Ain’t no fun like unearned fun.

THE GAME EVERYONE TALKED ABOUT (SORT OF)

A ‘W’ is a ‘W’, I Guess
#3 UCLA 81, California 80

UCLA has started to make a living out of standing on 17 and hoping their dealer busts. Which is, of course, nice work if you can get, and if you can avoid falling behind on your account and living in a piss-filled backalley with rats, meth-addicts, and CSI: extras. It helps when the casino has stacked the deck in your favor.

In case you didn’t see one of the umpteen replays over the weekend, it went down like this: Cal inbounds the ball with a 80-79 lead with 20 seconds to go. Ryan Anderson receives the pass. Josh Shipp knocks the ball out of his hands, and knocks Anderson to the ground. No foul called. Ball given to UCLA despite last touching Shipp. On the inbounds, Shipp hits a circus shot (admittedly impressive) from behind the hoop to put the Bruins ahead. Too bad that’s illegal. But the refs don’t call it, and UCLA escapes, again, thanks to o-fishy-aiding.

Of course, as our father might say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. And for truthiness-style analysis of the waning minutes of that game, we turn to the only source we think we can trust: a pissed-off, emo-fueled Ukklah fan:

That there video, by the way, contains all the Duke-UNC content you’ll find in this post. We summarized our feelings about that game pretty well here.

TWO ULTIMATELY MEANINGLESS WINS WE ENJOYED ANYWAY

Cue up Yakity Sax, Brian
#11 Georgetown 55, #12 Louisville

If the “lol fundamentals woot!!!1!!” crowd loves anything as much as the Princeton offense, it’s Rick Pitino, so I’m sure they were all pleased by the game in D.C. this weekend. Louisville? 56% from the charity stripe. GU? 17 turnovers, most of the “what the fuck were you thinking???” variety. We said judgment should be reserved on either team until after this game, and after watching all of it we can say with confidence that while both of these teams are good, neither is great by any stretch. Well-coached? Sure. Talented? In part. Fatally flawed? Oh, fuck yes.

That said … hey, Big East regular season championship! Suck that, Syracuse.

Virginia is for Upsets
William & Mary 56, Virginia Commonwealth 54

Hey, nice to see little brother get a win! Good on ya, little man! [rubs Williamsburg's head while entire city squirms and bitches about how they were here first] They hate it when we do that.

All around, a solid tournament for the big-time-but-not-quite-ACC-big-time Virginia public schools. The Tribe William-&-Marians Somethingnotoffensives will play for their first-ever NCAA tournament birth against everyone’s favorite mid-major, George Mason. And while the loss was a tough one for the Rams, they have a strong case for an at-large bid. (The tournament committee has a long memory with mid-majors - see Gonzaga about eight years ago - and won’t forget VCU’s win over Duke in the first round last year.) Yup … all in all, a great year for the Virginia squads in the CAA …

Sorry, now_a_hoo.

THREE GAMES I CAN’T GET WORKED UP ABOUT

Big XII Gig is Up, Apparently
#6 Kansas 72, Texas A&M 55 | #9 Texas 62, Oklahoma State 57

With your league’s status secure, it was nice of you to let your only two good teams off the hook so they could win their season finales in convincing fashion (the UT-OSU game was close, but not really close, ya know). Looks like your evil plan worked, Big XII. As your regular season winds down, the top six teams in the conference managed to squeeze their way into the RPI Top 50, meaning that your conference will likely get at least five bids to the tournament. Can’t wait to watch Baylor suck a wad against a #7 seed next Thursday - it’s gonna be fantastic.

Uh-oh, Here Comes the Boss
Kentucky 75, Florida 70

[whispers quietly during a sleepover] Look, we didn’t want to say anything about Florida behind Orson’s back … but, since we’re bff … omg this is SO not good. Losing in a must-win game to the Patrick Patterson-less Wildcats? The Gators might as well have mailed their NCAA tournament bid to Lexington! [stifles schoolgirl-esque laughter] But … shit, that’s Orson, turn out the lights! Quick! Sssssh! Get in bed! Don’t say a word about any of this. And do NOT say anything to Brad about me liking him.

Just Call us a Promisekeeper
#20 Drake 79, Illinois State 49

In our very first post on this here URL, we said we would start paying attention to Drake when they won the Valley. Done and done. We’ll let Steve Perry take it from here.

FOUR TOURNAMENTS WORTH ONE LINE APIECE

America East: Just let it roll off the tongue, it should come naturally - all together now - Ummbuck.

Big South: We told you not to mess with Winthrop, even if you are bringing a 7′8″ dude to the party.

Patriot: Raiders devour Bison; Eagles hate on the military; first round loss imminent regardless of result.

West Coast: 2:30am finish aside, we love small conferences and overtime and even we were bored by Toreros over Gaels.