plezWorld on the 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament

Louisville, UConn, and Pittsburgh stroll into the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament from the Big East Conference (with a strong showing from North Carolina from the ACC).

Surprising? No.

Fair? Maybe.

What about Duke (winner of the ACC)? What about Memphis (from last year's tournament final and winner of Conference USA)?

Excerpts from ESPN.com article about the 2009 NCAA brackets:

(ESPN.com) -- The Big East made history again. The conference that came together for basketball decades ago hit another milestone Sunday, when three of its teams earned top seeds in the NCAA tournament.

Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut were all No. 1, joined by North Carolina of the Atlantic Coast Conference, never an outsider this time of year.

The conference also broke new ground in 1985, when it became the first to place three teams in the Final Four.

"It speaks volumes for what it means to win the Big East," said Louisville coach Rick Pitino, whose Cardinals are the tournament's overall top seed and will play in the Midwest.

The Cardinals (28-5), winners of the regular-season and conference championships in the nation's top-ranked conference, will open against the winner of an opening-round game Tuesday between Alabama State and Morehead State.

The Final Four is scheduled for Ford Field in Detroit on April 4 and 6. Last year, all four No. 1 teams made it to the Final Four. But Pitt (East), Carolina (South) and UConn (West) all know its called March Madness for a reason -- things rarely go to form.

So, time to break out the brackets, sharpen some pencils and pay into an office pool (or two).

Maybe do a little griping here and there.

Among the aggrieved: Duke and Memphis, both overlooked in the quest for top seeding, settling for No. 2 seeds despite winning their conference tournaments. Memphis is often downgraded for playing in the less-than-steller Conference USA, but John Calipari's team proved people wrong last year, making it to the national title game.

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plez sez: not much interest in plezWorld until the second weekend (when all those 10 thru 16 seeds have been eliminated). i really enjoy it when it comes down to the elite eight.

the only upset i see is memphis taking out uconn to go to the final four.

~ ~ ~

in a related story, the georgia tech women's basketball team is going to its third ncaa tournament in three years... GO JACKETS! they have become a bigger force in the acc than the men's team!

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read the ESPN.com video and article about 2009 NCAA bracket breakdown.

Read the ESPN.com articles breaking down the EAST, SOUTH, MIDWEST, and WEST.

Read the AJC.com article about how Georgia Tech and UGA are sending teams to the 2009 NCAA basketball tournament - the women's tournament.

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plezWorld on 2008 Georgia Tech Football

For the second time in one week,
let's hear the "Ramblin' Wreck Song"

A year of contrasts concerning the state of college football in the state of Georgia. Georgia Tech started out the college football season in late August as a BIG A** QUESTION MARK; our chief rival, University of Georgia (known as UGA to some and the Bulldogs to others) started the season ranked number one and apparently a lock on a national championship bid like their SEC brethren LSU and Florida. What a difference a season makes...

Week after week of stunning victories pulled from the jaws of defeat, the Yellow Jackets and their old school triple option offense and their blistering & intense defense finished the season at 9-3 and the only ACC team ranked in the Top 15. On the other hand, the Bulldawgs watched their season flame out after getting throttled at home by Alabama (who still doesn't look that good, but will be representing the western half of the SEC in this weekend's SEC Championship game), losing while getting outclassed by Florida at the World's Largest Cocktail Party, and then getting a seven year winning streak halted at home by Georgia Tech. To make matters even worse, Tech ends the season ranked higher than the UGA!

Well, the total dismantling of UGA and their slackjawed fans (except my wife) was the cake. What has happened over the past couple of days to celebrate the return of Georgia Tech Football is the icing on said cake:

• Head Coach Paul Johnson has been recognized as the ACC Coach of the Year. After taking over a program that was wallowing in mediocrity, it took one spring practice to turn the entire thing around while using another coach's players to incorporate his new scheme effectively. I have no doubt that this was a unanimous decision... and it is only a matter of weeks before he is recognized nationally for the job he did at Georgia Tech.
  
  
• Jonathan Dwyer was named ACC Player of the Year. Dwyer is the standout running back who would single-handedly break opponents backs with his stunning 40-, 50-, and in Georgia's case 60-yard runs for touchdowns. He led the ACC in rushing yards (1,328), rushed for over 100 yards nine times (a school record), and he also scored 12 touchdowns. If there was a missed assignment on defense, Dwyer ended up in the end zone!
  
