Random Thoughts from the Southern Outpost

Some random thoughts from Day 1 of the ACC basketball tournament in Atlanta...

• Does anyone really want to see any seed higher than a #8 in ANY conference basketball tournament? This would limit all tournaments to 3 days and actually make things interesting in the regular season to make the top 8 (especially in big-numbered conferences like the Big East and Big 12). That was evident here in Atlanta where you couldn't give tickets away for the afternoon session of Virginia Tech/Miami and Clemson/Georgia Tech.

• As much as I know about basketball, I know nothing. The previously mentioned afternoon session proved that beyond belief. I both lost my ESPN streak and my centsports.com account amount on a parlay on Miami giving away 3.5 points (only to lose by 18 pts) and Clemson giving away 9.5 points (only to lose outright by 5 pts).

• Sidney Lowe, head coach of the North Carolina State Wolfpack, is easily the worst coach in the ACC and without much thought I would say the worst coach in D1. Every inbounds play from the frontcourt was purposely thrown to the safety valve in the backcourt. EVERY play. Let me see if I have this right...the ball is 8 feet from the basket, but instead I'll hurl it 55 feet away to start an unsuccessful and poorly conceived play that uses 33 of the 35 seconds play clock. He must have pictures of the AD with an underage sheep or something...how he still has a job is beyond me.

• Apparently Terrell Owens was at the afternoon session for the Georgia Tech/Clemson game. I didn't run into him, nor did I see him. Because if I did and in the grand tradition of all that is right on DSB, I would have taught him a lesson (or at least harrassed him mercilessly).

• From my friend Kyle comes this topic that is up for debate...from a non-basketball perspective, who's more miserable after their deadline trade deal - Vladimir Radmanivoc or Adam Morrison? Morrison is a plaid-wearing, country bumpkin from the meth lab, trailer park town that is known as Spokane. And now he's in La-La Land with the Paris Hiltons of the world. Or is it Radmanovic who was a staple on the LA club scene who is now relegated to the genteel, southern charm in Charlotte? I'm favoring Radmanovic...but it's a lot closer than I expected.

• After watching 10 hours of ACC basketball, we retired to the hotel bar and got sucked into the UConn/Syracuse 6 OT classic. How great was this game? I know in this ESPN-dominated society we tend to overhype the just happened events as the greatest ever. But this one deserves some serious discussion on that topic. Even Len Elmore told me the same thing in the hotel elevator.

• While at the hotel bar, I spoke with some guys in waste management from Knoxville, Tennessee and learned some interesting things. Mind you...at this point it is all rumor and cannot be substantiated by me...but I'm going to reprint the story anyway. Apparently, about 2 years ago Bruce Pearl (head basketball coach at UT) was going though a messy divorce and was pretty much screwing every coed in sight on the campus. And in some form of retribution his wife opened up a dress shop in Knoxville named Alimony. Nice touch!

• One more fact I picked up at the hotel bar - - 0% of drunk douchebags are successful at hitting on cocktail waitresses at hotel bars. This inebriated asshole from Maryland was relentless in his pursuit only to get Heismaned in the end. Do you think it had to do with the fact that you kept pointing to your Cash (for Johnny) t-shirt and shouting "Straight Cash Homey"? I do...

Check back tomorrow for more random thoughts and in tomorrow's post I'll include pictures from my seat to make everyone out there jealous.

Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy's Sugar Ball...