NCAA Basketball Tournament - Nailing Down The Final Four (Open Thread)
Alright, folks, we've got half of the Final Four - we'll know the other half today. On CBS, we have:
2:20 PM - Michigan State vs. Louisville (line is MSU -2.5, I think)
5:05 PM - Duke vs. Gonzaga (line is Duke -2.0, last I saw)
My picks in the ESPN Bracket were Louisville and Duke, but I have MSU and Gonzaga in my yearly "chaos bracket" too.
MSU is just lucky that they don't play in the NBA. Mark Hollis must have something to do with that.
Snowing and sleeting on a day State goes to the Final Four, sounds about right.
I guess at this point a Duke vs Kentucky final would be pretty cool even if I hate Duke...
I hate this. It takes a lot for me to cheer for Duke, but if the Blue Devils win on Sunday I will become a fan for 3 hours.
Michigan grad working for an MSU grad... ouch yeah that would suck.
He won't even say much. He'll just look at me with a $hit-eating grin on his face for a month. Ugh.
I know this isn't an answer for everyone, but leave the midwest and I guarantee you'll only have to deal with MSU fans on TV. Although that can be bad enough.
Having lived outside the Midwest I can vouch for this. After a certain (VERY lengthy) amount of time, it even starts to become possible to pull for them just a little (as I, I now hate to admit, was doing on an April Monday night in 2009). But when you live in the state it's simply impossible to not despise them.
This is true. In a neutral area, there are no State fans to be found.
I live in the DC area which has people from all over the country. There are zero State fans anywhere. Most people are not even sure who they are.
Better days are ahead for sure, but when there is a legitimate chance that both of your rivals claim national titles in the major sports in the same year....well....someone up there just clearly hates you.
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+1000
that was something.
He looked like Usain Bolt.
but recently I have liked the guys on their team. Was a big kyrie fan even though he was injured most of the season he played at duke, and i'm a big okafor fan now.
teams with singler, reddick, battier, duhon were much easier to hate.
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he's calling battier and duhon uncle toms.
HOW DO YOU KNOW!?
include carlos boozer and jay williams. i'm an equal opportunity hater.
Punctuation is your friend brother.
Gonzaga needs to settle down.
Zaga is about to get blown out if they don't weather this moment right here.
Harbaugh's arrival stole some of the media thunder of OSU's championship, but I don't know what's going to attract the attention away from what could realistically happen now for the Spartans.
I hope my Sparty boss is hungover or out buying a new couch tomorrow so I don't have to hear about the mad genius of Izzo and the beautiful miracle of their team.
Sports radio blackout this week in my house. Harbaugh is the only thing keeping this entire year in sports from being a complete washout.
Reallistically happen? Thinking that MSU is going to beat Kentucky and Duke isn't even remotely realistic.
sabonis, son of the legendary arvydas sabonis and my second favorite big man of all time.
Wait did we really lose a recruit to Gonzaga?
i just wish we could have some piece of sabonis. best passing big man of his time. guy was a magician in the post.
His legs were gone by the time he came to the US and I think people here think of him as a plodder, but he was athletic when his knees were still intact. "Larry Bird with hops" is how I've heard him described by people that saw him earlier.
I can't get over how MSU wins so many of these tossup games in the tournament. They rarely dominate anyone, but but just scrape out win after win. Their largest margin of victory so far this tourney is seven points. And pretty much all of their Final Four runs have been like that.
PIle up enough fouls so the refs will eventually ignore a bunch of hacks late in the second half.
The best way to cope with Sparty fan during these March droolings over Izzo. When they bring the game up, tell them you saw "parts" of the game and you "checked the score later on". And then say something like "pretty exciting huh?" Be nice and positive.
It really ticks them off.
Remember the psychology: it's attention they want and a close second is they want to rub it in you as a Michigan fan. If you aren't drawn into a discussion of any depth, it gets to them. If you act like it's fine, it gets to them.
I like to throw in things like "yeah State looked pretty good when I was watching. Exciting stuff."
It works like magic. It's a middle ground between arguing about Michigan v. Michigan State and the other extreme of acting like you don't care and didn't watch.
That second thing never works and makes you look weak.
If they can't get to Michigan fans, a huge part of the fun is sucked dry.. That's as important as the actual success to them. Maybe more.
this is pure genius
Seriously, I've done it for years. I have many friends and acquaintances (not to mention my older brother) who are Sparty fans. Now me and my brother will get into it, because we know we're just talking shit and it's no big deal. But with everyone else, this is how I act. And sometimes, my Sparty interlocutor will not believe that that's how I feel and tries to press it further, but I don't fall for it. Then they just don't know what to do.
Totally.
I still have a lot of faith that once Michigan starts being really good again at football, the above is how the fan base will really feel about things like the Izzo drool fest. There won't be this strange worry over whether State wins a game against Louisville in late March.
Stumbling around in football has caused a widespread insecurity among the fanbase. Also the stumbling has coincided with the explosion of social media and all the junk that gets tossed around on there.
But it's all about taking charge of the interaction by knowing what matters most to State fan. That is flexing their flabby sports fan muscles in the face of a Michigan fan and drawing a reaction.
You could care a little less about what they think and just give your honest reaction: "MSU has been crazy this post-season. Fun to watch." Who cares how what they think about it.
Well this is a game.
Who else just started to laugh like a mental patient when Blackshear had a clean block on that fast break layup but got called for foul.
Right there you knew what a joke the game had become.
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