Opening Day Diary

Two years ago, Opening Day was during my Easter vacation.  So I finally crossed Opening Day off my list of things to do.  Last year, I really wanted to go to Opening Day in Australia.  If it had been during Easter vacation, I would have done it.  John was at Opening Day for the Red Sox, so he wrote the first ever guest blog post here.  This year, Opening Day is once again during my Easter vacation.  As much as I would love to go, it's not something that I need to do again.  And I have another trip that I'm leaving for tomorrow anyway.  But when Opening Day is the same day as the championship game of the NCAA tournament, it seemed like a good day to keep a running diary.  Here's what transpired:

4:09- Vin Scully is on my TV.  Yes!

4:12- Clayton Kershaw delivers the first pitch of the season for the Dodgers.  A fastball is fouled off by Wil Myers.

4:13- Kershaw hits Myers on an 0-2 pitch.  Nuts.

4:14- Kershaw throws his first curveball of the season for strike 2 to Derek Norris.  That's a beautiful pitch.

4:15- Kershaw gets strike 3 on a curve.  Matt Kemp is coming up.  He gets a nice hand from the crowd.  He should have been the MVP in 2011.

4:17- Myers steals second.  A good throw would have had him.  I'm a little surprised the Dodgers aren't challenging this one.  Kendrick hit Myers on the leg, but it might have been with the arm, not the glove.

4:18- Kemp goes the other way against the shift.  It's a weak ground ball that goes for a hit and an RBI.

4:20- The Good Upton strikes out looking to end the inning.  I know there are two Uptons.  One of them is good and one of them is bad.  I don't know which one is which and now they're on the same team again.

4:21- Don Newcombe, Fernando Valenzuela, and Eric Gagne threw out the Opening Day first pitch.  I definitely would not have had Gagne in there.  Newcombe and Fernando are cool, but two years ago it was Sandy Koufax and last year it was Vin Scully.

4:22- Juan Uribe fields the grounder and throws to Howie Kendrick for a force to end the inning.

4:24- I'm joined by Sam Adams Summer Ale.  Jimmy Rollins is leading off for the Dodgers.

Baseball and Summer Ale, it doesn't get much better.

4:25- Rollins reaches with a sharply hit grounder past the second baseman.

4:26- Vin Scully mentions Lorenzo Bundy for the first time.  I love that name.  And I love it even more when Vin Scully says it.

4:28- Yasiel Puig goes down on strikes.  Then Adrian Gonzalez goes the other way against the shift, but it's a hard line drive right at Middlebrooks.

4:30- Howie Kendrick comes in with a .538 average against James Shields.

4:35- Vin Scully says Clint Barmes tripped while carrying deer meat and broke his collarbone.  That sounds made up.  Kershaw finishes off an easy inning.

4:37- Vin Scully is allowed to call me his friend.  Jim Nantz is not.

4:39- Carl Crawford's broken bat hits both the catcher and the umpire.

4:41- Joc Pederson is coming up.  Hopefully he'll win Rookie of the Year.

4:43- Pederson goes down on strikes on a good changeup.  Shields is looking good.

4:46- I check on the White Sox and Royals.  Jeff Samardzija just gave up an RBI double.

4:48- Derek Norris hits a two-out double.

4:50- Kemp grounds out to Uribe to end the inning.

4:52- The Padres are the only team without a no-hitter.  They have never had a cycle either, which is surprising because Petco Park is a good place for triples.

4:56- Rollins laid down a bunt that looked really nice, but it eventually went foul.

4:58- Rollins draws a walk.  Same result as a bunt single.

5:00- Rollins steals second.

5:07- Good Upton strikes out on a curveball in the dirt.  It took a good throw from A.J. Ellis to get him at first.

5:10- Crawford makes a nice sliding catch on a line drive.

5:12- Jedd Gyorko hits a double down the right field line.

5:14- Kershaw strikes out Yonder Alonso to end the inning.

5:17- Adrian Gonzalez ties the game with a home run.

5:18- Kendrick triples to deep center.

5:20- Crawford doubles in Kendrick.

5:22- Uribe grounds out the other way to move Kendrick over.

5:24- Pederson pops out.

5:25- The Padres intentionally walk Ellis with two outs and a man on third to face Kershaw.  Mistake.

5:27- Vin noted that Kershaw was 5 for 15 last year with runners in scoring position, but he strikes out to end the inning.

5:30- Barmes doubles off Kershaw on an 0-2 pitch.

5:31- Vin says that the foul poles were in foul territory when the stadium opened in 1962.  He explains how nobody noticed it until after the season.  He's the best.

5:32- Shields strikes out.  I'm taking a break for dinner.

6:00- I'm back.  The Padres lead 3-2 after Matt Kemp hit a two-run double after Norris beat out an infield single to keep the inning alive.  That's probably a play Uribe should have made.

6:05- Kershaw strikes out Barmes on a nice curve to end the top of the sixth..  He's probably done.  He wasn't great today, but with a little help from Ellis and Uribe, none of those runs would have scored.

6:09- Joc Pederson doubles.  He also made a really nice catch during my break.

6:11- Pederson steals third without a throw.

6:12- Ellis strikes out.  Justin Turner is coming up for Kershaw.  He was the man last year.

6:14- Turner goes down on strikes.  The Dodgers are 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

6:17- Yimi Garcia is now pitching for the Dodgers.

6:23- 1-2-3 inning for Yimi.

