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Monitoring the Madness

6:07 p.m. ET – 'Bama held on 90-85. Marquette did a nice job hanging in.

There was a slight pull at 24 Seconds to cheer for Marquette because its coach, Tom Crean, was a former Michigan State assistant and could replace Tom Izzo eventually.

The most eventful thing about the ending is that Alabama made its free throws to pull away and then ice the game. If you can't hit free throws, you can't win in this tournament.

  • Ditto for Montana which was simply the better team today. That was about as non-dramatic as an "upset" can get.

Nevada never seriously threatened in a game that has to be a major disappointment considering how strong of a season the Wolfpack had.

  • That's it for us for the day. As shifts of work go, it doesn't get much better than hanging around 24 Seconds, watching games and laughing with a parade of lunatic college hoop fans (my father potentially being the craziest. Well, except for the gambler.)

  • Enjoy the evening games. Keep an eye on Iona …

5:52 p.m. ET – 'Bama is as schizophrenic in this game as they were all season. They pull away and then blow it, pull away and then blow it.

Since I was busy watching Tennessee–Winthrop when Marquette mounted its comeback, I didn't realize how uneven this team is. 'Bama by three, minute left, so hold on.

  • Montana, meanwhile, is proving my short panic attack wrong. They are about to finish off Nevada and set off a strong night of partying at the M&M, not to mention Missoula.

Since the place doesn't close, we are hoping everyone will be ready for the second round game against Boston College on Saturday.

The beauty of the NCAA tournament is that a little, out of the way state such as Montana has a team representing it competing for the championship. Five more wins and the trophy is yours.

  • The Ohio guys at 24 Seconds, Rob and Reggie, said they drove up to Detroit from Columbus and couldn't find a single radio station carrying the NCAA tournament. You wouldn't think this was possible.

  • Valued Reader Email:

"How do I get your job? I know I could out drink-write you if you given the chance! I even called the UW-M 'upset' if you want to call it that. I do give you credit for attempting what Hunter S. Thompson made famous. I'd be drinking Scotch though."

Jeff Smader
Wisconsin

How did I get a job like this? I had to sleep with a lot of people.

  • By the way, this column is ending after the day games. Sorry to all the second-shift workers of America, but the rest of you can go watch the games yourself. I need a cup of coffee …

5:39 p.m. ET – Outrageous two-pointer by Tennessee’s Chris Lofton, a sort of fall-away from the corner with 0.4 remaining that gave the Vols an escape of a victory.

Then Winthrop almost scored on this crazy, length-of-the-court play that the timekeeper totally screwed up and didn't start the clock when he should have. But Winthrop missed.

Anyway, incredible game, best of the day, played at a high level throughout and a dramatic victory even if it was the two-seed prevailing. It doesn't get much better than that. Bruce Pearl almost sweated through his suit.

  • As for my $1,800 Winthrop friend. I think he just went outside to puke in the alley. And not just from the beer. March Madness, you've got to love it.

  • Valued reader emails:

"As a guy who grew up 30 miles from Champaign, Ill. and a big Illini fan, I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds the irony in the fact that Bruce Pearl's wardrobe is now primarily Orange. Go figure."

Mike Delaney
Lee's Summit, Mo.

"I almost had a heart attack during the B.C. game. I think shaving their heads did something to their brain cells, specifically the one's that tell them how to play basketball."

Chris B.
Southborough, Mass.

  • Marquette has battled back on Alabama (OK, maybe I overreacted on the Tide). My father, who is the only 'Bama basketball fan in Boston, is on the edge of his seat but already on his second black and tan.

  • Meanwhile Montana is holding off Nevada but it is getting close, 66-60. Something tells me the Wolfpack are going to pull this out …

5:21 p.m. ET – Arriving at the 24 Seconds are NCAA fans Dan Dennison of Rochester, New York and Rob Bishop and Reggie Thomas of Ohio, who all attended Mt. Union (Ohio) College together.

Every year the college buddies get together for one NCAA sub-regional or regional, watch hoops, drink beer and have a blast.

They are here in Detroit for the Auburn Hills games that begin Friday. They think this is either the 14th or 15th consecutive year they've done it.

"The first one was in Indianapolis," said Reggie. "Jason Kidd was a freshman at Cal."

Now that is a tradition.

  • The TV just announced that Judge Joe Brown would not be seen today. I am so disappointed.

