NCAA Basketball Tournament

A View to the Rooms

It's Never Too Early

John Royal’s NCAA Picks

Drenched in Blog: March Madness, Rock-Style

John Royal’s NCAA Basketball Picks, Take Two

The Man Behind Mad Max

Vernon Maxwell has made a reputation by going crazy. Now he says he wants to go straight. Really?

March Madness Now Includes A DWI Crackdown

Illustration by Mike "Dakinewavamon" KlineIt's March!! Time for Spring Break!! And March Madness!! And, ummm, a DWI crackdown by the Harris County DAs office.We don't know what kind of crazed marketing mind came up with the title "The 'March Madness' Anti-DWI Enforcement Campaign," but someone did, ... More >>

25 Random March Madness Facts

Photo by All your picture are belong to us It's once again time for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, or as most refer to it, March Madness. And instead of doing an analysis and picking the winner, like I do (badly) every year, I've decided to go another way. I'm sure you've all seen those Fac ... More >>

When Publicists Attack: The "Dirty Tourney"

Admittedly, here at the Press we receive all kinds of stupid shit, especially from publicists. But seldom have we gotten a press release with less social merit and higher scuzz factor than this one from WMG (Warner Music Group), entitled "Screw The NCAA's...Welcome To the DIRTY TOURNEY!" I know ... More >>

UT Actually Makes The Final Four For Once: In Chess, And In Brownsville

While UT barely made it out of the first round in this year's college basketball tournament, a lesser known member of the state university system was playing in the Final Four ... of chess.UT Brownsville/Texas Southmost College wiped the geek right off the faces of the players from Stanford to claim ... More >>

25 Random March Madness Facts

Photo by All your picture are belong to us It's once again time for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, or as most refer to it, March Madness. And instead of doing an analysis and picking the winner, like I do (badly) every year, I've decided to go another way. I'm sure you've all seen those Fac ... More >>

UH Hoops Still Dreaming Of Making It Back To March Madness

Photo courtesy UH​Guy V. Lewis last coached the University of Houston men's basketball team in 1986. His last great team lost in the 1984 NCAA title game to the Georgetown Hoyas. He left a legacy of 27 straight winning seasons. Fourteen seasons with 20-plus wins. Fourteen NCAA tournament appearanc ... More >>

Cougars Are, At Long Last, A Part Of March Madness Again

Photo courtesy UH​I owe Tom Penders and his players an apology. I thought that there was no chance of the Houston Cougars running the table in the C-USA men's basketball tournament, and thus making the NCAA Tournament. And I wrote such.Boy was I wrong.The Cougars pulled off the expected defeat ... More >>

The Week In TV: Mad About Mad Men Barbie Dolls

The Barbie version of Joan appears to have just escaped from Dachau.​I have no idea what day it is, my veins run thick with taquitos, and I took my shirt off in public. This was the week in TV Land: • I'm a little amazed at the amount of TV I was able to watch this past week considering I' ... More >>

Obama Shows Little March Madness Love For Texas Schools

Texas -- not just UT, but the state's other March Madness teams -- ain't getting much love from Barack Obama. His annual bracket picks do have Baylor, A&M and Texas getting past the first round, but not UH.Take heart, Coog fans: As Obama says, "I got killed last year in the first round."Texas ... More >>

Game Time: Hating Duke, A Visual Montage

​I'll admit it, I hate the Duke Blue Devils. The players, the assistant coaches, the head coach, the Cameron Crazies. All of them. In all of their floor-slapping, charge-taking, horrid-flopping, leg-humping, press-conference-crying, nose-picking, baby-whining, face-painting, Speedo-wearing Vita ... More >>

Game Time: We Interrupt March Madness For This Earl Thomas Interview

​By the time this post is up, March Madness will have tipped off, so I hope everyone was able to glean enough "infotainment" (a word my good friend WWE Hall of Famer, Jim Ross, loves to use) to mentally and psychologically prepare you for the next few weeks. If you missed it, you can get the Mar ... More >>

Game Time: "My Bracket Looks Like Edward James Olmos' Face"

​There is a silver lining in a plundered bracket in the year 2010, and it's this -- with the advent of Twitter, you immediately get reaction to the various buzzer-beaters, bracket-busters, and inexplicable gaffes that make up the first few days of the tournament (and there were plenty). So whereas ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Ze Germans are here, Turkish. They've brought some of their food, so really, we should be glad they're not the Pikeys.​ Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we've spent all day in the hot sun baling whipped cream out at the cheesecake farm. With a giant spork. Ah ... More >>

