03.16.09 COLLEGE BASKETBALL STARTS TOMORROW

Still haven’t signed up for a NCAA bracket pool? Join St. Andrew’s Pool (Pw: debruin). It’s free and totally pointless.

The field of 65 is in and Louisville, UNC, UConn and mighty mighty Pittsburgh locked up the 1-seeds for the NCAA tournament, which starts tomorrow with the play-in game between two teams that neither you nor I care about. And I don’t give a foo what the NCAA calls it. If you don’t have your own line on the bracket, you’re not in the tournament. It’s a play-in game. Stop pretending to include everyone when you’re clearly not. Either Alabama State or Morehead State is gonna feel like total ass after that game. That game is like getting that big first date and then realizing that the girl brought her big brother. Sort of.

Some people will make the argument that Memphis missed out on a 1-seed because they’re stuck in Conference USA, a good basketball conference lacking in some of the media fellatio that the Big East and the ACC have received to date. And some people are grumpy about six Big Ten teams getting in (seven if you count Illinois, which I don’t), even though poor widdle 22-win Penn State didn’t make the cut. The Nittany Lions’ omission might be retribution for their low-scoring 38-33 win over Illinois, a game that’s been the centerpiece for complaints about the Big Ten’s unentertaining brand of basketball, whatever that means.

Also not helping Penn State: four teams with no chance of getting at-large bids won their tournaments. So with Cleveland State, Southern Cal, Mississippi State and Temple clinching automatic bids, 26-win teams like St. Mary’s and Creighton were also left out.

Oh, and Kentucky didn’t get in, either. Suck it, Kentucky!