  • In "someone's" Calcutta pool, some idiot paid $2,200 for Seton Hall. I am trying to find out who he is so I can invite him over to play poker.

UConn went for $29,000.

If you don't know what I am talking about, good for you and your bank account.

  • At the Nevada–Montana game someone held up the following sign: "Grizzly 1,300 pounds, Wolf 70 pounds. No contest."

Someone spent time writing that out? And then carrying into a stadium? And someone at CBS decided to show it?

  • My father finally arrived at the bar, a couple hours late – fresh from a delayed flight and a very brief visit with his granddaughter. He immediately ordered a black and tan and wondered if B.C. got "lucky" …

5:05 p.m. ET – Billy Packer in the Chicago Tribune today; "My charge in life is not to know all 334 Division I teams. If someone said, 'Packer, that's your job,' that would be one thing. But I'm not one of those guys who sounds smart because he can spout off the names of every coach."

How about knowing anyone outside the ACC?

That was unfair. Packer also knows UConn, Kentucky, Indiana and he thinks he's heard of this UCLA place.

  • Terry McCormack of Syracuse checked in to complain that I have a great job. You probably don't know him, unless you hang around shady bars in Syracuse, N.Y., (he looks like an older Gerry Mac, of course, doesn't everyone in the 'Cuse) but he isn't a bad college hoops fan, for a hockey guy.

  • Florida is pulling away on South Alabama, which may be hung over from the underrated Mardi Gras celebration they have in Mobile.

  • I think as the day goes by my analysis of things gets more and more ridiculous. I also think Ed passed me another beer when I wasn't looking.

  • Winthrop is up two (58-56) on Tennessee and the game is getting physical.

Our "someone" who is banking on the Winthrop $1,800 just declared, "Winthrop is going to win this game. They are disciplined."

Then he rejoiced over a Volunteer traveling call.

This is going to end either really good or really bad …

4:40 p.m. ET – Winthrop coach Greg Marshall may live in Rock Hill, S.C., but the dude can dress like he is from the Upper West Side. Big-time pinstriped number. And he can coach, by the way. His team flat-out gets after it.

Note to college A.D.s with job openings, stop hiring Duke assistants and call Marshall.

  • So here is my suggestion to everyone. It is almost 5 p.m. ET and if you can slip out of work, do it. This Winthrop–Tennessee game has the feel of an instant classic in the making.

It is not that Winthrop is playing out of its mind. Despite being the 15-seed, they can hang with the Vols.

  • Meanwhile, Montana is carrying a 40-33 lead into the half and if they could ever figure out how to stop Nevada's Kemp, who has 17 of his team's first 31 points, they'd be fine.

Montana was just physically tougher than Nevada in the first half.

  • Alabama looks dangerous. They are huge inside, move the ball well and are knocking down everything in sight. One SEC team always goes nuts in the NCAAs, where their size and speed mesh and this might be one of those runs for the Crimson Tide.

  • By the way, somewhere in there I did get another beer.

  • And people, stop sending me emails about some punctuation mistake. Lighten up, would you?

4:23 p.m. ET – A "someone" at the bar, who is in from New York for the Auburn Hills sub-regional, will get $1,800 if Winthrop can win outright. He's enthused by the halftime score, Tennessee 36-34. He's also plenty nervous.

  • 'Bama is playing terrific, up nine on Marquette. They only have one guard but are feeding it inside non-stop on the Warriors (I, like Charlie Pierce, refuse to call them anything else).

Here is what I am wondering. Considering the struggles of the Hall, and now Marquette, was the Big East really that great this year or did UConn and Villanova delude us into overrating it?

  • UTEP/Texas Western Hall of Famer Don Haskins checked in. He was going to get his truck gassed up and then going to watch some games "somewhere." One thing I know about Haskins, who turned 76 Tuesday, there is no way any tequila will be served at this "someplace." Nope. No chance of that at all.

Mainly he wanted to know if UTEP could beat Michigan tonight in the NIT.

  • The M&M has got to be rocking out there in Butte. Montana 23, Nevada 14. Who knows if it keeps up, but a couple of those Grizzly power forwards look like they could fell a tree with one swing. I didn't think they deserved a 12-seed but maybe they'll prove they earned it.

  • Yahoo! Sports baseball writer Jeff Passan, who once worked in Fresno, Calif., checked in on the Pacific/Pacific controversry and declared that "the University of the Pacific is about as Pacific as O'Douls is beer."