Coogs Show Sparks, But Are One-And-Done In The NCAAs

Photo courtesy UH​On Friday, I laid out a series of necessary keys that the Houston Cougars had to meet were they to have any chance of defeating the Maryland Terrapins in Friday night's opening-round NCAA Tournament match. You've seen the final score by now: Maryland 89, Houston 77. But at th ... More >>

Game Time: "I've Done Some Pretty Bad Things"

​"I've done some pretty bad things..." -- Tiger Woods, 3.21.10That makes two of us, Tiger. Of course, while the bad things you did were decidedly more kinky and homewrecking than my transgressions, it doesn't make me feel any less remorseful than you. Hey, by the way, saw your texts to Joslyn ... More >>

Penders Is Definitely Not Leaving "To Spend More Time With His Family"

Photo courtesy UH​What has been rumored since even before the basketball season began came true today. There was a press conference at the University of Houston in which it was announced that Tom Penders would not be returning as the head coach of the Houston Cougars.There was a strangeness abou ... More >>

Exit, Tom Penders; Enter.....To Be Determined

Photo from wikipedia​It was rather surreal inside the Carl Lewis Auditorium at the University of Houston Athletics/Alumni Center yesterday afternoon. Let's start with members of the Houston media actually showing up for something that didn't involve a free buffet -- there hasn't been that large ... More >>

Game Time: Assessing The 2010 Final Four

​I was on fire. As dismal as my bracket had become whittling the field down from 64 to 16 teams, once the field was down to the Sweet Sixteen, I was seeing things much more clearly. This wouldn't save my bracket, because brackets are like kids -- once you crank one out, it's yours for better or ... More >>

UH Makes An Odd Choice For Its Basketball Program

​When Tom Penders resigned last week, University of Houston Athletic Director Mack Rhoades made it clear that he was looking for more than just a head coach of the basketball team. He was looking for a partner. Somebody who would not only turn the team into a winner, but would also grow the pro ... More >>

Game Time: Cheer Up Coogs Fan, There's Still A Chance Mack Rhoades Just Has A Killer Sense Of Humor

​Today is the first day of the Shell Houston Open. If you remember, last year the first day had to be postponed because of some nasty winds that had blown into the Houston area. Suffice it to say that if there is a strong breeze in the Houston area on this first day of the Shell Houston Open, it's ... More >>

Game Time: Yeah, My Bracket Blows, But At Least I'm Not This Guy

​Sometimes I forget that the cushy little sports world I live in is not the end-all and be-all. For the better part of the last two weeks, it has felt like everything was crashing down around me as housewives and receptionists everywhere had outpicked me on their March Madness brackets using such ... More >>

For Opening Day: The Worst Pregame Renditions Of The National Anthem Ever

What so proudly we hailed... Can you pass the earplugs, please?​ You can be forgiven for not realizing Opening Day for baseball season was here already (yesterday, in fact). Maybe you've been too busy cursing the guy in your NCAA tournament pool that filled out his brackets using the coin-flip met ... More >>

The Ron Paul Minions Get Greedy

​FLASH ALERT from the Lew Rockwell blog, home to all things libertarian: Ron Paul, the Thomas Jefferson/John Adams/Solomon of our benighted day, needs your help.Warmonger Michael McCaul is gaining on Ron Paul in the final bracket of the Houston Chronicle's online poll to determine the most effect ... More >>

Game Time: Prediction Monday -- Men's Hoops Finals And The Astros' 2010 Season

​NCAA MEN'S HOOPS FINALS (Butler vs Duke, 8:21 PM tip-off)When I ranked the list of NCAA Finals permutations from "Most Compelling" to "Least Compelling" in this space last week, I had Butler vs Duke ranked as the most compelling. The figurative "Cinderella" (although let's not forget that Cinde ... More >>

Game Time: What If Gordon Hayward's Shot Goes In?

As sports fans, I think we probably let single events define players and coaches more than we should. In this era where we want to evaluate things quickly and neatly, it's always easier (and oftentimes, lazier) to just let one play on a big stage define somebody. It's clear, it's concise, it's also ... More >>

UH's James Dickey Prepares For His Deliverance

uh.com Sure he's smiling now. But wait until the season starts​It may seem like it's been awhile since Mack Rhoades and the Houston Cougars hired James Dickey to take over the men's basketball program.But in many ways, the time has been flying by as Dickey and his staff have attempted to se ... More >>

Resurrecting Phi Slama Jama

Can UH resurrect its basketball glory days?

