Just Another Big Disappointment

While I am sure you are thinking that I am disappointed in my standing in the KUBE (currently 212 and 219 respectively) but that is a minor, minor disappointment compared to the recent assault on my limited self esteem that I was recently confronted with. On Saturday the Pritzker people announced their winner of the 2010 Architecture Laureate. Most of you might no know my love and fascination with Architecture. it is in line with my whole goal of being a renaissance man. You know, a man who is well read (all of the John Grisham Books), an appreciation for the arts (well, where should I start, comic books, a fairly critical review that I wrote of the Conan The Barbarian movies, my own collection of crayon pictures from grade school, the list goes on and on) and also a very accomplished amateur architect.

the Prizker people have been awarding these international architecture prizes for years and it is a VERY elaborate selection process. the winners were Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima. That is right, not even Americans. What kind of international prize is it that is not given exclusively to Americans. I mean... they gave the International Peace Prize to President Obama for what they thought he might do. On top of that was the fact that my submission really was brilliant this year.

Here is what actually one the Pritzker prize this year. I mean, I guess it is fine and it is only one of the examples of their work, but... once again.... they are foreigners and they are building buildings in foreign places. How interesting is that? The answer it is a really easy one, not very. I have been rejected for my architectural submissions for the last several years and although that has been very hurtful it has not dulled my will to persevere but this year, this year I thought I really had something. So... I put a lot of time and effort into it and came up with this.

That is right. A perfectly symmetrical example of form and function. And what did the Pritzker people do? Crap on me. Happy Monday

This Song Is "Sunday, Bloody Sunday!"

The title quote is of course from that great American, Bono. So it is Sunday and the KUBE/NCAA gods (small g) are demanding more karnage! I do not know whether that can be delivered. The Michigan State v. Tennessee game is really a battle of two well matched programs but the hated Duke against my beloved Baylor Bears is where, if the tournament holds to form, magic can happen. Scott Drew is a graduate of Butler University who did his assistant coaching gig at Valparaiso under his father the formidable Homer Drew and was there was his brother Bryce made "the shot" that took Valpo into the sweet 16. He took over Valpo at his dad's retirement and then left for Baylor (his dad unretired and took over Valpo again) where he found a program on life support. One of the players had just killed another and the investigation into Dave Bliss' program got them put on probation with limited scholarships and recruits through 2010 (this year). He is one of two coaches in the country in national programs who plays a 3-2 zone defense (the other being Syracuse Coach Jim (I disappointed everyone again) Boeheim. The long and the short....GO BAYLOR!

Of course being a Butler grad would make a great final four story if Baylor can go play against the Butler Bulldogs. They are only a Cinderella because their lack of prior success. They are a 5 seed after all but still, what a great story and going back to Indy for the final four! If they could only play it at the Hinkle Field House (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&search=hinkle+field+house&ns0=1&redirs=0) and have Gene Hackmen coaching them to run "the old picket fence" while a drunken Dennis Hopper tearfully looks on, then everything would be perfect. This has been a magic tournament and fun to watch and has been a great break from the reality of unemployment, health care debates, recession, etc... Lets treasure this last week.

The KUBE of kourse has held to form providing all of the upset and drama that is lacking from our daily lives. The KUBE people are at best a bland and trivial group. Midwesterners for the main. Hard workers. Republicans. Pent up serial killers. That being the case the KUBE serves as a much valued annual release. A "blowing off of the proverbial steam" as it were. Every morning after a series of games I can count on Becker The Wrecker leaving me a message on my cell phone that goes something like this..."LOSER! LOSER! LOSER!" Ahhhhh...brotherly love. My picks, (currently 210 and 222) are my worst performance...ever. EVER! Not that I am bitter. The fact that my brother is in at 190 is....very painful. Of course I do have West Virginia winning it all while he has....wait for it....KANSAS! Sure, he will tell you he is also at 58 but we all know that bracket was filled out by his dog, and his dog chose Kentucky. Oops.














THIS IS A PICTURE OF ST. MICHAEL'S FOOT CRUSHING THE HEAD OF THE DEVIL (It's a metaphor Larry)


.What is interesting now is that our top four in the standings are all dead with their Champion picks leaving the well financed "Blair Kartel" in 5th and poised to possibly win it all with the hated Duke Blue Devils. (Picture if you will Glen beck with his chalk board drawing a picture of the devil and then writing BLUE and DEVIL. Drawing arrows downwards towards hell and explaining "blue, like the blues music that has dragged our country into the doldrums of recession and dEVILS...LIKE THE DEVIL! It is all right there in front of your people! I give you the facts and you make your own conclusions but....JIM BLAIR IS THE DEVIL!" Or something like that.

