Bracktology? -ology means the study of, shouldn't you study a little harder than this...

Want to take a moment, or 15 moments and talk about the NCAA tournament bubble. I'm really tired of it being a popularity contest when all it should come down to is whether you can play or not. Being a Coug fan is hard enough, (in terms of their ability to make every game an ulcer producer), but even harder when you fall off the bubble conversation after one loss out west when you have every right to be in it.

One way I've looked at it, and it seems to be getting better and better by the day for the Coug’s, is where are all the good wins for teams on the bubble. Lunardi, I feel picks way too heavy based on what ESPN says, and over the last few years he's only right on about half the bubble teams that get in. So for time’s sake to compare the Cougs let's look at 3 of the last 4 he has in (excluding Richmond because frankly I think they’re in at this point RPI 60 with a win over a Purdue team that is looking solid), a couple he has as the first four out and frankly a few that he has as "locks" (if you want to call a 10 or 11 seed a lock). I hate the RPI but for some reason everybody thinks it's valid so we'll give those numbers also.

Here is Washington State’s resume for what should matter and an RPI that maybe matters - RPI 70, 19-10 overall, GOOD WINS: UW(2, only team to beat them at home and oh ya the Arizona and UCLA team that ESPN loves so much, they've been there too), Baylor, GU --- BAD LOSSES: ASU, maybe Oregon RPI 141 (though the way they have played lately takes the sting off that)

First the team who I'm trying to figure out why they are even in the conversation - ALABAMA (don't roll tide me) RPI-86 (19-10), Good Wins: Kentucky @ home (keep in mind Kentucky is 1-6 road in SEC). BAD LOSSES: St. Peters (ya them) RPI - 125, maybe Ark & Miss. 118-83 respectively- I'm sorry I think the Cougs win that one with their wins. NEXT!

Michigan - RPI - 58, 18-12 overall in a top heavy big ten. Where is your quality win? You want to come at me with Michigan St., please....Bad Losses: Indiana RPI - 177! Northwestern RPI - 92. You still want Michigan over the Cougs - Didn't think so. NEXT!

Baylor - Personally I don't hate Baylor, but let’s look. RPI – 77 and an 18-11 record. They have two quality wins over Texas A&M RPI-30. That’s really it. LOSSES: Iowa St. RPI-129 & Oklahoma RPI-142 (see the Cougs losses above, look similar?). Oh but lastly there was the game played in Hawaii on December 23 in which the Cougs won head to head on a neutral floor 77-71 (keep in mind if they don’t hit 5 late 3’s this game was a 20 point blowout). Case Closed. NEXT!

Colorado – they have some good wins. RPI – 81 (18-12). Good Wins over Texas, Missouri, and KSTATE. Some less than impressive losses: Oklahoma, Iowa St. RPI’s 142 - 129 respectively. This is toss up….and again proves my point, would you take Michigan over Colorado or WAZZU, because Lunardi is…

Now some teams that are so called “IN”. Gonzaga, Michigan St. and well we’ll try Illinois just for fun…

Gonzaga – RPI – 68 – (22-9) 11-3 in a WCC with horrible teams at the bottom. GU’s good wins include St. Mary’s RPI -48 though I wonder how good they really are, and Baylor. Yes you played a tough schedule (SD state, KSTATE, Marquette, Illinois, Notre Dame, Oklahoma ST), did you win any of those? LOSSES: Santa Clara RPI - 163 ; San Francisco yes I know they had a decent run in the WCC but let’s be honest they are 14-13 and have an RPI of 122, if the cougs are counting ASU and Oregon, San Fran has to be in there. If that isn’t enough need I remind you of an evening in early December when the Zags were lost by 22. You get the drift. NEXT!

Michigan St. – RPI – No wait I first want to clarify that I don’t care who coaches you. Sorry Izzo. RPI – 43 (largely due to a SOS of 8). They are 16-12 and 9-8 in the Big 10. Who have they beaten? Ok, you beat Washington, and you may try to say you beat #13 Minnesota in late December, but I will remind you they have lost 8 of 9 and are 66 in the RPI and falling faster than mercury on the north slope, that being said they are still at 66 so by the definition we’ll count it. You squeaked by Northwestern and lost to Penn State who is somehow 59^th in the RPI despite being 15-13. I don’t hate their resume, but it doesn’t scream “we deserve to be in!” Let’s move on.

Illinois – RPI – 39, the highest of any mentioned so far. I put them in with no idea who they have played; this is a random team currently holding a 10 seed in Bracketology. Their wins are somewhat impressive and include Gonzaga, Wisconsin, and North Carolina (but keep in mind this was before Roy Williams made the point guard switch and still when Carolina was on pace to be in the middle of the weak ACC, they have since found their stride led by Harrison Barnes and aggressive post play. I think now this looks good but at the time it was average). Their losses are not so impressive and include Indiana, Northwestern, and Illinois-Chicago, yes….Illinois-Chicago, the Flames, currently 7-24 overall and 2-16 in the Horizon league. That RPI since you are probably wondering is 283. I’ll stop there because I am embarrassed that I had time to look it up.

