david beats goliath at basketball

UPDATE: here's the story from the perspective of the l.a. times.

call it what you want, i'll call it a victory. when i heard that fresno pacific university, with it's undergrad student population of about 1000, would be playing usc in basketball, i figured it would be a massacre. i didn't think the sunbirds had a snowballs chance in, well, hell. i mean, this is the university of southern california. the trojans. the trojans whose head coach used to be in charge of the chicago bulls. the trojans who have a guy who may be the next big thing, o.j. mayo. usc! fresno pacific has got to lose to them, right?

i was wrong. tonight, the sunbirds pulled off a minor (major?) shocker by defeating the trojans 65-44. now, it should be noted that usc, realizing that they were playing a naia school in an exhibition game did not play their starters. but you know what, it's not like the other athletes on usc's roster are a bunch of losers. they play division one college basketball, the top tier for the men's college game. and they were playing against a little naia school that doesn't even have full ride scholarships for all it's team.

david beat goliath. i bet that was a fun bus ride back to fresno.

recognize fresno. there's some basketball being played in a small gym in southeast fresno. it's worth checking out. the tickets cost less, the crowd can be just as into it, and hopefully you'll have a good time.

(oh yeah, congrats to the sunbirds volleyball team. national champs. national champs.)

(and the men's soccer team finished in the quarterfinals of the national tournament, which is dang good, too.)

ncaa tourney

like many people in the united states right now, i'm totally obsessed w/march madness. i love these first two days. so many games, the chance of a big seed falling. duke provided a little bit of that yesterday, but really, the way they've played this season (at one time falling completely out of the top 25 rankings) they just aren't the duke of old. and, they mid level seed, but really that was probably more about history & respect than how good they are this year. so, they lost a close one.

(the sports guy has a pretty funny running diary about watching the tourney.)

after this initial weekend, the energy tapers of a bit, but i still enjoy following it all, seeing types scramble to advance, watching the purity of the sport. it's all about win today or you're done.

what stinks is being an "adult" now in the "working world" and missing games. of course, today is a light work day, and it's 9:30 am and i'm blogging at home. i'm currently watching unlv put it onto georgia tech. but, i've got to go to a new student orientation @ work in about twenty minutes and won't be able to watch any games until noonish.

(right now a number 15 seed is leading a number 2 seed. could be a big upset, especially because on some of my brackets i have that 2 seed winning 2 more games. i'm sure they'll get their act together though.)