  
• Tech had the most players named All-ACC First Team: Sophomore running back Jonathan Dwyer, left tackle Andrew Gardner, defensive end Michael Johnson, and defensive tackle Vance Walker, all seniors. plezWorld is surprised that standout sophomore safety Morgan Burnett (who is tied for the nationally in interceptions with seven and will be playing on Sundays in a few years) was All-ACC Second Team. And my frat brother, sophomore defensive end Derrick Morgan (who will also be playing on Sundays in a few years) received honorable mention.
  
  
• Lastly, Tech will play on December 31st in the Chik-fil-A Bowl here in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome. More than likely, we'll be playing LSU or SEC bottom feeder South Carolina. The Chik-fil-A Bowl has the first choice of any bowl-eligible ACC school that is not playing in a BCS game. The winner of the ACC Championship game goes to a BCS Bowl.

~ ~ ~

plez sez: this football season far exceeded my expectations, i'd even toyed with not purchasing my normal full compliment of season tickets... that would've been a BIG MISTAKE!

congratulations to paul johnson... he did a tremendous job in coaching these boys up... they were ready to play every week (except for the UNC game).

~ ~ ~

plez sez, "hmmm": as micheal wilbon (of ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption") said earlier today, "the SEC is the ACC with Florida!"

this has definitely been a down year for what many claim is the toughest conference in college football. but if you remove Florida from the mix - and look at Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU, Kentucky, Auburn, Vanderbilt, the two schools in Mississippi, and Arkansas - you're not looking at the top conference in the nation. if you look at the Big 12 with Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State (all of whom have been in the Top 10 this season), you'd be hard pressed to find a team in the SEC other than Florida that would give them a run for the money. the only reason Alabama is undefeated is because they haven't played Florida yet - and that will definitely change on Saturday evening.

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in other college football news plezWorld: charlie weiss - the overpaid, overblown, overhyped, underperforming head coach of notre dame football - has been asked to hang around south bend for a fifth year, even though he hasn't had a winning record for the last two seasons, and his record over the past two seasons is WORSE than his two predecessors last two years - bob davie and ty willingham - willingham was fired after only THREE YEARS. he didn't get the opportunity to watch his first recruiting classes finish four years. and if you haven't figured it out by now, ty willingham was notre dame's only Black head coach... ever!

over the past couple of weeks, the fighting [sic] irish lost to lowly Syracuse, notre dame's first loss to an 8-loss team, and this past saturday, they suffered the worst blowout loss against USC - the score was 38-3. the irish have lost 15 games the past two seasons, the most by any notre dame team in a two-year span. some would say they have hit rock bottom. some would say had ty willingham still been the coach, he wouldn't be the coach today!

let plezWorld go on the record: i think ty willingham sucks as a head football coach, he is winless this year at washington in that cupcake Pac 10 conference (and knew he was getting fired before the season ended). that said, he was given a much shorter leash at notre dame and the tolerance of his losing was much lower than the historic losses that weiss has posted the last two years. and i'm gonna break off right there...

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read the AJC.com article about Paul Johnson - ACC Coach of the Year.

Read the AJC.com article about Jonathan Dwyer - ACC Player of the Year.

Read the AJC.com article about GT players with All-ACC honors.

Read the AJC.com article about GT playing in the Chik-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.

Read the ESPN.com article about Charlie Weiss hanging on at Notre Dame.

Read the ESPN.com article about Ty Willingham's coaching career at Washington ends.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tech Stings UGA 45-42

For the past seven years, the Georgia Bulldogs have owned the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. For the past seven years, UGA has won the rivalry game in every way imaginable: low scores, high scores, blowouts, close games. Since 9/11, Tech couldn't figure out how to beat UGA... until Saturday, November 29, 2008.

Clean, Old-fashioned Hate lived up to its billing!

Under a steady drizzle at Sanford Stadium in Athens, the Georgia Bulldogs came out breathing fire on Senior Day. Pinpoint passing on the part of Georgia QB Matthew Stafford to Senior WR Muhammad Massaquoi led to four first half scores. The lack of a credible running game on the part of the Yellow Jackets had Tech going into the half time locker room down 28-12.


Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson had a simple message during his half time speech, "Hey, it’s sixty minutes. Anybody who came over here and didn’t think it’s going to be that kind of game, don’t come back out. [We’re] going to get the ball first [to open the second half] and we’re going to go down and score."


