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Saturday, 26 May 2012
22:14 - "The colors are different, the road the same."
I tweeted those words a short time ago, on the occasion of Hofstra's softball team falling one win (and at one point, two bases) short of reaching the 2012 Women's College World Series. As best I can make out, it would have been the school's first appearance in any Division I championship round (which I define as the final eight in the baseball/softball format, and the national semifinals in single elimination tournaments). All three games finished 2-1; the first required eleven innings to settle, the second went nine, and the rubber match needed only the regulation seven. Moral victories or "A's" for effort won't make their way into the NCAA Championship Record Book, but the Pride deserve both. Hofstra's number two, pitcher Olivia Galati, was precisely the opposite of the slang definition of that number. She hurled approximately 25,093^ pitches over the twenty-seven innings, and made sure her team was never out of touching distance of the South Florida Bulls.
What I meant by the words in the title was that I've walked this path many times before with the Big Red. I listed them in a previous entry, but my brief search efforts don't turn that up. I count eight close NCAA tournament losses in the last ten years, off the top of my head, including two in overtime in championship games. When Cornell reached the Sweet Sixteen two years ago, it was incredibly heartening to hear the Big Red being analyzed next to the big boys - especially with the campus reeling from a spate of student suicides. But it might not be hyperbole to say that the stakes were bigger for Hofstra here. Had they reached Oklahoma City, the Pride would have been front and center on the two main channels of the Self-Proclaimed Worldwide Leader In Sports. That would have been some valuable publicity for a school that is still very much seeking to enhance its reputation and brand nationally.* The story would doubtlessly have been enhanced by the fact that we're talking about a team from a cold weather climate that draws all its players from the Northeast and plays in a non-BC$ league. Could they really have gone in and taken a hammer and chisel to the Pac-12 mafia dominance?
As it turns out, South Florida is almost as good a candidate - the Big East hasn't sent a team to the WCWS in five years. Who knows? Only four years ago, Fresno State ran off an incredible streak on the men's side to take the title. South Florida has two solid pitchers, and they did take out Florida in their regional. Regardless, congratulations to Pride softball for taking all Hofstra fans for a great ride - and with Galati back next year, there's hope that this heartbreak may be a stepping stone to better things to come.
^ 328, if you desire precision.
* Notwithstanding the opinion expressed in certain comments from the President of the University.
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Thursday, 17 May 2012
20:32 - Jury Duty 2012: I did NOT see that coming!
Today's foray out to the Criminal Courts Building in Riverhead didn't go at all as I anticipated. But unlike Owen Luke Wilson getting his arm hacked off in Anchorman, my jury service proceeded very smoothly.
I expected to be in the Central Jury Room for at least one hour, if not longer. Even though I had my iPad and the room was WiFi equipped, I still wasn't looking forward to it. But after only about fifteen minutes, the right number of prospective jurors arrived, and we were brought upstairs. The first thing we were told was that the proceeding at hand was a "summary trial," a relatively new concept in the New York courts. Most of the agreed upon evidence had been assembled into a single packet, and the only witness would be the plaintiff. The entire thing would wrap up by the end of the day. The case was a personal injury dispute; beyond that, I won't touch on the factual specifics.
I was selected to serve and assigned as Juror No. 1. The attorneys gave their opening statements, the plaintiff took the stand, and after a brief recess, closing arguments were given. Then the judge charged us on the applicable law; on this, he did an excellent job, as several aspects of that charge came up during deliberations. He said he was a "traditional person," and that meant that as number one, I would be assigned the role of foreman. We went back into the jury room, received our evidence packets, and started deliberating as we waited for lunch to arrive (the court ordered in for us). With the benefit of hindsight, I was impressed at how all six of us put aside our gut feelings and focused in on the evidence and merits of the claim. Opinion swung, as the outcome of the matter hinged on an interpretation of one particular word in the question central to the case. As we worked through lunch, we finally arrived at a verdict that we all felt fairly applied the law as the judge had given it to us. We did so knowing that either way we went, someone in the courtroom would be unhappy. This weighed a bit more heavily on me, since it would be my words that actually broke the news to the losing party.
After I read the verdict, I wondered if the jurors would be asked questions by the attorneys after court was adjourned. That wasn't the case. We were led out of the courtroom, and past the jury room to an elevator, and then back down to the Central Jury Room to have our juror cards marked off. I left the building and drove away from the Suffolk County Center without seeing either counsel again.
