The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

On Friday's episode of Chris Russo's Sirius XM show Mad Dog Unleashed , CBS Sports chairman Steve McManus said the following: "From a television standpoint, you really root for the big teams. Last night's Kentucky outcome was not good for us and not good for TBS at all. Kentucky being the blue bloods that they are, and having the television draw that they have, that really hurt us. Kansas State winning - I have nothing against Kansas State as a school or a team - but that really hurt us." He added: "It's [Loyola-Chicago] a great story, I think Sister Jean is terrific, but to have an upstart like that go this far is not a disaster obviously, but not the bets of all scenarios for us." I'm sorry, but this is BS. Why does he think the NCAA Tournament is nicknamed March Madness? Because it's good for the predictable to always occur? I don't think so. The movies about college basketball that come out of Hollywood, do they tend to revolv...

With this being March Madness and all and the seemingly ubiquitous departures from the White House, I felt a sports analogy was in order for the Trump administration. Here's a running list of the administration's officials whom have either been fired or left on their own volition: 1) Acting Attorney General Sally Yates 2) National Security Adviser Michael Flynn 3) Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh 4) Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland 5) FBI Director James Comey 6) Communications Director Mike Dubke 7) Spokesman for Trump's legal team Mark Corallo 8) Press Secretary and Communications Director Sean Spicer 9) Press Aide Michael Short 10) National Security Council Member Derek Harvey 11) Chief of Staff Reince Priebus 12) Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci 13) National Security Council Senior Director Ezra Cohen-Watnick 14) National Security Council Director of Strategic Planning Rich Higgins 15) Office of Public Liaison George Sifakis 1...

 I think Spike Lee is one of the greatest modern-day directors; Samuel L. Jackson is an Oscar-caliber actor; and Charles Barkley is a Hall-of-Fame basketball player and oddly entertaining commentator. However, combining all three talents in Capital One commercials this March Madness has resulted in me getting headaches while providing the expression which will be in the dictionary next to WTF-face . In one commercial, the three are in a car, singing "Home of the Brave," as Barkley incorrectly sings about the deer and the cantaloupe playing. In another, they're singing "I've Got Friends in Low Places" while on donkeys and horses. Yes, Spike Lee is the shortest of the three of them and is on the donkey. Get it? To their credit, the three stars try to make the best of what they've been given, but the writing is so lazy, not even Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks could have made it work. It's like the writers placed a bunch of song titles into a hat, drew a...

It's almost here! Beginning tomorrow, March Madness will be on full display, and I can't wait! Since there isn't one or two teams that stand out to me this year, I'm thinking this tournament will be especially crazy (in a good way). Bring on the chaos! How wide open are things this year? I see these 9 teams all having a decent shot and running the table and winning the title: 2 Arizona 2 Duke 1 Gonzaga 1 Kansas 2 Kentucky 2 Louisville 1 North Carolina 3 UCLA 1 Villanova Here are four teams which have the skill and talent to make a run for it as well: 3 Florida State 5 Notre Dame 3 Oregon 4 West Virginia Lastly, here are a couple of potential sleepers: 7 Michigan 6 SMU As far as 1st round upsets go, here are ten games to keep your eyes on: 9 Michigan State over 8 Miami (Florida) 9 Seton Hall over 8 Arkansas 9 Vanderbilt over 8 Northwestern 10 Marquette over 7 South Carolina 10 Virginia Commonwealth over 7 St. Mary's 10 Wichita State ove...

As most people know, Indiana and basketball go together like Jared Fogle and Bill Cosby. Texas Senator Ted Cruz tried winning over residents of the Hoosier state by recreating a scene from the classic film by the same name ( Hoosiers ), but failed miserably. During his speech, Cruz said, "You know, the amazing thing is that basketball ring here in Indiana, it's the same height as it is in New York City and every other place in the country." That's right, Ted Cruz referred to a basketball hoop as a basketball ring. Going by that line of thinking, the Texas senator once gave his wife a wedding hoop. Given his obvious vast knowledge of sports, expect him to utter the following lines in the future: - "I love baseball, especially the over-the-wall ball. It's amazing how far those guys can hit those things!" - "When the Patriots kicker kicked the ball through those giant yellow chopsticks to win the game, that was awesome!" - "Why don...

During the first weekend of March Madness, I learned that... - ...Villanova likes playing in March about as much as Pope Francis likes playing with himself. - ..., if referees starred in their version of the film The Princess Bride , "goaltending" would be the term they'd frequently misuse. - ...Wichita State is as much a #7 seed as I'm a woman named Flo. - ...Enterprise still picks people up. - ..., playing 6 games in 10 days, Dayton appeared to lose some kind of bet. - ...Michigan State may be attempting to get the month of March nicknamed Izzo History Month. - ...Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan will likely audition for the next Grinch film. - ...Charles Barkley would make a "turrible" poet. - ...Kansas coach Bill Self will one day write a book, entitled, Always the Favorite, Rarely the Winner . - ..., almost overnight, people went from saying, "You know who I haven't heard about in a while? Christian Laettner,"...