Rice Basketball: Farce? Fiasco? Either Way, the Owls Lose Another

John RoyalThe malfunctioning shot clock displays Rice's chances of advancing to the NCAA Tournament​What if they played a basketball game and nobody cared? What if it was senior night, but the school was on spring break and not even the band or cheerleaders could be bothered to make even a to ... More >>

Charles Barkley Drops "Jackass" on Billy Packer (And Seven Other Barkley-As-Analyst Highlights)

Don't mess with the Barkley​The unveiling of the brackets for March Madness, which is a scant 48 hours away, takes on a little different meaning this year, for three intertwined reasons: 1. The field has expanded to 68, so now Tuesday and Wednesday will include four play-in games to get us to ... More >>

CBS Murders Charles Barkley (Not Literally)

Barkley sucked ass instead of kissing it​"This is a win on any number of levels, not the least of which is that I would watch Charles Barkley analyzing or opining on any topic. No, seriously, I would watch Charles Barkley convey his thoughts about ANYTHING -- basketball, politics, the economy, ... More >>

Why Is Everybody Hating on UAB?

Seth Greenberg wants to know why no one likes him​"It makes you wonder if someone in that room has their own agenda, and it does not include Virginia Tech, unfortunately," Coach Seth Greenberg said Sunday night. "You'd hate to think there's politics involved, but it makes you wonder." I've ... More >>

11 Keys to Your Filling Out Your NCAA Bracket

Have you done your brackets yet?​So it's that time of year again. Time for the Big Dance, March Madness, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It's that one time of year when absolutely everyone in the office actually pays attention to college basketball and everyone thinks they're an expert ... More >>

NCAA Day One -- Winners and Losers

Need some downtime for the NCAA tourney? Try a vasectomy.​Yes, you read that headline correctly -- yesterday was "Day One" of the NCAA Tournament. Not Tuesday! Despite what the NCAA propaganda machine will tell you, the greatest single two-week period of sports during the calendar year is not ... More >>

NCAA Days Three and Four -- Winners and Losers

March madness underway.​Well, I'm guessing that this past weekend of basketball is not how the money people behind the Final Four's coming to Houston drew it up on the chalkboard. In a tournament that already had last year's regional darling Baylor on the outside looking in, the only two Te ... More >>

NCAA Sweet 16: So, How Are Your Brackets Looking?

There's still a chance I sit courtside next to Ashley Judd at the Final Four​As we prepare for the Sweet 16, here are some of the things we learned from the first weekend of games of the NCAA Tournament. 1. Maybe Seth Greenberg's supporters should have been bitching about too many schools fr ... More >>

NCAA Sweet Sixteen Central

What the hell happened to Leslie Visser?​It's generally accepted that the first two full days of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament provide the greatest two-day watching/gambling/drinking/eating experience annually, for obvious reasons: 1. Whether by illness, approved vacation, or planned s ... More >>

Final Four -- R.I.P. College Basketball Regular Season

It's Cinderella overload in Houston​"See, BCS! This is how it's done! College basketball, baby!!" -- Any number of random tweeters after Virginia Commonwealth and Butler punched their tickets to the Final Four this weekend Yes, in a world plagued by war, unemployment, and earthquakes, the m ... More >>

Last Night: Cold War Kids At Warehouse Live

Photos by Jim Bricker​Cold War Kids Warehouse Live March 31, 2011 "HOUSTON: A BRACKET TOWN," read signs posted around downtown last night. HPD had begun arranging road-closures and tents were already stocked with T-shirts and Final Four swag, as the city prepared itself for this weekend's ine ... More >>

The NCAA Title Game: Forget One Shining Moment, Try a Brick House Instead

John RoyalAnd so begins one of the worst championship games in NCAA Tournament history.​Houston is the home city of two Conference USA basketball teams. That means that there's been some really bad basketball played in this city the last several years. So perhaps it was the lingering stench ... More >>

NCAA Tournament -- Four Winners, Four Losers

Jim Calhoun reboots once again​Well, if a Final Four of a three, four, eight and eleven seed wasn't a metaphor for Houston sports in 2011, then Connecticut and Butler establishing a watchability bar that the women's final may actually surpass tonight (ok,ay I am totally joking, but still...) m ... More >>

Health Department Roundup

The end of the Age of Aquarius ​In honor of the NCAA Tournament ending, we're going to highlight some health inspection Cinderella stories. These are the little guys that lack citywide recognition but still have to conform to the same tough sanitation standards as the big-name restaurants. For ... More >>

Cruel Summer -- Andre Jones (1969-2011)

Notable deaths: They do come in threes sometime​In a recent blog post about Major League Baseball realignment, I expressed the following sentiment: The best memories for most sports fans are the ones that took place from their mid-teenage years through their late 20s. Generally, for most of u ... More >>

Bowling for Chumps

How insiders use the college bowl system to loot American universities.