These last three are teams that are in. I don’t understand how Gonzaga is in, and the Cougs aren’t even in the conversation. Is there a team in the bunch that is listed that is heads above a team like Washington St.? Perhaps Illinois and Colorado’s wins are better; I put WAZZU third in that category. Perhaps Alabama and Michigan St. don’t have losses as bad as the Cougars; I’d even give you that. But of these teams that are “IN”, “Barely In”, and “Barely Out” I can’t find one that is better than the Cougs across the board. How can they not be in the conversation? There is zero part of me that views them as a lock, though I feel at this point we should be in, and I understand that a loss on Saturday to UCLA and a first round exit in the PAC-10 tournament would be grounds for dismissal, but with one more win from anywhere, do you have an argument to keep them out. Your thoughts…..

The Masters

I want to take some time to talk about golf! Yes golf, personally one of the more boring sports to watch on TV but has greater excitement than watching baseball and dog shows on the tube. So why in the world would I be writing about golf? Well, it caught my attention this weekend because it was Tiger Wood’s return to golf. As I watched it and thought about what it would be like to be a professional golfer I couldn’t help but think what it would be like to be in Anthony Kim’s golf cleats. Kim, at the age of 24 was trying to become one of the youngest to win the green jacket. Kim was most likely ecstatic at his performance but I was more interested in how he viewed his competitors. More specifically, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, both are amazing athletes and yes I do mean athletes not golfers. Tiger and Phil both are role models on how the game should be played, and both can be looked up to on how life should be played as well. You are probably thinking Phil, yes and Tiger, no way not after what he did to his family. Well let me explain… Phil is defiantly a family man and it truly was a touching moment when Phil, after winning the grand daddy of all golf tournaments, went to his wife. You see Phil and his wife have been through a lot with his wife’s health on the mend. Also it is nice to see a grown man showing his emotions in moments like this. So why do I still consider Tiger a role model that Kim can look towards? Well let’s face it not everyone is perfect. Tiger’s private life of infidelity was exposed to the media a few months ago. Since then, Tiger has been undergoing consoling and treatment for whatever temptations got the better of him. We can sit and wonder if tiger would have ever faced his demons if he were not caught. Well he was caught and now he is doing the things he needs to do. It took a lot of courage for Tiger to make his comeback to golf and face all of his old friends that were shocked by his actions. Rather than hiding away from the world he took the time to find himself again and return to the public eye. By no means is Tiger completely a changed man. It will be a lifelong battle for him to overcome his problems but this is the opportunity for him continue being a role model and show the younger generation that when you do make a mistake it truly is about how you respond to making that mistake. For Kim he has got two great mentors to learn from. I wish Tiger the best in his mission to get back to his Buddhism and maintain a strong focus off of the fairways in life like he does on the greens. Congratulations to Phil for winning, there is no better man on tour than the south paw family man.

More on the white guy, and a little about the 4yr college athlete

To add to the post below, yes, there are some great white players in today's game. Some of it due to what I will touch on later, but none the less, the fundamental portion of the game has been very obvious in this year's tournament. With Butler and Duke punching their tickets to the championship game last night, has there been a championship game in recent memory that involved two more fundamentally sound teams then Duke and Butler? Yes, Carolina and Kansas the last few years were great teams, I don't argue that; but without question I think it is safe to say they had superior athletes. The same could be said for the two Florida teams, with the hideous face of Joakim Noah, and the Syracuse team with Hakeem Warrick. Even the teams that finished runner-up in those years were full of "athletes", the Memphis Tigers with Chris Douglas-Roberts and Freshman star Derrick Rose, and Michigan State, though I would lump Goran Suton into the white-guy fundamental category.

All of that being said, growing up in rural eastern Washington, where we learned triple threat before we learned the alphabet, it is nice to see that while the game has gone global in its marketing, and the most successful athletes perhaps (with exceptions) are lose with the most god given ability to jump and run, it is just nice to see that the core fundamentals of the game truly do still matter, and beyond that can lead to an extroadinary amount of success.

Ok, now that I've touched on the presence of the white guy, I would like to talk a little about the respect and admiration that I have for the 4-year player in college basketball. Being a huge Duke fan, and in the wake of their recent victory I would like to focus on two major stories in that particular game. To start, who can deny the development of 7'1" senior Brian Zoubek, (see below).




As a huge follower of Duke basketball, I can remember when Zou burst onto the seen, well lets not get carried away, he lumbered onto the scene. As he lumbered around early in his career, plagued by lower body injuries including a broken foot, the story was the same. He is too slow, he is too lazy, he has no skill, he's just a big guy...At the time many of those things were probably true. But their may not be a larger tale of two career's than that of Brian Zoubek. Anyone who has followed the Duke program even moderately cannot discount the presence he has played with alongside fellow senior Lance Thomas. Watching how an athlete can disregard the comments thrust at him in the past, and make something out of a career that by Duke standards would have been viewed as a bust, is something that makes this game so special, and I think a great amount of admiration should be showed to those who are able to overcome adversity early in their career.

