>Charles an embarrassment? Wow, we disagree there. Not exactly earth shattering news. In any case I was only commenting on his dead-on statement that the Big East came into the tournament overrated. I didn't hear anyone else saying that, certainly not the selection committee.
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>Yup, Charles is an embarrassment. A big flat loudmouth. I'll bet he and Pitino traded notes during the commerical breaks on what cities have the best in extra-curricular services.
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>I don't think your Jayhawks have much to fear from Illinois. There has been unbelievable grumbling about them around here all season, particularly about the graduating seniors. They came in with a lot of hype and have not come close to living up to it.
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>I expected the Illinois/UNLV game to be closer. Illinois shot the ball very well. Right now, no team in the nation can beat KU on the inside, not with the nasty Morris twins....but KU's 1 weakness is when teams shoot lights-out from outside. I think KU will still win tonight, but they need to be at their best (which they were NOT in the opening game).
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>Pitt is like Texas when March rolls around -- it's just a question of who is going to "upset" them this year. This is the fourth year in a row they have been knocked out by a lower seeded team.
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>I was stunned at the end of the Butler/Pitt game. Stunned.
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>Craig B. will probably cough up a hairball to hear this but I find myself cheering for BYU. I admired the way the whole Davies situation played out, including him being on the bench with the team after being kicked off the team. Granted, BYU's rules are not yours or mine, but they are their rules and they have stuck to them when many other top programs would have looked the other way. I also like the play of Jimmer Fredette. He led the country in scoring, plus that has to be one of the coolest names in basketball. I like the way he elevates for his jump shot. And so fast getting it off. There was one yesterday from behind the arc on the right side where he caught the ball with a defender all over him and drilled it like an assassin. The tiny opening was all he needed.
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>I agree that Fredette is lethal. He reminds me of Reggie Miller, who could shoot a three ball in a split second. And he can pass the ball well. Here's the problem - teams try to beat BYU at BYU's game. You have to play physical against them. A few bitch-slaps from the Morris twins at KU and I don't think Jimmer will be quite so Jimmer.
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>And you can admire the Davies situation, but I don't. If I were a player in demand (which Davies is) and someone tossed me for one night of de-flowering, I'd personally leave with 1 finger in the air and go play for who offered me the most.

We don't need to bat Charles back and forth endlessly -- boy, would we be tired given his bulk -- but I will ask you to at least keep an open mind. He is not the oaf you seem to picture. For one thing he has that rope-a-dope tendency to let people think he is dumber than he is. Some southerners do that and some blacks do that, and Charles is both. He is no dummy.

He sure wasn't wrong about the Big East, other than maybe thinking they would not flame out this spectacularly. Of the historic 11 teams who made the tournament, 9 are gone the first weekend. And the other two advanced by beating another Big East team (Connecticut over Cincinnati, Marquette over Syracuse). Anyone who predicted this before the tournament would probably have been dismissed as some hyperpartisan fan of another conference who had been hooked up to laughing gas and forgotten to say when.

Re Davies, you are coming at it from a wholly different perspective from his. I am not passing judgment, which surely I am in no position to do. Just saying think about it. As a star athlete in this day and age he surely had opportunities before. Why he "succumbed" this time, who knows, but he reported himself for violating the honor code. He could have gone to any number of other schools in the first place. Obviously it is something important to him. Again, that may not be your life choice or mine, but I respect him for honoring it. (As his teammates and coaches clearly do by letting him still be part of them even though he won't be playing any more this season). I will take Brandon Davies over any number of Cam Newtons.