6:26- Nationals Park is getting the 2018 All Star Game.  That will be the fourth straight All Star Game in an NL Park and none of them are Dodger Stadium.  Maybe in 2020 to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1980 All Star Game at Dodger Stadium.

6:31- Gonzalez hits a two-out double.

6:32- Howie Kendrick hits an RBI double to tie the game and get Kershaw off the hook.

6:36- Scott Van Smash is pinch hitting for Crawford after the Padres brought in a lefty.

6:37- They walk Van Smash intentionally after the count got to 2-0.  The Padres go to the bullpen again.

6:40- Uribe grounds out on a bad swing.

6:42- Joel Peralta is in for the Dodgers.

6:48- 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.  It was nicely turned by Kendrick.

6:52- Pederson leads off with a walk.

6:53- Ellis pops out on a bunt.  Alonso caught it and took an elbow in the face from Shawn Kelley.

6:54- Andre Ethier is pinch hitting for Peralta.

6:57- Ethier reaches as Alonso has trouble fielding the grounder and then Kelley misses first when Alonso flips it to him.  It's scored an error on Kelley.  They really should get a half error each.

6:59- Rollins has a hit in 11 straight Opening Days.  Ted Williams never went hitless on Opening Day.

7:03- Jimmy Rollins!  He hits a three-run homer on a 3-2 pitch.  The Dodgers lead 6-3.  By the way, Jimmy Rollins is shorter than me.  It's crazy that he can hit a ball that far.

7:05- Vin says that left-handers like the ball down.  That's often said in baseball.  Why would lefties be more likely to be good low ball hitters than righties?

7:08- Puig steals second.  His slides are atrocious.  The Padres have challenged.

7:09- He's out.  Nuts.  Somebody needs to teach him how to slide.  I can't think of a player that I've ever seen that's worse at sliding than he is.

7:11- The Mets won.  Thanks for beating the Nationals, the team that's supposed to be the Dodgers' competition for the best team in the league.

7:13- Chris Hatcher is in to close.  He hits Gyorko.

7:15- The Dodgers turn a 6-4-3 double play.

7:17- Hatcher gets a strikeout to end the game.  The bullpen was good.  Hopefully that's a sign of good things to come.  Crank up the Randy Newman!  I'm taking a break until the basketball game.

9:18- I'm switching to red because I'm rooting for Wisconsin.  I hate the Big 10, but I now consider Duke a rival.  And former Lou Holtz assistant Barry Alvarez is their athletic director.  Wisconsin goes mantaman!  Cook scores for Duke.

9:19- Kaminsky for three.  Is there any basketball player with a less basketball playerish-sounding name than Frank Kaminsky?

9:24- It's 6-5 Duke at the first TV timeout.

9:26- Indians-Astros is the only game on right now.  This seems like a good time to remind you of my plan to fix Opening Day.

9:27- Both teams have bad uniforms.  Why do they have to wear different uniforms for the conference tournament and NCAA tournament from what they wore for the rest of the season?  The answer, of course, is Adidas and Nike.  It was particularly ridiculous in the Big 10 Tournament when Wisconsin and Michigan played each other wearing the same exact uniform, just with different colors.  And Duke's uniform looks exactly like Kentucky's (the shorts might be different, but still).  I'm so happy Notre Dame is an Under Armor school now.

9:29- We have a foul on whatever Plumlee is playing for Duke now.  How many of them are there?

9:31- Okafor with the jam.  It's 12-11 Wisconsin.

9:36- During a commercial, I see the Rangers tie the Blue Jackets with 27.5 seconds left.  Derek Stepan scored the goal.

9:37- Bill Simmons tweets about Bill Raftery.  It is nice to have him doing this game.  I have nothing against Grant Hill, but is he necessary?

9:44- Duke is up 4 at a TV timeout.

9:46- Derek Stepan scores again.  Rangers win!

9:50- Kaminsky's three-point play gives Wisconsin the lead.  That's two fouls on Okafor.

9:56- There have only been two team fouls on Wisconsin.  That's surprising.

9:57- Wisconsin is up 2 at the last TV timeout of the first half.  One of those Buffalo Wild Wings commercials is on.  The white guy's brother is a priest that's a year older than me.  I took religion classes that he took for work.  He was really funny.

10:02- Wisconsin misses at the buzzer.  We're tied at 31.  I'll be back after halftime.

10:33- I'm back a little late because I was planning another trip.  More on that in a future post.  It's 42-37 Wisconsin.

10:39- Three for Wisconsin, they lead by 7.

10:41- Kaminsky scores.  It's 48-39.  Timeout Duke.

10:44- Duke is getting back into it.  It's 48-45 after a three-point play, but Hayes hits a three for Wisconsin to make it 51-45.

10:48- Coach K is ten months older than Bo Ryan?  It doesn't look that way.

10:50- Timeout Wisconsin as Duke has cut the lead to two.

10:51- The Giants took a 1-0 lead against the Diamondbacks.  I hate both of these teams.  But I hate the Giants more.  That reminds me of perhaps the greatest Chris "Mad Dog" Russo rant ever.  Russo has now had three times.  Can't I get just one?

10:54- Kaminsky scores and draws the fourth foul on Okafor.  He completes the three-point play.  Then Winslow elbows a guy in the chest on a drive to the basket.  Of course, Winslow is shooting foul shots because he plays for Duke.

10:57- Duke draws an offensive foul with a flop.  Wisconsin leads by 2 at the TV timeout.

10:59- Mark Trumbo triples high off the wall to tie the game in Arizona.

