This post is worth exactly 39 cents...

Man alive were there some good games on last night. The night started with the news of UCLA laying an egg against a Cal team that I hadn't heard one word about all season (the Pac-10 cellar has a tendency to do that to teams) and ended with LSU eeking out a win over Tennessee despite an unbelievable tip-in by the uber-clutch Chris Lofton which was quickly followed by possibly the worst charge call I've ever witnessed. The amount of bogus charges that get whistled these days is reaching epidemic levels. Alas, that is a post for another time.

After John Brady nearly lost the game for LSU by drawing a technical in protest of said call. The Tigers managed to string together a few stops and come out victorious over Tennessee. It's a good thing too. If the game goes double OT, I think there was at least a 55% chance that Glen "Big Baby" Davis would've collapsed right there on the Georgia Dome floor. Jesus, I haven't seen somebdy panting like that since the time we convinced that Special Ed kid to snort his ritalin. All in all, it was one hell of a night of basketball. And to think, we're just getting started. These next two weekends are the only two weekends of the year in which I don't feel like a total loser if I don't go out and get drunk. That's not to say I'm not going to be a stumbling, staggering mess by midnight to night. Rather, that I'll have at least thought about staying in before succumbing to the siren song of the sauce. Anyway, here's a few thoughts about the weekend to come. If you want a little more in-depth analysis (God I can't believe I'm saying this) then heead over the G:TB and see if you can smell what TJ's cooking.

- Notre Dame is sneaky good. This is the most non-descript ND team in about five years, and somehow they're easily the best of that bunch too. I couldn't name a single player on ND besides Colin Falls but they've gotten better as the year's gone on and are probably gonna end up with a 5 seed.

- I'm picking BC to win the ACC Tourney. Don't ask me why (playing Miami today has something to do with it, I'm sure), I just think they'll play UNC tough again and find a way to knock them off in the semis before finishing what they started in the last year's ACC Finals.

- This just in: Engin Atsur has been awarded a 7th year of eligibility by the NCAA. Good. I wasn't sure how the Wolfpack would've gone on without him.

- Can somebody get word to Dominic James that the monochromatic look he's always rocking is horrible. I mean, like, guys wearing capri pants awful. I'm all for color coordination, but do we really need you knee high socks and your completely unneccessary elbow brace to match your team's unis, regardless of color? It's a bit much, no?

- Speaking of uniform issues, anybody who wear one of those elbow things who's not named Allen Iverson is officially a douchebag. You don't need to wear it anymore than I need to have my hands tattooed (Which would be tits, by the way). It's a completely transparent attempt to look "cool". If you want to wear that crap (I looking at you Pat Fitzgerald) then I won't to see a doctor's note.

- I know that he had a great year and this may seem like an overreaction but I'm going to say it anyway. I have zero confidence in Aaron Afflalo as a crunch time scorer in high level NCAA Tourney games. Even before going 1-7 yesterday, he seems to be conspicuous by his absence in most of UCLA's big losses this year and he was highly ineffective during the Bruins' run in last year's tourney. A big time swingman should be able to create his own shot off the dribble and Afflalo really struggles to do that against consistently when guarded by top flight athletes. Remember I said this if UCLA meets a team like SIU in the second round.

And with that, I'm gonna call it a week. Well, not actually. I'm still be at work, though there's a 80% chance I won't do a single ounce of work for the duration of the day.