Big Monday....

Tonight's marquee "Geenie of the lamp" play is the Connecticut Huskies +2.5 over West Virginia. I must first disclose how much this release pains me. As many of my rabid fan base know, I am as big a Robert "Huggy Bear" Huggins fan as there is. This man boasts a lifetime graduation rate somewhere along the lines of a David Hasselhoff breathalyzer test. While Huggy's best remembered for his Cincinnati Bearcat teams, fashionista's everywhere will remember Huggy best for his velour track suits and mock turtlenecks. While this West Virginia squad has the depth to make a run in the NCAA Tournament behind the coaching greatness of Huggy Bear, I expect a desperate UConn team to show up big tonight. With Calhoun trying to make sure this Husky team makes it into the tourney, a win tonight is imperative.

As if the Duke men's basketball team was looking for anymore of a reason for people to dislike them, they found yet another. First let's flashback to the 2004 NCAA men's final four contest against UConn. After blowing a big lead in the second half, Duke (Chris Duhon) unloads a meaningless 3 pointer at the buzzer from 60 feet out to assure the loss but backdoor cover. As someone who has mastered the "polish hedge" over the years, I had Duke at 8-1 to win it all and hedged by taking UConn -2 in the game. Thanks to the meaningless shot I lost on both plays.
I can only take minor solace in the fact that Duke has yet to return to the Final Four after that screw job they did on me six years ago.

Fast forward to last night's contest against Virginia Tech. After the line came in from 12.5 to 12, I still jumped on the Hokies and felt rather good with the lead ranging from 5 to 7 points with under two minutes left. However, with four seconds left in the game and Duke already up by nine, some stiff throws up a meaningless three and prison rapes me in the process. A push is understandable but an "oh by the way three pointer"with no time left and a big lead is a classless move. What I have grown to learn over the years is that coach K has matastacized into a phony. Word of advice to the Duke hoops team- you are slow, pasty white, and have a zero intimidation factor. Duke can pile it on against an average Virginia Tech team but remember the smackdown Georgetown put on the Blue Devils last month? Come March I expect more of the same from Coach K's "dead Poet society team" in the form of being awarded a number two seed in one of the brackets, followed by a loss in the sweet sixteen. In the meantime, Coach K can work on changing the name of the school from Duke University to College of Coach K.