Well at least UVA lost that other tournament - yeah there is one worse than the NIT.

To my surprise Virginia Tech cracked the online list: Hottest Student Bodies: Top 50 Universities Ranked By Looks. Not to say that we don’t have some good-looking ladies down in the ‘burg- but our geography, demographics, and degree offerings haven’t really lended a helping hand when it comes to superficial lists in the past. Of course, we need to take in to consideration that the list was created by a highly professional online magazine by the name of Pop Crunch which goes by the byline: “A celebrity news and gossip blog that features the sexiest, most edgy celebrity news around.” Yeah, I’d say its pretty edgy to put VT on that list. Either way, being better than any school at anything is important to me and I would like to note that we beat Maryland (number 47), UVA (not listed), and Florida State (okay, we didn’t beat Florida State but those two strippers make up about 7% of their rankings - oh and Brett Jula’s imaginary girlfriend shouldn’t be able to count to the rankings either).

Next time let us play the Orioles if you want to provide some healing.

Okay, we all know what happened… there was a close loss against Clemson to close out the season (oh boo hoo), dismantling of Miami in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament (yippee… I feel hope!), then UNC’s robotic white boy hits a winning bucket with .8 seconds to go and does the bushwacker down the court in celebration (at this point I am kind of sick of this tug-of-war over the last at-large spots and frankly, I don’t care… if you don’t want us in the tournament after that, fine, fuck you. That’s basically Coach Greenberg’s stance.)

Something important is lost in the race for the at-large tournament slot when schools I have never heard of or schools that have last second miracles scoop up a ton of automatic bids. I don’t like that I find myself cheering AGAINST Georgia’s big upset in the SEC. I love upsets, even though I couldn’t care less about University of Georgia outside of the strip club they have in downtown Athens, I am happy that there was a reward for a team that makes a big splash the last week of the regular season. But that prize is the conference trophy and the fucking net from the court that wasn’t hit by a tornado. Awarding the auto-bid basically is like saying to a Pro Football team that if they go 0-9 but somehow win in the last two weeks of the season and the best teams happen to lose (or perhaps play like shit because their eyes are on the post season) then lets give that shit team the benefit of the doubt and allow them in to the playoffs. Oh and let’s throw Niagara in there too. Niagara? These people http://www.purpleeagles.com/ ? What a shit show.

I really have let the whole “tournament thing” go. I mean just how deep did we expect to go in to the tournament? Isn’t squabbling over a 12th seed not much better than whining over the Outback bowl bid? Sure, we want to be there in the limelight and a trip to the NCAA tournament is vindication of a good season (a great season in comparison to our expectations), but we got a hell of a lot more press as a bubble team than we would have as an expected lock that drops to Vanderbilt in round one.

I’m proud that we put on a good show this season. We aren’t a basketball school… but were becoming a force in the hardest basketball conference in the nation. We were projected to be the 11^th worst team in the ACC… but we ended 4^th. Seth Greenberg is ACC coach of the year and Delaney/Allen look to be something special for years to come. In all, it was a great year for Virginia Tech Basketball.

By the way, take a look at the first round of the NCAA tournament. What an abortion. Sure there are a few great games in there (USC v Beasley State, Clemson v Villanova, GMU v Popular Belief) but after you look it over just head over and look at the NIT bracket. Funny, It looks a lot more exciting over there in the runner-up bracket. Maybe its because there are schools I have heard of or at least seen televised once in the past 3 years. Even Florida and Ohio State are hanging out with us, we can’t be that upset even though as a number one seed, that’s all our opponents can hope to achieve when playing us.

Baseball is back (well almost). It is no exaggeration that I am 10% happier during the baseball season. Having a regular influx of statistics and sports adds some level of stability to my life and the wait for opening day is coming to an end.

It only helps the cause that from the end of NFL playoffs until MLB first pitch there are absolutely no sports worth observing. Sure there is the occasional NCAA game and watching tournament berths unfold but this is no different than getting that tasty bread at Outback, which you fucking devour in six seconds and then go on to piss and moan about where your cheese fries and steak are. And maybe you can say NBA basketball – but just about every team has a superstar starter, and almost everyone makes it to the post season- which lasts months anyway. It’s like having a kindergarten class of 30 play musical chairs only there are 25 chairs, and 2 of the kids are mentally retarded, one has a torn ACL, and the other two are from cities no one could give a shit about. Hockey? I have yet to develop the tolerance to understand the rules to even address Hockey. Arena Football is actually pretty sweet because the fans can steal the ball from players and it’s legal – but still it’s like masturbating with a cast on until your girlfriend comes back from a six-month vacation.

Baseball is regularity. It is a comfort. It is knowing that almost every day you can turn to the sports section or get on ESPN.com and drown yourself in a thick pool of statistics and game results. Then of course there is fantasy baseball, which I believe is something like scientology mixed with Ken Griffey’s SNES baseball game. It is an obsession that can ruin a lovely dinner date (e.g. “Swain’s pitcher threw 8 shutout innings… and I dropped that guy in week 3….GRAAAA! No, I don’t want any fucking crème brulee – lets go home so I can sleep in my jeans and stare at the ceiling”). Fantasy baseball is a passion that goes so well with “real life” baseball that the two now seem analogous in my mind and I care equally as much about my imaginary playoffs as the real thing. And don’t even get me started on Yahoo!’s StatTracker… I don’t understand why the Internet wasn’t invented sooner to accomplish such a magnificent achievement in sports and technology. It is the greatest advancement since the ball in sports and math in technology.

Yes… the wait is over and its time to get 110% as drunk in celebration.