West Virginia and Xavier played the only closely contested tourney game last night, with the 3-seed Muskies getting the 79-75 win in overtime thanks to some clutch three-point shooting by B.J. Raymond.  The win puts Xavier in the Elite 8 (they'll play UCLA Saturday) and guarantees at least two more days of witty headlines using X-related puns.

There was much excitement at the end of regulation, as Joe Alexander (18 points, 10 rebounds) was fouled as he evened the game at 64 with a short jumper off the glass, but he missed the critical "and 1".  In overtime, the Mountaineers led 71-65, but poor free throw shooting and Xavier's three-point attack (11-for-19 compared to 1-of-11 for WVU) ultimately gave X the win.

I bet Bob Huggins is so fucking wasted right now.

Other games: Tennessee probably could have used a starting point guard in its loss to Louisville, while UCLA and UNC cruised to predictable wins.  Meh.  My March Madness is dissipating into more of a mild annoyance.

West Virginia hired a new coach to replace Rich Rodriguez, who departed for a better job at Michigan almost a month ago.  But WFV fans are still plenty pissed that someone would have the temerity to leave such a fine state.

Mountaineer fans furious over Rodriguez’s Dec. 16 decision to accept the head coaching job at Michigan have vandalized his home near Morgantown, hanging signs on a fence and tossing a mailbox in the yard. Arleen Rodriguez [Rich's mother] says her teenage grandson received a death threat and found other harassing notes taped to his locker at East Fairmont (Va.) High School, while her 12-year-old granddaughter had to be escorted to classes.

It's kind of awkward for me to provide commentary on this story, because when I first read it I thought that Rich Rodriguez and Robert Rodriguez were the same person.  I read it three times and kept thinking, "Sure, the Spy Kids movies are dumb, but is it really worth threatening his children over?  And shouldn't Sin City earn him a free pass?"  In hindsight, I guess it makes a little more sense than I originally thought.

[via The Debriefing]

I have to credit Awful Announcing for his stellar work — Matt Vasgersian had two terrific moments during last night's Fiesta Bowl, and within minutes both YouTubes had made their way onto AA's blog.  The first, above, is Vasgersian's call of Owen Schmitt's touchdown run.  Owen Schmitt + runaway beer truck = subtle Schmitts Gay SNL reference, which gets huge points in my book.  The other moment was obvious pandering to bloggers, so I relegated it to after the jump.

Oh, right: the game itself.  West Fuckin' Virginia more or less dominated Oklahoma in a 48-28 win, which is fine with me because Oklahoma flat-out blows as a state, whereas WFV at least has some charm in the way it embraces its couch-burning culture.

grammar mistakes.

"I'll tell you what," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "There are a lot of American League pitchers getting real nervous — and we're one of them."

So… the Red Sox are now an American League pitcher?  I don't even say things that retarded when I'm drunk.  As this blog post proves.

The #2 ranked team in the nation lost yet again as the 28-point favorite West Virginia Mountaineers lost to the Pittsburgh Panthers 13-9 in the annual "Backyard Brawl". In a related story, my 2003 Saturn ION (slight body damage) is for sale.

Pitt, which had lost four of the last five to West Virginia and allowed 45 points to the Mountaineers in each of the last two games in the series, celebrated the biggest victory of coach Dave Wannstedt's three lackluster seasons. "I remember walking off the field two years ago at halftime saying that we needed to run faster," said Wannstedt, who received a three-year contract extension on Friday. "Today, we ran faster." The Pitt coach improved to 16-19 and repaid the university for its show of faith with a BCS-busting victory.

That Wannstedt is a wily bastard. I wouldn't put it past him that his team's poor performance up until this game was all a ruse. I watched him for years when he was coaching the Bears - he's clearly a genius. I was reminded of my financial prediction of this game via a colorful phone call from my window man. Tip: NEVER sing the "sticks and stones" chant to a bookie you owe money to, it makes him angry and gives him ideas. -KD

Photo credit: AP Photo 

College football is killing me.  Well, at least causing me severe pain.  Two representatives of my local independent businessman just stopped by to tap my patellas with a ball-peen because West Virginia couldn't beat the South Florida last night.  It's a good thing I "borrowed" all that morphine from that oncology nurse I used to date.  Anyway, let's celebrate this minor upset with a body painter: 

Other than the obvious, there are 3 ways you can tell this astute scholar has been over-served:

1. He's painted green and yellow, and it's not March 17th.
2. Everyone knows sober Floridians don't smoke.
3. He's hitting on the fat chicks. -KD