... which is another way of saying, “And a big ol' Woo Pig Sooey to you, too."
This after 8-seed Arkansas hung on to clip defending national champion Kansas yesterday, 72-71, and back to Lawrence with you, Jayhawks. At least you're not Purdue.
But we're now three days into Da Tournament and half the 1-seeds are gone, which suggests this is every bit the Wild West show we thought it would be. Eight teams slipped past the velvet rope into the Sweet Sixteen on Saturday, and two of 'em are 8-seeds of higher. The other besides Arkansas is Princeton, a 15-seed who's officially become this year's Little Team That Could.
The Princetons handled 7-seed Missouri with astonishing ease yesterday, winning by 15 and never trailing after Matt Allocco's jumper three minutes into the game made it 7-5 for the Tigers. Whatever shenanigans legendary Princeton coach Pete Carril is pulling up there in the heavenly realm -- Pete died just last August, so don't tell me there isn't something cosmic going on here -- continue to weave chaos and magic.
Surely America has attached its affections to Princeton now, the way it to St. Peter's last year. The Blob will, too, if only because Princeton is the alma mater of Frank Deford, one of the great long-form sportswriters of all time. We are a loyal tribe, we Knights of the Keyboard (as Ted Williams once dubbed the Boston sports scribes). So go, you Princeton, and we'll try to forget one of the worst presidents in American history (Woodrow Wilson) once ran the place.
Princeton gets the winner of Creighton vs. Baylor today, a 6-seed vs. a 3-seed. Which means it's not impossible the Princetons could match St. Peter's march to the Elite Eight last year. And wouldn't that be fun?
Isn't all of this fun?
No comments:
Post a Comment