While hypocrisy does bother me a great deal, I'd be lying if I said I was never a hypocrite. Chances are each and every one of us has been hypocritical at one point in our lives or another. So, when I say I can't stand hypocrites, to not sound hypocritical in saying that, I'm just referring to those whom are hypocritical so frequently, people are often times shocked when they're actually consistent. In saying that, I find myself being slightly hypocritical when it comes to the tournament selection for March Madness. After the field of 68 was announced last night, I overheard ESPN basketball analysts Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas debating one another about which teams belonged in the tournament. Dick Vitale stood up for the little guy (Murray State in this case) and basically said, "It's all about winning games! Murray State won 25 in a row at one point! They went three months without a loss! I mean, are you kidding me?!? It's about winning games, bab...

I'm amazed by what Vanderbilt head basketball coach Kevin Stallings yelled at one of his players following the team's 73-65 victory over Tennessee on Thursday night, but am even more amazed by the majority of people's reactions to the situation (commentators on websites anyhow). As Stallings was shaking hands with his opponent after the game, a Tennessee staff member informed the Vanderbilt head coach about one of his players, Wade Baldwin IV, clapping in the face of Tennessee forward Armani Moore after the Commodores sealed their victory. Kevin Stallings then went up to his player and angrily yelled, "I'm going to f**king kill you!" This occurred in front of most everybody holding a camera, so after the inevitable backlash, Stallings told ESPN the following: "I handled it completely inappropriately and I apologized to Wade -- and I need to apologize to our fans and the Vanderbilt administration. Having said that, and it may seem as though I'm...

Prior to the first Sweet 16 college basketball game last night between Miami (Florida) and Marquette, the likes of Greg Gumbel, Greg Anthony, Doug Gottlieb, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley previewed the games in the studio. After Gumbel introduced the crew, Gottlieb, the only Caucasian gentleman of the group, chimed in with the following line: "Cream rising to the crop. I don't know why you guys asked me, I'm just here to bring diversity to the set here. Give the kind of white man's perspective on things from the point guard position." Yes, there was complete and total silence following the sad attempt of a joke, along with the two men to his left and two to his right shaking their heads simultaneously. Perhaps the worst part about the joke wasn't what Gottlieb said, so much as how he said it. The guy looked less comfortable than a mime doing karaoke. What was going on in that guy's mind before and during the telling of the "joke" is anyon...

Word broke a couple days ago that head coach Ben Howland was going to be fired from UCLA men's basketball team following the team's disappointing first-round loss to Minnesota in the NCAA Tournament Friday night. Minnesota fell last night in the 2nd-round to 3-seed Florida and have since fired head coach Tubby Smith as a result. In my opinion, both are bonehead moves. Let's first look at Ben Howland. The guy has been at UCLA for 10 years, has reached the NCAA Tournament in 7 of those 10 years - going as far as the Final Four twice (2006-2007 and 2007-2008) and the Championship Game once (2005-2006). His Bruins finished 1st in the Pac-12 this year with a 13-5 conference record and 25-9 record overall. His overall record at the school is 118-58 in conference play (.671) and 230-105 overall (.687). Under Howland, UCLA has been crowned the conference regular season champion four times (2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2012-2013). The team won the Pac-12 conference tourname...

In the 1st-round of the NIT, last year's national champion - Kentucky - fell to Robert Morris by the final score of 59-57 last night, and it's being hailed by some talking heads in the media as one of the biggest upsets in the history of college basketball. I'm sorry, but that's absurd. For those that don't know about the NIT, many jokingly say it stands for the Not Invited Tournament. The NCAA Tournament selects the 68 best teams to play in a single-elimination tournament. There are four play-in-type games to condense the field to 64 teams when the tournament really gets underway. The next "best" batch of 32 teams play in a similar-style single-elimination tournament by the name of the NIT. So, teams ranked between 69 and 100 play in the NIT. These are teams whom showcased they were better-than-average, but not good enough to get invited to the NCAA Tournament. Given that, Kentucky's loss to Robert Morris last night, while sure, it was an upset, w...

I wonder when the last time was that the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament went to the dance with six losses. That's what we have this year with #1 Louisville of the Big East. That provides the perfect illustration of this year's college basketball season. It has been one of chaos, one where the #1 teams have played musical chairs more often than Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl star in awful movies, and one where it's difficult to see a favorite to win the championship. Once the brackets were announced on Sunday night, I began feeling a migraine coming on, and once I actually sat down to look at the brackets, that migraine was in full-effect. How crazy are the brackets? Let me tell you... - The Pittsburgh Panthers of the Big East, after finishing the year ranked #20 in the AP poll, were rewarded with an 8-seed, and will face 9-seed Wichita State in the West region. Eight-seeds would tend to go to teams ranked between 29 and 32, so Pitt's #20 ranking got do...

Here's a rule I've never fully understood. Why is it that players can foul out of basketball games, but not in other sports? I understand ejections, when a player's behavior goes way over the line and gets to the point of causing a major disruption to the flow of the game and intentionally risks serious injury to another through an over-the-top act of violence. However, an offensive lineman won't get kicked out of a game for committing five false starts. Hockey players will only see a couple minutes in the penalty box for such an occurrence. Why in basketball, when a player commits 5-6 fouls (depending on the level of play we're talking about), does he or she have to sit on the bench for the rest of the game? Why not force a player to be benched for 2 minutes after reaching a certain number of fouls, and sit another minute for each additional foul, or something along those lines? Fans go to these games to watch the stars play. They don't go to watch bench-warmer...