From the perspective of convenience to me, it could have been a lot worse. As I arrived, there was an Eyewitness News (WABC, Channel 7) cameraman and reporter, there to cover... something. I'm not sure what. Had I been selected for a case like that, I might have been spending a lot more time in Riverhead, and traveling to and from the county seat, and a lot more money on gas (it's nearly fifty miles each way). More importantly than that, the service itself was more substantive than simply waiting around to be called (as was the case the last time I was summoned, nearly ten years ago). Presuming I remain a resident of New York, I've discharged my service obligation for the next six years. All in all, I'll take this experience - although it would be nice if I could find my earbuds...
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Friday, 11 May 2012
23:30 - Has anybody seen my drawing board?
I've been silent on the goings-on in my own life in recent weeks, because I didn't want to jeopardize any possibilities. But as of late this afternoon, there are no more possibilities to jeopardize. Both the power plants in Illinois (last month) and upstate New York (today) have sent me the dreaded "ding letter." While I'm disappointed that neither of these processes have resulted in employment, I'm a bit relieved not to be twisting in the wind anymore.
I thought the interview at Ontario at the beginning of last month went well. Many of the questions were similar to those I got in February, so I felt at least a little bit more prepared, and I thought I did better. But I still didn't make the final cut. One of my friends on Facebook commented that my combination of education and training is pretty unique, and some of the best in the world. The thing is, when you're applying for jobs in the nuclear industry, a majority of the applicants likely have those kinds of credentials.
That interview came at the tail end of a very fun trip upstate. Three days in Ithaca did wonders for my mindset going into it. After arriving on Saturday, I had a great time partying with Da Bones, even though my brain paid for it on Sunday. I spent Monday afternoon working off lunch at the Glenwood Pines by hiking Taughannock Falls. I did the trail along the bottom that leads to the bottom of the falls, and then hiked all the way up around the rim. All together, it had to be at least five miles. I stuck around for a little bit on Tuesday, after learning that one of my friends who had also come up that weekend left something behind.
There are two other things of note in the recent times. Last week, I had a wonderful birthday dinner with my best friend from high school. We just don't see each other as often as we should; I hope that we can change that, for however long I remain on Long Island. And two days ago, I attended a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, courtesy of the friend I mentioned in the last paragraph. We took especially stringent precautions to ensure we'd be admitted to the studio; as a result, we waited nearly two hours before the tickets were even handed out. The show itself was quite good. I imagine the staff had to write or rewrite the show on short notice, being as the President came out in favor of same-sex marriage about three hours before the taping. The second segment was a spoof on "The Life of Julia." As we sat in the studio before the taping started, my friend asked how the green screen worked. We explained that that particular wavelength of light is filtered out - and if you watch the segment, you'll see a really good demonstration of that effect. The interview with The Very Rev. John Hall, Dean of Westminster Abbey, was excellent as well. Here's the full episode, as well as the "Julia" segment (although I think this take on that ad is at least as good).
The long term outlook may have been thrown back into turmoil, but in the short term, there's one thing on the horizon - jury duty! Due to my military service, I hadn't been called in almost a decade. At the end of February, I got a juror qualification questionnaire; after filling it out, I was fairly sure that I'd be called in the very near future - and sure enough, the summons arrived three weeks ago. I'm not scheduled to go in on Monday, but I probably will have to report to a court facility before the end of next week. At least I will, however briefly, be doing something for which I'm getting paid.
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Tuesday, 1 May 2012
16:14 - On collegiate journalism.
Though I never wrote for either The Cornell Daily Sun or The Hofstra Chronicle, I have a soft spot for both papers. And both have crossed my radar particularly closely in recent days.
On April 20, the Sun ran four pages of content about a certain plant associated with that day of the year, including depictions of said plant's leaves on the cover. I didn't think much of it until last Friday, when the paper ran the editorial "Protecting Our Independence." Copies of the cover on newsstands in the administration building had their covers removed. To borrow the words of Jackie Chiles, the Sun's editorial board was shocked and chagrined, mortified and stupefied! They "find this to be an affront to [their] editorial independence," and conclude by stating that "[c]urbing speech, no matter the scale, has absolutely no place on a college campus." I agree, and applaud the paper for bringing this to light.
