college basketball

Commentary on the Sochi hockey commentary

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Five stars, blue ribbon and highest honors to the women and men’s ice hockey games announcer at the Olympics. [Editor’s note: we *think* its Mike Emrick Puff is referring to, but we have consumed zero seconds of Sochi except for Tara and Johnny’s Instagram, so correct us if we’re wrong in the comments.]

You could watch and listen or just listen and know what was going on in the game. All athletic announcers should take a lesson. He wasn’t telling them how to play, he was simply describing the plays as they happened. You had no trouble knowing what was happening. He knew the players on the other teams and could call their names out — amazing. NBC should give him a big raise, and ESPN should take a lesson, because their people can’t do it right.

In other news, everyone needs to start paying attention to their teams for March Madness. Last night, Russdiculous threw up the last shot in OT for the Cards’ sliver of a win over Cincinnati, and Kentucky had a hard time getting past LSU. Should be an exciting tournament…

My advice for winning Warren Buffett’s billion dollars

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I have to confess that I hope each and every one you who follow me accepts the billion dollar NCAA basketball tournament challenge grant opportunity from Warren Buffet’s big buck bucket. And I hope you are all winners, though, if your dream comes true, you realize you’ll have to share the billion dollars, since that’s all the poor man can afford to lose.

Picking every single winning team is all we need do, so I’m going to be studying a lot before the games begin. Forget the odds, just do your homework is the best advice I can give.

Speaking of games, the Olympic Games are soon to begin, and I want to wish all of our athletes the best in Sochi. I pray for safe trips for all who travel there. [This is a message from Puff’s husband: Some have suggested that Puff end with “I’m Putin my money on the athletes from the USA” but Puff put the Nixon that.]

College basketball, take a hint from football!

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Lately, I see so many bad calls by the refs on the basketball court, I have come to the conclusion that basketball should copy the practice adopted by football. They should stop the game so the refs can look at the play over and over so they can make a better guess as to who did what to who, or who smacked the ball out, or broke his mother’s spine when he stepped on the line, etc.

Everyone would benefit! More time for commercials (the networks), more time to go grab another beer (fans) or – during a very difficult one – more time for a potty break! This would go a long way toward keeping the fans in the arena and fans at home from singing the old nursery rhyme about several blind mice.

I know they do this to decide the degree of flagrancy for flagrant files, but I would like to see this done for other calls and missed calls as well. This would not be a logistical nightmare. One possibility would be for the coaches to wave, shout and/or whistle the refs when they think the replay rule should be invoked. I can help them work out the details if they can’t figure it out.

If this seems to be a bad idea, how about a simpler solution: more time in referee school.