Great Shot

In honor of today's festivities, I'll pass along this photo gallery I just received in my email...

Photographer Bill Bamberger has spent the last several years documenting one of the most iconic objects in all of sports: the basketball goal. [...] Bamberger has traveled to more than thirty states for his remarkable ongoing series, “Ball,” photographing hoops built on the edge of cotton fields, made of old signs, nailed to telephone poles, hanging from barns...there are no people in these pictures, and there don’t need to be. Whether you’re a basketball fan or not, you’ll begin to see these simple structures as a vital part of the American landscape. But it’s even better to see them as Bamberger does—as pure art.

Coach K (the K is for Shut the Fuck Up)

Duke University head coach and WATB Mike Kczeschehzjejcje0ajfl has his panties in a bunch 'cause Obama filled out a bracket.

"Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four, and as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said from the Blue Devils' first-round site in Greensboro, N.C.

Maybe you should worry less about politics and more about coaching your team in the tournament, douche. Since clearly it's not possible for someone to do two things at once...like go to college, take classes AND play basketball...Or, maybe walk and chew gum...Or, do my job AND tell you to drink the fuck up...



[h/t Toast]

UPDATE: That post was based on a FOX News story, so naturally it should have been wiped off my shoe rather than believed. Video shows Coach K is clearly joking as he makes the remarks and goes on to declare he thinks Obama is great. He's absolved for this, but not everything else, so he can keep sipping.

The Furious Bracket

Money's too tight for me to be going nuts entering pools, but I still gotta do a bracket. This is absolutely the most ill-informed one I've ever completed—I know absolutely nothing about college hoops at this point in my life. It's gone downhill dramatically since having kids and an actual job (as opposed to consulting), but I think the cumulative effect is actually erasing the six-years-stale knowledge I do possess.

I entered the Balloon Juice pool (free—bragging rights only) through Yahoo! and if I can figure a way to show you the whole bracket I will, but in the meantime, my Final Four is Loisville, UConn, Gonzaga and Texas. With UConn over the Zags 78-70 in the final.

Purely sentimental picks based on nostalgia and not much else. UConn and Gonzaga are long-time Furious Favorites, but I've never ridden Gonzaga this far. Texas is here solely for my love of Rick Barnes—and I don't even know if he's still the freaking coach. And Louisville, because I just can't argue with the numbers.

Oh, and here's Obama's bracket.