The Yellow Jackets responded with 26 unanswered points in the third quarter alone (RB Jonathan Dwyer scored a touchdown on a 60-yard run on the first play in the third quarter) - the comeback and eventual win was jump started just like that!.

Tech piled up 409 yards rushing (Dwyer had 144 yards and RB Roddy Jones had 214 yards) to Georgia's 407 years of passing; Tech won.

And left the Bulldog Faithful in dazed wonderment, "How did Tech football catch up with Georgia football so quickly?"

Just last year, Tech limped away from a game that was thisclose to being a bona fide blowout... now this year with a new coach, a bunch of young players, and an old-fashioned option running game, Tech beat the Bulldawgs at home! When the season opened, Georgia was at the top of the national polls, after today's game, they're not the number one team in the state of Georgia!

When the season started, Coach Johnson asked the team what was their number one goal for the season. The answer was unanimous, "Beat Georgia!"

~ ~ ~

Shortly after the game, Tech learned that Virginia Tech prevailed over Virginia; the other Tech will represent the Coastal Division in the ACC Championship game in Tampa next week.

It would've been a nice capstone to the season to go down to Tampa and win the ACC Championship, but this win was much bigger than that little game next week. Much bigger.

we may not be going to Tampa for the ACC Championship,
but we beat the Dawgs,
time to strike up the band with the "Ramblin' Wreck Song"



GO TECH!

~ ~ ~

plez sez: what's the good word? TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read Jeff Schultz's Atlanta Journal-Constitution article predicting a Tech upset of UGA.

Read the ESPN.com article about Tech's shocking win over UGA.

Read the AJC.com article about how the Yellow Jackets stung the Bulldawgs.

Read Furman Bisher's Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about the game.

All game photos courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution game photo gallery

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The 2008 Hate Bowl - Tech vs. UGA

Other college football rivalries have cute, little names for their bowls, battles, and trophies: Iron Bowl (Alabama and Auburn), Egg Bowl (Ole Miss and Mississippi State), Old Oaken Bucket (Purdue and Indiana University), Floyd of Rosedale (Iowa and Minnesota), the Little Brown Jug (Michigan and Minnesota), the Keg of Nails (Cincinnati and Louisville), and the Bayou Classic (Grambling State and Southern University). But the most bitter and more than likely most vicious of them all is the rivalry between the University of Georgia Bulldogs and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, simply referred to as "Clean Old-Fashioned Hate"!

To add fuel to the fire around this game, plezWorld is a graduate of Georgia Tech and plezWife had the misfortune of graduating from the University of Georgia! All season long, she is a devoted Tech fan, coming to all of the games and cheering for the White and the Gold. But come that Saturday afternoon after Thanksgiving, her allegiance swerves to the dreaded Red and Black.

Despite their records, this game is usually close and fought to the bitter end. For the past 7 years, the Bulldogs have been winning the game and last year, it wasn't very close. But this year, the Bullpups started the season as favorites for the National Championship and a Preseason Number One ranking. They've lost two games, actually, they were BLOWN OUT of two games, falling behind by 31 points at home to Alabama and getting their arses reamed by Florida to the tune of 49-10 (and it wasn't even that close). They won the rest of their games, although they struggled with Auburn and Kentucky. They aren't even in the Top 10 (while they finished last season at number 3).

Georgia has seen a precipitous fall in play on the defensive side of the ball, they are not nearly as menacing as last year's version (remember how they dismantled Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl earlier this year?). The offense should be on point with one of the top QB's in the nation, a top Heisman-quality running back, and two outstanding wide receivers (Massaquoi and Green). But the O-line is suspect and Tech's D-line is SOLID!

Georgia Tech is currently in first place in the ACC, despite having a first year coach in Paul Johnson, a sophomore quarterback who had to learn a new offensive scheme, and a very young team. When healthy and playing to their ability, the offense and defense has been unstoppable, but they did lose two games that they should've won: Virginia and North Carolina. They did counter those losses with a trio of upsets: Florida State, Boston College, and Miami.

A healthy defensive line for Tech will give Bulldog's QB Matthew Stafford fits and not enough time to hit his standout receivers nor will it allow SEC rushing leader Knowshon Moreno the freedom to run for big yardage. If Tech's triple option offense can get the run game going and can free up some running lanes for ACC rushing leader Jonathan Dwyer, the Bulldogs will be in for a long afternoon. With a Virginia Tech loss to Virginia, Tech will be headed to Tampa for the ACC Championship game next week - and that game will be played at the same time as the UGA-Tech game, so the players won't know the outcome until the end of their game. A win on Saturday may line Tech up for a BCS Bowl game!

