The Pool Dominatrix

Let's start with some history . . .On the women's side of the bracket, Candace Parker became the first woman in history to dunk in a NCAA tournament game. And she did it twice today. The first time she dunked ON somebody. The second time, she drove the base line and -- not exactly tomohawked it -- but dunked it nonetheless. The dunk is definitely a slow-coming phenomena in the history of women's basketball though not really a new one. In 1982 my high school idle, Cheryl Miller, was the first woman to dunk a basketball during a regulation game in the same game she scored a national high-school record of 105 points. Georgeann Wells Blackwell was the first woman to dunk in a NCAA game in 1984. And in 2002, Lisa Leslie dunked first in a women's pro game. Maybe in ten more years, two women will dunk in one game . . .or in twenty years, a female slamdunk contest. Hey, I appreciate the milestones no matter how slowly they manifest. It sure the hell beats the women's ball I played in high school where we tried to bore opponents into submission with fundamental chest passes and yawnsville set shots.

On to the wacky men's side. How about those Shockers in the Sweet 16? No, seriously, the seventh seed Wichita State Shockers upset "number 2" Tennessee to advance. A couple of you poolers picked Wichita, impressively, though I personally wanted to see coach Bruce Pearl of Tennessee sweat it out for as long as possible. Did Pearl have gland replacement before the tournament because he hasn't perspired a drop since the infamous Drenched Grey Suit Fiasco against Florida a few weeks ago. What was up with that? Was he just wrapped in cellophane under his clothes that particular day?

George Mason! George Mason, yo! Taking down defending champ North Carolina as Roy Williams had a conniption on the side line. As much as the Hoftra camp believes they should've been in the tourney because they beat George Mason twice in ten days pre March, the reality is that Hoftra most likely would not have made the sweet 16 as decisively as GM did over NC. GM was scrappy and defensively strong. When they were down by 16 they didn't panic; they forced turnovers and took that game right out of the hands of NC.

Did you know the Bradley Braves have made it to a NCAA basketball championship final game before? Yup. And they lost to LaSalle . . . in 1954. So, we won't exactly say it was experience that got them to the Sweet 16 this last weekend. Bradley advanced because of seven foot sophomore center Patrick O'Bryant and his phenomenal performance. He scored 28 points, making 10 out of 17 shots, and he dominated the key.

I've never been a Kentucky Wildcat fan, but I'll root fiercely for the underdog even it is KY. Especially after Patrick Sparks limped onto the floor looking like an arthritic plummer. This guy cracked me up. Haven't I seen him at weekend pick up games down at the park donning a headband and knee braces? Mr. Plummer's career high 28 points nearly took down UConn, but Marcus Williams and the Huskies were too tough though UConn looks completely beatable.

Exactly how many teams are named the Wildcats? All of them? And how many guys are named Marcus Williams? Marcus Williams was high scorer for the Arizona Wildcats that nearly took down the Villanova . . .Wildcats, but late game offensive rebounds stopped that from happening.

Now that the Sweet 16 bracket is set -- and hopefully about to spark off another round of craziness -- pooler BEDELE is in first place looking pretty good with his Georgetown final four pick and UConn all the way. Eagles 4 Real in second right now with a Boston College winner, which I'm diggin'. Yogi is leading the Duke contingent and Doclauer is leading the Villanova pack. The odd ball winning picks like Memphis, Texas, UCLA and (ahem) GONZAGA! still have a legitimate chance to win this pool too. I tried to figure out Who could win How, but after a while my brain hurt from Rubik's Cubing every single possbile scenerio. Still too many to tell, which means this thing is still wide open.

Thursday night's match up, Gonzaga vs. UCLA, will be a barn burner at our house as Big Bad Puerto Rican Papa and I will go head to head. He has UCLA to win the entire thing, and we all know I have Gonzaga meaning this week one of our brackets will be mortally busted. We're going to make our daughters choose sides, and then our dogs. There may be some family face painting. BRING IT, PAPA.

Oh, still so much fun ahead.