See, I am glad we hired that guy.

  • Dick Enberg is calling the games out in San Diego. I love listening to Dick Enberg. Good guy Jay Bilas is the color man. Strong crew right there. Good thing there was no bomb.

  • Another guy here at 24 Seconds is a "big Big East fan." You've never seen someone's eyes light up so much at the mere mention of "Pittsnoggle" …

4:01 p.m. ET – Looks like they cleared up the "bomb scare" at Cox Pavilion, home of Steve Fisher's latest team.

The ATF was all over this thing. The NCAA will be investigating it about four years and blame it all on Ed Martin.

  • Valued reader Ed Morris, who, it turns out, lives just around the corner from me and is another North Carolina fan, even though he is originally from South Carolina, came by and thanked me for giving him an excuse to get away in the middle of the day.

  • Three games are going at once which is a little bit confusing to watch, but here are my simple impressions.

South Alabama has a puncher's chance with Florida, that is, they can win if they keep knocking down threes. If not, they can't score inside.

Winthrop is standing toe-to-toe with Tennessee, trying to beat the Vols at their own fast break style. They might be the best 15 seed I've ever seen.

Alabama–Marquette is just tipping off and 'Bama coach Mark Gottfried, a personal favorite of my dad (who finally landed), is wearing an wonderfully atrocious crimson blazer. Awesome. Tom Crean, meanwhile, looks like a good guy to get a home loan from.

  • Probably most interesting is that the talent level between the high seeds and the low seeds is not nearly as discernable as you would think. The early NBA entrants and scholarship limitations have evened things out.

  • We like Bruce Pearl because he is a Massachusetts native (as am I) and Dick Vitale once said Pearl had committed "career suicide" when he recorded phone calls and caught Illinois in a recruiting violation.

Considering Pearl is making seven figures right now I'm eager to commit career suicide myself.

Of course, writing a blog from a bar might be it …

3:46 p.m. ET – Florida–South Alabama is underway, setting off a battle between Billy Donovan and his former assistant at U.F. John Pelphrey.

Also on the U.S.A. staff is assistant Tommy Ostrom, who used to work at Florida until Donovan wanted to bring in some more experience.

No bad blood here, but you know when friends play there is just a little more intensity.

Good game so far.

  • Winthrop and Tennessee is an excellent game. Both teams like to play up-tempo, Winthop coach Gregg Marshall has good depth and a ton of NCAA experience. Pearl might not have wanted to dress so conservatively.

  • Valued reader email:

"I am only a four-hour drive from you and am offering to open up the beers and help you drink them so you can concentrate on writing."

Joe Arruda
Toronto, Ontario

Thanks man, taking one (or more) for the team.

  • Joel and Chuck are claiming they have to go back to the office soon but I still don't believe them. What in the world could you two possibly have to do, I asked.

"Go back and see what you've been writing about us," Joel said.

  • By the way, I worked for three years at CBS sportsline and considering the number of angry emails I have received about how their video service didn't work, I am very happy I am not in customer relations right now. For many, I guess it is a disaster, unable to watch anything.

  • I also am glad I don't work there because if I did I wouldn't have the kind, talented and wonderful bosses I have at Yahoo! Sports …

3:31 p.m. ET – Perhaps the best part of the double overtime game is that it bridged the gap to the second game in Greensboro – Winthrop vs. Tennessee. The Vols are up early but it is close.

  • I am severely disappointed that Bruce Pearl is only wearing an orange and white striped tie (no word, yet, on the suspenders) and not the great orange coat. Maybe he is saving the true fashion disasters for the later rounds.

  • By the way, I was not celebrating drinking and driving when I said I respected the guy who went to college in Montana for driving two hours to go to a bar. I assume he stayed in Butte that night.

  • Valued reader email:

"FYI, Stockton is connected to the Pacific Ocean by way of the delta (rivers), and is considered a deep-water port of the Pacific."

John Kelley
Redding, Calif.

I stand corrected, although I am still not sure it should be called Pacific. Why not Delta State? Oh, right, that one is already taken. Like I said, I went to UMass. We even gave Marcus Camby a degree.

  • B.C. took command in the second OT, jumping out to a nine-point lead and cruising from there. Pacific let the Eagles hang around too long. You only have so many chances to spring an upset over a team that is more talented.

Pacific had two and didn’t make it happen. Eventually B.C. was going to outlast them.

Eagles win 88-76. We all agree this was good for B.C.