But when I first read that piece, I shook my head and chuckled, because I felt the Sun was very late to the party on this issue. Specifically, I recalled another editorial written twenty-six months ago, in which a different editorial board made an astounding claim. Urging the addition of an anti-discrimination clause to the Code of Conduct, the Sun "[denied] that Cornell should provide such unrestrained First Amendment rights to its students in the first place." I made a comment on Friday's editorial pointing this out. Shortly thereafter, I realized that there had been three editorial board changes since February 2010 (the Sun hands off to a new board at the beginning of March), and thus the current board has no holdovers from the 127th. I wrote a letter to the editor pointing out the discrepancy. I also reminded the current Editorial Board that it has taken an unequivocal position from which it cannot retreat for the remainder of its term, lest it be revealed as blatantly hypocritical. As yet, this letter has not run, but I don't blame the Sun if it doesn't - this being the last week of publication for the academic year, I'd understand if as much space as possible were being held for departing seniors to write their farewell columns.
The title of Friday's editorial - and the words "Independent Since 1880" that appear atop the Daily Sun's masthead - ring ever more true in light of what's going on at my real alma mater. Tonight, Hofstra's Student Government Association will decide on a new allocation of club space on the second floor of the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center. Should it be approved, the Hofstra Chronicle will be forced to vacate its current space in room 203 and move into a much smaller room across the hall. The Chronicle has been in its current location for about half a century. Put another way, that's two-thirds of the entire history of Hofstra University. It's the only club - and probably one of the few things on campus whatsoever - whose history runs all the way back to the founding. While such other traditions as the "Flying Dutchmen" nickname and the "football team" have passed into antiquity, the Chronicle remains. It's as much a part of Hofstra as any of the buildings on its campus.
David Gordon's letter to SGA lays out the facts well. But I was more moved by the thoughts of Jerry Beach '96 and Ryan Broderick '11. Reading about the connections between generations and the relationships forged in the Chronicle's newsroom reminded me of the band room at Cornell. When I was in Ithaca a month ago, I sat in that room again, and remembered the spot where, on my third night at Cornell, I saw something that made it clear I was in an entirely new world. I imagine that the various Chronicle staffs have their own sets of similar memories. So even though I've never stepped foot in room 203, I can appreciate the importance it has to a great number of people.
I'd say that the justifications for booting the Chronicle out are insufficient. But that would be inaccurate, because I haven't seen any such justifications offered. It's really too bad that the Chronicle doesn't have the resources to break away from Hofstra's club structure (at least, I don't think it does). Change solely for the sake of change is bad enough - but possibly worse is change for the sake of generating warm fuzzy feelings for the members of what Broderick called a "pretend congress."
(EDIT, 2 May, 10:15 pm: I just received an email from the Sun's editorial staff informing me that my letter will run in Thursday's edition. Here it is.)
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Monday, 30 April 2012
19:59 - An intriguing suggestion...
This is mostly a filler post to avoid having the last month of my thirty-first year be entirely devoid of blogging. But a friend Tweeted this picture earlier today:
I like the concept. It wasn't so long ago that having to make do without the ability to contact someone instantly was taken as a part of life. But I suspect this might not go over so well with some younger folk, who seem to be more attached to their phones. At worst, this is worth a try.
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Thursday, 29 March 2012
14:24 - That escalated quickly! It jumped up a notch!
Over the course of a couple hours this morning, my plans for the next five or six days changed drastically. Or to be more precise, plans now exist where they previously did not.
First, some background. Six weeks ago, I wrote about various job prospects. Two days ago, I mentioned "a couple of recent developments," and that one "[had] the potential to be very good." I was referring to the position I had applied for at a power plant outside Rochester. That application went in back in January, and I'd presumed that it had fallen down into the memory hole. That is...until last Thursday. I got a call from them, and it gets a little complicated here. The company that owns that plant just merged with the company that owns the one in Illinois. That means it's possible that we can't even move forward with this process until the one in Illinois comes to a resolution (and that process is going on five weeks of silence). So that had to be run up the chain of command in Rochester, but it came back with a green light. Then they had to get the scores from the test I took in Illinois (that test is standardized across the nuclear power industry).
