Well, the NCAA tournament has come to this - what I like to call the “Digger Phelps bracket.” For many years, Digger would inevitably pick all four #1 seeds into the final four on selection Sunday. I haven’t checked to see what Digger’s picks were this year, but if he went with chalk once again, he was finally right.

I’ll tell you who was right, though. My man Jay Bilas. He picked all four teams to reach the final four. Except that he didn’t do it two weeks ago when the bracket was revealed. He did it in October. That’s pretty impressive. Probably that Duke education.

So, for the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, all four #1 seeds have survived the regionals. Now it’s being called the greatest final four ever. Perhaps the lineup is the greatest as far as teams go. There are 143 wins between these teams. That’s amazing. Memphis has tied the single-season win record, currently with 37 wins, also held by Duke (1986, 1999), UNLV (1987), and Illinois (2005). One more win and they break the record. Along with Memphis’ 37 are UNC with 36, and UCLA and Kansas with 35 each. That’s unprecedented as well, I believe, and awfully impressive.

Odds are still against Memphis. People started questioning them after they lost to Tennessee at home. They play in a weaker conference than most other highly ranked teams, and so a home loss to a quality opponent seemed to increase the doubts. After a difficult game with Mississippi State in the second round, everyone expected them to fall before now. I was one of those people.

However, they seem to be playing with the proverbial chip on their shoulder, suggesting that nobody respects them. The last team I remember vocalizing that regularly throughout the tournament was the 1995 Arkansas team. The defending champions struggled during some of their SEC play, and then, as a #2 seed, won their first round game by only 1 and had lost their second round game with only seconds left before Syracuse’s Lawrence Moten took a cue from Chris Webber and called a timeout he didn’t have. Arkansas sent the game to overtime and eventually won. They reached the final game that year, singing the same “no respect” song Memphis is singing. Unfortunately, they did finally lose. To UCLA. Who, this year, plays… Memphis.

The other thing going against Memphis is that no team has won the national championship with less than 2 losses since Indiana’s undefeated season in 1976. Memphis has only one loss. In 1979, Larry Bird and Indiana State were undefeated before losing the championship game. UNLV was undefeated in 1991 before losing in the final four. Duke had just one loss before losing in the title game in 1999, and likewise, one loss Illinois fell in the 2005 title game. For some reason, it’s hard to finish without a couple of losses.

I picked UCLA to win it all. While I only picked two of the final four this year, my finals is still intact (UCLA over Kansas) for the moment. I’ve said before that if UCLA returns to the final four for the third straight year, they will win it. They have had to battle in some of their games, but that’s not uncommon for national champions. I was a little nervous yesterday after Memphis won. That was three #1 seeds, with Kansas playing red hot Davidson in the final game. With four #1’s reaching the final four being unprecedented, and Bill Self coaching the fourth, odds were stacked against Kansas. But they pulled it out, and I’ve heard several people say in the past week that they looked like the best team. Perhaps Self and the team getting that monkey off of their back will allow them to relax and just play this weekend. .

Whoever wins it all has their work cut out for them, because obviously they’re playing two of the best teams in the country to do it. After a number of blowouts in the sweet 16 and even the regional finals, the last three games should all be quite good. I’ll be surprised if any of them are decided until after the final TV timeout.

Thing I’ve loved about the tournament: since UNC hasn’t lost yet - and for the love of God will somebody please beat them? - Davidson is the obvious next best thing. That was a great run. They proved early on this season that they could play with anyone, losing close games to UNC, Duke and UCLA (despite leading UCLA by 12 in the second half). They weren’t the Cinderella that GMU was two years ago. Everyone knew (or should have known) they could play coming in. And they were one final shot away from the final four. I’ll be anxious to see what they do next year.

Thing I won’t miss about the tournament: listening to the likes of Clark Kellogg, Digger Phelps and, most of all, Bill Raftery, who makes my ears bleed. I didn’t even mention Billy Packer, which astonishes even myself, but these three are just unbearable.