If Duke falls look for little Tommy Mulvahill of Webster. Soon to be married....charging forward with his Butler Bull Dogs to an improbable and storied win. If Duke falls today Kathy Gorshman (I don't even know her so I cannot disparage her family, her looks or her children or pets if any) with West Virginia could come charging from 48. No one has Michigan State or Tennessee winning it all.

The excitemen is in the air. Soon team Kukla with their complex mathematical precision will be able to post all of the possible scenarios, whether tonight or tomorrow. My only claim to fame in this whole mess of a beautiful tournament is way back on selection Sunday, March 13, the followers in this space were able to read:

"So I will not see what bubble beaters get in and who gets edged out. Mizzou is in. the Bills are out, the Illini....we will have to watch. It broke my heart that Ohio State did not get bounced but it happens. They edged by Michigan, they edged by Illinois. They are in and fighting for a 1 seed and I will be cheering for them to get bounced early. Kansas looks tough, Syracuse, Vandy, Purdue and Xavier stumbled in but watch for my adopted school. The Baylor Bears."

Indeed. In the KUBE we take solace where we can find it. Go Bears! beat the otherworldly, evil Blue DeVILS!

KUBE FOUNDERS JUBILANT OVER BRACKET KARNAGE!

Kukla and Becker Seen Here Celebrating The Upsets!

So it is Saturday! Most of the fun has been had. There has been a lot of great basketball and even more very average basketball but it has been one of the most enjoyable tournaments to watch in a long time. From Kansas taking a dive early to the Butler Bull Dogs. Sure the hated Duke Blue Demons are still in but Ohio State....GONE!

Some Knotes:

1. This is the beatdown Kukla has been sending out by email. He also has gotten private investigator to find where the kontestants kids go to school. If the kontestants who have not paid are kids he has the investigator find out about pets. Brutal:

"Kongratualtions - your lack of good sportsmanship has moved you to the next level of name calling and bashing by KUBE Korp. You are now part of the elite group who have yet to pay for your KUBE Klassik entry fees or respond to previous requests to make arrangements for payment.
Having to become a kollection agency is THE WORST PART of running the pool. RESPOND TO THIS E-MAIL ASAP and let me know how you plan to pay your entry fees. USE PAYPAL and get it done right now!!! Or, risk being banished from all future KUBE events!"

Wow. Here are the people that The Donald hires to kollect.

2. People have been wondering who won the Long Shot Award. Naturally I was hesitant to even report it when I found it was....wait for it....wait for it.... one of Kukla's relatives. Laurie Lakota-Guda (of the hyphenated names) Don wrote to me:

"Laurie reminded me that she actually won the KUBE in '03 - picking Syracuse to win it all - using her "system" - which she also used this year. The "system" consists of choosing the team with the fewest losses during the regular season to win the game in question in the brackets. It looks like she is on to something."

While this heart warming story is touching it is of course a lie. My first question is about where Ms. Hyphenated even exists or Don just makes up entries and when these "people" win prizes through Don's arcane kalkulations he pockets the kash. Either that or the answer is that our long shot winner picks her choices through an arcane ritual involving chicken bones, the entrails of birds and a pentangle. Something unholy has gone on.

3. Kukla has of course gone on the lamb. You will notice as you wake up this morning that the Friday Standings have not been posted. The reasons for same are that he is in Louisville. I called him late last night and amid the sounds of partying, privately hired "models" and raucous music he told me that he was in "Louisville" (right) at a "La Ca Crosse Tournament". This of course is code for "Partrying in Rio with Kube Money". (La Crosse by the way is an ancient Indian game co-opted by kids at Country Day who play the game with sticks, the head of a homeless man and of course.... other peoples money).

4. How about those Butler Bulldogs. We do have one Kontestant who picked the Bull Dogs to win it all. We watched early in the year when they lost heartbreakingly to Duke and we all pray this will not happen again. Butler for those of you who do not know is a small private school in Indianapolis where basketball was invented at the Hinkle Feild House. Butler has a proud academic tradition and graduates several of it's seniors each year into exciting fields such as custodial maintenance, minor crime and of course development for not for profits. The Mulvahill family started the University back in the 1800's.

5. It was heartening for my friends from Michigan to have Michigan State move on but it was hateful to see it happen at the expense of the Northern Iowa Panthers.

Tomorrow we will all of course be attending services to pray that the lord strikes down the Duke Team and that Jim Blair does not win our beloved tournament. See you there.

Is this Great Or What?

NANCY PELOSI CRUSHES FUN OUT OF NCAA TOURNY!









Seriously.... my brackets are the WORST EVER! I mean my brother is beating me. How does that make daddy feel? Great! Look at who is in the Sweet 16?

