?).

Sissy Spacek peaked too early, winning the Golden Globe, but losing to Berry at the SAG Awards. So for all her hyperventilating, Berry should have had a better idea that she was going to take the prize. But I suppose she figured it wasn't likely given that Monster's Ball wasn't widely seen, and the race issue to boot.

Fashion I don't care. I will make remarks (Sharon Stone can't pull off the dress she wore anymore), but mostly find the whole fashion aspect kind of dull. Everyone's in earth tones? Doesn't matter to me. They could all go naked for all I care. :P

Randy Newman Finally won after 16 nominations, all for songs that sound the same and are about friendship. "We're a couple of friends/ And we'll be together right to the end/ We do things together/ In all sorts of weather/ But then something happens/ And there's stuff in the middle/ But at the end/ We're still friends."

Better him than another Diane Warren power ballad, I suppose.

Anything else? Not really. Whoopi was OK, about as Whoopi as she usually is. I'd like to see Steve Martin come back. Billy Crystal is the popular choice, but I like Martin's dry humor. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's bit before the costume awards was perhaps the funniest presentation of the night. Perhaps we can get them to unseat Bruce Vilanch and the usual writers and inject some new blood into the show. Of course, I'd like to see David Letterman come back, but I know that's not going to happen.

Speaking of Dave, I was taken back a bit when Halie Berry thanked Oprah Winfrey for her role-modeling. The less Oprah the better, I think (and not just in her personal weight battle)

In my last entry, I was serious about voting early and often. I've turned off the cookie and IP address cheat preventers, so please do vote as often as you want. Let's keep things interesting!

Poll is still open at this location.

One of the facets of March Madness I've missed this year is the Pepsi promotion where caps have a school name which, if they win the tournament, provides you with fabulous (or not so fabulous) prizes. Of course, the schools listed were the 300+ with division one men's hoop teams, so there were timed during tournaments past where I'd check under the cap and get Oakland, or Robert Morris, or some other sad sack.

This year, the only Pepsi brand doing such a promotion seems to be Diet Mountain Dew. I only noticed this when I picked one up by mistake earlier this week, in need of the caffiene. I got Auburn, which is at least a reasonable school (though they didn't make the dance this year).

So today, I decided to get another bottle. I look under the cap, and what do I find?

WILD ANY NCAA TEAM

What did this mean? I checked the bottle, and it appears that I have won the college basketball jersey of my choice. Or, more specifically, the jersey of my choice from those being offered by Mountain Dew. I'd be really excited about this were I actually a basketball fan, or if BU was one of my choices.

The 20 schools I have to choose from are: Duke, UNC, Arizona, Kentucky, Stanford, Maryland, Cincinnati, St. John's, Purdue, Temple, Iowa, BC, Texas, Illinois, UConn, Michigan, Howard, Georgetown, Tennessee St., and Jackson State.

Right away, I'm removing these from the running: Duke, Cincinnati, St. John's, BC, Howard, Tennessee St., and Jackson St. Duke and Cincy are gone as I really dislike both programs, though for very different reasons. St. John's is a school I'm generally non-commital about, but I'm not much of a Big East fan. BC gets dropped for obvious reasons. The last three are historically black schools; I don't think I'm their best representative.

If forced to make a second round of cuts, I'd drop Arizona, Kentucky, Maryland, Purdue, Temple, Illinois, Michigan, and Georgetown. Arizona gets the boot because they're underachievers. Then again, I may be a good fit for them. Hmm.

Kentucky is a hard call, as I'm a big Tubby Smith fan, and we have a dislike of Rick Pitino in common. Kentucky also gave the Celtics Antoine Walker. Perhaps they're back in, too, even with the spectre of Adolph Rupp.

Maryland, Purdue, Temple, and Illinois all miss the cut as they're just too random. Nothing against any of them.

Michigan I drop because they tend to annoy me. I suppose my annoyance is as much envy as anything else, given Michigan's general strength in everything. And I'm a Notre Dame fan, which makes any move supporting the Wolverines a little problematic.

I'm passing on Georgetown because (a) they wait-listed me for law school, (b) they let John Thompson run the program into the ground, and (c) the Big East thing, again. Notice that I don't use the Big East thing as an excuse to cut UConn. I probably should. That and John Calhoun being a jerk. OK, UConn's out.

I've decided to put Arizona and Kentucky back in the pool. So here's the finalist pool:
Arizona I was going to drop them given their suckitude in most years' tournaments, but then saw the link between their underachieving and my own. There's a definite link there.