My final four prediction will remain. As I said, I picked UCLA over Kansas in the final, which almost certainly means Memphis and UNC will be playing Monday night. But I’m going to stick to my guns.

All you need is [Kevin] Love. UCLA over Kansas on Monday night.

GTHC, GTH! And I agree with Roy…

I thought I’d try to get in an update post here before I’m gone for a few days. My kids are on spring break this week, and I’m only working through noon today. I’m taking off the rest of the week, starting with taking my daughter to lunch. She’s asked for just the two of us to go out to lunch, so we’re doing that today. The rest of the week is not completely planned, but mostly just some time to spend together as a family, and for me, not working!

We all went to see Horton Hears A Who this weekend. It was pretty good. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did several Pixar movies, but it was still fun. I usually find Jim Carrey to be annoying to some degree, but he wasn’t too bad here. I’ve had Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (HBO) on my DVR for months now, and I’m hoping to find time to watch it this week during my time off.

My eMusic downloads refreshed this past weekend. I’ve not decided what else I’ll be getting yet, but I finally pulled the trigger on John Fogerty’s double-live album The Long Road Home - In Concert, which I’ve had on my list for many months now. It’s part solo, part CCR, and it’s all good. It includes one song I was unfamiliar with, apparently from an album of his a few years ago. It’s called “Déjà Vu (All Over Again)”, where Fogerty expresses his opinion of the Iraq war, suggesting it’s another Vietnam. Check it out.

I finished A.J. Jacob’s book The Year of Living Biblically yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot. First, it was hilarious. Jacobs is pretty funny. But, I also found it thought provoking at times. How seriously do I take the Bible? How do I, at times, interpret it to fit what I want it to say instead of taking it for what it says? My one complaint is that it probably could have been a bit shorter. He tended to include plenty of accounts that really didn’t add anything to the story. But still, I’d definitely recommend it.

I’m currently reading Erwin McManus’ The Barbarian Way. I read this about two and a half years ago, but as I think I mentioned before, I’m a part of a book club with a couple of ministers from my church, and that’s our book for March. I’m about halfway through.

In other books, I’ll start reading Lewis’ Mere Christianity over the next few days. Our small group at church is beginning a study of it this week. I’ve had this book for probably 15 years, and have yet to read it. So, finally, I will. Also, I picked up Shane Claiborne’s new book, Jesus For President, a couple of days ago. I plan to start it next week, after I’m finished with McManus.

I was somewhat sad to see the series finale of Jericho last night. I guess we won’t get to see America’s next civil war, although I understand the producers are still hoping to land it somewhere else after CBS showed them the door. A fair amount of it was beyond belief, but I still enjoyed it while it lasted.

If you don’t read Greg Boyd’s blog, go check it out. He’s had some great stuff over the last month. Start with his Feburary 28th post and read up to the present.

I’ll probably have a tournament update next week, but until then, here’s #3:

I felt a lot of pressure trying to make my picks after last year. Last year, for the first time, I managed to pick all four of the Final Four teams (Florida, UCLA, Ohio State & Georgetown.) Unfortunately, I picked the two finalists incorrectly (I picked Georgetown over UCLA), but still, I was pretty proud of picking all four. My overall picks were 49 of 64 correct, I believe. So, I’m shooting for at least 76% again this year.

Also, in 2004, I picked three of the final four (UConn, Duke, Georgia Tech) as well as the final game correctly (UConn over Georgia Tech). So at least a couple of times in recent years, I’ve not done too bad picking the final weekend.

But it is with little confidence that I post my rushed picks this year. My lack of time has caused me to pick many games with less information than I’d like, so I don’t feel very comfortable about many of my picks. Nevertheless, here they are.

