at least they care.

Give the folks at Harrells Christian Academy credit - they are dedicated to football.

I’m sure there are many public schools from our area that would love to have the coaching tree they’re building at HCA.  For a private school that just started playing 11-man football again a few season ago, its quite impressive.

Three seasons ago they shocked everyone by hiring Bob Lewis and his five state championships to be their coach.  He promptly won another title with the Crusaders and escorted them from 8-man back into the 11-man game.

Lewis left for Whiteville High last month, but apparently Harrells Christian wasn’t going to settle for a lesser coach.

Instead, they went out and hired the winningest coach in North Carolina history.  Amazing. 

Jack Holley is the new head coach at HCA – the announcement made official at an afternoon press conference.  His resume speaks for itself: 39 Coach of the Year awards, 380 wins with 89 losses, 24 conference championships, and 5 state championship game appearances.  And now he’s at tiny little Harrell’s Christian Academy.

I’m not a fool – its pretty obvious that money is a key factor here.  They must have paid Bob Lewis a boat-load to get him there in the first place, and then more cash again to bring in Holley.  When I got to the school today for the press conference there was a sign out front about raising $2 million for school improvements - and they were almost there.  So I’m guessing they aren’t hurting for cash.

But if Harrells wants to make a splash in football (and it appears they do) – good for them for getting the best coaches available.  I wish some of the public schools cared as much.

    kevin

Click on the WECT logo to see today’s story on the Holley hiring

boring.

All four number one seeds made to the Final Four.  Boring.

I guess that means the selection committee did their job, but jeez…how about a little excitement?

This year’s tournament isn’t doing it for me.  There is Davidson - and a bunch of teams that are all the same.  Of the Final Eight – seven of them were teams I’m sick of, and then Davidson.  I wish the Mid-Majors could make a bigger impact in this tournament – it would make it a lot more fun.  If I have to watch another Big East team, I’m going to throw up.  Thankfully they’re all out.

I’m sticking to my pre-tournament prediction that North Carolina will win.  Even though they nearly gagged it up against Louisville, I just don’t think anyone has the talent level they do. 

     kevin

You can buy your own foam finger apparently.  That’s where the picture is from.

do i like this guy?

Now that North Carolina plays Louisville tomorrow, I get to go through my internal debate again.  Do I like Rick Pitino? 

I always liked him when he was the coach at Kentucky.  Seemed like a fun guy to play for – had that full court press style.  His teams were awesome to watch.

He came to Boston for a book signing when it was wildly rumored he was going to leave Kentucky for the Celtics.  I went and walked away very impressed.  He shook everyone’s hand, looked you in the eye, and said “thanks for coming”.  A complete 180 from Mo Vaughn who never looked up the entire time and looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.  Jerk. 

Two weeks later (if that) he was the Celtics coach.  I was PUMPED.  I bought tickets for a bunch of games.  Followed the team closer than I ever had before.  They won their first game of the season – Halloween night – against the Bulls.

And then they stunk.  Badly.  And Pitino was horrible.  And then he quit.  I think every Celtics fan hated him.  Including me.

But then Pitino came back to college.  My then-girlfriend was a huge Pitino fan, and so I got back on the bandwagon.  His teams are fun to watch again.  And – its clear - college is where he belongs.  So when his teams are playing, I tend to root for them.

But there is always those Celtic memories and how he ruined the team for almost a decade.  There is always that image of how he got out of town when it wasn’t going well.  He’s still probably one of the most hated guys in Boston sports history.

What do you think??  Do the OC readers like Pitino?

     kevin

The photo is from si.com.   It obviously is the ‘beginning of the end’ of some long years in Boston.

Opening Morning.

 I was all prepared to “live blog” Red Sox Opening Day.

Then I realized two things:

1 – every Red Sox fan is going to be doing the same thing.  So why just be one of the masses?

2 – there is a 98% chance I’ll still be asleep when the game starts.  And possibly still asleep when it ends.

