Knowing When To Stop

I have a new man law:
Thou shall not paint thy face or dress up in some sort of costume for a sporting event when either married or over the age of 30.

Some Buckeye fan who looks to be at least 45, probably 50 years old dressed up as "The Animal" for James Laurinaitis. Then today, there were multiple Ravens fans (men and women) at least 50 who had their faces painted in solid purple, the whole face. Wearing a jersey, hat, even necklace is acceptable. But anything more than that does not look good.

Now for today's hoops review:

• Marquette is not a great shooting team, but they're good at rebounding and penetrating, and they did both of those things really well against West Virginia. They got into the gaps of West Virginia's 1-3-1, creating makable shot attempts and giving them offensive rebounds. The one 3-point marksman they have, Cubillan, went 4/4, thanks to the driving ability of Dominic James. It's rare when West Virginia makes fewer 3s than their opponent.
• Ohio St./Tennessee was a very good game. It was also well officiated until the last 15 seconds. Ron Lewis's go-ahead basket looked like a 2 to me, which would've put OSU up 1 instead of 2. Still, it was close enough that the officials should've stopped play to review the shot. OSU would've gotten to set up their defense, but maybe Tennessee gets a better look. Despite that, Tennessee got to the rim, and when the ball was in the corner, Jamar Butler's foot was on the line with the ball with 1.8 seconds left. Oops. Ohio St. will go as far as Ron Lewis and Jamar Butler take them. Today, they were only 3/10 combined for 7 points. OSU needs at least 25 points from the 2 of them. Tennessee is better than I thought and Chris Lofton is a great player. The Vols only went 7/31 from 3, but they stayed aggressive on D and played well down the stretch. In an 11 minute stretch in the 2nd half after falling behind by 10, they only gave up 10 points, on the road. Bruce Pearl is doing another great job.
• Kansas/Iowa St. showcased some great athletic plays. Iowa St. has a guy named Wesley Johnson, who was 6'4 just a couple of years ago. Now he's 6'7, still growing, and he's gonna be good, really good. Iowa St. deserved to win the game, but Brandon Rush and Julian Wright showed up for Kansas at the end. Rush hit big shots at the end of regulation and overtime to put KU ahead. But again, they played down to the level of their competition. Russell Robinson didn't have a good floor game, Mario Chalmers was nonexistent, and there was no overall offensive cohesivenss. Only 9 assists on 26 field goals, there was a lot of 1on1 play going on. Sherron Collins was impressive off the bench. His weight loss is obvious, he's much quicker and stronger than he was earlier in the year.
• UCLA got another big shot from Aaron Afflalo to beat USC, despite Nick Young's improbable 4 point play that gave USC the lead just seconds earlier. It will be interesting to see how USC responds after this heartbreaker on their home floor. They are very athletic, are streaky shooters, and can make big plays. UCLA will need Josh Shipp back, but for now, Russell Westbrook is a more than capable replacement. He's a good looking player for a freshman.
• I actually turned this game off in the waning minutes, so I missed UNC's big comeback, but the story was Va. Tech's backcourt. Va. Tech's guards scored 57 points, UNC's scored 43. UNC needs more than 5 points from Reyshawn Terry. Without him, Wayne Ellington is their only 3 point threat. UNC was exposed in that, if they run up against an athletic, big team like Va. Tech, they won't be able to drive the basket and get the ball inside at will. They will have to make perimeter shots, and they only have a couple of guys who can do that.
• Pittsburgh/Georgetown was one of the cleaner basketball games you'll ever see. Both teams shot at least 60% from the floor, committed no more than 10 turnovers, and had at least 16 assists. Even Patrick Ewing Jr. was 5/6, 2/2 from 3 in the game. Pittsburgh has a lot of offensive weapons. Can they clamp down defensively when they have to? If Georgetown can consistently produce this type of offensive effort, they'll get back on track and win some games. They go as Jeff Green goes, and he played pretty well tonight. Pitt was just better and they had their Oakland Zoo tonight.
• Indiana started out slow, but shot lights out again to win at Penn St. Roderick Wilmont single-handedly kept them in it in the 1st half. IU is 3-1 in the Big 10, though that's not saying much.
• Villanova's backcourt played well, but with the exception of Curtis Sumpter, their frontcourt didn't. Syracuse's did, and they consequently won by 11. Terrence Roberts went for 17 and 14. He should be a double/double guy every night.
• Clemson is no longer unbeaten, but you had to expect Maryland to win after their porous performance against The U.
• If I had to rate conferences in terms of strength, I'd go: SEC, Pac-10, Big East, ACC, Big 12, Big 10, MVC. And the Big 10 isn't that far ahead of the MVC, they're close.
• The two teams tied for the ACC lead: Boston College and Virginia Tech. The team in 11th: Duke.
• Want to know how good the Valley is, Wichita St. is currently in 7th. They were ranked in the top 10 just a few weeks ago.
• Looking forward to Arizona/Oregon tomorrow night (if it's shown here in the metro Detroit area)

Why are the Golden Globes on Monday night? Bad move I think. Doesn't matter for me, I usually just watch the Red Carpet coverage (not Joan/Melissa Rivers).