  • Nevada–Montana is coming up next, a round of drinks on Grizzly Adams at the M&M.

Montana is a 12-seed, Nevada is a five. But even if Montana wins, it will hardly seem like an upset. Nevada deserves its seed and all, they are a tough team, but a five-seed should always be one of those bumbling SEC or Big Twelve teams, not another mid-major …

3:15 p.m. ET – There can't be many things worse than getting eliminated from the NCAA tournament in the first game on Thursday. By 2:30 ET you are out. It probably doesn't even feel like you were in.

At least if you lose Friday Night, you were in it for a day and a half.

"Makes you want to call up the NIT and ask, 'Can we still get in? Do you have an extra spot?'" said Joel.

Maybe the NIT could save a spot for just this situation.

By the way, I am liking these Chuck and Joel guys.

  • I love Al Skinner, who, like I, received an exemplary education at the University of Massachusetts (and this is the only way, these days, UMass could ever be mentioned in a NCAA Tournament blog) but the idea of mid-major going 3-0 on Billy Packer had appeal.

  • Pacific is gunning it in from behind the arc.

B.C. is more patient offensively.

This has been a great overtime to watch. And I know that hurts since you are not watching it.

  • Double OT for B.C.–Pacific. Craig Smith hit two clutch, clutch free throws to tie it up and force another five minutes. The most underrated thing you can have in the NCAA tournament is clutch free throw shooting, which can win you so many games …

2:56 p.m. ET – Valued Detroit readers Joel Welsh and Chuck Fuller, who both work for startupnation.com, stopped by after reading I was here at 24 Seconds. Good guys. They wanted to watch the games live on the CBS site but, of course, that thing isn't working at all.

Anyway, they claim they are here "just for a beer and an appetizer." I don't believe that at all.

  • Chuck, a Carolina grad, had a good observation about the game B.C. is dealing with. "This is the kind of tough game that Final Four teams have early. Then they get it going."

  • Seton Hall did nothing, losing by 20. Want to have some fun tomorrow, read the sports column in the Bergen (N.J.) Record. It ought to be a little pointed.

Oklahoma didn't play much better, but the reaction in the state's morning papers will show the difference between the Midwest and Metropolitan New York.

  • By the way, as of right now, mid-majors 2, Billy Packer 0.

  • B.C. and Pacific are headed to overtime. Pacific made a great come back, hit a huge three late and then both teams botched potential game winners. This is a great game, classic March Madness.

So good, I’ll order another beer. You know, I don't want Chuck and Joel to drink alone.

  • And somewhere at 30,000 feet, my father fumes …

2:35 p.m. ET – Valued reader email:

"Can you please call my office and come up with some extravagant excuse to get me out of here. Please. I will be indebted to you eternally and will become a UTEP fan and learn the three-step. Too many people here are streaming the games and I cannot watch them on the computer without waiting for the damn thing to buffer. I have already used the excuses: My grandmother passed (six times) and septic is backed up."

Chad Schnepf
Indianapolis, Ind.

Sure, how about, "Dan Wetzel can't drink all that beer himself. He is a man in need of help." Try the humanistic, compassionate approach, makes you look like a good person.

  • Back to that frozen pizza commercial. I haven't run the demographic info but I am guessing the audience for the NCAA tournament is mostly men, mostly young men (although older men would appreciate this too). Just a hunch but if I was trying to get their attention I wouldn't go with Dick Vitale dunking in dress clothes, I'd go with Jessica Simpson dancing in a mini-skirt.

There, now you owe me $15,000.

  • A suspicious package was found outside Cox Arena in San Diego. Cops were called in to check it out.

No official word yet but in all likelihood it is nothing more than Steve Fisher's monthly "under the table" payment to his players.

  • Funny stuff, but the 24 Seconds here in bucolic Berkley, Mich. has cleared out, a lot of guy's headed back to the office after their "meeting." If your boss is popping Altoids at the 4 p.m. staff meeting, he was probably here earlier.

  • Pacific is making the B.C. game a game (59-57) and thank goodness, we need some excitement. Oklahoma and Seton Hall have been so disappointing that there is nothing to get excited about here.