I really want to get up at 6am to watch the game – but in all honesty, that probably won’t happen.   Have a Sam Adams Light and a hot dog at 7:30 – tempting, but no thanks.  I’ll probably dvr it – and watch it in the afternoon.

I’m pretty excited about baseball this year – and mainly because I’m excited about the Red Sox.  I really think they can win the championship again this season.  I wrote about it in detail on johnnymets site.   Its worth a click – and not to ring my own bell – but its a pretty good read.  You can read it HERE.   While you’re at it – click around on that site.  Johnny is a huge Mets fan, but even if you aren’t – its good stuff – and I’ll be referencing it several times here on the Orange Couch.

So – as I write this – Opening Day is less than 12 hours away.  But with the game being in Japan, it doesn’t feel like it.  Maybe once tomorrow comes, I’ll feel different.

Go Red Sox.

  kevin 

The t-shirt is from amazon.com – you can buy your own for less than $20.  The description says: this T-shirt features ‘Red Sox’ written in Japanese.  But really – do you really know that?  It could say “baked beans” for all I know.  Then you’re strutting around town with a “baked beans” shirt. 

bummer.

Siena is out and my bracket is toast.

Safe to say my NCAA Sunday hasn’t been so great.

I was able to watch most of the Siena game, and they just couldn’t make a shot.  I’m sure Villanova had a lot to do with it, but the Saints couldn’t make a free throw and couldn’t make the close shots.  Pretty simple.  But it was a fun run – I’m glad they got a win, and hopefully it can lead to even bigger things.

As for my bracket - I had Georgetown in the Final Four.  Not good.  A quick memo to the rest of the NCAA Tournament:  GUARD STEPHEN CURRY.  How does he get so open?? How does he make so many shots??

The real question is – why isn’t he in the ACC??  Seems like every ACC coach dropped the ball on that one.  There isn’t a school in the conference that wouldn’t love a kid like that – even North Carolina.

Another tournament note: I’m not a big Billy Packer guy – either you like him or you’d rather be listening to others, I guess.  For me – he’ll always be the guy who ran his mouth in 2006 about the Mid-Majors not deserving to be in the tournament.  Then George Mason went to the Final Four that year.  Hilarious.  So I wonder how he feels while doing the Davidson game and watching them upset Georgetown.  Does he get caught up in the excitement, or does he get bummed out?

So with Siena out and my bracket busted – its time to focus on baseball.  Honestly, I’d start thinking about baseball now anyways, so its a good thing I don’t have to worry about the Tournament anymore.

    kevin

The crying kid photo is from parenthood.com.  Hopefully a site I won’t need anytime soon.

The Billy Packer sign guy is from a blog that hasn’t updated since 2006.  So no sense linking to them.

if you read this: your head may explode

During a commercial break for the FOX News At Ten, Joe Keiley wondered aloud if it was easier to win the Powerball, or to correctly pick every game right in your NCAA Bracket.   

I put my friend “Miami Dave” to the test – and of course – he seems to have figured it out.  He tried to explain it to me, but it was way over my head.  So here is Miami Dave: guest blogger.    Long story short:  play Powerball.

    kevin 

SUBJECT: BRACKETOLOGY

Greetings to my friends in the Orange Couch nation!

This is Miami Dave, the oft-mentioned sometimes-sidekick of your soon-to-be-famous weekend sportscaster, Kevin “The Michael Jordan of Sportscasters” Hull.

I have pondered for some time now a worthwhile first foray into the Orange Couch.  Nothing ever seemed quite right.  But this evening, during a short conversation with Kevin (which, I can assure you – corporate eavesdroppers – did not happen on company time), it all dawned on me.

