Monday, March 17, 2008

Who the fuck is Joe Lunardi?

In times past, The Big Picture has wondered who the fuck some figures in the sports world are, guys like the ever popular Orestes Destrade, or the one month wonder Chris Shelton. Well today we turn our attention to a guy who many of us saw way too much of this past weekend, ESPN's Joe Lunardi.

Much like our friend Mel Kiper Jr., Lunardi has made a name for himself by being really good at predicting some completely obscure event in the sporting world. Our friend Mel is Mr. NFL Draft, and Joe is the supposed inventor of "Bracketology." Bracketology is, as you know, the science art act of predicting who will be in the NCAA tournament, and what seeds they'll all have. Which means that Joe is relevant for about 15 minutes a year.

The real question is, how did Joe become the Bracketology expert? Well, there's not much out there on old Joe, other than that he went to St. Joe's. That's funny. Like if Zach went to college at St. Zach's, it would be... mildy amusing. In addition to being the resident bracketologist at ESPN, he's the Assistant Vice President of University Communications at St. Joe's, and does color commentary for their men's basketball TV broadcasts.

None of this answers the burning question we all have - what makes Lunardi even remotely qualified to be a Bracketologist? From what we can tell... nothing. Nothing to indicate that he played basketball, coached basketball, or even watched basketball in high school or college. In fact the only connection to basketball we could find was that he used to edit the Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook. How did he get the gig at ESPN? Apparently by winning "Dream Job: Bracketology Edition," a show that we are pretty sure seven or eight people have heard of. What's weird is that he won the Bracketology edition of dream job, and yet is also credited with having invented Bracketology. Did the other chumps on that show even stand a chance?

So Joe went to college, somehow got a job with the blue ribbon place, discovered he was good at guessing who'd be in the tournament, and is now all over ESPN. What a life.

-JMC

7 comments:

GMoney said...

I saw him wearing a bow tie once...that helps.

wjackalope said...

wearing a bowtie grants any man instant credibility

Anonymous said...

you said you did extensive research on this douche dag Lunardi, but have you checked if he was a member of the Revenge Of The Nerds cast. seems as if he is the perfect age.

Anonymous said...

I love how the guy was so incredibly adamant, both on TV and in his bracket, that Villanova wasn't going to make the field. They were actually 4th in his "last teams out" column. Up until Selection Sunday afternoon, of course. After Georgia miraculously won the SEC Championship game (significantly worsening Villanova's chances of getting an at-large bid) and no other relevant games played: Poof! Swami Lunardi inexplicably changes his mind about Villanova at the 11th hour and puts them in as an at-large. Leapfrogging them past FOUR potential at-large teams he had up the night before. Joe brags about his accuracy, but this year reeked of insider (Selection Committee) knowledge. The guy is a total fraud.

Anonymous said...

And he's picking Gonzaga, a roman catholic jesuit college. Gee, didn't joe also attend a jesuit college? Yep, St Joes. I wonder how many jesuit referees are working games involving roman catholic jesuit colleges?

Jumpin' Jim Flash (Is A Gas Gas Gas) said...

Joe Douchenardi took the Badgers (who I'm a big fan of btw) over a Kansas NBA team (whom I'm NOT a fan of)? Continue eating Disney Ass Schmoe.

Jumpin' Jim Flash (Is A Gas Gas Gas) said...

P.S. Does ABC/Disney/ESPN hire 5 year olds to edit their stories? It's Turrible. Signed, Charles BarkMe

Walt is tossin' HARD in his interrement.