Do You See What I See? The NCAA Block Squares Pool

Wow! 

First, Happy Belated Opening Day everyone. Your commissioner was doing what everyone should have done yesterday afternoon and attended an afternoon baseball opener. Here in the nation's capital the game turned out to be a really good starting pitcher matchup that ended with the Nationals bullpen imploding in extra innings. Only 161 games to go. 

And yes, I did stay up to watch my Cubs get a win in Arizona late last night.

Regarding the basketball, there were really interesting and exciting things going on in both The Association and the NCAA tournament. 

Did you see my Chicago Bulls score 8 points in 12 seconds to make up a 5 point deficit to the Lakers and win on a half court buzzer beater? I did! By the way, the Bulls swept the Lakers this year with both Luka and LeBron on the floor. I should be happy about this. 

Did you see the Washington Wizards give up 162 points to the Indiana Pacers in regulation last night? I did! It was actually funny watching the Washington crowd boo when Indiana held the ball and took repeated 24 second violations at the end of the game instead of running up the score. Great show of sportsmanship to hold the margin of victory to 53 points.

In the NCAA tournament, Alabama gave us a show. 

Did you see that the Crimson Tide hit the 100 point mark with 6:30 left in the game? I did! It's a 40 minute game and the score of 100-79 had already surpassed the betting over with six and a half minutes left. It's probably worth noting that Alabama broke a record for 3-pointers in a tournament game with 25, which gave your commissioner hives thinking that Tony Delk was on the floor somewhere. Look at this shot chart for Alabama! 51 threes taken? The game has changed.

Did you see the Texas Tech comeback against Arkansas? I did! Let me stat you down for a moment. Calipari was 35-0 in the NCAA tournament when he held a lead of 6 points or more during the game. He is 35-1 now after the Red Raiders walked them down from 16 back with 10:10 left in the game.

Did you see Cooper Flagg last night? I did! 30 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists to lead Duke to into the Elite 8, and that team looks ridiculous. He is even more skilled than I give him credit for.

Did you see that rather dominant performance from Florida last night? I did! Florida is really good, and my bracket pick to win the tournament, but I am really concerned with their free throw shooting. A team this good should be better at the line, and they are going to need to be better in San Antonio if they expect to win this thing.

On to the block squares pool. Did you see that your commissioner is heating up? I did! My arrival in Round 2 was followed by a definitive win in Round 3. Momentum is a dangerous thing my friends. The four winners from yesterday are below.

More basketball please! My Friday evening is currently free.

--Your Commissioner

Time to Draft - Chappelle's Show

 

Every so often, Pepster and I get together to do big, irrelevant, time-consuming things that only make sense to a few people. A couple of months ago, a significant birthday and trip to Chicago provided the backdrop of one more of those important moments. 

It was 10 years ago that we got together with the idea of determining which was the best of the ESPN 30 for 30 series. After some debate, we decided that we would rank the first 48 episodes of the series (including the 14 ESPN Films Presents) from best to "I didn't even care that happened." This was done as a snake draft, so the coin flip to determine who went first was as dramatic as any argument we had that day. And there were a lot of arguments! 

Pepster won that draft and I now have to accept that The Two Escobars is the best of the early 30 for 30 episodes. If you were wondering what would have been first had the flip gone the other way, it was the obvious choice of Benji. 

The Top 10 back in 2013 went as follows:

1. The Two Escobars
2. Benji
3. You Don't Know Bo
4. June 17th, 1994
5. The U
6. Once Brothers
7. The Fab Five
8. Ungarded
9. No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson
10. Pony Excess

So, what thing would we do in 2023 to anger people close to us looking to spend meaningful time on vacation? There was only one answer. The best episode of Chappelle's Show! 

The rules were simple. We would again flip a coin to determine the first pick with a snake draft following for the 28 available episodes. Yes, we included the questionable third season. The goal was to pick the best episode, not skit. So, we were evaluating the strength of the best skit in the episode, the quality of the remaining skits and the musical performance where applicable. Sinickal won the toss and the draft went as follows:

1. Season 2, Episode 4 - True Hollywood Stories: Rick James. There was no argument this year on Sinickal's pick as this was a consensus #1. Season 2 got off to a tremendous start and this was the best of the best! And as Pepster noted, we forget that Rashida Jones said no to anal in the love contract skit. Plausible?