The Bulldogs are tough to beat at home, but it can be done (see Alabama game). And with little to play for - no SEC championship, no BCS Bowl game, and probably relegated to some non-New Year's Day bowl - the Bulldogs may not be as motivated to beat a team that they've owned for the past 7 years with no big reward hanging on the outcome. With this being a down year in the SEC, a loss to Tech won't change the Bulldog's bowl picture by much.

Clean Old-fashioned Hate

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plez sez: the bulldawgs are favored by 7 1/2 points. tech is going to play 'em close... look for an upset!

~ ~ ~

BLOG UPDATE: (11/29/2008 5:00 PM) Tech wins!

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read Jeff Schultz's Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about a Tech upset.

Read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about Georgia Tech and Georgia's leading running backs.

Read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about rivalry between UGA and Georgia Tech.

Read the ESPN.com preview about game between UGA and Georgia Tech.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GT Blows Away the Hurricanes 41-27

Well, so much for breaking into the Top 25 College Football rankings! The #23 Miami Hurricanes (7-4, 4-3) brought their false bravado into Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field (the oldest and winningest active stadium in Div-1 football) riding an inflated 5 game winning streak with hopes of taking over first place of the Coastal Division of the ACC. Well, Georgia Tech's (8-3, 5-3) smothering defense and ground-munching offense laid all of Miami's plans to rest.

Tech's high energy triple option offense was engineered by second year trigger man quarterback Josh Nesbitt - who operated the offense with a precision that hasn't been seen all season. Running back Jonathan Dwyer ripped off 128 yards with just 10 carries in the first half, including a 58-yard touchdown and another 6-yard touchdown where he dragged half of the Hurricane into the end zone. Georgia Tech piled up the fifth-most rushing yards in school history with its most prolific effort in 30 years. Two other players, wingback Roddy Jones (97 yards) and quarterback Josh Nesbitt (93 yards), just missed giving the Yellow Jackets three 100-yard rushers.

Tech's defense was also firing on all cylinders, including a first quarter interception by DE Michael Johnson that he ran in for a touchdown. The defense allowed 20 second half points well after the outcome had been decided. Tech piled on 41 points to Miami's 23, and it was even that close!

Next week, the Ramblin' Wreck goes up the road a bit to tangle with our in-state rivals, those Georgia Bulldawgs... stay tuned for a plezWorld reaction to that one.

~ ~ ~

Georgia Tech football fans were treated to a live feed of space shuttle Endeavour and their Tech alumni crew members on the Bobby Dodd Stadium video board between the first and second quarters of the game. Aboard the spacecraft are three Tech grads, pilot Col. Eric Boe and crew members Lt. Col. Robert “Shane” Kimbrough and Sandra Magnus. plezWorld was a co-op student with NASA when I was a student at GT in the early 80's.

~ ~ ~

plez sez: it was a cold night on the Flats and i missed the entire first quarter sitting in traffic on Peachtree Street... yeah, that Peachtree Street! i took the SugarPlum to ballet class and then had to pick up the plezWife from the office before we went to the game... for some strange reason, traffic was a bear from Buckhead into Downtown Atlanta.

we got to our seats just in time to watch jonathan dwyer rip off his 58 yard TD run... it was awesome! that guy is sneaky fast, he doesn't look like it, but he is motoring away down the middle of the field and NO ONE on the other team can catch him. in the next series he is barreling into the end zone from 6 yards out... and the rout is on.

it really got cold with the temperature dropping quickly through the 40's and down into the upper 30's by half time. we hung around to watch josh nesbitt take it in from the 1 yard line on fourth down to take a 34-10 lead with around 4 minutes left in the third quarter... yeah, we missed the Budweiser song!

as we were walking to our car, we heard the ROAR of the crowd as fullback lucas cox scored on a 32 yard run. by then, the hurricanes had been blown out to sea!

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read the ESPN.com article about Tech's drubbing of Miami.

Read the AJC.com article about Georgia Tech's big win over Miami.

Read Mark Bradley's AJC.com article about Tech's impressive win.

Read the AJC.com article about three Georgia Tech grads on space shuttle Endeavor who were saluted during the football game.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tech Bedevils Duke 27-0

On Saturday afternoon, the Duke Blue Devils (3-1) took to Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field (the oldest active stadium in Div-1 football) with hopes of defeating the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (3-1). What occurred was a thrashing that they will not soon forget!

