It’s been a long week waiting for tonight. Hopefully we can be the next in a long line of higher seeds that try their best to choke the game away, but in the end, just can’t do it. Luckily I fell asleep last night before the second half of the Ohio State debacle. Glad I didn’t stay awake to see the Vols choke like Bobby Cox in October.

9:12 – I can’t take this switching back and forth between games that I know aren’t going to end favorably. With my bracket looking like the back of Kevin Spacey’s head at the end of American Beauty, I’ve completely stopped worrying about which teams I need to win and have jumped solidly on the lower seed bandwagons.

9:15 – Roy Hibbert just fouled out for Georgetown while hacking a three-point shooter. What I can’t decide is whether Hibbert or Greg Oden will be the first overrated center to put an NBA team over the salary cap because the club forgot to factor in social security checks.

9:21 – Sorry to ruin the end of the murder myster novel, but the Butler didn’t do it. Gators are all but guaranteed another trip to the Final Four now. See what I mean about the higher seeds just not being able to choke, no matter how hard they try?

9:24 – Plenty of reasons to root for Vandy to pull this thing out. As if Brad Frederick and King Rice on their bench isn’t enough, it’s amazing how much Kevin Stallings looks like Bill Dauterive from King of the Hill (“I’m so depressed I can’t even blink”). In fact, Stallings looks more like Bill than King Rice looks like the King Rice that I remember.

9:33 – Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. Hoyas win at the last second after a McRobertsesque walk that went uncalled. Well, there are two ways to look at all the top seeds winning by a point: 1) We should be worried that there are so many other good teams left or 2) None of these other good teams are really all that good. I choose to believe the latter. Of course, I’ve probably jinxed everything and we’ll lose to the Trojans now.

9:40 – Thanks to Greg Gumbel and his cronies for pointing out the egregious walk on the Georgetown game-winner. I really hope our game isn’t close. A lower seed is waaaay overdue for some good luck.

9:53 – How about Tubby Smith, by the way! Speaking of which, I met a girl from Kentucky today. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that her eyes were further apart than Sam Cassell’s. None of this has anything to do with anything. I really need our game to start.

9:56 – Just figured out why it’s so hot in here. I forgot to turn the oven off when I took my chicken out. That was like 4 hours ago.

10:07 – Finally. Tipoff. And you know I’m tickled pink to see Ginyard as a starter. Hate that it had to happen this way, though. Hopefully Reyshawn can still play.

10:12 – A quick log of some of our early jump shots: So far we’ve had two airballs, one shot that grazed the rim just enough to avoid being called an airball, and a brick from Tyler that somehow died on the rim and went in.

10:17 – Wow, this is a brick fest. They’re going to have to repaint our rim at halftime.

10:23 – Leave it to Wes to end the parade of horrible shooting.

10:28 – Reyshawn is about to go off like Jordan in the 1997 NBA Finals when he had the flu and dropped thirty-something. I nominate Wes to play the role of Scottie Pippen and help carry Rey off the court for time-outs.

10:32 – Annoying as she may be, I find myself strangely drawn to the girl in the convertible commercial that doesn’t want her hair to get messed up.

10:39 – Following a block with a turnover and then immediately giving up a three-point play, Danny Green just set the world record for the least amount of time needed to make people forget about a good play.

10:45 – Nice job by CBS to flash “USC – Maroon, UNC – White” across the bottom of the screen. I’ve found myself getting confused all night.

10:51 – Well this is not any fun at all. Down nine at the half. Dave just texted to say, “Kevin just said Bobby couldn’t beat one of these recliners off the dribble.” I don’t know who Kevin is or what he has against recliners.

11:06 – I’m going to go ahead and mentally prepare for the fact that this could easily be the last 20 minutes of Wes and Reyshawn’s career. This is easily the worst time of the year. I hate March.

11:17 – Atrocious start to the second half. Simply atrocious. Have we never played against a zone before? Since when does Tyler just float around 15 feet from the basket? When was the last time we shot this poorly? I have dozens of questions.

11:25 – So Rameses was in a car wreck? Not good. And now Danny just broke his own world record–same category. I hate March.

11:37 – Brandan just got shoved in the back while pulling down a rebound and Billy Packer exclaims, “Brandan Wright almost dunked it in the wrong basket!!!” Billy, what are you talking about? We’ve cut it to three by the way, so I can take a moment to enjoy Billy’s lunacy.

11:48 – I’m sorry, how are we up by five? I remember us playing very poorly for a very long time. Then I remember playing slightly better for a fair amount of time. And then I remember playing great for about 17 seconds, and in that 17 seconds we scored about 27 points.

12:00 – Not crazy about shot clock violations at this point, but Roy doesn’t seem too bothered, so I’ll follow his lead. Also not crazy about having to watch the end of Oregon/UNLV. There are seven people in America that care about that game. Seven.

12:03 – And Tim Floyd loses his mind and goes O.J. Mayo on the refs. What did he throw on the court? A check? A money order? An essay stating that Marcus Ginyard is not only a swell human being, but also a fiend on the offensive glass? Yeah, that was probably it.

12:05 – Text from Dave: “I switched seats when we were down sixteen. Sorry it took me so long.” Heels win it. Bring on Hoya Paranoia.