Roundball, Baby.

So, you thought Davidson v. Oklahoma was exciting back in November? Or that nailbiting Tennessee-Gonzaga game last week? Or U of L taking up the bitter fight against UK over the Christmas holidays? Well, you would be wrong.

NOW is when the roundball matchups get really exciting. Take a look at the games today. Louisville-Villanova, for example. That's not just sweat rolling off those youthful foreheads. It's determination, even desperation. Rage. These are the games that matter -- a major loss for either of these teams, currently ranked 21 and 17, respectively, in the second half of the season means being pushed back to the bottom of a hill far too steep to climb between now and the start of March Madness.

The play gets uglier now. Uglier, and bolder, and riskier, and much, much better. Defensive players who watched, stultified, while the offense took three or four shots now light up under their opponents' basket, fighting for rebounds, stealing passes, risking goaltending calls to knock the ball back.

And on offense, even the most prima of prima donnas suddenly realizes that there are four other guys on the court. Passing gets cleaner and more creative. Players cut better, and shot selection improves. Even musclebound, Shaq-esque lugs get their feet moving to get open.

It's the purest form of the purest form of the game of basketball.

If you haven't been watching up to this point... well, what exactly are you waiting for?

And one more thing. Tyler who? Steph Curry is the best basketball player in the NCAA. Don't even try to argue with me.

Davidson vs. West Virginia

U.G.L.Y.
You ain't got no alibi--
You ugly! Yeah, yeah, you ugly!

M.A.M.A.
I know how you got that way--
Yo' mama! Yeah, yeah, yo' mama!

Man. Last night's Davidson vs. West Virginia game, the first of the Jimmy V double-header, was the ugliest basketball game I think I've ever seen. The Cats made the Mountaineers look like the JV squad in the first half, ripping up the WVa defense and sending their coach's blood pressure (which seemed to be an issue anyway) through the vaulted ceiling of Madison Square Garden. The balance of the game tipped seriously in Davidson's favor when the Mountaineers' only remaining guard, who had been tiptoeing around the court trying not to re-injure the shoulder that kept him out of WV's last game, slumped off the court toward the locker room six minutes in, with another shoulder contusion.

Then Davidson spent the next twenty minutes trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as Curry went cold for more than a dozen field goal attempts and the team battled against a reinvigorated WVa defense.

The Wildcats (whose roster boasts players from five states plus Quebec, Sussex, Turkey, and Nigeria) seemed to be trying to give up a win to a team playing without their two starting guards, a team that missed 12 of their 29 free throws, and who never had more than a four point lead. But the Mountaineers snagged a massive 32 offensive rebounds to the Cats' 12, which kept them in the game -- though, as a Davidson fan, I'll of course chalk this up to the fact that West Virginia is a taller team at every position.

It was a weird game. Davidson's coach, Bob McKillop, who is a cool character in most situations, exploded at his team during a mid-second-half time out. Even the unflusterable Curry grimaced and shook his head after missed shots, while his cowed teammates tried to keep him fired up.

Finally, in the last five minutes, the Cats gelled, turning up their defense, using clever inbounding strategies, bouncing off screens, and feeding the ball to Curry, who at last sank three after glorious three. I ask you: can that kid cut, or can that kid cut? He's smart, he's fast, and he can stop on a dime; WVa's defenders didn't have a blessed chance against his quickness and shot selection once he remembered how to play basketball again late in the second half. A drive, some fancy ball handling, two steps back... and voila. A hard-fought win.

Stuff

Random list time!

Stuff Christians should stop freaking out about:

1. Halloween. Dude. What a bunch of wasted energy is poured into the anti-Halloween lobbying that happens every year!! Is Samhain a pagan holiday? Yup. Is Halloween a pagan holiday? Uh, no. It's primarily the Eve of All Saints, and secondarily a cutesy Hallmark-perpetuated candy orgy/ excuse for little kids to dress up and show off their dressed-up-ness. Let your kids trick-or-treat, don't let them trick-or-treat. Whatever. But please don't try to convince me that the Bible says it's wrong for Christians to let their kids put on Superman capes and go door to door asking for candy. Please.

2. Disputable issues like consumption of alcohol, R-rated movies, tattoos and piercings, birth control, etc. Read Romans 14, and remember that we're not to look down on people who don't feel freedom in these areas, nor judge those who do.