All that led to a phone screening this morning, and both they and I are satisfied to the point where they're ready to bring me up there for an on-site interview, which will take place next week. I posted word of this onto Skynet Facebook, along with floating the possibility of swinging the return trip through Ithaca. At this, someone suggested going up there for the weekend and staying until the interview. Then someone else approved of this idea. All right, maybe it might be worth it! That would mean I wouldn't be driving seven hours the day before the interview. I do need to get my hands on a "dream crushing, soul devouring juggernaut" T-shirt, if the Cornell Store still has any of those. So, it seems at this point I'll be on or in the vicinity of East Hill from Saturday through next Tuesday. I'm very excited.
I'm also very excited about something else. You might have guessed it from the title. But in case you didn't, and you didn't see what I tweeted last night, and you didn't catch last night's Conan, behold the majesty which will grace the silver screen in the not too distant future:
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Wednesday, 28 March 2012
22:54 - What kind of a world are we creating for ourselves?
This morning, the Reason blog alerted me to this story out of Chicago. Man is pumping gas, and notices two teenaged girls leaving the gas station without a coat. As he leaves, he stops alongside them and offers them a ride. They refuse. Three days later, the man, a father of three with a fourth on the way, is arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The girls got the man's license plate and their parents called the police. From a common sense perspective, what did he do wrong? That said, from a legal perspective, he might be lucky that the offense to which he pled doesn't subject him to Megan's Law.
This evokes two reactions from me. The first is about my prospective procreation. I've long been of the opinion that I want to eventually have one kid - subject to consultation with whoever I'd be having that child with, of course. Seeing something like this really makes me rethink whether it's worth it, given that today's society thinks it proper for everyone to parent everyone else's children. The second thing I thought of was the last episode of Seinfeld, which centered on Jerry and his friends being prosecuted for breaking a "Good Samaritan" law. In fictional Massachusetts in 1998, the law compelled them to render assistance; in real Illinois in 2012, it compels people to refrain from doing so.
There's actually a third reaction - did Free-Range Kids cover this (and thus, did I gloss over it earlier)? The answer is yes. I think Lenore has it right, in that the girls were right to refuse the ride, but it should have been dropped there.
I wasn't going to write about that, but then I saw this police blotter posted on Facebook. It includes a tale of a woman who noticed many pink flamingos on her lawn. Her first instinct was not to inspect the creatures, nor to simply take them down and junk them...no, it was to call the police. Only with an officer's assistance could this woman ascertain that the flamingos were part of a prank. Adam Carolla has often mentioned having to deal with neighbors who insist on setlling disputes over noise or property issues by getting the authorities involved, as opposed to hashing things out amongst themselves. I'm not at all sure that this is a good thing.
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Tuesday, 27 March 2012
14:05 - Updates on lacrosse, hockey, trivia, and employment
There was a lot more sports in my life last week. Seven days ago, I went out to Shuart Stadium at Hofstra to watch Cornell take on Denver in lacrosse. It was a tight, well-played game. After the scoring opened, the score became tied seven times. Only once did a team get a lead of more than one goal. With a minute left in the fourth quarter, Denver held an 8-7 lead and possession of the ball, and called timeout. The stadium crew played Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory." Thanks to ESPN, I invariably associate that song with last year's Women's World Cup. During this particular playing, I thought that this would be a good time for some Abby Wambach type magic. And sure enough...it happened. The Big Red turned the Pioneers over, called timeout themselves, and came up with the tying goal with 6.2 seconds left to play. Despite having serious trouble on face-offs all day, Cornell won the one to start overtime - and a minute later, Chris Langton won it.
Despite Hofstra playing in the second game, I didn't stick around, being as Tuesday night is trivia night. I got to the Country Corner just before the game started, and Team CCCP won for the third straight week and fifth consecutive time that we played - this time with a perfect score. I've been playing for about six months, ever since I got back from Homecoming at Cornell, and it's a lot of fun.