11:01- Tyus Jones ties it at 54 with a jumper.

11:03- Duke takes their first lead of the half, but Wisconsin quickly ties it.

11:04- Wisconsin retakes the lead, but Duke hits a three to take it back.

11:07- Last TV timeout.  Duke leads 59-58.

11:08- Hanley Ramirez hit a home run today.  Whatever.  I'm not going to miss him.

11:10- Grayson Allen has 16 for Duke.  I had never heard of this dude before tonight.

11:11- Okafor gets the basket and the foul.  Winslow was out of bounds before getting the ball to Okafor, but the refs missed it.

11:12- We have a shot clock violation for Wisconsin.  It might be slipping away.

11:13- Duke has the ball with 1:51 left.  They're reviewing an out of bounds call.

11:15- They stay with the call.  After many replays and some zooming in by CBS, I disagree.  It looked like Winslow's finger bent as he touched the ball.

11:16- Kaminsky answers a Duke three with one of his own.

11:18- Hayes with the jam with 50.1 left.  Duke leads by 3.

11:20- Tyus Jones makes two foul shots.

11:21- Duke gives a foul.  Wisconsin was taking way too long.  Then they take a bad shot.

11:23- Duke wins 68-63.  Nuts.  This is the third time in the last five years that Notre Dame was the last team to beat the eventual champs (Connecticut in 2011 and Louisville in 2013).  We went 2-1 against Duke.  Hopefully we'll beat them two more times next year.

My 19 Favorite Churchill Quotes

My favorite non-divine historical figure is Pope St. John Paul II (I'm taking Jesus out because it's not worth comparing anybody else to him).  He was the pope for the first 21 years of my life.  Thursday was the tenth anniversary of his death.  I remember the day he died pretty well.  We knew it was coming, but it still hurt to know that he was gone.  I think I found out that he died on ESPN.com.  It was a Saturday and I was in my first semester at Notre Dame.  I went to the vigil mass at the basilica.  I hadn't planned on going to mass until Sunday, but I had to go.  It was really crowded.  I remember getting up at some ridiculous hour six days later to watch his funeral.  I was very excited when he was finally canonized last year.  He's right in the running for my second favorite saint.  Mary is number one.  John the Apostle is right up there.  I'm a big fan of Paul also.  John and Paul are kind of two sides of sainthood.  We never really hear about John doing anything wrong.  There are plenty of saints like that.  Paul, on the other hand, was kind of a scumbag (when he was Saul).  And then he became one of the most important saints in the history of the Church.  He should be an inspiration for most people.  I like John Paul II so much because I got to share this earth with him for 21 years and he was the most important person in the Church during that time.

Anyway, after John Paul II, my next two favorite historical figures are George Washington and Winston Churchill.  I have Washington ranked behind Lincoln as a president, but I still think he's the greatest American ever.  My first blog post was inspired by quotes from Winston Churchill and Vincent Antonelli.  With the three year anniversary of my blog coming up, I decided to rank my favorite Churchill quotes.  There are so many good ones.  Here we go in reverse order:

19. "From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."

18. "There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true."

17. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

16. "My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best."

15. "We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."

14. "If you are going through hell, keep going."

13. "A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk', to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly."

12. "Always remember, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

11. "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the 

inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

10. "Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong."

9. "This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning."

8. "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

7. "Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

6. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

5. "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

4. "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

3. "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

2. "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

1. "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

There's so much there.  I can't even explain why I like all of them.  But if Churchill was American, he would have been a great football coach.  Churchill is the Knute Rockne of world leaders.  He is an honorary American citizen, an honor that he deservedly was given in 1962.  (But how did it take until 2002 for the Marquis de Lafayette to be named an honorary citizen?  He should have been the first one).  Fortunately, he was a British politician when the world needed him.  Winston Churchill, more than any other person during World War II, helped save the world from evil.

Thank You Notre Dame Basketball

Well, Notre Dame's run came to an end.  It was an incredible run.  I would rank this as the second most difficult basketball loss I've ever dealt with as a fan (we're taking my loss in the 1995 5th and 6th grade St. Anthony's CYO Championship Game out of consideration here).  The worst one was Game 7 against the Lakers in 2010.  The Celtics lost a championship they could have won against their biggest rival.  That loss made me angry.  I had a very different reaction to Notre Dame's loss to Kentucky.

After losing to Kentucky, I was filled with two feelings:  sadness and pride.  This was the biggest Notre Dame basketball game of my entire life.  After the biggest Notre Dame football game since January 2, 1989, all I felt was sadness.  You probably know that I dress by mood.  Yesterday I wore a black shirt (sadness), but I also wore a Notre Dame tie (pride).  We didn't lose because we weren't good enough.  We lost because a college basketball game is 40 minutes and Kentucky happened to have two more points than us after 40 minutes.  We were every bit as good as they were and if the game was 38 minutes, we would have won.  If the game was 42 minutes, maybe we come back and win.  Before selection show, my dad asked me which 1 seed I wanted to be with.  My answer was Kentucky.  Because Notre Dame has a history of winning games that nobody expects us to win.  We ended UCLA's winning streak at 88 in 1974 (we were also the last team to beat them before the streak started).  We ended Oklahoma's winning streak in football at 47 in 1957.  I really believed we could beat Kentucky.  We came really close.