3. Politics. Christians can vote, be involved in their community political processes, argue passionately for their political positions, and even (in some circumstances) run for office. Should they hang all their hopes of their country being transformed for the better on a political party, politician, or ideology? Definitely NOT. The Kingdom of God isn't Republican or Democrat or Green or Labour or any other such thing, and it won't be advanced by the (conscious) efforts of secular political machinery. God will advance his Kingdom.

4. Anecdotes that "prove" our points. We're so eager to latch onto this or that bit of scientific or archaeological or historical or sociological evidence that confirms our positions (like in this Boundless article), but we roll our eyes when pagans and atheists do the same (like with the ossuary found a few years ago containing the bones of a dude named Jesus son of Joseph). We ought to take an attitude of quiet confidence when it comes to these sorts of discoveries. Of course history, archaeology, and the like will confirm and support the Scriptures -- God did, after all, create everything and all truth belongs to him -- but that's not why we trust the Scriptures. We trust them because God has, by his incomprehensible grace, enlivened our hearts and enabled us to see in the Scriptures the testimony of Christ, his perfect Son and our atoning sacrifice. So we should be glad, knowing that the Scriptures are true, when some new affirmation of their historicity comes to light, without placing our hope or confidence in those discoveries.

Stuff Christians should get more fired up about:

1. Nominal Christianity and twisted "Gospels." Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, TBN, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Ann Holmes Redding (the Muslim Episcopal priest), and Jeremiah Wright should not be given a free pass by Christians and pastors around the world. Just because someone claims to be a brother in Christ and uses churchy-sounding words does not make him a Christian. And don't even get me started on hip-hop artists who give a shout-out to Jesus when they win a VMA for their hit single about making sure one ho don't find out about another ho.

2. Manhood, womanhood, and families. The Scriptures we (supposedly) hold dear are full of instruction about and examples of what godly men, women, and families look like. Something is not right when people who call themselves Christians divorce with impunity, reject and despise God's blessing of children, and in all other ways look just like the world in the way they live as men and women, and the way their families work. Early apologists and historians appealed to the morality and purity of Christian families as evidence for the truth of the Christian faith. Pretty tough to do that now, huh?

OK, that's enough ranting and randomness for the day.

Maybe one more thing. I'm watching NCAA basketball RIGHT NOW. AWESOME.

The Countdown Continues

28 Days!! That's four weeks from tonight!

Go Wildcats!

I'm Starting the Countdown Today

It's official. Only 59 days until Davidson basketball.

I've written about Davidson before, first here, and then after their quarterfinal slaughter of Wisconsin, and then in response to an ESPN.com article about them... and then again after their soul-crushing defeat by those Kansas jerks whom I've sworn to hate until my dying day...

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Ugh. That put me in a bad mood. Let's try something more cheerful, shall we?

AP Photo/Chuck Burton

Ahh. Much better.

Does this mean I have to get cable?

AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!

My Wildcats missed their last-second three and walked away with a 57-59 loss to #1 seed Kansas, putting four number ones in the Final Four for the first time in NCAA history.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

And you know a player is brilliant when you shake your head and say, "Boy, he was cold this game..." and he's made 25 points. Poor Steph. The good news is that Steph is only a sophomore, and has two more years to take Davidson to the big time.

They played their butts off, but couldn't shake Kansas' brutal triple-team defense of Curry in the last few seconds. Their crack shooter couldn't take his last, game-saving three. It was a heartbreaker.

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

"The pressure is all on the Jayhawks," said the coach of the last Cinderella to reach the Final Four, George Mason's Jim Larranaga. "If it is close, look out. There will be no fear factor for Davidson, and I am sure Kansas would have preferred Wisconsin. No one likes to play the role of Goliath."

[...]

Kansas would never have looked twice at a single Davidson Wildcat, yet somehow this ragtag collection has beaten the champions of the Big East and Big Ten in successive games to reach this stage. Sunday, the Big 12 champions must beat them to reach the Final Four.

And no excuse would be good enough in defeat.

In that hallway by the Kansas locker room, someone asked Self whether a victory Sunday would produce more joy or relief.

"I would say joy," he responded. "Yeah, I'd say joy."

