I don't typically post YouTube videos here at The World According To Buchs. In fact, I've never posted a YouTube video here at tWAtB. So for that reason alone, it's likely worth your time to click through.
First of all, I'm not a Marquette basher. Milwaukee born and raised, MU has been my home team ever since I started paying attention to NCAA basketball. Now that I've got that out of the way... I present empirical evidence that Tom Crean is a mediocre coach! Over the last 5 seasons (post D. Wade), Crean's Golden eagles are a combined 14-26 against these "marquee" coaches: 1-1 vs Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) 3-6 vs Rick Pitino (Louisville) 0-2 vs Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) 0-2 vs Lute Olsen (Arizona) 2-3 vs Bo Ryan (Wisconsin) 1-3 vs John Thompson III (Georgetown) 0-2 vs Bob Huggins (West Virginia/Cincinnati) 2-1 vs Jim Calhoun (Connecticut) 0-1 vs Tom Izzo (Michigan State) 5-3 vs Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh) 0-2 vs John Calipari (Memphis) I left out a win against Bob Knight's Texas Tech ...
I'm sure all of you were distraught over the fact that The World According To Buchs was apparently missing for the last 18 hours. Nothing to fear, just doing a little bit of housecleaning. For instance, you may have noticed that the URL of the site has changed - we're now sitting at bryanbuchs.com instead of www.bryanbuchs.com. I think I have my mod_rewrite rules configured correctly, so anything bookmarked at the old address should redirect to the new automatically. I also removed the "/archives/..." from the URLs - again, fingers crossed, but it should be transparent.
I walk home for lunch almost every day. It's about a 9-10 minute walk, which gives me about 40 minutes at home. it's great - sometimes I'll start a load of laundry, or play a few games of Wii Bowling, and of course, eat lunch. As usual, I walked out the back door today and started back along my usual route to the office. In the parking lot behind our building, there was a USPS van in the spot closest to the driveway. The driver was walking up to the van and did not make eye contact with me. The time was 2:22 pm. At 2:26 pm, I had made my way north on Prospect Avenue to the parking lot in front ...
Marquette (#6 seed) and Stanford (#3) played late Saturday afternoon in, if nothing else, a very exciting game. Stanford won 82-81 in overtime on a basket by Brook Lopez with 1.3 seconds left. A random collection of my thoughts on the game: Tom Crean got out-coached by the assistant who had to take over for Stanford. Where was the Mbakwe!? We needed more Mbakwe! He got 1 minute in the game, and that stiff Blackledge got four. I may be mistaken, but we were getting killed inside by 2x Lopez. Some additional bulk inside wouldn't have hurt. Jerel McNeal went on a tear late in the game, but I think he forgot that there were 4 other guys on the court. Granted, ...
Congratulations, I guess. Was it ever in doubt?
Deep down, there was a little part of me that was hoping there would be another snowstorm so I could write this post. (Mind you, a very, very small part.) After the 4th major snowstorm of 8 or more inches this winter, I had all I could stand, so we booked a little vacation to the beaches of Sunny Mexico. Two weeks from tomorrow, I'll be sitting on a lounge chair on a beach drinking fruity drinks 'till I can't drink fruity drinks no more. We're spending two nights in Cancun, then driving down to Playa del Carmen for the rest of the trip. I'm hesitant to make too many plans while we're there, because when I'm on vacation, I ...
If you're a regular visitor to the World According To Buchs, you might have noticed that the same 4 or 5 posts on the home page. In fact, if you were to browse the archives, you'd see one post in January '08, and a few back in October of '07. Well, the good news is that I finally found the password that allows me to post again! I suppose that's the only reasonable and acceptable excuse for not posting for the last 5 or 6 months, right?
If anyone is interested, I created a "World According To Buchs" group in the ESPN Tournament Challenge. If you'd like to play along, sign in and hit the "join This Group" button. You know, just for fun. I'll reveal my Final Four picks on Thursday, because I don't want anyone piggybacking on my brilliant analysis of the brackets. Marquette got the seed I think it deserved. (Playing Kentucky will make for an interesting day at one household in particular.) I think MU pulls that one off, but then runs into a team that they have zero percent chance of beating in the second round - Stanford. Wisconsin got hosed with their draw, though. Duke loses their conference tournament semifinal game, Wisconsin ...
In my book, the first four days of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament are second only to the NFL's opening weekend - and it's a very close second. And if you're like me, you'd like to play along and have someone to root for. Back in the day, someone at your office handed out printed copies of a page from the newspaper and asked you to return it with your picks and $5. That's still fun, but now there's this crazy thing called "the internets", and there are many, many more options available. And many, many more prizes. And a lot more competition. Here's a short list of free bracket games online - prizes vary. The ESPN Men's Tournament ...
As I mentioned yesterday, spring is in the air. You know what else that means? Baseball - for some of us, but not me. Baseball is dead to me. Once upon a time, I loved the baseball. I was growing up in the 70s/80s, and all the kids in the neighborhood followed the Brewers. It didn't hurt that they were actually good at the time. I remember flagging down squad cars to ask the police for their limited-edition baseball cards. I once had a collection of 1000's of baseball cards (which I think I sold off for $15 at a garage sale; I'm sure the profits were spent on candy within a week). We went to Brewer games as a family ...
...and that means one thing: The stench that lay dormant in my car all winter is back. Thanks, buddy.