CORNELL! Ivy League! No Scholarships! Kicking ASS!
Northern Iowa! Panther Pride! The Valley! Norm Stewarts First Coaching Job!
Baylor! Mike Becker Picked Them As His Dar Horse! Scott Drew!
Wahington! Lorenzo Romar! SLU Connection!
Butler! Horizob Conference! Valpo Connection! MULVAHILL!
Michigan State! All Those Drunk People From Arcadia Who Couldn't Get Into Michigan!

Great Stuff! And what about our own humble tournament?

Laurie the hyphenated name who is on her way DOWN from number 1 with her dreadfully misguided pick of KU!

Yannakakis, Anne, also dead with KU!

7 of the next ten all have a shot with Ohio State (BOO), Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse. It is anyone's ball game. My vote is for Terrell Owens (who knew he played the KUBE) who has the highest pick with K-State!

While we are at it, although i am thrilled to have T.O. "in the house!" I am not so certain I feel the same way about warden Jayhawker 3, Baby Gudas, Two Chicks and a Dude, Betty Blumpkin, Old School, Pigs Gone Wild, and of course Henry Warshaw. I have of course granfathered in Blue Horshoe because....well...those losers have been with us since the beginning.

Now I would like to close with a word about everyone who has called, texted or even mentioned the fact that the brackets did not get updated last night. DON'T PLAY NEXT YEAR!

Good talk kids.

Go BAYLOR!

KUBE: Sunday Morning LONG SHOT UPDATE! TERROR COMES TO KANSAS!

This just in from the Donald (who might or might not have drank the beer and stacked the cans in this picture last night):

"Even though the N. Iowa game seemed liked the biggest upset and St. Mary's over Nova was huge, the one that matters right now is Washington over New Mexico. Washington, an 11th seed, will determine the long shot award assuming Cornell loses tomorrow. Cornell, a 12th seed, is the only remaining team that can change it up.

Twenty Five people chose Washington to make it to the sweet 16. Thirty Eight people chose Cornell. There will be a tie, so the winner will be determined by the person who has scored the most points and picked Washington (or Cornell) after the Sunday round."

This is key analysis from our leader. He has had a team of actuaries working 24/7 to get us thins info... yet still tell us nothing. Apparently 63 of you are in the running for the Long shot award. Kukla has tweaked the rules this year to avoid the embarrassment of someone who intentionally was trying to win only the long shot award by totally fishing for long shots. I do not understand it. I am... not that bright.

We will see what happens today and perhaps we are going to see another big upset. Some more tears of joy, and tears of despair. Congress is doing their part today to bring joy and terror to all of our hearts so it is yet another chance for the KUBE to bring us all together. The KUBE is for all people.... who have ten dollars. We will never subsidize our entrants.... the KUBE is not right but a privilege, which leads us to an ugly conversation that we need to have.

Some of you, like our friends in Washington believe in a Free Ride. You think you can submit your brackets, not use Pay Pal and not pay. We will not have it. You will be outed starting tomorrow. It will start with a listing of the names. A ritual shaming, then we will start marching outside of your kids school with placards stating that you are deadbeat. DEADBEAT. You want healthcare for nothing. Soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow they will be insisting that we let not only let illegal aliens (MEXICANS EVEN) into the KUBE and that we pay for their brackets! We WILL NOTR HAVE IT!

DO NOT TREAD ON THE KUBE! FREEDOM IS NOT FREE (and neither is the KUBE!).

Now I hate to beat on the Obama administration any more but seriously... Homeland Security? I don't think so! The Detroit shoe bomber case was one thing but how the HELL was this Ali Farokhmanesh let into the country and who (outside of our friends in the NRA) would give this IRANIAN a basketball? Look at him! He is swarthy, shifty, untrustworthy AND HE WAS ALLOWED BY THE NCAA AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO DROP A BOMB ON KANSAS! To see this kind of terror raining down on God Fearing, Evolution Denying people like the people of the State of Kansas should give you pause. I urge all KUBE members to be heard. Call your Senators and Congressman RIGHT NOW! We need to weed anyone who is not real American out of the NCAA right now and enact a total ban. They test for drugs in the NCAA but do they test for pure AMERICAN blood in the most American of all sports and perhaps the only thing we really invented ourselves? NO! Iowa has long been a hot bed of terrorist activities (as anyone who has driven there can attest) and is trying to throw off it's long historical function of being the buffer State between Missouri and Minnesota. The State has long been jealous of Kansas and is now sent it's basketball jihad on a national stage. The winner of the Michigan, Maryland game will have a chance to end this national nightmare and "Keep Us Safe". Al Quaeda, The Taliban, The Northern Iowa Panthers. I give you the facts, you decide!

KU. KUBE? Koincidence? I Think Not!

So I apologize for the lack of updates in this space but... well... aliens took over my body and made me drink too much the last two days. It was not my fault. It was dark, they were big.... I don't remember. I do not thing that the blood on my clothes is mine and my wife is asking some awkward questions but... I digress.