For those of you who do not know me, I am a numbers guy.  That’s why I became a broadcast journalist.  Wait, never mind.  I can tell you – off the top of my head – that the odds of hitting a “yo bet” in craps (11 on the first roll) are 1 in 18 – though it only pays 16 to 1.  Stupid Vegas odds.  When it comes to cards, I can tell you with absolute certainty that you should call any bet in a limit game of Texas Hold ‘Em if you have nine solid outs.  Unless, of course, you are playing against someone with the same first name as a city.  Then you should get up and walk away from the table.  Ten minutes ago.

But more than anywhere else, my affinity for numbers bears itself out in a glorious computer program, Microsoft Excel.  I have an Excel spreadsheet for just about everything: the family grocery list, my investment accounts, budgets… and most importantly, my Fantasy NASCAR Team: Spreadsheet Motorsports.  Last year, with no prior knowledge of the sport, the Fantasy NASCAR spreadsheet (complete with vital driver statistics, photos, sponsor logos, and detailed statistical formulas for each track) vaulted me to the top of the standings in the ORANGE COUCH Fantasy NASCAR league by Week 3, where I would remain for 33 successive weeks en route to a stunning championship victory.  Keep in mind, I cannot even change the oil in my 1998 Acura.  Who needs any knowledge of racing when you can use standard deviation instead?!

Back to our conversation tonight: Kevin off-handedly mentioned to me that there had been some discussion in the WECT newsroom about the odds of filling out a perfect NCAA bracket.  And which was easier: winning the Powerball jackpot or nailing every pick in a 64-team tournament (we’ll spot you the play-in game).

Seemed simple enough, really.  Keeping in mind that selecting winners in a tournament bracket requires dependent probability (since picking a winner in round two is dependent on picking the winner in round one), a perfect 63 for 63 selection streak can be represented statistically as:

2 to the 63^rd power.

Or, if you’re like me, you enter 2 into the first cell of a spreadsheet, then multiply it by 2 in the next 62 cells.  Which gives you the odds of pulling off this stunning feat:

 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 -or- 1 in 9.223 QUINTILLION -or- 9.223 million trillion to one. So, in case you are presently crying in your beer over missing that West Virginia win over the Blue Devils, know that the odds of picking a perfect bracket are so stupid, they cannot even be represented by a rational thought.  Everyone on this blog is now dumber for just trying to conceive it. 

In other words, start buying Powerball tickets.  In fact, your chances of winning the Powerball jackpot (1 in 146,107,962) are actually 63,127,100,745 times better than picking the perfect bracket.  Statistically speaking, you would hit the Powerball Jackpot 63 BILLION TIMES before you hit your first perfect NCAA bracket.

Those sound like good odds to me.  Can someone buy me a ticket?  They don’t have Powerball in Miami.

In the meantime, Kevin and I have vowed to fill out each of these 9.223 quintillion brackets so we can be the first to claim perfection.  He’ll start by picking all the favorites.  I’ll do the same, but pick all the underdogs.  We should meet somewhere in the middle, around 4.1 quintillion brackets later – or sometime tomorrow night.

I assure you, none of this will be done on company time.

Kevin again:  I hope some of that made sense to you, because I don’t get it at all.  And don’t worry, I’ll post something stupid in the next couple of days to dumb the site down again. 

Best part:  Miami Dave isn’t my only friend who could have figured this out.  I have no idea how I ended up with so many smart friends because there is NO WAY I would have even known where to start on this problem. 

Most importantly – Siena plays tomorrow.  Here’s hoping for a trip to the Sweet 16.

Anyways – the photo is of Miami Vice since “Miami Dave” was our guest blogger.  It was on some other blog so we’ll just say its from NBC.

21 points!?!?!

21 points!?!?!

They won by 21 points!?!!?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!

The tiny little college that I rooted for as a kid just pulled a big upset.  And it wasn’t even close.

I’m trying to come up with something clever to make this post more interesting than just a bunch of “?!?!?!” over and over…but I just don’t know what to say. 

Its unbelievable.

     kevin

bracket bust.

