NCAA MARCH MADNESS:
No, not the current tournament, though it's been great.
Rather, I'm talking about what the NCAA is considering doing:
"The NCAA appears to be on the verge of expanding the men's basketball tournament to 96 teams. Insisting that nothing has been decided, NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen nonetheless outlined a detailed plan Thursday that included the logistics and timing of a 96-team tournament, how much time off the players would have and even revenue distribution."
Read the whole piece. A plan with that much detail suggests to me that, yes, it probably is almost decided. I don't think this new plan would ruin the tournament. But I'm not in favor of it. The tournament is great as is. This new format threatens to weaken the importance of the regular season, threatens to add a lot of games to an already-heavy early tourney schedule. Too much of a good thing? Too many games, almost? I do think Coach K of Duke is right when he suggests giving automatic tourney bids to both regular-season and conference-tourney champions. They both should get in. That way the regular season still means something.
We'll see what the reaction will be to this. Don't know that it will mean much, though. Because more games means more money for the NCAA, and that's what they want.
NBA DIARY:
Orlando 97, Dallas 82: not a loss I'd worry about too much. The Mavs were tired after on OT victory the night before; while Orlando had had over 3 days rest. The Magic shot 14 of 24 from 3 point land. When they do that, very few teams can beat them. The Mavs just need to bounce back.
POLITICS/LEGISLATION UPDATE DEPT:
A new CBS News poll has President Obama's job approval numbers at only 44%. Again, oh how the might's numbers have fallen...
Meanwhile, today President Obama hailed the new jobs report out today:
"The nation's economy posted its largest job gain in three years in March, while the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent for the third straight month. President Barack Obama on Friday hailed the report showing the largest job creation number in nearly three years. "We are beginning to turn the corner," he said."
Gosh. Imagine it was 2007, and that President Bush had hailed a jobs report in which unemployment had not fallen, no matter how many jobs were created. What would candidate Obama have said then?? Somehow I doubt he would have accepted a we've-turned-the-corner spin...
Well, one thing is certain: Obama's and the Democrats' spin on the economy the last few months hasn't won over too many Americans:
"More Americans say Republicans would be better for the economy, taking a position Democrats had held through Barack Obama’s presidency, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll out Friday. Forty-eight percent of the 1,009 adults surveyed nationwide said Republicans would “do a better job” of dealing with the economy, topping Democrats by three percentage points. The number is a contrast from August, when Democrats were rated as better on the economy by 52 percent compared with 39 percent for Republicans."
what a turnaround.
