Short basketball thoughts

–Simmons really nails Chris Webber’s career here—though he completely ignores the Michigan scandals. Getting paid to play college ball and getting caught couldn’t have impacted him?

–I never liked Wisconsin. I had USC taking them out in the second round, which looks stupid now, but I feel strangely vindicated because Wisco got blown out by NCAA powerhouse David’s progeny (that was a Reese joke.)

–There’s no shame in losing to Memphis. They’re a damn good team, and they have a chance to win the whole thing. If State hadn’t slowed down in the end of the regular season and had gotten a better seed, maybe they could have gone further. But a good season nonetheless.

–Zach Randolph can’t get it right in video games either:

–Gone until Thursday. Peace to my old earth.

My best showing ever?

Two of my final four teams lost in the second round (Pitt, Georgetown.) But the other six of my elite eight squads made it (or probably will make it–Kansas, Texas), allowing me to squeak into second place in our pool.

If UCLA wins the thing, I should have a respectable final showing.

Not gonna do it

Brohan wants me to address this crazy lawsuit.

Zach wants me to address the crazy Maggs-Canseco steroid story. (If this were legit, why didn’t he include it last time?)

The Tigers are too sacred to be dragged into such tabloid fodder.

Why are there so many empty seats at NCAA tourney games?

I’m asking.

Also, go green.

Andrew Bogut sends himself Christmas cards

Probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

The historical significance of CWebb

I always had a soft spot for Chris Webber—I can’t help but like the guy, and I wish he could have gotten some kind of title. So much potential, so many flashes of brilliance. But never the unadulterated success.

I followed his career from high school. He was the best player (though not my favorite player) on the team that helped me fall in love with basketball. That counts for a lot on a personal level.

Could he coach some day? I don’t know.

Should he make the hall of fame? No.

Cabrera for MVP

Zach sent something over about Miguel Cabrera’s huge contract. If anything, I feel like we’re underpaying the guy: this is like getting Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett at age 24.

Jayson Stark nods in agreement.

Unparalled creativity

YouTube user FuckDetroitMichigan is not a fan of the Pistons.

In fact, he refers to the team as the “Dicktroit PISStons from WHore town.”

Check out his video: “Detroit Pistons WHERE UN AMAZING HAPPENS.” (Get it… where UNamazing happens? Because the NBA’s ads say “Where Amazing Happens”? And this is supposed to be the opposite? Get it?)

Walter Herrmann wears huge gloves

Another round of “How did I miss this piece of Pistons-related non-news?”:

I don’t know what to say. Via Ball Don’t Lie.

The Vitale Proposition

Dick Vitale—who’s still predicting the MSU upset over Memphis—was talking about Hibbert’s foul trouble in his career-ending college game and he mentioned one of his pet issues. It’s not something that particularly worries me, but it’s something that I’ve never heard seriously discussed by anyone with hair.

Basically, he doesn’t like that so much of basketball is decided by refs. If you get a player into foul trouble then the whole course of a game changes. His idea is that after five fouls a coach should be able to leave the player in, but if they get called for another foul it means two shots and the opposing team gets the ball back.

What do you think? I’ll save my arguments for the comments.