Christmas Redux

We’ve got family and friends coming in today for Christmas festivities which will include a completely unholy white elephant gift exchange and a 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 uncles vs. nephews hoops smackdown.

Who ya got?

Gaming hint: Age, treachery and guile beat youth and a bad haircut any day of the week.

Got some pre-scheduled posts worked up but we’re pretty much out for the rest of the day so from all of us here at BwD, including Marshal and the fattest horn groove of all-time, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

"The ball is tipped..."

Congrats to Roy Williams and the North Carolina Tar Heels on their 89-72 victory over the Michigan State Spartans tonight for the NCAA championship.

Just a couple of observations from this year's largely pedestrian NCAA men’s basketball tournament:

We’re glad the rest of the nation finally caught up to what we’ve known for quite some time and that is Tom Izzo, despite the thumping Sparty took in the championship game, is arguably the best coach in the nation.

If having the Final Four and the championship game in a domed football stadium is a bad idea, having the regionals in domed stadiums is absolutely horrible. Yeah, we know about the economy but a great economy was not going to fill up that many more seats in the stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play. Smaller venues, fellas, smaller venues.

Don’t think we’ve ever seen a player as decorated as UNC’s Tyler Hansbrough (4-time All-ACC, All-American, NCAA Player of the year in 2008, All-time ACC leading scorer, and pictured) be as much an after-thought in the Heel’s game plan as he has with this team. With all the offensive talent on that squad and towards the latter half of his senior year, he appeared to collect the majority of points on put-backs and late-in-the-shot-clock-scrambles where he happened to be in the right place at the right time to knock down a face-up 15-footer or a layup underneath.

OK, so he's probably the next Mark Madsen at the next level but it's kinda nice to see a kid stick around for four years to see through on a dream of a national championship.

Alright, here it is – the one, the only “One Shining Moment”