My final four picks are:

• East: Louisville - because I simply could not bring myself to pick UNC
• MidWest: Kansas - because I don’t think anyone there can beat them
• South: Texas - because Memphis’ bricks at the line will bring them down
• West: UCLA - because next year is Duke’s year

My championship game has UCLA beating Kansas. I said earlier this year that if UCLA returns to the Final Four for a third straight year, they will win it. Of course, the trick is going to be getting there again. UConn could prove to be difficult if that game happens, but I don’t think anyone out of the bottom - Duke, Xavier or anyone else - can take them out. So, I’m sticking with UCLA.

You can see my full bracket of picks here (pdf).

Tip-off is about two hours away.

Let the madness begin.

And, I almost forgot . . . #2

The madness technically began last night, but I still don’t care for the play-in game. For me, it still doesn’t really begin until late Thursday morning.

Normally, I’d have already started posting about the tournament before now. Last year I did a post for each region with my thoughts and picks. This year, as of this morning, I’ve barely looked at the bracket. In fact, I haven’t really looked at it since Sunday night. And at this point I’m just hoping to fill out my picks before Thursday around 11am. (I did go ahead and side with - against my better judgment - Coppin State in the game last night, which turned out to be the wrong pick, so I’m already 0-1.)

I’ve had a pretty busy last week or so. I actually saw only one game on Saturday (Arkansas-Tennessee, although I did see part of both Georgia games), and none on Sunday. That’s unprecedented. Things are starting to slow down today, so I hope to have my bracket filled out by tonight, or at least early tomorrow.

Donovan

In the meantime, I like Billy Donovan, but someone needs to settle him down a little. He’s going nuts. And speaking of Florida, I heard them referred to as “defending champions” on ESPN Monday night. But Florida didn’t make it into the tournament this year, so can you really call them “defending” champions now? At this point, they’re not defending anything.

We’re #98!

What the hell is this? The College Basketball Invitational? Do we really need another post-season tournament? I’m not even sure there should be an NIT. If you don’t make the field of 64+1, then you probably should just shut it down until next year. But this? If you’re not good enough to make the NIT, you might want to consider shutting your program down, not playing more games against other underachievers. Instead, we now have the college basketball equivalent to college football’s December bowl games - crappy teams playing meaningless games. Hooray!

Picks by tomorrow. Until then, the first of three . . .

More later . . .

Our preacher was preaching on suffering a few months ago, and actually made the comment “suffering sucks” during his sermon. It was immediately followed by something like “Is it okay if I say it like that?” I don’t know if anyone was offended or not. I liked it, personally, because I thought it was right on. Suffering does suck.

I just finished reading Bart Ehrman’s newest book, God’s Problem : How The Bible Fails To Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer.

In the book, the former pastor and current religion professor looks at the reasons the Bible appears to give for suffering. In the final chapter of the book, he provides somewhat of a summary of what he’s covered earlier in the book, and the following is my summary of his summary.

He states that he is not satisfied with the explanations of suffering found in scripture, and then bumps down the list and rehashes some of his questions and/or comments about the various reasons.

In the end, Ehrman believes that the author of Ecclesiastes advocates a different view - that this life is all that there is, and not everything makes sense, so we should make the best of it. We should do everything that we can to help diminish suffering in this world and make life better wherever we can.

I enjoyed this book, and one of the main reasons I wanted to read this book is that suffering in this life has increasingly been an issue for me, in that seeing the suffering in this world - many of the examples Ehrman discusses in this book and more - causes me to ask my own questions, seeking an explanation and, on occasion, wondering if God even cares. Many of my questions are the same that Ehrman raises in this book.

(One question I’ve had over the last couple of days is where was God when Duke couldn’t get the ball in the basket during the final five minutes Saturday night. Ehrman, who teaches religion at UNC, probably isn’t asking that question. Anyway…)

Ehrman - no longer a believer and now an agnostic - doesn’t really provide any new answers to those questions and I certainly didn’t expect him to do so. And I doubt he covered any new ground that’s not been covered before on the problem of suffering. The book simply looks at scripture for the reasons it provides for suffering, and explains why he rejects them. However, I still found it thought provoking, even if I am not willing to accept his conclusions as the final answer.

