i am sitting here contemplating yesterday’s events in basketball, college basketball.

My thoughts:

There is not a team in this world that will ever beat a good defensive team that shoots 70%. Ever. And the Aggies took a lot of shots that were not open but went in. They were the better team today. i think Sara Yahola, one of the more positive Vandy fans i know, best captured my thoughts when she wrote, “Vandy scared them coming back from 27 down to 12. They didn’t have time to get even, but they gave it a go.” They did, and i give them a lot of credit for that.

Now, i wait to see if they will be invited to the big dance. If they don’t get selected…Holy moly, the sports promoters have a show for the selection announcement. What a goofball idea. And folks are going to watch. Not me. i will see the filled in brackets for the ridiculous number of teams when i read about it later, and yes, i will fill out a bracket…and i won’t watch the Oscars today, especially since the only movies i saw last year were some old ones on television and “Elvis.” My wife, a movie aficionado along with our two daughters, will attend an Oscar watching party at a friend’s home. i plan to pull out a set of 10 DVDs and watch as many as i can until Maureen gets home. The set? 44 movies claiming to be the “Best Westerns.” Nearly all of my early heroes will be on what was once a silver screen. i mean, how can you miss “King of the Cowboys,” “The Fighting Westerner,” “Springtime in the Rockies,” “The Outlaw,” and even “One-Eyed Jacks” and “The Over the Hill Gang.”

i will not be upset if Vanderbilt is not one of those 68 teams selected to the NCAA tourney. The process is subjective no matter how they crunch the numbers. It’s an opinion. Period. If not, i will watch more of the NIT, begun in 1938, one year before the NCCA tourney and the premier post season play for years. i am okay with that.

Regardless of which of the two tournaments, the Commodores are playing, i will watch. i am proud, proud of them for taking me former Commodore fans a half-century ago back, apparently along with and a whole bunch of current students, into “Memorial Magic.”

Thank you, Jerry Stackhouse, for making my ‘Dores competitive at the highest level once again. And along with Vice-Chancellor Candice Lee, it means so much more that you are doing it the right way, the Vandy way (as David Williams was so fond of saying).

Later yesterday afternoon, i watched the Aztecs squeeze out a win over Utah State to claim the Mountain West Championship. Unlike Vandy, SDSU is automatically in the big show. Utah State, with one of the highest percentages for field goals in the regular season shot 10% lower in the finals. Both these Aggies and the Commodores had tough games, the last ones played the previous evenings. After playing a demanding four consecutive days. i wonder if the teams that played earlier the previous day (A&M and the Aztecs) have a significant advantage with time to rebound from the previous day, a problem by having too many games. My usual curmudgeon whining applies.

It has been a fun run and hopefully will remain so for another week or so.

It’s time for baseball.