2. Season 1, Episode 6 - Mad Real World. I mean, damn. Pepster's first pick produced some unbelievable jokes and quotable lines - "What's the square root of this apartment?" Pepster also commended the musical guest as an important part of the theme of the episode. Yes, that was David Broom from Real World New Orleans.

3. Season 1, Episode 1 - Clayton Bigsby. We all sat down to watch the premiere and we all came away thinking that Dave Chappelle had just broken television. A black, white supremacist? 

4. Season 2, Episode 5 - True Hollywood Stories: Prince. Season 2 of Chappelle's Show was a television miracle. The week after Rick James, Charlie Murphy was telling stories about Prince. We also got some more of Negrodamus. Brilliant.

5. Season 2, Episode 12 - Wayne Brady. "I'm Wayne Brady, bitch!" This episode was beyond quotable. 

6. Season 2, Episode 7 - World Series of Dice. This is the first episode in the list to have a stand out musical performance (Kanye West and Common) to go along with a great skit set in the Marcy Projects. Great episode top to bottom with Mooney on Movies.

7. Season 2, Episode 2 - The Niggar Family. I will simply say that I didn't think something like this could be put on television in 2004. Add in Negrodamus - "Everybody wanna be black, don't nobody wanna be black," Black Gallagher and DMX, and damn. 

8. Season 2, Episode 1 - The Racial Draft. We still can't believe this was still on the board. Genius skit and a great R. Kelley joke.

9. Season 1, Episode 9 - Playa Haters Ball. The first real debate in the draft as Pepster thought this would go later in the draft. Sinickal felt that the primary skit was really strong. I mean, "She wears underwear with dickholes in them."

10. Season 1, Episode 2 - Tyrone Biggums at School. This pick recognizes the strength of the musical performance. This was Mos Def and it was spectacular.

11. Season 2, Episode 8 - Jury Duty. And Oprah Winfrey gets pregnant - "It's not what's gotten into me, it's what's gotten into Oprah. My seed, bitch!"

12 Season 1, Episode 12 - Trading Spouses. Sinickal had this much higher on the board than Pepster. Long debate went on with Pepster stating that this episode had Jalen Brown talent, but Jason Tatum closing ability. Sinickal loved the main skit. 

13. Season 2, Episode 11 - Greatest Misses. Great musical performance by Kanye West, Freeway and Mos Def, and some unbelievable quotes including "You so dark that when you touch yourself it is black on black crime," and "She got one big tittie and one little tittie. They call that bitch Biggie Smalls."

14. Season 1, Episode 5 - Great Moments in Hook Up History. Pepster had this really high for Sinickal's liking. Pepster commented that this was for the Fat Joe musical performance and that "it came in higher than I thought, and I did my list."

15. Season 1, Episode 7 - Real Movies. Very different views on this episode. Liked much more by Pepster than Sinickal here. 

16. Season 2, Episode 10 - Making the Band. Neither of us can believe this lasted this long. Great guests, and the Oscar the Grouch quote "I beat my dick like it owes me money."

17. Season 2, Episode 8 - I Know Black People. The quote from Sinickal on this lasting so long is that "we must have been drafting for need up until now."

18. Season 1, Episode 8 - Tyrone Bigum's Intervention. It is at this point of the draft that we both begin selecting for one aspect of the episode. 

19. Season 2, Episode 6 - Internet as a Real Place. Also included what life would be like for Lil John which was hilarious.

20. Season 1, Episode 4 - Reparations. With Busta Rhymes as the musical guest, Pepster and Sinickal believe this episode was drafted exactly where it should have been at the end of the top 20. 

The last seven episodes are:

21. Season 1, Episode 11 - Fisticuff: Turn My Headphones Up

22. Season 1, Episode 3 - Zapped

23. Season 3, Episode 3 - MTv Cribs

24. Season 1, Episode 10 - Piss on You Video

25. Season 2, Episode 12 - Black Bush

26. Season 2, Episode 3 - White People Dancing

27. Season 3, Episode 1 - Tupac is Still Alive

28. Season 3, Episode 2 - Black Howard Dean

I will close this post with this thought. Season 3 was awful, but this draft was a lot of fun. Can't wait to see what the next several hour waste of time produces.