things I love: basketball and James Ellison

[pellucid]

As a distraction from my current professional anxieties (waaaaaaaaaaaiting, graaaaaaaaaaaading), let's talk about basketball. Specifically, WOOT, DUKE LOST!!! Always happy times, and I take particular delight when Duke loses before we do (even if it's technically in the same round, because let's face it, my Kentucky boys are going to need the game

Comments

[pellucid]

Here is the crazy thing: for the first time since I was maybe 14, I didn't do a bracket! Which...I'm not sure how to be, with all this! But the week the brackets came out I was SOOOOOOO busy, and it was on the to-do list, and by the time I got to it, the tournament had begun. Though ultimately it means I have no calculating interest in any of it, I guess: cheer for Kentucky, cheer against Duke, take all the rest of it as it falls.

[zinke]

Specifically, WOOT, DUKE LOST!!!

I am so happy about this I could cry.

Good luck with the UK game tonight! I have to admit that I have not been paying all that much attention to basketball this season. Mostly because my team is woefully horrible having a building year.

I am intrigued by the idea of a TSCC rewatch. I may have to join in.

[pellucid]

I actually haven't been paying all that much attention this season, either, and I'm not sure why not. I've perked up a little during the tournament, but not enough to watch any of the games except Kentucky's. But I do know enough to know that Ohio State is looking pretty awesome, and Kentucky has been uneven at best, so I think the stars are going to have to align tonight. We'll see.

I am intrigued by the idea of a TSCC rewatch. I may have to join in.

Do! We're coming up on my favorite episode of the series, "The Demon Hand"!!! Recap by yours truly to be posted early next week. :D

[holdouttrout]

I love those Cracked lists. Hah! Though I have to say their list of examples slants toward the masculine. *sighs*

And my bracket is only not completely dead through sheer willpower. *double sighs*

[pellucid]

Yes, I was pleased to see the ladies from Bones on the list, but mostly it was very testosteroney. Though I wonder how much of that is that the phenomenon itself is rather male-heavy?

There may be pigs flying somewhere because I, um, did not get around to filling out my bracket in time this year, so I do not have one! Meep!!! (So busy!!! But I'm still rather shocked: I haven't been bracket-less since, oh, middle school or so.) Though I'm vicariously piggybacking on gabolange's, because she did the pro-Kentucky thing on my behalf, so I should probably check in to see how we're doing. But I also think there are a lot of dead brackets right about now!

[beccatoria]

Ahahahaha, my mother went to Duke. Does this mean we are now on opposite sides of some arcane blood feud? ;) (If it helps, I'm pretty sure she didn't enjoy it that much and had a much better time as a grad student at UMass...)

But yes, JAMES ELLISON. You're so right that the show gets better the more you watch it - I think it's because one of it's strengths is a very solid, intricate structure and such a huge amount of forethought that clearly went into it and doesn't go into many shows. So you don't notice it first time around, but it means it bears up to rewatch sooo well because there's more to notice, and if nothing new to notice, the competent elegance of the structure is just such a joy to watch unfold when you know where it's headed and realise how much was planted and how early.

BUT BACK TO JAMES ELLISON. He really is just the kind of hot, stoic, earnest, undramatic woobie that I can never understand why fandom isn't all over. You're lucky I'm already married or we might be on the opposite sides of another arcane

[pellucid]

I'm no great fan of Duke as an educational institution, but the blood feud is really between the basketball teams, so if your mother doesn't care about basketball, we're probably all good! Though really, the true feud is between Duke and North Carolina, but everybody hates Duke on principle, and there's certainly no love lost between Kentucky and Duke, in particular. (To illustrate the general sentiment, there is a famous GQ list of America's 25 Douchiest Colleges, in which Duke is number 2, even though "they're probably number one. But we'd rather not have Duke be number one at anything.")

But yes. JAMES ELLISON!!!!!!!!

He really is just the kind of hot, stoic, earnest, undramatic woobie that I can never understand why fandom isn't all over.I know!!! Except that fandom does tend to prefer its male woobies to be dramatic, doesn't it. Preferably stoic and dramatic at the same time, what with the whole stereotypical hero thing, and I've never quite understood that--all the brooding and the great tragic past and manpain and stuff.

[pellucid]

I certainly think it's possible for us to beat them. When UK is firing on all cylinders, I think they could beat just about anyone in the country, but unfortunately it's hard to predict which version of the team will show up--they're inconsistent. And OSU is vulnerable, yes, as is any team at this point in the season. They've also had a walk their first two games, and it's hard to know what that does to a team: for some teams it's a motivation, but for others it can make them cocky and careless. If UK really shows up, and especially if OSU is having a bit of an off night, it can happen. But let's face it: it ain't particularly likely. Honestly, I think OSU will win the tournament, and I'd be okay enough with that. I don't love them or anything (though I have many friends who are devoted fans), but they're not a perennial basketball superpower, and if my perennial basketball superpower isn't going to win, I'd rather have the winner be someone outside the circle of Usual Suspects (ie, please not Kansas or North Carolina!!!).