UNC One of my favorite teams, and one that busts my bracket most years as I routinely have them going into the final four, if not winning. They make sense using the underachieving label, too. Think about all those years Dean Smith was there, and how many titles did he win? Two? Three?

The drawback here is that they had a horrific season this year, and their coach may be a ninny.

Kentucky Back in as I'm pro Tubby Smith and anti Pitino. That and Ashley Judd's a fan. Rowr.

Stanford Another of my bracket buster teams, except the year they actually did get out of the second round. In a different world, one in which I'm smarter and have more willingness to relocate, I would be a Stanford student. Or at least not have the admissions committee use my application for kindling.

Iowa I like their football team. I suppose I should also like the way Luke Recker almost stole the Big 10 title for them this year. I'd have liked it more if Bobby Knight was still on the IU bench. I'm also a fan of the black and yellow color combo.

Texas This is kind of an odd pick, as there are many other teams in this part of the world that I would prefer. I'd go with Oklahoma or Texas A&M over Texas, but neither are offered (especially strange given Oklahoma's success). I'd even so with SMU over Texas as it's my aunt Shirley's alma mater, but they aren't offered, either. I also kind of like burnt orange.

I can't make up my mind. So here's your chance to do it for me.

Hie thyself over to this poll to vote for the jersey I should get. The poll will be open until a week from today; let's say the poll closes at 4 PM EST on Friday, March 29. In the words of Richard Daley, vote early and often!

I suppose I should comment on the "graceful" bow out Jane Swift made from the Massachusetts GOP primary, but my sense is that it is just one more step along the road that will make 2002 stand out as the year of the bag job. To wit:

* Swifty's drop out, making room for the anointed W. Mitt Romney.
* The sale of the Red Sox to the group that MLB liked the best.
* The whole Olympic judging thing, which is more of a failed bag job than anything else. But what do you expect from the French?

I'm sure there are other bag jobs out there that I'm missing, but these are the ones that stand out. Enron would have qualified for bag job status had regulators and litigators not fallen on Kenny Lay and the boys so quickly. A quick shout out here to Arthur Andersen and their coming role in making a world where there are only the Big Four accounting firms (with a hope and a prayer that the only person I know who works for them lands on her feet).

Back to Swifty, I was surprised by the Boston Globe article that documented a very deep and bitter popular feeling against her. I am clearly not a fan of her's, and welcome a commonwealth without her in the corner office, but there is some real hate here that I can't quite understand. I see Swifty as more of someone out of her depth than anything else. I can't build up this level of disgust with her. Of course, I would have to think the Globe was more than happy to run some of the quotes.

Even though I expressed support for Robert Reich to make the Democratic primary ballot, I can't say I'm really excited by him or anyone else that's left in the race. I suppose I could vote for Warren Tolman based on the way he continued to wipe Tom Finneran's face in the whole Clean Elections financing thing (Finneran is the speaker of the state house and a vocal Clean Elections opponent). But after Tolman's butchering of the song "Soul Man" ("I'm a Tol-man!") for his lieutenant governor's bid in 1998, I may have to pass.

Not much else to report. Spring break week's been pretty quiet without the students, though the freak snowstorm on the first day of spring was something to behold. Today it's in the high 40s, and as I look out the office window it looks like most of the snow is already gone.

It's the first weekday of spring break at Babson College. So why wouldn't it be snowing?

Admittedly, it's only just started to stick, but it is snowing harder now than it has all day. We do need the moisture, given that we're a good 9 inches below normal precipitation for the year, but I'd just as well have it be rain.

So on the FX cable channel yesterday they had an "Oscar movie marathon" consisting of My Cousin Vinny, Election, Unforgiven, and True Lies. Now, Unforgiven won a number of Oscars (4, but was nominated for 9), but the other three movies? Three nominations, one win (Marisa Tomei for Vinny). That's quite the marathon. Is Rosie Ruiz the new program director for FX?

In a related Fox programming to be avoided note, we got suckered into watching the premiere of The American Embassy last week. I generally only use the term "aggressively stupid" when discussing the ouvre of Pauly Shore or the music of Britney Spears, but this show merits such classification. Somehow, the main character lands a vice-consul job at the US embassy in Britain in the aftermath of a split with some unshown guy. I've had friends examine the foriegn service route, and I have to say that either (a) the woman showed considerable foresight in knowing when her relationship was going to pitch into the Atlantic with both engines flaming, or (b) the process is much, much shorter now than it used to be.