Duke had no answers for a Tech defense that pitched another shutout (with sophomore DE Derrick Morgan recording another sack) and a Tech offense that picked up steam in the second half (with freshman QB Jaybo Shaw passing 230 yards - all to one receiver in 9 catches). Tech went into the locker room with a slim 3-0 lead, but they came out breathing fire in the second half, piling up another 24 points until the Blue Devils whimpered, "UNCLE!"

The SugarPlum and I (sans plezWife) enjoyed the spectacle of Tech's superiority on the gridiron under the warm October sun... and we even mingled with the Tech Cheerleaders and Gold Rush dancers at my fraternity brothers' tailgate party before and after the game.

GO JACKETS!

The SugarPlum posing with a Tech Cheerleader

The SugarPlum posing with a Tech Gold Rush Dancer

Sporting my "Jackets for Obama" sticker from the football game

all pictures courtesy of my Palm Treo 680

plezWorld College Football Teaser - UGA Preseason #1

Over the weekend, the Associated Press joined the USA Today Coaches Poll in naming the University of Georgia the number one team going into the fall campaign.

Rounding out the AP’s top five are Ohio State, USC, Oklahoma and Florida.

Now that Georgia holds the top rankings in both major polls, national championship buzz will be at an all-time high. But if history has anything to say about it, Georgia doesn’t even have to be among the preseason top 10 to finish on top. When the Bulldogs won the national championship in 1980 on the legs of Herschel Walker, they were ranked 16th in the AP’s preseason poll.

Georgia has a tough row to hoe because their schedule includes six teams ranked in the preseason poll (Florida, LSU, Auburn, Arizona State, Tennessee and Alabama) and a seventh (South Carolina) that sits one point behind No. 25 Pittsburgh. Three of the top 10 teams (Auburn, Florida, and LSU) are among the four games that end their season, with a finale at home against their in-state rival Georgia Tech.

After the grueling schedule, if they win the SEC East, they will have to battle the SEC West champs to secure a spot in the national championship game (against Ohio State)!

AP Preseason Poll

1. Georgia Bulldawgs
   
2. Ohio State Buckeyes
   
3. USC Trojans
   
4. Oklahoma Sooners
   
5. Florida Gators
   
6. Missouri Tigers
   
7. LSU Tigers
   
8. West Virginia Moutaineers
   
9. Clemson Tigers
   
10. Auburn Tigers
    
11. Texas Longhorns
    
12. Texas Tech Red Raiders
    
13. Wisconsin Badgers
    
14. Kansas Jayhawks
    
15. Arizona State Sun Devils
    
16. BYU Cougars
    
17. Virginia Tech Hokies
    
18. Tennessee Volunteers
    
19. South Florida Bulls
    
20. Illinois Fighting Illini
    
21. Oregon Ducks
    
22. Penn State Nittany Lions
    
23. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
    
24. Alabama Crimson Tide
    
25. Pittsburgh Panthers
    

Read the AJC articles about UGA being number one in the preseason polls here and here.

plez sez: plezWife is a graduate of the University of Georgia, so of course, she is giddy with the prospect of them starting the season as the number one team in the nation. but they play in the meat grinder of a conference (SEC) which normally sends the eventual champion to the national championship game... face it, who ever shows up in the national championship game will not have seen the speed, size, and hard hitting defense of the SEC at any point of the season!

to be honest, last year, LSU should have played UGA for the national championship (it would've been a much better and closer game). instead, LSU thumped Ohio State for the national championship, and UGA trounced knocked the dawg shit out of Hawaii in the 2008 Sugar Bowl... it wasn't even funny the way they destroyed the over-matched and sad Rainbow Warriors!

You can't spell Sugar without UGA:

after watching this YouTube video... you can see why UGA is preseason #1!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

since i'm a graduate of rival Georgia Tech, i'm licking my chops for a BIG ASS showdown on November 29, 2008... i've already gotten the family our tickets. it's a home game for UGA and they will have just run a gaunlet through Florida, Auburn, and LSU. they play Georgia Tech at the friendly confines of Sanford Stadium in Athens, GA.

the SugarPlum will be decked out in her little UGA cheerleader outfit, plezWife will have on her bright red UGA hoodie, and plezWorld will be sporting classic White and Gold! the plan is for UGA to be overlooking Tech as they prepare to go into the SEC Championship Game undefeated... and then for them to get stung at home by those pesky Yellow Jackets! their ONLY LOSS of the season!

if they win the SEC Championship game, they'll probably still get to go to the national championship game with one loss!

at least, that's the plan for now...

