Final Four is set

From Twitter: @moconnelljr… If anyone asks about my bracket I’ll say I got half the teams in the Final Four. And leave it at that. #MarchMadness

That pretty much sums it up. For all the upsets and bracket chaos we still ended up with two number one seeds in the Final Four. One team that has absolutely no business being there, and another that will be America’s most hated team Saturday evening. (Sorry, Michigan. It’s true.)

The story, of course, is Loyola-Chicago, darlings of the Midwest, the nation, and the world. It’s not just that they’re an 11 seed. They’re an 11 seed that nobody had ever heard of, from a bottom-of-the-barrel conference, that somehow pulled off three squeaker victories before taking it to Kansas State this past Saturday.

Not since UNLV won it all in 1990 has a team from a “weak” conference won it all. And UNLV was a powerhouse team. The last time a nobody team from a nobody conference won the national championship? Probably these same Loyola Ramblers in 1963, though Texas Western pulled off the same feat three years later. The list of “bad conference” champions the past 50 years is exactly three names long. UNLV, Marquette (which wasn’t in a conference), and Louisville, who won two titles as a member of the “Metro Conference.”

Oh, this would be sweet to see Loyola-Chicago bring it home for the…

(Have you Googled it yet?)

… Missouri Valley Conference, home of basketball powerhouses Bradley, Drake, Evansville, and Southern Illinois, among others.

Cinderella story… comin’ outta nowhere.

This is why they call it March Madness

Were you surprised?

Did you watch any college basketball this season? It’s been chaos from the word go, and this weekend was no different. Living to see the day a 16 seed beat a one was good enough to call it a great weekend (especially when that 16 seed was from the America East conference!), but put a dozen other upsets and my old friends from Syracuse the mix, and the weekend hits epic status.

Still can’t get over the Orange, the team that didn’t even deserve to be in the tournament.

Bluebloods pulling off upsets is just par for the course anymore.

Tourney begins among other things

It’s always football season in D.C.

Even among March Madness, Spring Training, Champions League games, and cherry blossoms, it’s always football season here.

Yesterday D.C. fans were treated to the first public visit/commentary from Alex Smith, new quarterback of our local football team (that would be the politically-incorrectly-named Redskins). Other deals and signings dotted the news this week as well, making us forget that there’s, you know, Madness out there to see. (Upstate New York still going strong, by the way, with Buffalo’s upset win over Arizona last night.)

It’s not all seashells and balloons coming out of Ashburn, though, remember. Those balloons come with a price. A story in my local Loudoun Times-Mirror (a weekly rag I’m liking more and more) reminds us Loudouners of the price we pay for Skinsmania. The story points to the financial burdens placed upon the City of Richmond, hosts of Redskins training camp, and how it adversely affects Richmond taxpayers. Lest one think this is simply a Richmond problem… “Loudoun drinks burgundy-and-gold Kool-Aid too.”

Ouch.

“As part of an unusual eight-year marketing deal [signed] in 2012, Loudoun’s supervisors agreed to pay $2 million to the NFL team, which practices and has its headquarters in Ashburn. In exchange, the county received “marketing assets” (their italics) that brand Loudoun as the corporate home of the Redskins in on-air mentions, advertisements and news releases, and on the backdrop that appears behind speakers at the team’s news conferences.

“The county also received special access to events at Redskins’ practice facility in Ashburn, pregame field passes, club-level game tickets and the use, one game a year, of a FedEx Field premium suite, which county officials used to entertain business leaders and prospects.”

Must be nice.

And I’m still waiting for my invitation to the premium suite.

It’s (already) on

March Madness is already here. I used to think the play-in games were kind of a waste, but I’ve taken a greater liking to them in recent years. Last night I was treated to victories from teams (sort of) representing my new and old homes. Yeah, Redford isn’t really that close to where I am now and Olean, New York, isn’t that close to Binghamton, but you get the idea. Still felt good, especially, to see the Bonnies win. Let’s see if upstate New York can make it two for two tonight with a win from the Syracuse Orange.

Disclaimer: This blog does not condone Syracuse being in the tournament in the first place. But we’ll take it. 

This is the new fad

You read it in The Washington Post. You read it in the Costco members magazine. You heard about it from @moconnelljr. The latest yuppie status. It’s not driving a Prius or drinking raw water.It’s chicken farming.

You know… chickens. Like, having chickens cooped up in your backyard. Literally cooped up in your yard. Or closet or whatever you can afford in the city.

According to the Post chicken men are ponying up big-city money for their hobby. Unlike farmers of yesterday or modern authentics, status farmers pamper their birds and don’t mind sharing what spend. Then put it on social media so everyone knows how hip you are.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to try to jump in on the next crazy fad.

This blog now has a friend

Nothing makes you feel stupider than taking that online Jeopardy! test. But you knew that, because you were following @moconnelljr, my new Twitter handle. Yep, I’ve entered the world of Twitter. (Seven or eight years after everyone else did.) I’ll still be posting here Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but for your daily (or hourly) fix of all things MOC, check out this thing called the Twitter.

See ya there!

Jeopardy! test tonight

It’s that time of year. The day when I start out feeling pretty smart, then end it feeling not so much. No, not for my NCAA Tournament bracket… it’s time for the online Jeopardy! contestant test!

Why do I subject myself to this?

Well, you never know.

It’s not to late to sign up.. head here and join me tonight in feeling silly.

Pizza-football marriage is no more

Last week we heard that Papa John’s pizza–the ubiquitous sponsor of NFL football–would no longer be affiliated with said sports league. Both parties seemed to agree the parting was mutual, and for once actually I believed that old line. Each entity has become too toxic to also carry the toxins of the other. Race, politics, head injuries, money… nobody wants to be involved with all that. First mistake made by John Schnatter (that’s “Papa”) was opening his mouth at all about the tenuous connection between NFL anthem protests and slumping pizza sales. (I think this exacerbated the situation and put Papa John’s in the undesirable position of unofficial pizza of Skinheads and, well, undesirables.)

It all started with slow pizza sales.

Anyone ever think that it might just be their pizza is bad?