Three Rivers Three Links

It's time to let the inmates loose! The Madness officially begins today, and with that in mind I have a few different links about the madness as I prepare for an exhausting day of sitting on my ass, watching 12 hours of basketball, eating copious amounts of pizza and drinking beer and coke all while I'm supposed to be sleeping sitting in my finance classes. If only my parents could see me now.

1. Are you one of the poor saps sitting at your cubicle on this glorious day hoping to catch a sneak of the grainy, snuff-film-looking footage of the March Madness games on CBS's website? Well then I would direct you here: Skipping work from TheLoveofSports.com. I especially liked the fake pink eye excuse. That could get you out today and tomorrow. Too perfect.

2. If you like sports simulation stuff, I can't recommend ESPN's Accuscore bracketcaster highly enough. I just spent 20 minutes simulating different brackets. It really is way more fun than simple percentages and odds ever should be, especially when it gives you zany upsets like it just gave me, with Siena in the Sweet 16 and Bobby Mo beating Sparty.

3. PSAMP pretty much nails spot on my thoughts about Dwyane Wade picking Pitt to win the title. I still wake up sometimes in a cold sweat thinking about what he did to Pitt in the tournament. Few people really remember this, but that game was really his coming out party, as he had only really dominated C-USA teams to that point. After he debacled Pitt, I think a lot of people realized just how special of a player he could be. Perhaps even more importantly, Wade's trademark move, the "drive-recklessly-towards-the-hoop-looking-for-contact-and-toss-up-a-terrible-shot-while-obviously-flopping-to-the-ground-like-you've-been-picked-off-by-a-sniper" routine was first unveiled to a national audience in this game. It was a big moment for basketball. Oh, and I think the refs from the 06 NBA Finals just called another foul on the Mavericks.

Site update: I'll be back later tonight with my personal and completely random thoughts from today's NCAA games. My plan for today is to skip not one, but two classes, and only tear myself away from the TV and the computer when the pizza guy shows up. God I love this time of year.