Pause.

"And probably a little relief."

--Pat Ford, ESPN.com

This is exactly the issue for Kansas: regardless of the outcome of this game, they are angling to become the most despised #1 in the Final Four. If they win, they'll have the dubious honor of defeating the nationally-beloved Davidson and America's roundball sweetheart, Stephen Curry. If they lose, it will be a humiliating defeat to one of just a handful of double-digit seeded teams ever to ascend to these heights. Kansas is in a no-win situation, despite being the (pretty reluctant, it seems) pick of all the commentators I've seen today.

What I want to see today is for Davidson's persistence to pay off. Ideally, they'll stay close to Kansas through the first half, wear them out with patient passing and shot selection, and then let their shooters loose in the second half.

The dramatic music has started on CBS. They're calling it "Davidson vs. Goliath." Here we go.

Thoughts on the Texas-Memphis Game At the Half

I hate matchups like this. Memphis is huge -- tall, burly guys whose sheer size has kept Texas in the cold. For six straight plays Texas drove for the basket, couldn't get off the ground, and turned the ball over to Memphis for six unanswered baskets.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

A smaller team like Texas ought to focus on quickness and outside shooting to take down these behemoths, but they haven't shown a lot of speed or passing skill in the first half. One of the CBS commentators analyzed the problem in the first few plays, and marveled that they weren't driving in (potentially drawing a foul -- inevitable when driving against a big team -- in the process) and then kicking the ball out for a long two or a three-pointer. They were getting annihilated! But just a few fake drives and long shots, and they're back from their 11-point deficit.

They've got 20 minutes to redeem themselves.

The Big Time

Folks, Davidson is such a great team that they made last night's game (against apparently overrated #3 seed Wisconsin) look boring. Although I did see Stephen Curry miss two three-pointers in a row -- one very badly -- before sinking the next few with his signature panache. He's the kind of player who makes me think I could grab a basketball and land gorgeous, high-arcing 25-footers with no trouble at all.

One thing I've noticed during this year's tournament -- it's really amazing how little of a game you have to watch in order to figure out how well matched the teams are. Defensive aggressiveness and offensive rebounds are the two things I tend to pick up in the first few possessions I see (wow, that's a lot of double letters). For instance, toward the end of last Sunday's Western conference quarterfinal between Western Kentucky and San Diego, Western set up a series of defensive traps that basically shut down the USD offense; they did the same against Drake last week and attempted it, unsuccessfully, alas, against UCLA. You would only have to watch 5 or 10 minutes to see if the strategy was effective against the other team's skill.

Now all this isn't to say that I can watch the first ten minutes of a game and know beyond a shadow of a doubt who will win. Roundball is a capricious mistress, people. Anybody who's ever smacked his forehead in disbelief at an uncalled mugging or volunteered to lend his glasses to a clearly visually impaired ref can attest to the fact that games are won with 90% sweat and 10% luck.

Besides, when the games are as exciting as tomorrow's Elite Eight matchup between Davidson and the #1 seed Kansas, why watch five minutes when you can watch the whole thing?

Davidson

Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina. #10 seed in the Midwest Region. Their star player, Stephen Curry, son of former NBA player Dell Curry, has the kind of stats college recruiters break delinquency laws over -- and yet he's playing for some obscure liberal arts school nobody'd heard of until they buried #7 Gonzaga, then #2 Georgetown in their run up to the Sweet Sixteen.

Even my mom, whose bracket is now useful only as a coloring page for my niece, has got to give these guys props. They're a smooth-playing fundamentals team with some flash, courtesy of Curry, whose outside shots are so perfect as to verge on poetic. The kid looks like he had his first shave Sunday afternoon, but with the ball in his hands, the commentators call him a "ruthless assassin." Despite his youth, he's almost unflusterable, and has a good time on the court to boot -- he's incredibly fun to watch.

AP Photo/Chuck Burton

Oh, AND, Davidson's board of trustees did the student body a huge solid, shelling out ticket money, bus fare, and a hotel room for any student who wants to make the trip to Detroit for Friday's game against #3 Wisconsin. Killer.

Root for 'em! They're the best bet for anybody who loves to cheer for the underdog.

In Other News...

I love March Madness.

That's all.