MARCHVEGAS 2014
MARCHVEGAS 2013
MARCHVEGAS 2012
By R.George
By R.George
By Eamonn Brennan
A funny thing happened between Midnight and March Madness: College basketball suffered through a full-fledged existential crisis.
It had been a long time coming. For the past two years, realignment has ripped rivalries and leagues apart. The one-and-done rule, in place since 2006, has led to constant accusations that the game lacks talent and, most of all, continuity.
The all-in focus on the NCAA tournament sprouted assumptions that the regular season doesn’t matter. The game is slower, more physical, and over-officiated within an inch of its life.
How many scorelines lived in the 50s? The 40s? The 30s? Too many.
And yet, despite all that, this season has been as fun as any in recent memory. There have been an inordinate number of tight games and exciting finishes, buzzer-beaters and court stormings.
Five straight weeks saw five new No. 1 teams. We watched five overtimes in South Bend and have sat glued to the television for entire Saturdays, whole weeks, when every game felt destined to thrill — and usually did.
No wonder everyone kind of freaked out. The game was being criticized from every corner while keeping us glued to the television. The criticisms were valid, and yet they missed the point. Or did they? Does any of this stuff even matter? Should we value process over outcome? Should we reward pragmatism or ambition? Science or art? And what does it say that I’m asking these things in the first place?
Are we overthinking this?
When your eyes tell you one thing and your heart tells you another, things can get confusing in a hurry.
In the end, this season proved at least one thing: College basketball will always have the insanity market cornered. Even when it’s bad, it’s oh so good. Never is that more true — or more widely apparent — than in March.
Each year at this time, we fill out our bracket and make up lame excuses to leave work and gather around the nearest TV and kneel before the glory of March, where anything can and usually does happen.
It’s why you’re here right now, reading this. March smiles upon us all.
But we shouldn’t settle for mere derangement, even come tourney time. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice aesthetic enjoyment in the first 35 minutes of a game to experience the thrill of last-second heroics in the final five.
We should strive for something higher, something much harder to define, something we have to see to know.
Allure. Glamor. Beauty. Watchability, for lack of a better term.
If you’re looking for crazy this time of year, you don’t have to look too hard. But if you’re looking for that something extra, for those qualities that elevate basketball into the sublime, you’ve come to the right place.
Before you dig into the field, and calculate your clearest path to bracket domination, let’s rank every team in the field according to that magical alchemy that we call “watchability.”
Here we value creativity, fluidity, pace, star power, eccentricity, execution, beauty and, yes, good old-fashioned success.
Here, if only for a moment, let’s ditch the science and appreciate the art.
By R.George
Friday’s Cocktail:
Bitches Brew
Ingredients – Havana Club (3yr old rum), Havana Club Silver Dry rum, splash of overproof rum, curacao, creme de mure, orange juice, grapefruit juice and orange wedges. This little mix of madness is gonna stir things up like buzzer beaters, ballers and brackets in March. You might need a holiday to drink it.
Happy Hour Drinking Topics:
1. March Madness: Tell us your coolest holiday; in a word?
2. March Madness: Selection Sunday is this Sunday, March 17 so don’t forget I told you this but getting out with a clean bracket for the first weekend let alone choosing a Final Four this year is gonna be a total bitch!
3. Las Vegas: If you’re not in Las Vegas next week for MARCHVEGAS, tell us where you’re going?
3.5 Las Vegas: If you are in Las Vegas next week for MARCHVEGAS, then you know what’s going down!
4. MARCHVEGAS: Believe in a 4-day Holiday, today – March 21-24, 2013.
5. March Madness Predictions: Georgetown will take it all this year. Who do you like?
By Dolores Guiterrez
[half-s7lvin] – noun 1. The amount of drinks it takes to reach your full potential during MARCHVEGAS (March 21 – 24, 2013); affects judgment, memory, relationships, commitment, vision, speech and grammer. 2. The numerical equivalence equal to or between 3.5 – 7.5 cocktails consumed.
By R.George
By Adena Andrews
Seventy-five years of the NCAA tournament can invoke so many memories for different people. Therefore, choosing 75 of the greatest moments from thousands of games was difficult to do— but we tried anyway. To continue celebrating 75 Years of March Madness, CBS will count down the 75 greatest moments in March Madness history. The list will conclude at 9 p.m. March 7 (CBS Sports Network) with the No. 1 moment.
In the first episode where we count down from 75-56, my favorite moment has to be the 1981 title game between Indiana and North Carolina on a day that the nation stood still. Earlier in the day, President Ronald Reagan was hit by a bullet in an assassination attempt in Washington, DC. The national championship game, about 130 miles to the northeast of DC in Philadelphia, was in jeopardy of being canceled as the nation’s mind was on Reagan’s well-being.
“As far as we knew President Reagan could die and we were going to play a basketball game?” questioned Dick Enberg, who was a CBS Sports announcer from 2000-2011.
The game was played — as was the third-place game, the last in Final Four history — but there was one fan who wished he could be there. Reagan supposedly was upset he missed the game, and while he was intubated reportedly scribbled a note to a nurse mentioning, “All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”
For more….
By R.George
Georgetown controlled the tempo, the ball and the boards on the defensive end. However with only a half-time score of 25 to 18 it wasn’t totally clear they were going to runaway with it completely as they did but that’s why they play the games. The Hoyas controlled offense and strength on the inside created problems all day as the Orange shot 1-11 from the 3 point line and 15 for 47 from the field making it an especially hard against a tough-nosed defensive minded team.
For Geogetown Markel Starks had 19, D’Vauntes Rivera ended with 15 and Jabril Trawick added 11 as they cruised to an easy victory and their claimed the shared title of Big East Champions along with Marquette and Louisville. As the prize of the Big East tournament and March Madness looms near, we’ll see how the Hoyas respond and perform as they are poised to go deep in the March tourney.
MARCHVEGAS 2013 is from Thursday March 21st till Sunday March 24th. Though visiting Las Vegas is the greatest during this time, it is only optional. You must think real hard young Jedi and decide if you want to “work” or take the MARCHVEGAS 4-day Holiday. If you choose the later, then Sign the Petition, “Make MARCHVEGAS a 4-day holiday and check out our travel options to Las Vegas.
By Roy George
[MARCHVEGAS] – noun 1. “March to Vegas” symbolizes the humanistic tendency to march, migrate, or advance as a deliberate or organized body in a habitual manner back to Las Vegas. 2. Marriage of March Madness and Las Vegas, especially during tournament time. 3. The “MARCHVEGAS 4-day Holiday” (March 21 – 24, 2013) – Sign the Petition.
follow us @marchvegas