Shanoff’s Wake-Up Call: Happy First Thursday!

By Dan Shanoff
Today’s Calls: First Thursday vs. Super Bowl, Georgia vs. Mojo, Mike Beasley vs. OJ Mayo, Terrelle Pryor vs. Penn State fans, Red Sox vs. MLB, AI vs. Philly fans, Rockets vs. Reality, Heat vs. History, Chad Johnson vs. the Bengals, ALT + TAB vs. Skipping work and More!
The Opening Pitch: I propose to make “First Thursday” an official national holiday.
The first Thursday of the NCAA Tournament is the best day of the sports year. Here’s why: On no other weekday -- and by “weekday” I mean your workday -- is your time so uniquely consumed with sports.
(The first Friday of the Tournament is almost as amazing, but not quite, if only because First Thursday is the opening day, whereas by Friday, you are already well-immersed in the Tournament.)
How transcendent is First Thursday? So much so that it doesn’t even matter WHO is playing -- simply that they ARE playing... all afternoon... while you should be working, but instead are watching (or following).
That’s why I always publish a handy guide to the afternoongames. By tonight, you will be embedded at your bar or on your couch, surrounded by a TV (and maybe a laptop showing out-of-market games).
Happy First Thursday!
12:20 ET ( 3 ) Xavier over ( 14 ) Georgia
Could UGA possibly have any mojo left?
12:25 ( 1 ) Kansas over ( 16 ) Portland State
Let’s be honest: Boring blowout.
12:30 ( 5 ) Michigan State over ( 12 ) Temple
Opportunity for the “classic 5-12 upset.”
2:30 ( 6 ) Marquette over ( 11 ) Kentucky
Both have been so erratic: tossup!
2:50 ( 6 ) Purdue over ( 11 ) Baylor
The Bears have to be happy to be here.
2:55 ( 9 ) Kent State over ( 8 ) UNLV
Is Kent this year’s last year’s UNLV?
3:00 ( 4 ) Pitt over ( 13 ) Oral Roberts
Lots of folks riding the Pitt bandwagon.
Tonight’s highlights: Beasley vs. Mayo is the NBA fan’s must-see NCAA game... Duke may actually escape the first round this time... Winthrop over Wazzu is my biggest upset of the first day... TAMU/BYU is a classic 8/9 tossup... Is America overlooking Wisconsin?... The Bob Huggins NCAA Tourney revival starts in DC... Considering I have George Mason to the Sweet 16, this game vs. Notre Dame is kind of huge... Good news: UCLA is the last tip of the night; the ensuing blowout means you might get to bed slightly earlier than usual.
Terrelle Pryor picks Ohio State: OK, OK, Ohio State fans. You’ve broken me down. Pryor made a great choice going to Columbus.
Pryor will likely spend next season running a limited “Tebow package” before taking over in ‘09 and running roughshod over the nation.
(I love that he called it “University of Ohio State,” when OSU fans so noisily remind you it is “THE Ohio State University.” And after calling Penn State too “countryside,” Pryor should expect a hostile reception when he leads OSU in his first trip to Happy Valley on Nov. 7, 2009.)
You can rest easy: The Red Sox won’t boycott the trip to Japan after all. Though I would have liked to have seen what would’ve happened if they had gone through with it for more than the short-lived standoff.
(The players were right on the merits: Coaches and staff should be compensated, too. However, I didn’t see any reports of the players offering to shave pennies off their $40K each to make things right.)
Rockets lose second straight: The Streak is a distant memory, now that Houston has dropped 2 games on consecutive nights.
After The Streak was snapped on Tuesday by the Celtics, you could totally predict a letdown loss on the road to the feisty Hornets.
The Bugs were likely more than a little motivated that the Rockets came from nowhere to steal their “comeback-story-of-the-season” headlines.
AI gets some Philly love on his first trip back since being traded last season. He kissed the Sixers logo at center court. He blew kisses to the crowd (who returned the love). Even though he was in a Nuggets uniform, it was obvious that AI will always be the Sixers’ fan favorite. (Especially when the Sixers can get the win.) It proves that Philly sports fans aren’t entirely bitter and angry.
As bad as the Heat’s season has been, they find new ways to make it even worse: Miami scored 54 points, third-lowest ever in the NBA’s shot-clock era, in a loss to the Raptors. As Jackie Chiles might mutter: “This is the most public yet of my many humiliations.”
Bucks fire GM Larry Harris: Best move? Signing Mo Williams. Worst move? Drafting Andrew Bogut ahead of either Chris Paul or Deron Williams. Jury still out: Drafting Yi.
More MLB: Looks like Joba Chamberlain will start the season in the bullpen. He won’t be closing; he won’t be starting. Someone needs to explain when this Yankees youth movement will actually be starting.
Barry Bonds ain’t retiring: Prediction: There are so many AL teams that have put it all on the line to compete for a pennant, some AL contender will sign him, and their fans will be totally fine with it. He is just too good of a hitter to ignore -- and too good not to contribute.
CFB: VA Tech RB Branden Ore won’t be back in Blacksburg for his senior year. Is there a way for the all-ACC player to enter the NFL draft as a hardship case?
NFL: Why don’t the Bengals just trade Chad Johnson?... Meanwhile, the Packers will get a lot of mileage out of the lead-up to the actual ceremony to retire Brett Favre’s No. 4 next season.
Advancing to the NIT’s “Bitter 16”: VA Tech, Dayton, UAB, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Illinois St., Cal and -- of course -- Florida.
Studs: VT’s Vassallo (27 pts), Cal’s Anderson ( 26 ), Dayton’s Roberts ( 21 ). Tonight: Maryland at ‘Cuse; So. Ill. at AZ St.
From the Blogosphere: One of my favorite NCAA traditions is that FanIQ tracks all the so-called “expert” picks and actually holds the “experts” accountable. See just how wrong they (uh... we?) are.
The Last Word: ALT + TAB. That’s the keyboard shortcut that can quickly take you from an NCAA Tournament scoreboard page (or live video feed) to that fake Excel spreadsheet you have been using the last 10 First Thursdays to fool your boss. Worth practicing this morning!
Dan Shanoff writes The Wake-Up Call every weekday morning for SportingNews.com and blogs daily at [url=http://www.danshanoff.com>DanShanoff.com. Got any comments, questions or feedback? Email Dan at shanofftsn-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.
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