Georgia Tech & Paul Johnson Agree on Contract

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Paul Johnson has agreed to a contract to coach the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The story does not have contract terms, but local sports radio (790 AM - The Zone) reports that the terms of the contract are for 6 years and $14 million!

Johnson is currently the head coach at Navy, where he took a 2-10 team after his first season to winning 43 games over the next 5 seasons. He was also the head coach at Georgia Southern University where he was 62-10 and won TWO Div 1-AA national championships.

Read the entire AJC article here.

plez sez: way to go TECH! i like this move, spend the money, bring in top notch talent, and work on beating the Bulldogs and winning the ACC on an annual basis!

paul johnson is obviously a very good coach (look at his track record) and has a good reputation for being a good recruiter, as well. something this is necessary to compete with UGA in Georgia and has the ability to recruit nationally for talent (Tech's academic rigor requires a much wider net that just the state).

well, it's time to celebrate, the only way i know how... with the rambln' wreck song:

GO JACKETS! STING 'EM!

A Nightmare on North Avenue

My family and I went to Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field to watch my beloved Yellow Jackets sting the Hokies one week removed from their embarrassing loss at home to Boston College (and Heisman Trophy securing performance by BC QB Matt Ryan). When we limped out of the stadium, the scoreboard read Virginia Tech 27 and Georgia Tech 3, and it wasn't even that close. To make matters worse, I came home and watched the entire game again, courtesy of my DISH Network DVR!

Virginia Tech's backup quarterback, Sean Glennon looked like a candidate for the Heisman Trophy. He played in place of my injured homeboy, Tyrod Taylor (yeah, we both went to Hampton High School in Virginia), in a quickly modified throwback Georgia Tech jersey (because his VT jersey was lost).

Georgia Tech's starting quarterback, Taylor Bennett, played like a candidate for the JV team!

Glennon was 22-32 for damn near 300 yards, 2 TDs, and no interceptions.

Bennett was 11-26 for 156 yards, 0 TD, and 4 interceptions. There were a total of 5 interceptions (Bennett's backup had a late interception) and 1 lost fumble.

Tech (the one in Georgia) scored their only points on a first quarter field goal. It was then the Other Tech's turn to rattle off 27 unanswered points for the duration of the game.

This loss all but ends Georgia Tech's hopes of climbing back into the ACC Championship race AND leaves the Yellow Jackets one game shy of being bowl eligible. The remaining games are against a beatable Duke, a so-so North Carolina, and our bitter blood relatives, those dreaded Bulldawgs of the University of Georgia.

After a season that had Tech (the one in Georgia) with a 9-2 record, playing for a BCS bid and the ACC Championship, we are now hoping to get an invitation to return to the Emerald Nuts Bowl. What looked like a promising season after Bennett's outstanding coming out show against West Virginia in last season's Gator Bowl has turned into a Nightmare on North Avenue: there are rumors that Head Coach Chan Gailey will be fired at the end of the season, the offense has sputtered to a halt, the defense is spending way too much time on the field and yielding too much yardage, and special teams just ain't special!

Without an adequate running game, Tech's offense has no sting. Tashard Choice - one of the nation's premier running backs - is sidelined indefinitely with a knee injury, so we are left to rely on an exceptional true freshman running back, Jonathan Dwyer. He is quick and strong, but he's still a freshman... and he's the best we got. This game experience should tie us over until Choice returns for the UGA game.

After getting a decent running game, we have to get the ball up the field to our receivers. Taylor Bennett throws and awesome screen pass, but is lacking when he has to throw the ball more than 10 yards up the field (all of tonight's interceptions came when he locked in on his receiver up the field). Tech's offensive minds would do well to replace him with true freshman Josh Nesbitt who can create a dual run threat with Dwyer and throw a pretty deep ball. He's Tech's future QB, may as well get him in there with some reps so he'll be ready when the Bullpups roll into town after Thanksgiving.

With Nesbitt and Dwyer together in the backfield, we'll be looking at our future for the next 2-3 seasons... and maybe even salvage what remains of the current season.

We may have lost the game, but I didn't lose my mind... what kind of Georgia Tech post would this be without singing of the Ramblin' Wreck Song?!?

"I'm a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech and a helluva engineer..."