We should finish the season ranked in the top 5.  I don't know if that will happen, but we should.  Kentucky and Wisconsin belong ahead of us.  Duke is debatable, but they will be ahead of us.  Michigan State doesn't belong ahead of us unless they win the championship game or lose in overtime against Kentucky, but there's a good chance they will be too.  Villanova doesn't belong ahead of us.  I can live with Arizona ahead of us, but that's debatable too.  Gonzaga, Kansas, and Virginia don't belong ahead of us.  We'll at least be in the top ten, but really we should be in the top five.  We were a legitimate contender for the national championship, but we came up a little short.  I didn't know if I'd ever see a Notre Dame men's basketball team that was this good.  We won the ACC (our first conference championship), 32 games (second most in Notre Dame history behind only the 1908-1909 team, made the Elite 8 (first time since 1979), and we competed with everybody we played.  The only team we didn't compete with was Duke one time and we beat them the other two times we played them.  There was all this talk before the tournament about how we didn't play a good non-conference schedule (and we didn't), but we went 8-2 against teams that made the Sweet 16, 4-2 against teams that made the Elite 8, and 3-2 against teams that made the Final Four.  I am very proud of what this team accomplished this year and the way they competed against Kentucky.

I'm proud of everything Notre Dame stands for.  We have a 100% graduation rate in men's and women's basketball.  Our best player missed all of conference play last year because he was suspended for academic reasons.  It definitely cost us some games, but I'm proud that we do things the way we do.  Kentucky is the exact opposite.  They have a team of hired mercenaries, not real students.  If somebody offered me a chance for Notre Dame and Kentucky to switch places in men's basketball (we get all their success and lack of standards that go along with it), I would laugh in their face.  I'd much rather do things the way we do them regardless of how much we win than do things the way Kentucky does them and win all the time.  This year we proved that we can do things the right way and be a legitimate national championship contender.

I also felt great sadness, but it was different from what I felt after the National Championship Game two years ago.  After that game, I was sad mainly because we played so terribly and we never had a chance.  This time I was sad because we lost and missed out on a Final Four and a legitimate chance at a national championship.  We were 3-1 against Michigan State and Duke.  There's no guarantee that we would have won it all, but we could have beaten Wisconsin too and then we would have played a team that we've already proven we could beat.

There was another reason for the sadness, though.  I was sad that I'll never get to see this team play again.  They played beautiful basketball and it was so much fun to watch.  Jerian Grant was probably the best Notre Dame basketball player of my lifetime.  Pat Connaughton was my favorite Notre Dame basketball player ever (read this story and be ready for it to get suddenly dusty).  And I'll never get to see them play for Notre Dame again.  I'll be rooting for both of them in their professional careers.  For Grant, he'll be in the NBA next year.  I hope the Celtics draft him.  I don't know what's going to happen with Connaughton.  I don't know what he wants to do.  If he wants to play baseball, I hope he has a great career and somehow ends up with the Dodgers.  If he wants to play basketball, he might not make the NBA (but I don't rule it out), but I have to think he could play professionally overseas somewhere.  He can shoot, he plays much bigger than his size, and he's not afraid of anybody.  It was a pleasure to watch him go against much bigger players this year and do a great job of rebounding.  His block against Butler will not be forgotten anytime soon.  His leadership will be missed next year.  Grant and Connaughton did a great job leading late in the game against Butler when Butler had a chance to beat us.  By the way, beating Kentucky would have instantly been my favorite college basketball game of all time, replacing the five overtime win over Louisville two years ago.  Go back and read that post.  It's not surprising that Grant and Connaughton both played huge roles in that win.  Thank you for this year and thank you for everything over the last four years.

This was was on the board in my classroom to greet my students on Monday.

I was not a Mike Brey fan when I was a student.  I was only at Notre Dame for two years and he didn't make the tournament.  Since then, I think he's done a fantastic job.  He took some heat for our lack of success in March, but I always thought it was unfair.  It's a single elimination tournament.  One bad game and your season is done.  If Brey ever left, we could easily be much much worse than we are now.  Before Brey got to the tournament in 2001, we hadn't been there since 1990.  Since Brey took over in 2000-2001, we've only missed the tournament in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2014.  We are lucky to have Mike Brey.  What he did with this team this year was masterful.  By the way, I've written about our rivalry with Louisville, but do we now have a rivalry with Duke?  Brey used to be one of Coach K's assistants.  He's the only former Coach K assistant to beat him.  And since we joined the ACC last year, we're 3-1 against Duke.  And speaking of Duke, according to my tournament rankings, I should be rooting for them in the Final Four.  But I find myself rooting for Michigan State.  Let's adjust those and put Duke and North Carolina behind the Big Ten teams.  I do really hate the Big Ten, but I have some respect for Michigan State for being willing to play us in football when the rest of the conference wouldn't.

Notre Dame proved me right about something this year.  People talk about us being at a disadvantage in football because of our academic standards.  I think it's overstated.  Yeah, it's harder for us and we can't get just anybody, be we can get Michael Floyd, Manti Te'o, Jaylon Smith, etc.  But basketball is different.  We cannot get Anthony Davis or Andrew Wiggins or Jahlil Okafor.  We're not going to take players that are going to pretend to be students for a semester when all they really care about is playing in the NBA the next year.  So it's a disadvantage when you can't get the most talented players.  On the other hand, that's a pretty small number of players.  We can get better players than probably at least 90% of teams in Division I.  We can get players that are a notch below the most talented guys, like Demetrius Jackson.  And when you get really talented players that are going to stay for four years, that can be used as an advantage.  We didn't have the talent that Kentucky had, but we built a team that was led by two seniors.  The continuity that you get from players playing together for several years is an advantage.  We could compete with Kentucky or anybody else because of the way the team played together and the leadership of Grant and Connaughton.

