Kommentary: THE ROAD TO PITTSBURGH!

By Dan Kukla... back from wandering the desert and ready to watch the Tar Heels stomp the hated Bobcats
Upsets. Drama. Teams from the middle of nowhere.
This is why we love March. This is why we love the NCAA Hockey tournament.
Yup, hockey.
It’s March Madness… on steroids… on ice. It’s everything you enjoy about the basketball tournament plus huge hit after huge hit… minus a few teeth.
The upsets are more shocking and frequent. The weird names are even harder to pronounce. The random-school Cinderellas are more obscure. The hated teams are eviler and the tournament darlings are more adorable.
Most importantly, it starts Friday... as in tomorrow. Set your DVR’s now because basketball can wait. You NEED to watch this. You need it like Prince Fielder needs cheeseburgers.
You give me 15 seeds Norfolk State and Lehigh in the Round of 32 with upsets over 2s Mizzou and Duke? I raise you No. 15 Bemidji State (told you they were obscure… and to think it was originally founded under the name Bemidji State “Normal School”… you can’t make this stuff up) in the Frozen Four and No. 14 Miami (OH) in the championship, seconds away from its first national title. Down in their wake? Top seeds Notre Dame (2 overall) and Denver (3 overall) with No. 1 Boston U on the ropes needing two goals in the final minute of regulation just to force overtime.
You think Duke, Ohio State and Kansas are evil? How about the BU Terriers, who after completing that devastating comeback in 2009 then admitted to drawing their inspiration from Spanish Conquistadors that burned their boats during invasions to eliminate retreat as an option for their pawn soldiers.
And that darling Cinderella caught in the flames? Well the RedHawks just valued being a family called “The Brotherhood” that draws its inspiration from loyalty and sacrifice.
As for those weird names, you say Ali Farokhmanesh, sure, but I know you can’t say Scott Czarnowczan.
This year three of the four 1 seeds are of the evil variety (Boston College, Michigan and North Dakota) while the rest of the field is just dripping with darlings ready to knock them off (except for BU, checking in as a 3 and just as evil as ever).
The fourth 1 (3 overall) is Union, making only its second tournament appearance in school history. Same goes for No. 6 Ferris State. No. 14 Western Michigan makes only its fifth tourney appearance after dwelling in the CCHA (hockey equivalent of basketball’s Big 10) basement for the past decade. The UMass Lowell River Hawks earned their fourth ever bid and will face the aforementioned RedHawks (No. 5) in a first-round battle of fictional birds of prey.
All Round 1-2 games can be seen on ESPNU Friday-Sunday. Whether you get caught in the real March Madness hook, line and sinker like me or just watch it during basketball commercial breaks, do yourself a huge favor and make sure to check it out. It would be Madness not to.

February Wrap Up

Sooooo....we made it through another February. How cool is that? We not have March and with march we have the promise of Spring and with march and the Promise of Spring we have the NCAA Conference Tournaments and the NCAA Tournament and with all of those things we of course have the most important rite of Spring.....THE KUBE KLASSIK! An email blast will be going out from KUBE central as our fearless leader "The Donald" seeks to get us on Pay Pal so that I can no longer mis-handle (embezzle) peoples tournament fees. This is the type of "nanny state" government regulation that we tea party capitalists have been railing against. If people are stupid enough to give Mike Becker money they must want him to either lose it or blow it on booze, drugs and loose women. Right? I do not know what the picture of these three buildings is here for. Sometimes when I am driving around I take pics of things I like. I think these buildings are on the northwest corner of Jefferson and Washington. Very Presidential address. They caught my eye. I like the pic.

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I do like to take pics sometimes. I was admiring my daughters Converse (she made pains to tell me that she had two more pairs but she was too lazy to get them out of her car) and I thought it would make a cool picture. Now I think, perhaps, but it struck me then what am oddly (stupidly) brand loyal family we are. Becker's in no particular order:
Wear Converse often but not exclusively
Drink Coke products when drinking cola
Drive Japanese cars that do not suddenly accelerate
Compute on MACs
Eat Lays Potato Chips
Like Carl's Hamburgers
Eat Edmund's Chili almost exclusively
Favor The Courtesy Diner
If you have to eat something like fast food....Steak n' Shake
Are Missouri Synod Lutherans (for at least a little while more)
It goes on and on and while to us it might seem quirky or interesting it is probably just a matter of being influenced by advertising and lacking any real creativity or imagination and the enjoyment that we get by condescendingly commenting on other people' choices which are clearly inferior to ours. How annoying is that?

Let's stick with calling it quirky.


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One of my larger embarrassments in life (and those of you who know me really need to think about that statement) is the detritus of my once highly above average wine collection. I have no idea how many bottles I have left down there. For a while I was getting cases of Duckhorn Merlot every year. I know....I know....but if your going to drink merlot it was the way to go and it was new then. That still does not make it right. Anyway, we moved here a dozen years ago, I put the wine in the basement and pretty much forgot about it. Occasionally I would pull a bottle up on a lark to find it corked or at best well past it's prime. So we were out with some old friends from the wine consuming days and got home early and for memories sake headed back to the basement. I pulled out a couple of bolles but saw I had a 1991 Duckhorn Cabernet Sauvignon. Surprisingly it was not corked. Almost but not quite and well...it was pretty good. Big and fruity and plenty of tannin but on the back end the alcohol kind of overpowered the fruit. It was good and interesting and I need to get after that wine. Perhaps a weekly event as we open taste and dump until we find a good one. Could be a hoot.

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Laura had backwards dance and she did the whole spa thing with Sandy prior to it. She is on student counsel and had been working all week getting ready for the dance. We have the feeling that in two years our house will be empty with out here. Her fingernails were painted the same color blue as her dress. What is up with that?

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The Olympics is over I will not be watching the closing ceremonies. The Swedes stole the Gold in women's curling from Canada in the only sport I really followed. Those Swede's are tough. I am now watching the U.S. try and upend Canada for the Gold in men's hockey. YEEEEEEW-ESSSSSSSSSSS-EH?