Monday, March 30, 2009

The other college sports

Happy Monday folks. JMC here holding down the fort while Zach's on his way back from a real strenuous trip to Arizona to watch spring training baseball on his parents' dime. Because I feel so sorry for him (travel is such a bitch) I agreed to write today's post for him...

At this time of year it's sometimes hard to remember that there's more going on than just the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Obviously there's a lot of media attention to the tourney and everyone, ourselves included, is fretting over the status of their bracket. But lost in the shuffle are some other pretty compelling sports stories that we thought you might like to know about...

-On Saturday the University of Virginia defeated the University of Maryland 10-9 in men's lacrosse. Big fucking deal right? Actually, yes, because that game went to SEVEN overtimes, making it the longest game in NCAA history. Being a UVA alumnus, I actually watched all seven overtimes, and let me tell you, it was nerve-wracking. UVA had to score four 4th quarter goals just to tie the thing up, and then withstood 14 shots in overtime to finally win and preserve their undefeated record. Never watched college lacrosse? You might want to start - it's fast, it's exciting, and the players knock the shit out of each other. Of course it helps when you have a real rooting interest. It's too bad there are only about 5 games broadcast per year. My Wahoos by the way are #1 in the country so look out come tournament time.

-We know about as much about hockey as we do about women so writing about the Frozen Four is a stretch. But hey, someone's got to do it. Did you know that there's a college called Bemidji State in the hockey tournament? BSU is in, no shock here, Minnesota, where little kids play hockey like little kids here in Berkeley recycle and learn to do yoga. And BSU has made it to the Frozen Four! The lowest seed ever! Apparently there have been some exciting finishes in the hockey tourney but we of course missed them because we were too busy, um, reading the articles at the new Playboy Archive. NSFW example here.

-There is also a WOMEN'S NCAA basketball tournament. In fact there's a regional going on right here in Berkeley, and like a good sports blogger we spent all day attending the games on the couch with our hand down our pants. The cool thing is that UConn is undefeated. They haven't lost a single game all damn season. And they're pretty much a lock to finish their run through the tournament and win it all without one measly little loss all year. Pretty impressive. If this was the men's team we'd be talking about how the women on campus would be lining up to give these guys a "welcome home present," but it's the women's team so they'll probably just go back to being unrecognizable and oddly tall.

What, you were expecting a UNC-OU Morning Headlines? Sorry.

4 comments:

GMoney said...

Don't you worry. My Miami RedHawks will send your Bemidji State Pussies home early on Thursday evening.

/knows nothing about college hockey either

JMC said...

I can't believe I wrote that whole post without even mentioning that their team is the Beavers. Shame on me.

The Big Picture said...

my parents' dime?! I spent $50 on dinner. (and the rest was on my parents' dime!)

JMC said...

that is so very true. One of the most fortuitous ref fuck ups I've ever seen. What I've read about it says that both teams told the refs they'd want a TO if they controlled the face off and got the ball in he box, so the refs called the TO for them - even though they never actually called the TO