Maryland vs. Miami (2:00pm)

Duke vs. NC State (7:00pm)

Georgia Tech vs. Wake Forest (9:00pm)

Despite the ugly ending to the Duke/UNC game on Sunday*, we have entered the greatest two weeks of the year — Conference Tournaments and Round One of the NCAA tournament. This week especially should be declared automatic personal time, or at least legislate every business maintain multiple television screens worth of games during the work day.

This has been a great year for the ACC — on any given night, anyone can really beat anyone else (with the possible exception of Miami).  There have been no gimmie games anywhere.  I believe for the first time the tournament is being held in Florida this year, after making stops in Washington and common home of Greensboro, NC.  It will interesting if a little home court boost is given to Miami in their opening round against Maryland.  However, Maryland has been on a tear recently, and while the odds of someone who is playing on Thursday winning it on Sunday, they are going to be a very tough out.

Georgia Tech I think has already played its way into the tournament, capped with its win over UNC, but regardless, just to be sure, they need to take care of business against Wake.  The opening game between Clemson and Florida St. has a lot riding on it.  I think Clemson needs two wins to make the tournament, given their slide from 17-0.  Florida St. I think needs one win with their point guard back healthy to show the committee that they deserve a spot.  Because their paired for the tournament opener on Thursday, I think only one of them will make the NCAA’s.

Duke vs. State will a really tough game against two strikingly similar teams in terms of depth and personnel.  I still see Duke winning in a close contest as long as they get back to lock down defense that has helped them all year, yet abandoned them the previous two games against Maryland and UNC.  Coach K will be stressing defense this week, so I believe they will come out with fire on the defensive end.

I’ll be in California starting on Thursday, so it will probably be tough for me to catch every game (thank $DEITY for ReplayTV–Tivo… I’ll at least be able to watch the good ones later… but it’s never the same).

* — This has been discussed ad nauseam, and I have no real wish to delve into it separately. Next Play.

What a gut wrencher.  Time to recoup and rest!

Here’s to next season… first offical day of practice about 190 days away.

(There are lots of other stuff I could comment on, but I just don’t feel quite up to it at the moment…)

Next Play

So, the trip cross country… Paul and I started Friday morning and got into LA late Sunday evening. I then drove up to the Bay Area on Monday. Let me give you a state by state breakdown.

North Carolina – Mark Driving

This was the first drive (X-country) where Paul and I were both awake driving through the Smoky Mountains. It was really beautiful, and made me regret a little that I hadn’t visited it more while at Duke. I can’t imagine what it must be like during the fall too!

Tennessee – Paul Driving

Paul determined (and I concurred) that Tennesse (especially Knoxville) can “kiss the fattest part of our ass.” For the second straight time, Paul got stuck driving in traffic on 40 going through Knoxville (and it wasn’t like it was during rush hour or anything either). TN is just all around not a pleasant place to be.

Arkansa – Mark Driving

Right before leaving TN, we stopped to get gas and swap driving. We when into the convient store, which had a TV with the weather on. A huge storm front and tornado warning was covering Arkansa. “Lovely” we thought. After about 45 minutes driving down 40 and seeing this massive, ugly-looking storm front loom to the north, it then basically swollowed us up for the rest of AK. I have never seen so much rain and lightning (thankfully no tornados). We were crawling long the interstate at 30mph, wishing that our windshield wipers had a faster setting. Lighting struck the ground about a quarter of a mile in front of us, which was quite amazing.

That was basically the adrenaline rush of the trip.

Oklahoma – Paul Driving

After we got through most of the storm, we stopped in OK to sleep (I don’t remember the town). It was night… not much to see anyway.

Texas – Mark Driving

B-O-R-I-N-G should be TX’s motto. Not much to say here. The interstate was really bad, with horizontal lines (which caused a solid thump) every 2 seconds. Moving on…

New Mexico – Both Driving

The western part of New Mexico is quite breath taking. We happened to be driving through that part during the sunset as well, which made it even better. But other than a few geological features, there’s not much there but desert.

Arizona – Both Driving

We decided earlier in the day to stay at the Grand Canyon for the night, then wake up early on Sunday and see the Canyon for a half day, and then continue on to LA. Most of AZ was pich black. I think it was slightly overcast because you couldn’t see any stars or the moon, and looking out from the highway, it was pitch black. There was no ambiant light from anywhere. It was actually really cool.

We turned off 40 to head up to the Grand Canyon, and it was even more impressive here, because we were the only cars on the road. It was at this point that Paul decided to scare the shit out of me. With the cryptic remark, “This is pretty straight,” he cuts out the lights to the car for a second and then turns them back on. However during that one second, it got totally black. No light from anywhere. It was like you were in a cave. And needless to say since I wasn’t warned, I was fucking scary as hell. Paul got a kick out of it though =)

The Grand Canyon – Both Driving

We picked a GREAT day to visit the Canyon. It was clear, not too hot, and we missed the afternoon crowds by going really early. I’ll post some pictures later. We hiked down into the Canyon about a mile and then back up, which was a lot of fun. Hiking down to the river, camping, and hiking back out is definitely on my list of to do.

California – Both Driving

The CA desert is actually really interesting. Granted there’s not much there, but its still a wonder. You think about all the diverse places CA has (LA, Bay Area, Tahoe, etc.) and you can add a desert to that list. (Though thank god we had air conditioning =)

We got stuck in traffic entering LA (people on the 15 are stupid), but we ended up getting to Paul’s house without too much trouble (after Paul decided to invent a short cut that worked very well =)

Since the trip, I’ve just been unwinding and unpacking. I went to see the new Matrix, but I’m going to hold off commenting on it till I’ve seen it again (but WOW).

Now on to seeking employment and enjoying the last school-made summer =)

Finals ended pretty well, with the prospect of an incredible beach weekend in Myrtle… Well Mother Nature tweaked an adjective or two, and it turned out to be overcast and windy with evening thunderstorms, and it even hailed the first night (which was pretty incredible in its own right. Watching the hail come down and then the lightning light up the ocean was really breathtaking). But despite the adversity, we managed to get out to the beach almost every day. The last day was great… not exactly blue sky, but much warmer than before. Did a little body surfing… which is just not the same on the East coast (as the ocean science people adeptly pointed out is due to the continental shelf), but it was still fun cause I hadn’t been in at least 3 years.

So now its getting ready for graduation… packing up the room for the last time. We actually had a legit $10 entry poker tournament last night which I ended up winning (a nice pot of $100)! Definitely a nice change considering my usual poker outings.

I’ll be heading up to DC for a few days after graduation to drop off stuff with my uncle and scope out some of the DC housing to get a sense of where the good places are. I’m then heading back to the Bay Area with Paul.

Oh! Speaking of which, I have now driven every inch of Highway 40 (from Barstow, CA to Willmington, NC). It was pretty cool seeing a sign at the start of 40 saying “Barstow, Calif 2,554″ (or some milage around there). Impressive accomplishment isn’t it? Maybe on the drive to DC I’ll drive every inch of Highway 80!

Upcomming:

Graduation – 9:00am, Sunday May 11, 2003
Unemployment – 12:00pm, Sunday May 11, 2003

Yay