Things just get more stupid as the episode progressed, including a roommate who has really loud sex, a subplot involving the kid of some important personage who the main character takes in for a while, and a bombing that apparently has something to do with drugs being smuggled in tuna cans that have been sitting in the embassy for days- WITHOUT ANYONE ACTUALLY CHECKING THE CONTENTS. I know the "War on Drugs" is going poorly, but come on now.

The main character is, as odd as it may sound, even more bland than Ally McBeal (who went on hiatus to make room for this crap). At least she's just standard TV underweight, not cartoonishly emaciated underweight. The rest of the cast, who I've never heard of, is a melange of diverse and vaguely attractive people who fake a really annoying macho camraderie in the office. Where they can't get vaguely attractive they get thawed out stereotypes, such as the sassy black woman.

So, if you are anywhere near a TV at 9 pm Eastern (8 central and so on), I implore you to not even touch Fox while channel surfing. Even the combo of Fear Factor and The Colin Quinn Show looks more attractive.

I can't believe I even typed that.

You know it's a slow news weekend when one of the Yahoo! news headlines on its top page is about St. Patrick's Day parades starting. At least they're no longer talking about Tipper Gore running for the Senate, which would sound like a practical joke if it wasn't so scary sounding.

For someone of Irish descent, you would think St. Patrick's Day would be a big deal. It isn't. As a kid, I wore green to school as often as not, and most years we'd have corned beef and cabbage for dinner around the day, if not on it. We had a Clancy Brothers album or two around the house, but the lack of a working turntable spared us from any further cultural damage.

You'd think going to college in Boston would have instilled some of the holiday spirit(s) in me, but that didn't work, either. I'm not a green beer person (though the beers that are made green can only improve with the addition of food coloring). Which isn't to say I never went out on St. Pat's. There was one memorable year where a few of us went to the Sunset Grill and Tap in Allston and the more sober among us had to have the less sober grab on to belt loops to make sure we stayed together and didn't wipe out in the wet snow that was falling. Another year saw a downtown-area excursion that became a quasi-pub crawl, which was OK. I'd have enjoyed it more if the Guinness wasn't in plastic cups, but I understood the problem the bars were trying to avoid.

So as far as this year goes, with St. Pat's being on a Sunday, I don't see much raucous celebration. A salute to my Irish flag may be it; all the beer I have in the house is American.

And, for what it's worth, Yahoo! has dropped the headline about the parades for one on Liza Minelli's wedding. How sad is your career when the highlight of the last 10 years was singing at the Michael Jackson tribute? I'm not even sure how this qualifies as news, but then I remember that Joan Collins' wedding was splashed around a bit last month.

Come to think of it, Liza versus Joan would be a good second installment of Celebrity Boxing, wouldn't it?

Boy, reading that last entry over I seem to have fixated on the word 'suck.' I suppose that comes from not being able to use curse words, which is a shame given that I can think of 4 or 5 that would be most fitting right about now.

Why do I expect to hear that Pedro got hit by a golf cart today?

OK, so what have I learned so far this evening?

1. Starting a basketball game 0 for 13 from the floor is a really good way to not win. It's even worse when your opponent is having problems hitting, too, and you suck enough to let them find their rhythm.

2. Fox Sport New England sucks. They're tape delay broadcasting the BU-Maine Hockey East semis so they can show the Celtics play the Memphis Grizzlies. If I were a Hockey East official I'd feel a little ticked about this, but I suppose with the ECAC on NESN they don't have a lot of recourse.

3. USA Today sucks as well. They reported a 4-3 Lowell win over UNH in the first semi. Seems that UNH won by that score, actually. Dang.

Five years and one day ago, BU had not only a first round NCAA men's hoops tourney game to concern itself with, but a Hockey East semifinal as well. The basketball team was facing Tulsa, a school that most BU folks know nothing about, other than it being in Oklahoma (and a fair number perhaps didn't even know that). BU was riding a 12 seed at the time, thanks to a 25 win season and a respectable conference rep. Upset wasn't just a hidden thought, but was openly bandied about. I won't say we were a trendy upset pick, but the media did put it out there for all to consider.

The hockey team was facing UMass-Lowell, a match-up that usually creates little concern. This has more of a historical base than anything else, as for much of the '90s to that point Lowell was not a very good team.

I watched a big portion of the BU-Tulsa basketball game in the BU student union, killing time before the hockey game mostly. I had visions of an upset, or at least a well-played game.