It all comes down to Saturday night.

Duke and Carolina will face off in the final regular season game, both sitting at the top of the ACC tied with 13-2 records. The winner of the game at Cameron Saturday will win the ACC regular season outright.

I can’t recall the last time that happened. The closest I can recall was In 2001, when Duke went to Chapel Hill one game behind and won the game to take a share of the regular season along with UNC. But I can’t recall an occasion in recent history where the regular season was decided by a final “winner take all” game. Usually it’s already been decided by then. And to add to the drama this year, a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament for both teams may be on the line as well.

The good thing for Carolina is that they come into the game playing well again and Ty Lawson - who missed the first Duke game, among many others - will be back on the floor (albeit still not at 100% yet.) I believe they’ve adjusted to Lawson not being there, so they shouldn’t have some of the struggles they had in the first game, which was shortly after his injury. Carolina shot the ball poorly from outside in Duke’s win as well, so if they shoot the ball well from outside (particularly Ellington and Green), they will be tough to beat unless Duke can slow down Hansbrough this time around. Brian Zoubek - who missed the previous game for Duke - is not going to stop Hansbrough, but if he can provide a few minutes here and there and help slow him down, that will be beneficial for Duke. It would be particularly nice if Duke could manage to get Hansbrough into early foul trouble (in either or both halves), but that’s extremely unlikely since ACC officials tend to give Hansbrough carte blanche to impose his will inside the lane (yeah, Duke gets all the calls. Right…)

The good thing for Duke is that it seems they’ve moved past their recent shooting woes. During a three-game stretch - which included their two ACC losses - they managed only 33% from 3-point range, and it would have been worse were it not for them catching fire late against Miami. Once they got their 3-point shot back, they went cold inside the arc against NC State, shooting only 9-29 (31%) and missing a lot of shots inside of 8 feet. They shot much better against Virginia two nights ago (51% overall, 44% 3-point) and they needed that coming into this game. You don’t want to come in to the biggest game of the year throwing up a lot of bricks. The key to their first win was their shooting, especially from behind the arc, and if they are to have a chance to win tomorrow, they’ll have do it again.

Home court seems to have been more of an edge for Duke than UNC during this decade. Since 2000, Duke has won 6 of 9 at Chapel Hill, while UNC has won 3 of 8 at Cameron. Four times they’ve split the regular season, and 2 of those 4 times they’ve both lost at home. Duke has thrice swept the regular season, to Carolina’s once (last year.) However, of the 3 wins in Carmeron for UNC, two have come the past two seasons. If Duke wants to avoid losing 3 in a row at home to Carolina, they need to hold serve again tomorrow night.

Duke has already exceeded my expectations this year. After what was clearly a “down year” last season (by Duke standards), I had great faith that they would easily improve on last season. I am a little surprised, however, that the improvement has been as significant as it has, particularly with so little help inside. I wouldn’t have expected a 26-3 record at this point in the season. I predicted a couple of months ago that they would finish 12-4 and second place in the ACC. They have guaranteed at least second place and exceeded my record prediction with 13 wins. And, they can finish at 14-2 and 1st place with a win tomorrow night.

I thought they were a year away from doing any damage in the NCAA tournament, and I do believe next year will be their year to be a favorite. Still being a very young team may or may not be a factor in their success for the remainder of the season, but if they play to their ability and shoot the ball well, they can play with just about anyone. Hopefully, they’ll play their best tomorrow night, and continue that path deeper into March.

I think it’s time for another classic. There have been plenty in this rivalry, but this game means more than usual this time around. The ACC regular season, and possibly a #1 seed in two weeks, will be decided by 40 minutes in Cameron tomorrow night.

Tennessee/Memphis had nothing on this game. This is what college basketball is all about.

ACC.

Duke.

Carolina.

Cameron Crazies.

March.

I love it.

Go Duke!