A quick disclaimer: I am by no means an “expert”.  Just because I’m “that guy from the news” – do not take my picks as anything worth…well…anything.  So, do not copy my bracket and think you’re going to win your office pool.  Because you probably won’t.  Clara, the nice lady from HR, will win.  At least that’s what happens here at WECT.

I think one of the problems with watching certain teams a lot is that you either A) completely fall in love with them or B) you tend to notice their problems more than you should.

For A) - its Clemson.  I really think they’re good.  Really good.  Crazy good.  But maybe that’s because I’ve watched them so much.  So I’m doubting myself and I don’t have them going past the Sweet 16.  When they upset Kansas, I’ll be angry I didn’t pick it.

For B) – its North Carolina.  I can list off all the reasons they WON’T win it all.  They play zero defense, if Tyler Hansbrough gets in any sort of foul trouble – they’re done, I still don’t think the point guard situation is stable, and I’ve never been sold on Roy Williams in a big game.

But with that said – who’s better than the Heels?  I have no idea.  And the more I read, and the more I watched of conference tournaments, and the more lineups I look at - I’m not sure anyone is.

So I’m not going out on a limb, I’m not making some strange “out-there” pick, and I’m not going with a Cinderella.  

I’ve got the Heels to win it all – beating UCLA in the finals.  Boring.

That’s my bracket above – you can click it to see all my picks in all their glory.  Or in all their misery.

And you’re DARN RIGHT I picked Siena to win in the first round.

    kevin

viewing party cancelled

I figure I’ve watched parts of approximately 100 college basketball games this season either on tv or in person. So by the time the NCAA Tournament rolls around, I’m pretty much basketball’d out. 

But there is ONE game that I’ve been excited to watch for the past two weeks.  Siena’s first round game.  My home town team is back in the dance.

I waited for the game times to come out Monday – hoping I’d get to watch most of the game - and EXACTLY what I didn’t want to happen – happened.

-North Carolina vs Mt Saint Mary’s:  Friday, 7:10pm 

-Siena vs Vanderbilt:  Friday, 7:20pm

And that means I’ll get to watch exactly 0:00 of the Siena game because the local CBS station will surely show the entire UNC game.  They won’t cut away.  At all.  And the rest of us are out of luck.

Since the game is at 7ish, I debated going to a sports bar/restaurant during my dinner break to eat and watch the first half.  Then I realized I’d have to deal with obnoxious drunk Tar Heel fans.   (Note: not all Tar Heel fans are drunk and obnoxious.)  So obviously that plan is out.  And really – what sports bar would put Siena on one of their tv’s anyway?

So there you go.  Game 101 that I’ve watched this season will be a 50 point blowout of a team I see all the time instead of the one game and the one team I want to see.  

So here’s hoping for a first round upset – and a better start time in Round 2.

    kevin

The photo of Tar Heel fans actually getting to watch their team is from Inside Carolina.

its all over.

There are no more games for the UNCW mens basketball team.   And that’s really a shame.

They didn’t get into the NIT – which was expected.  They probably didn’t deserve a NIT birth, but when it came to the CBI - they got robbed.

For our out-of-town readers who haven’t been following UNCW – the CBI is a new post season tournament that is competing with the NIT.  They take 16 teams – all home games – and the championship is “Best of Three”.

After reading a lot about it last night – and watching how the site took FOREVER to release the brackets (see yesterday’s post) – I’m starting to think UNCW isn’t missing much.   This tournament seems like its got some problems.

But despite that: Old Dominion made it, UNCW didn’t.  That just doesn’t add up.  Both are in the same conference, UNCW had a better overall record, a better conference record, finished higher in the standings, went farther in the tournament and beat ODU the two times they faced off.  What more do they need to do?

So the shame isn’t really that they missed the post-season.  The shame is that they got completely jobbed by this new tournament.

    kevin

Click the WECT logo to see tonight’s story:

The shirt is from noisebot.com