I'm excited about the future.  We shouldn't be as good next year without Grant and Connaughton, but I think we'll be a tournament team again.  Maybe we end up in a more favorable bracket (like Michigan State this year) and make another run to the Elite 8 or even further in the tournament next year (not likely, but not impossible).  Going back to Brey, I loved the improvement I saw in some players this year.  Demetrius Jackson showed great improvement from freshman to sophomore year and he'll be our best player next year.  Steve Vasturia got better and better as the year went on.  Bonzie Colson and Zack Auguste improved throughout the year.  Those are going to be four good players for us next year.  I expect Brey will be able to find a way to get a few more guys to make contributions.  We won't be able to replace Grant's talent, but Jackson is going to be really really good.  Pat Connaughton is going to be especially difficult to replace.  We were undersized this year, but we were able to do it because Connaughton could match up with bigger guys.  They couldn't guard him on the perimeter, but he could rebound with them.  So do we play small again next year and sacrifice a rebounder or do we play bigger and sacrifice a shooter?  I have confidence that Brey will figure it out.

This was the best Notre Dame basketball team of my lifetime.  I hope I'll get to see another championship caliber team soon.  I loved this team and I'm sad I don't get to see them again.  Playing like a champion doesn't always result in a national championship, but they did play like a champion.  Thank you Mike Brey, Jerian Grant, Pat Connaughton, and everybody else.

Two Arenas, Three Days, Seven Games, Ten Teams

I think this was the fourth straight year I've attended the Big East Tournament  (see my posts from 2013 and 2014).  For the second straight year, I bought tickets for the entire tournament.  The ACC Tournament changed its schedule (read:  ESPN changed the ACC Tournament's schedule) so that all of the Big East Tournament overlapped with the ACC Tournament.  So I missed most of Notre Dame's run to the ACC Championship, but I didn't care.  Notre Dame had more important games to win in the real tournament.  And I love the Big East Tournament.  Last year, I went to all four nights.  That was a little much.  So I sold my tickets for Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon and went on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.  And I also went to the Atlantic 10 Tournament at Barclays Center on Saturday afternoon.

Thursday night I got to see Georgetown and Creighton, followed by Xavier and Butler.  I got to the Garden a little early.  Vin was joining me and he got there shortly after the start of the first game.  Of course, he brought two large beers up to the seats with him.  It was good to see Vin.  I hadn't seen him since his engagement party in September.  I'm looking forward to his bachelor party and wedding in May.  We probably drank a little too much beer considering it was a Thursday, but it was a good time.  I was watching the games, but I can't say I was paying particularly close attention until the end of the first game.  Creighton gave Georgetown a game.  Creighton led 51-45 with about six minutes left, but they couldn't hold the lead.  They had some opportunities late, but they were hurt by turnovers.  D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera led the way with 25 for Georgetown as they won 60-55.  Nobody else had more than 10 for Georgetown.  It was the end of a rough season for Creighton.  I hope they can compete in the Big East now that their coach doesn't have son that's a dominant college basketball player on the team.  Butler, on the other hand, showed great improvement in their second season in the Big East.  They were the three seed in the Big East and they took on Xavier in game 2 of the night.  I really didn't pay particularly close attention.  Vin and I left maybe eight minutes into the second half.  We missed a good finish, though.  Xavier won 67-61 in overtime even though they didn't have anybody score more than 13.  Whatever, I had plenty more basketball to see the next two days.  I got home around 12:30.

My view for the Big East Tournament

I did not want to wake up on Friday morning even after setting my alarm for about a half hour later than I usually do.  But once I got to school, I felt surprisingly good.  I met my brother Tom at Penn Station for another double header.  The day before, I had been rooting for Villanova, St. John's, and Georgetown (all of those teams lost their first Big East Tournament game the year before) just because Madison Square Garden is more fun with those teams playing.  This year, Villanova and Georgetown came through, but St. John's, not so much.  St. John's lost to Providence, who wasn't a terrible option, but they're not going to bring as many fans as St. John's would.  Providence won the tournament last year and they had a couple of players I wanted to see.  Kris Dunn was the Big East Co-Player of the Year and LaDontae Henton was impressive in last year's tournament.  Henton was also the Big East's leading scorer and he scored 38 points on 19 shots against Notre Dame in November.  Villanova and Providence played the first game.  Villanova had the other Co-Player of the Year, Ryan Arcidiacono.  Dunn had himself a game.  He had 22 points, 9 assists, and 7 rebounds.  Henton and Arcidiacono were very quiet.  Villanova led pretty much the whole game, but Providence tied it late.  Unfortunately, the refs put Arcidiacono on the line with a terrible call with 3.1 seconds left.  He made both shots to give Villanova a 63-61 lead.  I had been rooting for Villanova just because I wanted to see them on Saturday also, but after that foul call I was hoping Providence would find a way to win it.  They actually had a nice little hook and ladder type play that got a pretty good look for Henton (considering that they only had 3.1 seconds left) that would have won the game, but he missed.