There have been a lot of Komplaints regarding shutting off the ability to get your brackets posted after 11:00 A.M. Thursday. Although it probably cost us 10 entries on behalf of KUBE management I would like say, get over it people.

What is a Megan Tietjens? Where does one of those come from? Are they bred specifically for basketball prognosticating prowess? She was our leader after the first day of games but was knocked in to second place but she looks like a future kompetitor. She also has the hated Ohio State Buck Eyes winning it all. That is a gusty, Big Tennish, unlikable pick. Still, she might be the one. Currently we have Jim Blair leading but he too has picked a much hated and reviled team, the Duke Blue Devils to go all the way.

While many komments might be made about the dramatic moves up and down the chart John De Penalozza's move from 132 to 13 is certainly impressive. On the other hand he is still John De Penalozza. Anne Yannakakis has a VERY interesting bracket (is that a dirty thing to say) with over 630 possible points which is spooky weird. Scott Humes was tied with himself for 3rd. Seriously, what are the odds? I intended to submit three brackets but evidently forget to hit send on my only decent bracket and I am languishing in the deep 100-270 range. Simply put.... I kinda suck. No surprises. Andy Hoffman was 4th after Thursday and 44 after Friday. Dude.

As i sit here Saturday night in the KUBE Kave it is hard to even care about our silly little pool. The reason is simple and that is because the much heralded Northern Iowa Panthers beat the much vaunted number seed in the universe Kansas Jayhawks. No Dorothy, they are in Kansas forevermore (or at least till next season). Rock Choke Jay Hawk. Who would have thunk it but seriously, once again, what a great tournament, what a great country. The NCAA Tournament allows this country to come together in a way we desperately need. I do mourn for my KU fan friends and of course my sister in law but what a great game and how exciting that it can happen. It is possibly one of the signs of the apocalypse so lets all go to church tomorrow morning and hope for the best.

St. Maty's knocking off Villanova was kind of awesome too but in the context of KU/Northern Iowa it was just an appetizer. Tasty but not quite a full meal. But those corn fed kids from Iowa (Ali Farokhmanesh is a time honored Iowa name and family) and that shot that he hit was without a doubt the defining sports memory of 2010. He is noit going to shoot that shot, is he? He is going to pull up and kill some time, right? OH MY GOD he is shooting it...no.....no....NO......YES! Klassik! This could be the year when the big conferences get played out of it but we will see.

Lets look at the bottom of the KUBE standings, shall we? Simon, Red and Amy? Who are they? Do they walk upright? Did the whole family get together to do the brackets? Were they stoned? I want to know. John Winstroer II (El Duce) is right there with the family along with Dawn Hessel. On the other hand there are 141 people above these folks who picked Kansa and we happily be watching them....drop like rocks over the next round or two. Laurie Hyphenated-Name was in fifth but she also has Kansas and will be...leaving the top 5.

270 players. Nice effort.

Go Baylor!

KUBE MADNESS! EARLY PUSH TO 150 ENTRIES

Sooooo It is all good. Stupid people doing stupid things. Each year you get to be stupid with us for a few weeks. What a treat for you. We might not hit 500 entries. The techno number geeks on Kukla's skwad say the trend numbers are all wrong. ALL WRONG. You heard it here first. Last year I was reviewing my notes and we had 230 entries. We must smash that this year. Last years winner John Winstroer took his winnings and went on a huge year long binge. There was talk of banishing him from this years tournament but according to his wife this is the biggest thing in his life" He is now talking THREEPEAT before he has even won his second kontest. Who are we to deny him his fun.

People are already starting to RSVP for the season ending bash at the depot. Kukla has promised a huge array of food, beverages and entertainment. I have already spoken with Maria and gotten dibs on one of the kids empty bedrooms. What they don't know is that I might never leave. I urge you all to spend Monster Monday at the depot. The KUBE nation needs to come together for it's annual Bacchanalia. Last year there were.... several of us. This year there might even be....chips. But I don't want to lure you in with grand promises. I am just saying I would go to the Depot just for a chance to use the bathrooms there. The mens room attendant is very polite.

So far no one has been able to make changes in their busy schedule to watch the opening tip at 11:20 tomorrow with me. I don't know if it is the threat of my company, the grim specter of beer and mini tacos, or, the threat of my company but right now it looks like like I will be sitting alone, sobbing quietly to myself, somewhere in the city as Florida BYU tips, followed a few minutes later by Old Dominion and the hated Fighting Irish and then Robert Morris v. Villanova. I have no love for Florida or BYU but will give the requisite cheer when the ball is tipped, on behalf of all of you automatons with your jobs and your homes and your families. Not that i am bitter. I am not like that at all.

Tomorrow.... watch out for the Spiders from Richmond.

GET THOSE PICKS IN!

KUBE STAFFERS SEEN HERE PREPARING FOR TIP OFF!