The second player that falls into this category is Da'Sean Butler, who suffered a torn ACL in the national semifinal last night. As a Duke fan, I most certainly wanted them to win, but not in the way everything shook out. To see a prolific player like Da'Sean go down late in the final game of his college career is heartbreaking. Butler, a senior who for four years made a steady positive contribution and seemingly carried the Mountaineers on his back all season that culminated with a victory over favorite Kentucky and a trip to the final four, is another story that I enjoy reading. And to top it off the compassion showed by coach Bob Huggins in the wake of the injury is also something to be admired. (See Below) Needless to say, the tournament brings out many great stories and I think for the purpose of great story lines there is nothing else close to what March Madness provides.

Butler Coach with Pharmacy Connection

Getting ready for the Final Four and noticed that Butler's coach, Brad Stevens, worked at the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company in marketing. This guy has a pretty cool story. He had a high paying job and then quit to take a volunteer position in the basketball office at Butler. He then worked his way up to becoming the head coach and is now coaching in the Final Four at the age of 34. Just another reason to root for the underdogs. Enjoy the Final Four!

The Great White Hope

Well Leigh did a great job of introducing the blog so lets get this thing rollin'.

So from the results of the poll, it looks like most of you are just as stoked about the Final Four as I am. Is there anything as amazing as March Madness? I declare there is not! Yes, college football could be close if it wasn't for the BCS, the NFL has the best athletes, and there is nothing like going to a great baseball game at Safeco field, but nothing matches the drama of March Madness.

Anyways back to the title of my post. Has anyone else noticed that there are some crazy good white ballers this year in college basketball? Two of the teams in the Final Four, Duke and Butler, are full of white guys who can play. Guys like Gordon Hayward, Jimmer Fredette, Kyle Singler, and John Scheyer have been incredible. Gordon Hayward, (pictured above), who looks young enough to be getting ready for his high school prom, has some serious skills. Kyle Singler and John Scheyer (pictured below) are stars on a Duke team that will probably win it all. Not that I really care if they win or not, even though it would be cool to see Butler win to represent the so called mid-majors, its just good to see some white guys tear it up once in a while.

On a 'did you know' fact....did you know that Butler plays its home games in the same gym where they filmed the movie 'Hoosiers'? And Yes, Hinkle Fieldhouse (pictured below) hosted the 1954 Indiana high school championship game between underdog Milan High School (enrollment 160) and heavily favored Muncie Central High (enrollment over 1600). The Final Four will be played in Lucas Oil Stadium (home of the Indianapolis Colts) which is 7 miles from Butler University and Hinkle Fieldhouse. How bout that home crowd advantage?

Chemically Enhanced Sports is an organization of pharmacy students from Washington State University College of Pharmacy that participate in Intramural sports. We may all be book nerds but we also live the dream of one day winning a championship. Not only will this blog update you on the progress of our athletic teams will will also blog about the sports world in general. We thank you for joining our page and viewing what we have to offer you, pure joy.

With this being the inaugural year for Chemically Enhanced we participated in two leagues this year. Are guys competed in basketball and football and we hope to expand to other sporting events in the near future.

Here is a quick recap of this years success....

7 on 7 men's flag football:
the season started with a disappointing loss to a team that was well coached and well organized. after getting our feet wet in the competitive juices of intramural sports Chemically Enhanced dominated there next two games and qualified for playoffs, only to exit the playoffs after their first tournament game.
"......our defense was stiller during pool play, but when we went up against an offensive Juggernaut in the first round we realized that much work is needed to improve in protecting our end zone." -Wide receiver/Defensive back Tyler Young PY1 said.
Leigh Castillo PY1 Wide receiver/TE agrees with Tyler and said "The focus for Spring training will defiantly be on increasing our defensive skills, Because D wins championships"
Next season this young team returns all members and look to be a force in what ever pool they are placed in and hope to improve on last years first round exit.

Men's Basketball:
Chemically Enhanced Sports was well represented in basketball. The season started with a rare tie. Yes a tie game. Due to that tie the basketball team was placed in the competitive B bracket. After the tie game they went on a 5 game winning streak and reached the final four before they were handed their first loss as an organization. Many were shocked by our success on the court.
"A lot of people counted us out because we were rewarded the pre-season All-Academic Award and lets face it you only get that out of sympathy..."-Robert Bryan PY1 forward. Like the football team next year looks promising. they return all 8 members of the squad and look to reach the final four for the second time in CE history. "we want to start a tradition of dominance with CE and bring something new to the world of Intramural sports." -Shane 'Fade' Johnson.

That is the quick recap on CE's success thus far, Fall 2010 semester the Football team will be back in action on the Gridiron!

Next month we will have a player spotlight on Vinh the multi sport speedster.