As I mentioned last time, Cornell hockey made it into the NCAA Championship. I didn't make it out to Green Bay, so I had to settle for watching the Big Red play here on the East Coast. Since my house doesn't subscribe to ESPNU, I had to find an alternative location to view the game. For Friday night's game against Michigan, that ended up being the Buffalo Wild Wings in Centereach. By the time I walked into the place, Cornell was supposedly down 2-0, but immediately thereafter, the second Wolverine goal was ruled out. Cornell tied it later in the period and took the lead in the second. That was followed by one of the craziest sequences I've seen in a hockey game. Cornell took a five-minute penalty, and then took another one for two minutes. The Big Red survived being two men down for that time, and then was awarded a penalty shot on a shorthanded break. It has been a quarter century since a Cornell player - Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Nieuwendyk, to be precise - converted a penalty shot...and that streak continues. Michigan then took a penalty, but nobody score on the four-on-four. Cornell held its 2-1 lead into the third period, until the inevitable tying goal came. Into overtime we go, and it wasn't long. The winning goal, courtesy of Deadspin.
Thus Cornell played Ferris State the following night for a berth in the Frozen Four against Union. If you've never heard of Ferris State, it's a Division II school located in Big Rapids, Michigan. If you've never heard of Big Rapids, it's in the northwest part of the Lower Peninsula. If you've never heard of Michigan...all right, I won't carry this on any further. I watched this one in Manhattan at a bar called The Australian. Neither team scored in the first two periods, but Ferris put one on the board a few seconds into the third. Cornell answered right back, and then got five minutes of power play time. They didn't score - and twelve seconds after it ended, Ferris State got the game winner. Yet again, Cornell's season ends in the NCAA round of eight. But at least this run washed away the bitter taste of the ECAC semifinal loss to Harvard, and gave the fans a lot of hope about what next season might bring.
A couple of recent developments have taken place in the job process. One was slightly bad, and another has the potential to be very good. At least there's some type of movement after a long period of stagnation.
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Sunday, 18 March 2012
13:33 - "Titties and wings!"
On the logistical side, this year's trip to Atlantic City for ECAC championship weekend went much better than last year. I made pretty good time in both directions; there was some traffic in Brooklyn each way, but I had no expectation of getting through New York City without slowing down. I thought that the pea soup fog enveloping Atlantic City on Saturday would slow me down, but by the time I reached the Garden State Parkway, I was clear of it. Upon arrival at the Tropicana, I was upgraded to a suite. It was quite nice, although I didn't make much use of it, being as I arrived less than an hour and a half before the first semifinal began. I couldn't connect to the Wi-Fi in the room for some reason. This wasn't a big deal for two reasons. One, there was an Internet cable that worked, so at least my laptop could connect. And two, I was awake and in the room for a total time of less than two and a half hours. As for my car key...not only did it remain in the room, it was firmly ensconced in the safe in one of the closets.
The hockey, at least from the Big Red's perspective, was nearly the exact opposite of last year. Cornell, for whatever reason, just didn't have it against Harvard in the semifinal, losing 6-1 - and the one was deep into garbage time. On the other hand, the Big Red won the third place game 3-0 over Colgate, which allowed them to clinch a third trip to the NCAA Championship in four years, and their seventh in the thirteen seasons I've followed the team. That said, I didn't stick around for the consolation match. Various logistical factors combined to make this an easy call. Check-out time was 11 a.m., meaning I'd have five and a half hours to kill until the opening face-off. Given that lengthy interval, there's a high probability my travels would have led me to a blackjack table, thus putting more money at risk. I did not already have a ticket for the Saturday session, so there was no concern about flushing money down the drain there. I'd seen rave reviews about the RPI-TV webcast, so I could still see the games in good quality for only $10. I had done a lot of walking on Friday (likely more than three miles) and my legs were a bit sore. And I was working on short sleep on Saturday, so getting back early meant I wasn't quite as fatigued on the drive home, and could take a nap when I arrived.
The official attendance figures (tickets sold) for both days were roughly unchanged from 2011. From the webcast, the number of warm bodies in seats for the Union v. Harvard final looked to be around 1,500. I only recall hearing one "Let's go Union!" chant during the game. Neither school had a band for the final, and Harvard, in accordance with long-standing tradition, had almost no fans to even speak of. During the presentation of the Whitelaw Cup to Union, no mention was made of hoping to see the fans back in Atlantic City in 2013. I don't know what, if anything, to make of that.