What transpired was, honestly, not something I'd considered. Tulsa came out hitting everything, while BU was cold. Frigid. Flash frozen, even. BU got plenty of opportunities, but nothing fell. The score mounted, and as Tulsa built its lead, I became more interested in getting to the Fleet Center early to see the other semifinal.

As it was, I think I stuck out most of the basketball game (if not all of it- it was an early afternoon start) and thus got to live through the rare experience of an 81-52 game not being as close as the score indicated.

The hockey game fared better, as we took out Lowell 3-2 en route to the NCAA tournament and finals loss to North Dakota. That was the year that most of North Dakota wound up under several feet of water not too long after the game, making it seem in poor taste to speak ill of that part of the world.

I have to say that, if I had the ability to guarantee one of the BU teams a win tonight, it would be the basketball team. A loss will hurt BU's NCAA tournament position, but it wouldn't keep them out. A BU hoops win over Cincy? For the ages.

Since it's been at least 48 hours since I've written about sports, so here's my thinking about New England teams in the NCAA men's tournament.

Boston University I still think they're in real trouble, though there is some school of thought out there that this will be the trickiest of the top seed games. Cincy isn't getting a lot of respect, based on a percieved lack of depth and the sort of quiet way they've gotten to top seed status. That they've not been in the spotlight all season makes me worry more, as you don't expect them to do as well as they may. Cincy plays some major league defense, which will be the crucial issue for BU keeping it close. I should feel the love more for the alma mater, but perhaps I've been too close to the vagaries of Terrier hoops to keep hope alive. I just hope they don't get whipped like they did in '97 against Tulsa.

That other school that uses Boston in their name even though they're in Newton They may beat Texas, or not. I don't think many folks outside of either school is going to notice. This is the sort of pairing and seeding that, two years from now, will leave alums wondering if the school even made the tournament in 2002. It's like an opening round NHL playoff matchup between the Carolina Hurricans and the Washington Capitals.

Holy Cross A co-worker (and, oddly enough, not the one that actually went to the Cross) reminded me that they only lost to Kentucky last year by four points. Which leaves the door open that the Crusaders, in their second straight tourney, will have the fortitude to take on the Jayhawks. Nice idea, but I think this year's Kansas team would probably beat last year's Kentucky team by 15 or so. I'm a nominal Kansas fan (more of a Big 12 fan, but I tend to think more highly of Kansas hoops than Oklahoma or Oklahoma State), so I'm ambivalent about an upset here.

Central Connecticut State The forgotten New England team (and really the forgotten Nutmeg State team, too), they face Pitt in the first round. Pitt may have limited help from their top player, who got hurt in the Big East title game. Even so, given that the game is in Pittsburg, I'm not sure this is going to be much of a game. Central Conn. has the nation's longest winning streak, but it's against teams like Robert Morris and Farleigh Dickinson. They had three games against what one would consider upper level division 1 teams - Oklahoma, UMass, and Providence- and lost them all. The closest was a 15 point loss to UMass, a team that's not even NIT-worthy.

UConn I was impressed by them in the Big East tournament. I figure Sweet 16 at least, maybe the Elite 8.

Overall, I'm not sure how much I like having these regional sites that try to have local appeal to bring in more fans. Mostly because they're located in the places where the higher seeds are located. Pitt, Cincy, and Penn all getting to play in Pittsburg? That's the most egregious one, but it seems like there's a clear favorite for each site (Maryland playing in DC, Duke playing in North Carolina, etc).

Wouldn't it be more fun to have this sort of thing closer to lower seeds? How about a regional at the Centrum for the Holy Cross and BU fans? Or sending Duke and NC State on the road and letting UNC-Wilmington and Davidson feel the hometown adoration? Hawaii should get to host the opening round or two just for being Hawaii.

In other news, I would be happy for Siena if, back in the day, they didn't bail on the North Atlantic Conference (now America East, BU's home). I should more accurately blame Delaware, Drexel, and Hofstra for leaving recently and hurting the conference ranking, but at least they had a geographical reason for leaving. Siena is in the MAAC, which is a little more regionally sensical (no trips to Vermont and Maine), but isn't as big a deal. Part of me hopes they lose by 80. As for the trio that left last year, they all went to the Colonial Athletic Association, and none of them went over .500. Ha!

Huzzah! It appears that all of the archives have been published here on Blogspot, so it looks like we're all set for now. Woo-hoo!