The second game was Georgetown and Xavier.  Again, I was rooting for Xavier just because they'd have a lot more fans there the next night for the championship game than Xavier would.  Georgetown's big man Josh Smith got off to a good start.  But it was Xavier's big man Matt Stainbrook (or "Stainy," as he likes to be called) who controlled most of the first half.  He finished with 20 points and 9 rebounds.  Tom and I left in the second half.  I think it was at the under-8:00 TV timeout.  Georgetown looked totally dead.  I found out on my train that Georgetown had made a run.  Nobody saw that coming, but Xavier held on 65-63.  That brings me to one of the best and worst things about the Big East Tournament:  double headers.  I love getting to watch two basketball games, but I end up missing a lot of ends of second games.  I often end up looking at my watch a lot during the first game and rooting for a quick game more than anything else.  On Thursday night, I wanted to get home early because I had work the next day.  On Friday night, I just wanted to get home early because I was tired after a long week of work and being out late the night before.  A Saturday night double header would be great, but that doesn't happen for the Big East Tournament.

A double header wasn't an issue on Saturday afternoon.  The Atlantic 10 semifinals started early enough that Tom and I could watch both games and then make it to Madison Square Garden for the Big East championship game.  I had this idea last year, but I didn't do it.  This year I was paying attention on Stubhub to Atlantic 10 Tournament prices.  I ended up buying tickets for the entire tournament with the plan of selling everything except for the semifinals and maybe the finals.  I did end up selling all my tickets except for the semifinals and my net cost for two tickets for the semifinals was $6.80.  So that worked out pretty well.  I got there a little later than I planned on because I missed the train I wanted to get in Hicksville because I couldn't find a place to park (Hicksville gave me a lot more train options coming home than Huntington or Greenlawn).  But I still made it in time for the start of the first game.  When I got there, Tom was in the Barclays Center meditation room.  I would make fun of him, but he made fun of the meditation room and used it to charge his phone.  The first game was VCU-Davidson.  It was a much smaller crowd than the Big East Tournament.  Most of the lower level was full, but most of the upper level was curtained off.  There were only a handful of people sitting close to the middle of the court up high.  Despite the small crowd, VCU's fans and band were boisterous.  Davidson got off to a really good start (they led 16-4), but then VCU turned it on.  VCU led 44-28 at halftime.  At some point during the first half, I got went to the Boomer and Carton Kitchen and got a Border Dog.  It was okay, but it didn't taste as good as it looked or sounded.  Davidson made a little run in the second half, but VCU ended up winning 93-73.  Mo Alie-Cox was their most impressive player with 18 points and 8 rebounds.  By the way, after seeing Davidson get pounded by VCU, I still picked them to go to the Sweet 16.  The lesson, as always, I'm an idiot.

The Border Dog.  It had guacamole, salsa, and cheese on it.

The second game was Rhode Island-Dayton.  Rhode Island had beaten George Washington (Tom's alma mater) the night before.  I was rooting for Dayton since it was the only Catholic school in the semifinals.  It was a much closer game than the first one, but neither team was as fun to watch as VCU.  Rhode Island had the best name of the day though, with Gilvydas Biruta (beating out Dayton's Scoochie Smith).  He was their best player with 14 points and 9 rebounds, but he got in foul trouble.  I thought Rhode Island handled the end of the game very poorly.  They kept him on the bench and they took too long to foul when they needed to late.  Dayton had a very balanced attack.  Only seven guys played for them.  Six scored and they had 12, 10, 9, 9, 8, and 8.  Dayton ended up holding on for a 56-52 win.

My view for the Atlantic 10 semifinals.  I would prefer to sit near the middle of the court, but I can't complain for the price I paid.

We got the subway right outside Barclays Center and headed to Madison Square Garden.  Tom went to some hippie vegan place to eat and I looked for a place at Penn Station.  I passed Moe's Southwest Grill.  I had never eaten there before and I didn't plan on it, but I looked at the menu and their vegetarian burrito was called the Art Vandalay.  I didn't have a choice.  It was fine, but it wasn't as good as a vegetarian burrito at Chipotle.  Tom and I met up at the seats for the game between Villanova and Xavier.  It was pretty much a Villanova home game.  It seemed like it was a 20:1 ratio of Villanova fans to Xavier fans.  It wasn't much of a game.  Stainy didn't have it.  He only had 4 points and 3 rebounds.  Villanova won easily.  Ryan Arcidiacono had another quiet game (3 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist), but this one was never in doubt.  Dylan Ennis had 16 points and 6 rebounds and Josh Hart had 15 points and 7 rebounds off the bench.  Hart was named tournament MVP.  I was watching the first half of Notre Dame-North Carolina on my phone.  Tom left a little early in the second half.  I wasn't going to leave early, but it wasn't as exciting as watching Notre Dame win the ACC Championship at a crappy bar in Penn Station.

So that was it.  I don't know about going to the Atlantic 10 Tournament again next year, but I definitely won't rule it out.  That will probably depend on whether or not I can get a great deal on tickets again.  I'll be back next year at least for two nights of the Big East Tournament (I would say three again, but my mom's birthday might interfere next year).  Hopefully I'll miss another Notre Dame ACC Championship.

2015 Tournament Power Rankings

Last year I did my rankings of the NCAA Tournament teams by how much I wanted to see them win.  I started with Creighton at number one and went all the way to Michigan at 70 (out of 68 teams).  The good news for this year is that Notre Dame is in the tournament and Michigan is going to score as many points in the tournament as they scored against Notre Dame in football last season (0).  And Syracuse is not in the tournament either.  In the words of Hubie Brown, this tournament has TREMENDOUS upside potential.  This year, I'm going in reverse order.  You already know who number one is.  Here we go.