Footnote 1: To make a spooky night even spookier, Big Boi (of Outkast fame) performed the halftime show with the Georgia Tech band. Picture one hip-hop artist with one hundred spastic sheet-music-playing white folk in band gear... it was scary!

Footnote 2: Tech's nickname is the North Avenue Trade School because of its location on North Avenue in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

March Madness: HBCUs and NCAA

Two separate news stories touch on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and the "stigma" attached with being relegated to the play-in games associated with the NCAA Basketball Championship (March Madness).

The following is the March 11th Washington Post article titled "Battling Against 'Stigma' of Play-In":

Hampton made two NCAA tournament appearances during Jeff Granger's college basketball career, both losses, but the experiences were very different.

The first was in 2002, when, as a redshirt, Granger watched the No. 15 seed Pirates lose to No. 2 seed Connecticut in the first round at a sold-out Verizon Center. The other was last year, before fewer than 8,000 fans in Dayton, when Hampton was assigned to play Monmouth in the "opening round" for the right to get into the bracket of 64.

"I know what being in the tournament is," Granger said. The opening-round game "was kind of, sort of, that experience. But it wasn't."

The NCAA tournament's opening-round game, which was added in 2001 and is commonly known as the play-in game, still faces the perception that it is not truly a part of the tournament. It is an issue of particular interest for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), whose teams have been relegated to the Tuesday night game most often. If the NCAA selection committee keeps with its current pattern when the field of 65 is announced today, it would mark the sixth straight season that the champion of the Southwest Athletic Conference or the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, the two leagues that comprise Division I's historically black colleges, will be sent to the play-in game.

"[It's] a backdoor way into the tournament," Hampton President William R. Harvey said.

The play-in game was created as a compromise to preserve the number of at-large bids in the NCAA tournament after the creation of the Mountain West Conference increased the number of automatic bids from 33 to 34. Held in Dayton, Ohio, it pits two of the least competitive teams in the field for the right to be a No. 16 seed and face a No. 1 seed in the traditional field of 64. It is the only game in the tournament that is not a part of the television deal between CBS and the NCAA.

"Dayton has hosted that game in fine fashion and the NCAA has done everything possible to treat the game as a tournament game," said Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Karl Benson, a former member of the NCAA selection committee. "But there is a stigma attached to the two conferences that are playing in that game."

Since its creation, three representatives from the SWAC and two from the MEAC have been sent to the game. The Big South, with two appearances, is the only other league in the country that has sent a team more than once.

The trend is alarming to some affiliated with the two conferences, especially coaches such as Florida A&M's Mike Gillespie, who said that the majority of their teams face unique challenges that make it difficult to compare their competitive résumés to those of other schools.

"I feel the MEAC is every bit as good as the Southland, the Northeast," said Gillespie, who led Florida A&M to the tournament in 2004. "Our top five teams are every bit as good. Why do we have to be singled out each and every year?"

First-year Hampton coach Kevin Nickelberry called the opening round a "pseudo conference tournament game," one that a conference champion shouldn't have to play.

"I dare anybody to say that the experience of a kid in a HBCU is any less important than anybody else's," Nickelberry said. "They got up at 5 o'clock in the morning, they lifted weights, they did everything else that they do at Auburn, Maryland and Ohio State. Their experience is being compromised, and you're basically saying it doesn't matter."

The situation also creates a quandary for members of the NCAA tournament selection committee, which five years ago created a subcommittee asked specifically to handle seeding for the tournament's bottom rung in hopes of combating what Benson called the "stereotyping" of seeds.

But since the game has been created, the SWAC and MEAC have ranked at or near the bottom of the country in the Ratings Percentage Index formula, one of the tools used by the committee to slot teams. The conferences also have had some strange postseason luck. Last season's MEAC tournament provides the perfect example: Delaware State won the regular season title but Hampton earned the NCAA berth through winning the conference tournament.

"When it's like that, what are you going to do?" said Jack Kvancz, George Washington's athletic director, who is a former member of the selection committee.

Jerry Palm, a national expert on the RPI formula used by the committee, said the simplest way to avoid the play-in game is to earn a higher rating by winning more games. "Those teams are down there [in rankings] because they can't beat anybody," said Palm, who operates the Web site http://www.collegerpi.com. "I think that those teams are genuinely not-so-good."

But Gillespie and Nickelberry said the problem is much more complex.

