Ready for some night live blogging? Why not? Who wants to ACTUALLY WATCH THE GAMES? Our own Matt Sussman is here to take you through some more gaming. The games are USC vs. Kansas State, Duke vs. Belmont, Washington State vs. Winthrop and BYU vs. Texas A&M. After the jump, play along.
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9:28 — Oh wait, there's still two minutes left of this Brigham Young-Texas A&M showdown. Eh, I'll continue it in the next live blog.
9:22 — And ... sonofadurham. The halfcourt three comes up a basketball's radius short of sinking, and Duke held on by their pinky to defeat Belmont. Not exactly the best outcome in a game of this magnitude, but I suppose there's always .... THE NINE THIRTY GAMES! LIVE BLOGGED HERE ON DEADSPIN! </selfpromotion>
9:19 — DeMarcus Nelson's first attempt on the one-and-one fell short, and with Belmont's retrieval, a timeout gives them about two seconds left to go down the court and score a bucket.
9:16 — I hope you guys are all Duke fans. After a jump ball (?) that went Belmont's way, the in-bounds was stolen at the end by the Blue Devils, and now they have free throws with 3 seconds left.
9:15 — Gerald Henderson gets the rebound, the drive down court, the layup, the lead, the scientist, the magician, and the other so-called Gods of our legends, with 12 seconds to go.
9:14 — Belmont's ball with 40 seconds left and the lead. Excuse me a sec, I have to stand up now.
9:11.30 — Phew. Timeout.
9:11: — Belmont's runner with the shot clock running down is no good and Duke gets the ball and there they go oh God if I don't stop typing I'm gonna miss the
9:08 — Wicke's free throws are both magically good, with 2:02 to play. Belmont 70-69.
9:07 — That was a mildly important series of events. Belmont's Andy Wicke three from the corner tightened the Duke lead to just one point, followed by a foul on Duke at the other end on the rebound.
9:02 — Duke's lead is 67-64 with three minutes to play. Even though the Bruins have possession coming out of this TV timeout, I'm not feeling the upset. Then again, upsets aren't felt through fuzzy cable TV.
8:59 — Paulus saved the loose ball, but I'm fairly certain his foot was squarely out of bounds when he tipped the ball back. Then again, my TV reception's snowier than Nunavut.
8:58 — Belmont's Alex Renfroe makes a good running jumper, don't get me wrong, but the analyst's label of "a superstar in the making" might be overdoing it. "The transfer from NAIA." See, that's why I don't believe you.
8:57 — Winthrop, by the way, is getting hickory smoked by Washington State. They're down 56-34.
8:55 — Kyle Singler sorta dove and took out Justin Hare's legs. I'd like to see the referee interpret that with hand signals to the official scorekeeper.
8:52 — Oof. Scheyer made the three-point shot and got fouled while doing so. His potential fourth point dinks off the rim.
8:49 — Texas A&M and BYU looks kind of interesting, too. But before I go jinxin' the coverage, let's just stay right here. Duke leads 60-58.
8:47 — Great symbolism on that Avodart commercial with the guy who works in the museum of planets. Shrinking planets, shrinking prostate. You'd think a guy who works with hanging balls would hock a different kind of male prescription pill.
8:42.05: — So, as SOON as that was typed, they moved me to that game. Just in time to catch Belmont's smatterings of offensive rebounds and Duke dropping a defensive snag, only to see it roll out of bounds.
8:42 — About damn time on that update, Gumbel. Belmont's now leading Duke. Now, instead of update, how's about a little switcheroo on this ol' coverage?
8:39 — Taj McCullough finally puts the Eagles on the scoreboard for this half. On a three-on-one fastbreak, his phantom fake absolutely joked the defender out of his shoes and finished the break with a slam dunk. State responds with a ho-hum jumper.
8:37 — Winthrop cannot score this half. The more WSU pulls away, the more I'd like this local affiliate to do the same with this game, and send me on over to Duke-Belmont. I can't watch Bruins-Devils unless I want to watch hockey.
8:32 — [metaphorical Deadspin score update jingle] Duke can't shake Belmont, as they're up by six points, and Kansas State's 10 point lead has been hacked down to four by USC. Is it me, or does this game simply not feel like an upset in the making?
8:31 — Winthrop's moving the ball well, except the one movement where it goes toward the basket. They still trail 36-29 after a missed jumper.
8:27 — Wait, Derrick Low's the ponytail guy? I thought he was the goatee guy. This puts a 5 percent different perspective on the second half.