68.  Kentucky
67.  Louisville
These are the only two teams in the tournament that I hate.  Last year I had Kentucky at 65 and Louisville at 66.  I think that was a mistake.  Calipari and his mercenaries should have been below Louisville.  The fact that they're a big favorite this year solidifies it.

66.  Ohio State
They are pretty hateable and they won the championship in football.

65.  Maryland
64.  Wisconsin
63.  Indiana
62.  Iowa
61.  Purdue
60.  Michigan State
The rest of the Big 10.  I hate the Big Ten.  We beat both Purdue and Michigan State and I like Tom Izzo, that's why those two are ahead of the others.

59.  North Carolina
58.  Duke
I'm one of the few people that hates North Carolina more than Duke.  Beating them both in the ACC Tournament was so sweet.

57.  Texas
They'd rank a lot higher if they didn't potentially stand in our way in the second round (which the NCAA calls the third round).

56.  Kansas
Same thing as Texas.  They're a potential Sweet Sixteen opponent.

55.  Georgia
54.  Arkansas
53.  LSU
52.  Ole Miss
SEC schools.  Ole Miss and LSU rank ahead of the other two because of Eli Manning and Shaquille O'Neal

51.  Oregon
Ugly uniforms.

50.  Oklahoma
49.  West Virginia
I put as many schools that play FBS football at the bottom as I could.

48.  SMU
47.  Cincinnati
I don't like Larry Brown.  Cincinnati used to be in the Big East and I always rooted against the non-Catholic schools in the Big East.

46.  Arizona
45.  Utah
I don't have anything against these teams, but they play in a big conference that isn't the Big East or ACC.

44.  Iowa State
43.  Baylor
42.  Oklahoma State
The rest of the Big 12 teams.  Oklahoma State ranks the highest because of current Celtic Marcus Smart

41.  NC State
An ACC team that I don't hate.

40.  Boise State
Nick, my roommate for a semester at Notre Dame, was from Boise.

39.  Wichita State
My lowest ranked team that doesn't play FBS football.  They only rank this low because they could play Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 (and that's what I have).

38.  Northeastern
They would rank a lot higher if we didn't play them on Thursday.

37.  Wyoming
36.  Buffalo
The play FBS football, but just barely.

35.  Wofford
34.  Eastern Washington
Whatever.

33.  Valparaiso
This was a great tournament moment.

32.  UNI
31.  Georgia State
30.  UAB
It would be cool for any of these teams to make a run.  UAB just lost football, so they could use something good.

29.  Virginia
An ACC school that cares about academics and isn't Duke.

28.  Belmont
It's cool that there's a university named after the place where I bought beer when I was a student at Notre Dame.

27.  Stephen F. Austin
26.  Texas Southern
Don't mess with Texas.

25.  New Mexico State
Last year my comment about them was that I couldn't think of a reason to ever visit New Mexico.  Just remember that when you read a post that's coming in about a month.

24.  UC Irvine
They're playing Louisville in the first round and I despise Pitino.

23.  North Dakota State
The idea of a team from North Dakota winning a championship is appealing.

22.  Davidson
I saw them play in Brooklyn.  They lost, but whatever.

21.  San Diego State
For Kyle and Lauren.

20.  Harvard
Same comment as last year:  I don't like the Ivy League, but I respect schools that care about educating their athletes and Harvard obviously does.

19.  Hampton
18.  Robert Morris
17.  Coastal Carolina
16.  Northern Florida
15.  Lafayette
All the 16 seeds except for one.  Lafayette ranks the highest because the Marquis de Lafayette is my favorite Frenchman of all time.

14.  Albany
A bunch of people that used to work for me at camp went to Albany.

13.  VCU
I had them at 32 last year.  What was I thinking?  Shaka Smart is awesome.

12.  UCLA
I love Los Angeles and they're USC's rival.  By the way, does anybody else remember the Tyus Edney play from 20 years ago?  I not only remember it, but I remembered that it took place in Boise.  How did I remember that?  Because I remember Boise State's court.  I hate the stupid standardized courts that they use now so very very much.

11.  BYU
Mormons.

10.  Butler
My rule about rooting against the non-Catholic Big East schools doesn't apply anymore since Butler is the only non-Catholic school in the Big East now.  I love Brad Stevens, but I'm glad he's not there anymore.  We could play them in the second round.  If we lose to them, there are other teams that I'd root ahead of them, but not many.  I wish they weren't a possible second round opponent.

9.  Gonzaga
8.  Dayton
7.  Manhattan
The non-Big East/non-Notre Dame Catholic schools.  Manhattan ranks the highest because they're a 16 seed.  I saw Dayton in person so they come next.

6.  Xavier
5.  Georgetown
4.  Providence
3.  St. John's
2.  Villanova
The Big East Catholic Schools.  I was going to put St. John's at number 2 because I was I thought it was named for St. John the Evangelist (my favorite saint), but Wikipedia says it's named for St. John the Baptist.  Now, he's also awesome, but he's my third favorite St. John behind John the Evangelist and John Paul the Great.  Also, I'm expecting absolutely nothing out of St. John's in the tournament.  I saw Villanova win the Big East Tournament, so they get the number two spot.  And Providence has some players that I like.

