March Madness Day 2 in the books

I'm still hanging tough through the first round of the tournament. Unfortunately, in sticking with tradition, my mornings have been considerably better than my evenings -- causing me to get my hopes up as I inch toward the top of my pool before unceremoniously plummeting back to mediocrity. Who would have guessed that, using the tournament as an exceptionally small sample size, the Pac-10 appears to be a more talented conference than the Big East. So here are other high and lowlights from Friday.

Pro: Knowing that the top two people so far in my bracket pool picked Xavier and Wake Forest respectively to win.

Pro: Tiger Woods back in the Masters' promos! The Masters is going to be fantastic this year because everything the commentators say about Tiger is going to be laden in innuendo whether they mean for it to be or not. Tiger Woods golf for Playstation has become infinitely more entertaining now. Whenever he pops on the screen and says something like "Congratulations, you just won a tournament!" I always add, "Now let's get you out of those stuffy golf clothes and back to my place."

Con: Shelbi's focusing. She missed all of Thursday's games which nearly had a devastating effect. Yesterday I called her in the closing moments of the Oklahoma St./Georgia Tech game. I thought that Shelbi had picked Oklahoma St. with me. When I realized she had actually picked Georgia Tech I desperately tried to get her out of the room. But it was too late. The game was tied when she came in. Three minutes later, Oklahoma St. had turned the ball over twice and missed an open shot while Georgia Tech had drained a 3 and was sealing the game with free throws. Sigh. 

Pro: Shelbi's focusing. In the closing moments of the Michigan St./New Mexico St. game, I had Shelbi start focusing on Michigan St. to win. The Spartans were at the line with a two-point lead, hoping to make it three with one more free throw. The Michigan St. player missed but, one second later, the referee blew his whistle and called New Mexico St. for a lane violation. I have never seen a line violation called in high school, let alone college, and certainly not in the final seconds of an exceedingly close NCAA tournament game. And, even weirder, the replays showed there might not have even been an infraction at all. Michigan St. drained the extra free throw and I looked over at Shelbi with my mouth agape. "Sometimes my focusing works in mysterious ways" she said. In short, don't mess with her.

Pro: Elliott losing 5 Elite 8 teams already but still ending up ahead of my brother-in-law through Friday. Bryce's pick of Clemson to win the tournament surprisingly did not come through.

Con: That ever-present Buffalo Wild Wings commercial. I need to break this ad down because every time I see it, which is 35 times a day now, it makes me angrier. 
I can't believe that NBA commissioner David Stern has allowed this ad to keep running since it states, in no uncertain terms, that professional basketball is rigged by a chain of sports-themed restaurants who want their patrons to keep buying food and beer and so they extend the lengths of games to keep people in the restaurant. I have so many problems with this commercial it's tough to know where to start. 

First, when the camera shows two friends watching the game at the beginning of the commercial, the guys have their arms around each others' shoulders. This makes me believe that a woman directed the ad. I have watched many sports games with male friends over the years. Many of them have been exciting but, at no point, have I ever been so engrossed in a sporting event that I just reached over and put my arm around a friend.

Second, the game the restaurant is showing is between New York and Boston, It isn't the Knicks vs. Celtics because of the uniforms but it is still New York vs. Boston. And everyone in the commercial is hugging and high-fiving because of how great of a game it is. I don't care what kind of sporting event they're watching, fans of Boston and fans of New York would be trying to kill each other if they were in the same location. I'm pretty sure a Red Sox fan has never called up a Red Sox fan during Game 7 of the ALCS and said "Hey, I just want you to know, this has been a great game. So good in fact that I no longer care who wins. I'm just glad I got to watch this."

Third, one of the main characters in the commercial is clearly wearing a Boston t-shirt. With the game tied, one of Boston's players is sprinting for a game-winning lay-up before being blinded by the Buffalo Wild Wings employee's camera flash and missing. And the Boston fan in the restaurant celebrates the game going into overtime. The slogan for Buffalo Wild Wings is "You've have to be here" but I'd suggest Buffalo Wild Wings: "A haven where the worst sports fans of America can congregate without the fear of being mocked."



Thank you for this EA Sports


Posted by Matthew Sherman at 3/20/2010 8:53 AM
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