HBCUs typically schedule what are known as "guaranteed money" games against elite programs, which are capable of delivering the largest payouts. At Florida A&M, Gillespie said, a typical slate of between seven or nine guaranteed money games generates nearly $275,000 annually, money the school's athletic program depends on for survival. For smaller schools, these games are played on the road and are often guaranteed losses, which have devastating effects on a team's RPI.

"To get beat by 30 points doesn't create confidence for a team and doesn't raise your RPI," said Nickelberry, whose Pirates are one of the few black college teams that don't have to play money games.

While accepting money for a mismatch deal is common among the nation's smaller conferences, HBCUs play the most -- which Gillespie said distorts team records. This season, the MEAC's 11 teams averaged four games against schools from the six major conferences this season, the most in the country, and went 0-45 in those games. The SWAC averaged just over three games against the majors, finishing 1-33.

Palm said some smaller schools and conferences that have managed to increase their RPIs have done so by playing lower ranked mid-majors that are more likely to enter home-and-home scheduling agreements. Though the payouts aren't as large, the competition gap isn't as large. But, Nickelberry said, most schools in the historically black conferences can't afford to do away with money games.

"If you play that many guaranteed games, it's not possible, based on the equation, to copy what other people have done," Nickelberry said. "You can't do it."

While MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas maintains the play-in game will remain part of the tournament, he knows first-hand what a better seed can mean for a program. He was the athletic director at Hampton when the 15th-seeded Pirates beat No. 2 seed Iowa State, 58-57, in 2001 in one of one of the greatest upsets in the history of the NCAA tournament. Another MEAC school was behind another stunning upset in 1997, when No. 15 seeded Coppin State beat No. 2 South Carolina, 78-65.

"It's kind of ironic when two upsets in recent years have been from the HBCUs," Nickelberry said.

The thought of joining those ranks is one of the reasons that Nickelberry said he left his spot as an assistant on Oliver Purnell's staff at Clemson to take the job at Hampton, which with an endowment of more than $220 million can avoid the pitfalls of other HBCUs.

"But what about the teams that can't do it?" Nickelberry said.

The following is an excerpt from today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution article titled 'Selection boss deflects slap at play-in game':

Niagara, which won Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Tournament, said it felt "disrespected" because it was put into the first-round game with Florida A&M (an HBCU which won the MEAC Conference Championship) Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio.

Niagara (22-11), which started the season 1-6 because it had suspended several players, felt it should not be in the Tuesday night game because there were other teams in the tournament with lower rankings than its 134 in the RPI.

"I think it was shocking," coach Joe Mihalich told the Associated Press. "I think everybody was shocked and maybe some people were insulted by it. But that's good. That's fine with us."

Walters dismissed the suggestion that asking teams to play in Tuesday's game cheapens their NCAA experience.

"There are 260 teams that would love to be playing in the opening round game tomorrow night," Walters said in a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon.

The tournament field expanded from 64 to 65 teams in 2001 because the number of conferences that received automatic bids grew to 31. The larger conferences wanted maintain the 34 at-large bids that had previously existed so the play-in, or opening round, game between two of the lower seeds was created. It is not always reserved for the two lowest seeds in the tournament.

Walters conceded that there has been sensitivity not to put two representatives of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (MEAC, SWAC) into the opening round game. With Florida A&M, in Tuesday's game this marks the sixth straight season that a team from one of those two conferences has been in the Tuesday game.

"There were about 40 teams with 20 wins that didn't even get in the tournament," Walters said. "Nobody was out to punish anybody. I don't understand why there is concern about Niagara playing in the opening round game. It's an honor to play."

plez sez: I have a strong bias about this issue because my alma mater is a member of the ACC (GO JACKETS!) which has 6 teams in the NCAA Championship Tournament.

I am glad that the field of teams was expanded to accommodate more conference champions, because without it, probably only one HBCU would have the opportunity to participate, instead of the two that we have now (Florida A&M and Jackson State). Admittedly, these schools are much smaller than most Division I schools, have much smaller athletic budgets, and attract basketball players who by-and-large are not recruited to the much larger programs.

Over the past week, I took the opportunity to watch some of the games in the MEAC and SWAC Tournaments. The level of competition was several rungs below that of a mid-major; I saw very few starters who could even walk-on at an ACC, SEC, or Big 12 university. To be honest, it is refreshing to read that the selection committee is sensitive to limiting the play-in game to only one HCBU, because in reality, both of them should probably be playing tonight!

I am going to keep it real, though, I'll be rooting for Florida A&M tonight (GO RATTLERS!), if I can find the game on TV!