8:23 — Know what I just noticed about Winthrop's logo? Its hollow body could make it a distant aviary cousin of BGSU's logo. Digging up the genealogy might be worth it. (I didn't say what I noticed was important.)
8:06 — They're showing A&M and BYU now, but the other ones are at halftime as well. Duke has a 7 point lead over the Bel Monte Pineapples, and Kansas State has 10 more of those point thingies than USC does. We'll see if that gives them an advantage in the final point totals. But for now, here's a halftime distraction video:
8:03 — And .. halftime. I'd love to throw up one of my patented linescores, but, well, the redesign completely fucked that ability up. Winthrop and Washington State are tied 29-29.
8:01 — Texas A&M and BYU began a while back. I felt that was worth mentioning.
7:58 — Snazzy little alley-oop from Taylor Rochestie to Derrick Low. It's impressive to see a guy like Derrick Low able to get up and down the court like that, especially given that he's supposed to be in Dodgertown right now.
7:57: — Winthrop and Washington State are trading threes. Which is silly, because they could just keep their own threes and eliminate any odds of an imbalanced trade.
7:51 — "He's one of those guys that defies categorization." But Mr. Analyst, I have to check one of these boxes! Swingman? Spot shooter? Give me something to work with here.
7:49 — Britney Spears will be a guest on How I Met Your Mother. This is a great idea ten years ago. (Yes, it was 1998 when Spears released her first single. She's been around that long.)
7:44 — Winthrop takes its sweet time, and Chris Gaynor throws up a marginally long 3-point shot as the shot clock ran out of juice, to much success. Eagles lead.
7:40 — Belmont is hanging with Duke, down just one single point. Again, that's one of those upsets that would vaginally rape my bracket, but if it were to happen, it'd be worth the loss of face in the office pool.
7:39 — A non-jingle update from Kansas State-USC. There's a detectable tone of disappointment that the game isn't about Beasley vs. Mayo. Evidently they also let eight other guys to suit up and be on the basketball court at the same time. (A last-minute rule change)
7:36 — And Kyle Weaver's jump shot teases the net and lands on the baseline without touching the rim. And now for Winthrop fans to quickly remember which player took that shot, and ridicule him for the rest of the night, provided they got the right guy. (It was No. 25, I think.)
7:33 — Impressive block by Winthrop's ... fine, I'll look it up ... Andy Beuchert. He also hustled back down the field and sank the shortest possible jump shot.
7:25 — A guy for Winthrop in the post fails to keep control of his dribble when he, all of a sudden, falls on his ass.
7:23 — Thank you, teams, for not putting names on the backs of your jerseys. Who cares who's who?
7:21 — Hey, did I say Kansas State/USC? I meant Washington State/Winthrop. "Tony Bennett looks like a young Jean-Claude Van Damme." I'm hoping for just as much contrived action out of this game.
7:20 — One of the new features of this Gawker Media upgrade is that if it's my turn to draft in fantasy baseball, and I have a Deadspin post window open, Firefox will crash. Sheesh, even my real job doesn't monitor my productivity like that. So screw the draft.
7:18 — I'm rather glad that UPS whiteboard guy didn't sell out and get the haircut like his corporate overlords wanted him to.
7:16 — And the score is now ... hold on, let us wait for this quaint local news ticker to finish scrolling.
7:11 — I noticed that Belmont has a 3-0 lead on the Dukesters. That'll happen when you get the opening kickoff and drive at least 50 yards.
7:10 — Look'n like I get Kansas State/USC. So that's what gets discussed. I'd get NCAA's on demand service, but given the amount of buffering, I could do a charcoal painting flipbook faster.
7:07 — Duke/Belmont and Kansas State/USC are the 7:10 games. Beasley! Mayo! Um ... some white guy for Duke! And ... Castlevania.
Pregame Babble
On mutually exclusive weeks I agreed to both live blog some tournament games for Deadspin as well as partake in Kissing Suzy Kolber's fantasy baseball draft. (If they know jack shit about football, imagine how much less they know about baseball!) What I didn't expect to happen was for the days and times to overlap. What's worse, after the games, tonight I have a meeting with a TV executive about my own children's show at the same restaurant as my ex-wife's birthday party. At the same restaurant. Think of the comic misunderstandings that will unfold. THINK OF THEM!
As for the games, I can't remember who I picked, because customarily after I'm done filling out the bracket, I throw away the runes.
And OH MY GOD. The CBS in my hotel room is all ... bendy. Squiggly lines, everywhere. And yet ... the CBS update jingle will come in crystal clear. This is how it's gonna be all night.