1.  Notre Dame
You knew this already.  Go Irish!

How March It Is

Championship Week is a great week.  Winter is finally over and you finally have meaningful college basketball games.  The Ohio Valley Conference led off the championship games and it was really exciting.  I wish I had picked this year to do a running diary of that game.  But much of Championship Week didn't go my way.  Let's review:

Ivy League- I wanted Yale to win because they haven't been in the tournament since 1962 and Harvard has been in the last few years.  Yale beat Harvard and had a chance to clinch the next night against Dartmouth, but they lost a heartbreaker and then they lost yesterday in the tiebreaker against Harvard.

MAAC- I was rooting for Iona against Manhattan because Manhattan made it last year.  Manhattan won, but at least they're also a Catholic school.

CAA- I was rooting for Hofstra so that we'd have a local team in the tournament.  Hofstra hasn't made it since 2001.  They led William and Mary by two in the second overtime of the semifinals, but lost on a three with 0.8 left.  Then I jumped on the William and Mary bandwagon.  They're one of five teams that's been in Division I since the tournament was created that's never made it.  And Lou Holtz coached there.  They lost to Northeastern in the final.

NEC- St. Francis in Brooklyn is another one of the five teams that's been around since the tournament started that's never made it (Northwestern, Army, and the Citadel are the three others).  After defeating the other St. Francis in the semifinals, they lost the championship game at home against Robert Morris.

Southern Conference- Furman had a chance to set the record for most losses by a team that made the tournament.  They were the 10 seed in a 10-team tournament.  They got to the championship game, but lost to the 1 seed (Wofford) by three.

America East- My former school, Stony Brook, was in the championship game for the fourth time in five years.  They've never won it.  I didn't see any of it because I was in the city all day yesterday, but they lost a heartbreaker on a Robert Horry against the Kings-esque three with 1.6 seconds left.  By the way, I have no loyalty to Stony Brook at all, I just wanted the local team in the tournament (I doubt Suffolk County has ever had a tournament team).

Atlantic 10- I'll cover this more later, but I went to the semifinals with my brother Tom, an alum of George Washington.  George Washington led much of their quarterfinal game against Rhode Island, but they let it slip away at the end.

Big East- Again, I'll deal with this in much greater detail in another post, but I was still disappointed.  I went to five of the nine games.  Last year, I went to seven of the nine games.  So that's 12 out of 18 games over two years.  And I haven't seen St. John's.  The Big East has five teams that will bring fans to Madison Square Garden.  Xavier, Marquette, Creighton, DePaul, and Butler don't have the history in the Big East and they're just too far away.  St. John's is the home team.  I want the Garden to be excited for Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, and Seton Hall, but nobody is going to get the Garden as excited as St. John's.  And theyre 0-2 the last two years with both losses coming on Thursday afternoon.  Thanks, St. John's.

So yeah, things weren't going my way.  Except for the ACC Tournament.  I saw very little of the ACC Tournament since I was at the Big East Tournament the last three nights.  I didn't watch Notre Dame's win over Miami at all.  I really didn't expect to win against Duke on Friday night.  I thought of the Lou Holtz quote before a game against Miami, "God is neutral.  He doesn't care who wins, but His mother does."  Only I thought, "God is neutral, but ACC referees in the state of North Carolina are not."  I watched a little bit of it on my phone at Madison Square Garden and then I followed the rest on the train home.  Last night, the Big East Championship Game wasn't very good.  So I watched a lot of the first half on my phone.  We looked good and went into halftime with a nice lead (I think it was five) after a Steve Vasturia three to end the half.  I couldn't get the game to play on my phone in the second half.  By the time the Big East game ended, it looked like we were letting things slip away.  North Carolina had the lead.  I figured I'd just pay attention to the score on my phone on the train home.  There was one that was about to leave right as I got to Penn Station.  I checked my phone again and suddenly we had taken the lead.  I had to find a place to watch.  I found a crappy bar in the corner of the Long Island Railroad area at Penn Station, ordered a Guinness, and watched the last six minutes or so.  It was wonderful.  If you gave me a choice between Notre Dame winning the ACC and every other conference tournament going my way, I'm picking Notre Dame without a second thought.  So it was a good Championship Week.

It tasted like sweet victory.

I think it's our most important basketball win of my lifetime.  Winning the ACC is an accomplishment.  It's an even bigger accomplishment when you have to go through Duke and North Carolina in the state of North Carolina.  It wasn't the most fun win I can think of (beating Louisville in five overtimes and beating Syracuse when they were number 1 come to mind), but it was important.  I can't think of any NCAA Tournament wins that were more important (we've only made the Sweet 16 twice in my life and never the Elite 8).  And yet, it means that we're six wins away from a National Championship.  If we had lost our first ACC Tournament game against Miami, it would have meant that we were six wins away from a National Championship.  So winning the ACC was an accomplishment, but I'd like to see us accomplish greater things.

I'll have more on the tournament later, but let me just complain about our 3 seed.  Gonzaga is seeded ahead of us only because they have three fewer losses than us.  They were 1-1 against RPI top 35 teams.  We were 6-3 against RPI top 25 teams.  Kansas is ahead of us because they played a much harder schedule.  They have three more losses than we do.  There's no logic in that.  One of those two teams can be ahead of us, but how can both be ahead of us?  I think Kansas should be ahead of us, but not Gonzaga.  If we played Kansas's schedule, we'd probably have at least eight losses too.  If Gonzaga played our schedule, they'd probably have more than five losses.

And Wisconsin is a 1 seed.  Their record against the RPI top 20 this season:  1-2 (the beat number 19 Oklahoma).  Let them play five games against Duke and North Carolina and let's see what happens.  Whatever, Jake Taylor knows what we need to do.  Go Irish!