  • Northwest Airlines delayed my parents flight from Boston to Detroit which means my father, Paul, a Final Four legend himself (well, at least at the media hotel bar) has yet to arrive at 24 Seconds. And he has no access to the B.C. score. I’m sure he is a real happy camper right now. Hopefully my mother got a seat in another part of the plane …

2:23 p.m. ET – Is college coaching a tough business? How’d you like to be Larry Harrison of Hartford, who resigned his job today just two weeks after being named America East Coach of the Year. The Hawks went 13-15, so maybe Harrison’s peers just wanted to keep him around and thought giving him the award would do it. You never know, you can’t trust college coaches.

Harrison was a terrific assistant under Bob Huggins and Pat Kennedy before getting the U.H. job. Perhaps he’ll go back with Huggs when the big guy gets a new job.

Like, in Vegas.

  • The way mid-majors Milwaukee and Wichita are beating on their big conference brethren, O.U. and Seton Hall respectively, perhaps it is time for Billy Packer and Jim Nantz to, I don’t know, figure out how that RPI computer works and actually pay attention to more than just the ACC.

Craig Littlepage has to be enjoying this.

  • These two "upsets-in-the-making" (Wichita is higher-seeded than the Hall) are actually pretty boring because the best teams are winning handily. It just isn’t that edge of your seat drama.

  • If Oklahoma is going to do anything, Kevin Bookout needs to finally put this team on his considerably big back and carry them. If not, the Sooners are saying goodbye.

  • If Craig Smith doesn’t make the NBA then I’ll bet all of Bob Kraft’s money that Bill Belichick signs him. Smith is the Antonio Gates of 2006. Pacific has no one who can handle him, they all just wave as he plows to the basket.

(I told you I could go all day with the puns).

  • A lot of empty seats in Salt Lake City. Of course, the B.C. game tipped at 10 a.m. Brilliant.

  • If, after watching 100 hours of CBS this month, you don’t consider buying a Pontiac then they wasted a heck of a lot of money.

  • There is no dumber a commercial than the frozen pizza one where Dick Vitale dunks. Who comes up with this stuff? Do they get paid? It is stunning that there really was an ad agency meeting where someone dares to pitch the following idea:

"OK, Dick Vitale so wants some 'delivery pizza' then he starts playing like Jordan and, get this, we use trick cameras to make it look like he dunks. But the joke is on him since it isn't really delivery pizza, but frozen pizza, even though we are at a basketball court and there isn't an oven within sight. That'll sell us some pizza?"

The only thing more stunning is someone at the frozen pizza company said, "Yes, Let’s buy $10 million worth" …

2:09 p.m. ET – My two radio big wigs left. Perhaps they have to go fix an antennae or something. Either way, for the record, their five-hour meeting was actually only two hours.

  • Seton Hall has begun playing a little better and has cut the lead to 12. They are still in it. Anything is better than down 20, especially when Adrian Wojnarowski is on press row just waiting to crush them.

  • Valued reader Samuel Moreau checked in and offered this about my column this morning about a bar in Montana and the NCAA tournament:

Your article about the M&M in Butte totally made me homesick. I grew up in Montana and spent a number of drunken nights in the M&M during college. Nice work. You captured it perfectly. Go Griz!

Considering the University of Montana is almost a two-hour drive from the M&M, you have to respect a college kid willing to travel to drink there.

  • B.C. started the second half on a 7-0 run. The Pacific offense has dried up. (I can make water puns all day.)

I’ll spare you, though.

  • Meanwhile, Milwaukee has pushed its lead to nine on O.U. and they just look like the best team. It’s quite possible not even a Toby Keith song can save them …

1:48 p.m. ET – The second beer showed up. Work, it’s a four letter word.

Watching three games at once, while trying to write is more challenging than you’d imagine. Somehow I’ll persevere. There will be four games on at the same time in a little while.

  • Pacific and B.C. are tied at 34 at the break. The way the Eagles started hot, that has to be considered a win for Pacific.

My favorite fact about Pacific – it is located in Stockton, Calif., which isn’t near the Pacific Ocean. They must have a heck of geography department there. It is almost as good as when Idaho joined the Atlantic Sun Conference.

  • Wichita is back, kicking Seton Hall. The Pirates are down 20 and are being pounded by a far superior team. They have never led, but the good news is, twice in this game the score was tied. Half-full we see things …

1:30 p.m. ET – Seton Hall is down 16 at the half. That’s not as bad as it sounds. It was 20.

  • By the way, Jerry Tarkanian is hosting a NCAA Tournament party in Las Vegas at Caesar’s Palace the next three days. Or maybe it lasts three days. Either one is possible when it comes to Tark. He assured me he was going to a book signing on Friday, so hopefully he behaves himself. Who knows?