There was certainly some fun had after the loss on Friday. I followed a couple of friends back to their hotel so they could change shirts, removing any visual evidence of allegiance to a team that had just been taken behind the woodshed and badly beaten. We then joined some others at Jezebel's just off the casino floor at Trump. At this point, somebody asked me why I still had my Cornell sweatshirt on, and whether it was because I couldn't change out of it. It suddenly dawned on me - that was true. It wouldn't have mattered even if we had made a pit stop at the Tropicana, because every shirt and sweatshirt I brought with me had the word "Cornell" somewhere on it. After that, we went to the "Irish Pub" on St. James Place (and yes, there were a couple of Monopoly jokes at this). An appropriate place to drink, especially after midnight, as the calendar had then turned to March 17. The place itself was nice, and our waitress earned points by noticing that the beer I'd ordered wasn't the one she initially put in front of me - and correcting that error, even after I'd taken a sip. We ended up staying there for a while, and when it came time to leave, it was late enough that I simply packed it in and headed back to the Trop - as opposed to following the two friends who headed into Trump to hit the craps table.
There's one more anecdote of note and importance to relate. All along the Boardwalk, there exist these rickshaw-like rolling chairs. If you wish, you can essentially pay a guy to do your walking for you. There are many ways that an operator of such a rolling chair can advertise his services. If it's after 10 p.m. on a Friday evening and a group is comprised entirely of males, it seems these guys like to push the strip club option - and they do so with the three words in the title. This happened twice. In the first instance, after the guy called out "titties and wings," Rich responded with "on the same human?" The second time, I was with two other people, and we simply politely declined; still, the guy walked alongside us, and we were regaled with a sermon on the importance of treating all your customers with respect and dignity...no matter how drunk they may be, and even if your profession is the sale of illicit narcotics.
Next up for the Big Red is a matchup with Michigan in the Midwest Regional in Green Bay. There's a chance I might be out there for that, but I'd need another big piece to fall into place to consider making it. And even if that happens, I would probably be driving, given the expense of flights on such short notice. On the other hand, maybe I should stay away - Cornell is 0-2 this year when I attend in person...
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Monday, 12 March 2012
23:04 - If you don't like the sports, you might want to skip this one
On Saturday afternoon, Cornell women's hockey hosted an NCAA quarterfinal against Boston University. The game was webcast for free, so I was able to watch from here on Long Island. Throughout the sixty minutes of regulation, the scoring patterns were reminiscent of the Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel games from the old 8-bit Nintendo. The Big Red gave up the first three, scored seven of the next eight, and then surrendered three power-play goals in the back half of the third period, and the game went into overtime knotted at seven. Then, it seemed as though a wind of change blew through Lynah Rink and deposited magic goaltending dust onto the ice surface. Either that, or the keepers stepped up their game, fueled by the knowledge that their next mistake would be the last of their season.
The game slogged into a second overtime period. And then a third. I was supposed to meet some friends in Westbury at 7:00. In the last minute of the third overtime, I was debating whether I should wait out another intermission and watch the fourth overtime. I also had the thought that maybe someone would be kind enough to spare me that decision. Fortunately for you, dear readers, I can show you what happened next, thanks to Cornell Athletics:
That's Lauriane Rougeau sending the Big Red through to the women's Frozen Four in Duluth. They face Minnesota on Friday in the national semifinal.
I won't be there to watch them, as I will be trekking down to Atlantic City for the ECAC's sophomore effort there. The Big Red men are back after dispatching Dartmouth in the quarterfinals. You may recall that last year, not only did Cornell go down in flames in the final, I suffered a series of faults that made my Saturday most unpleasant. I have taken one step that should lower the probability of something like that repeating - I'm booked at the Tropicana on the Boardwalk, as opposed to the Fairfield Inn in Absecon. Not only should my car key remain in the room while I'm at the semifinals, I won't be parked in the lot under Boardwalk Hall. In addition to the possibility of another conference championship for the Big Red, I hope to be celebrating some other good news from the Midwest.
I spent last night making up the Z-Bracket for the tenth year. This is always just one of those fun things I like to do, regardless of how much attention it receives. This year, I really tore into the Rating Percentage Index, which is the flawed tool the selection committee uses - and so far as I can tell, is the only reason that Iona finds itself in the field of 68. It's just not right that the Gaels are in while Drexel, regular-season champion of the Colonial Athletic Association, heads for the NIT. As far as the NCAA basketball championship itself, I like the favorite Kentucky, beating Ohio State in the final game, with Missouri and Kansas rounding out the Final Four. Other mid-majors I like: Creighton (into the Elite Eight, past UNC), and Murray State and VCU (both to the Sweet Sixteen).
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