All I know is that if I was in Vegas, I’d be at Caesar’s right now. Have Tark tell you some Frank Sinatra stories.

  • One beer down here at 24 Seconds (more to come).

  • Greg Gumble has busted out the maroon hanky in the pocket for the day. You have to be very confident to get up in the morning and decide to rock that on national TV.

  • Pacific is now up on B.C. and the Eagles look tired, which they should be. They played Sunday in Greensboro, went to Boston and got a 10 a.m. tip in Salt Lake City. They should have gotten North Carolina’s three seed, not the four in SLC.

We’ll see if it costs them. Pacific is solid …

1:06 p.m. ET – My main man Beto in El Paso, who started the fashionable 66 line of commemorative clothing, just checked in to see if I was going to the big NIT tilt tonight in Ann Arbor, where UTEP (Texas Western) is playing Michigan. He wanted me to go and be the only UTEP fan in Crisler Arena and heckle Tommy Amaker.

I told him the Michigan fans would be heckling Tommy Amaker.

Anyway, I have a case of beer bet on UTEP tonight with a Michigan fan. Sucker's bet.

And you think I was only going to cover the NCAAs here?

  • One of Beto’s claim to fame was when he almost got into a fight with Ricky Martin at the Camino Real in El Paso because he believed Ricky had dissed Don Haskins.

Ricky backed down. I love Beto.

  • At this point (Wichita up 16), Louis Orr will be fired at halftime.

  • Would it be tasteless to make a tsunami reference in regards to Pacific’s play against BC?

I’ll avoid it just in case.

  • My column earlier this week on how if 16 seed Oral Roberts needs an act of God to beat top seed Memphis isn’t it fortunate that Oral Roberts the man has spoken with God, was met by 50-50 reaction from ORU grads. Some got the fun of it. Some were outraged I wrote anything about God and picked a part each word.

That’s the thing about evangelical Christians, they take things literally.

(That’s a joke. Come on).

12:51 p.m. ET – Wichita State is crushing Seton Hall, 23-10. The Shockers have good size, which negates the suspected advantage that a major conference school such as Seton Hall should enjoy. I like Louis Orr and all, but I am rooting for the Shockers just to spite Bill Packer and his half-baked selection committee rants.

If he wanted to complain about undeserving teams, why was it all about the Valley and not about a team such as Seton Hall, which was plenty suspect during the year?

I’m all about the Valley today.

  • Orr was on the hot seat this season and I am not sure reaching the NCAA tournament changes anything. Especially since his two strongest players are out of eligibility and his recruiting has been hamstrung by the job security talk.

He can’t afford another 40-point loss. Especially to Wichita.

  • B.C. is representing the Atlantic well but getting up early on Pacific. Don’t underestimate oceanic pride …

12:41 p.m. ET – Here at 24 Seconds (which we should rename 35 Seconds for the day) I’ve already been joined by a couple of heavy-hitting Detroit program directors, Dan Zampillo of WXYT, the sports station in Detroit and Craig Schwalb of WKRK, free-FM in Detroit.

They are having a “meeting.” I suspect it will last for five hours. It appears there are a bunch of other guys around here having “meetings.”

If you are a would-be talk radio personality in Detroit come on by and bring your tape.

As for the games, Milwaukee is tied at 10 with Oklahoma and I suspect they will give the Sooners everything they can handle. Upsets happen when you have a senior team, UWM qualifies with a ton of experience (same group that went to the Sweet 16) and the big name school is coming out of a down year for the Big 12 conference …

12:31 p.m. ET – OK, in an effort to slaughter any last perception that, while being national columnist for Yahoo! Sports is indeed a job, it hardly qualifies as work. I am finely situated here at the 24 Seconds bar in Berkley, Mich., prepared to watch every NCAA tournament game, eat, drink (my spelling may deteriorate as the afternoon progresses) and share the sights and sounds of the tournament live.

I know you are at work, in school or perhaps just home alone "sick" looking for some companionship during one of the greatest days of the sports year. So I am here for you.

If you happen to live in Metro Detroit and want to stop by 24 Seconds, they have about 20 plasma TVs and more than enough alcohol for you to possibly drink. Come on by. I'll be the good-looking white guy with the computer.

So far Wichita State is kicking Seton Hall around, something I expect will continue to happen.

And I'll order my first beer …