Old Cartoons

Just a quick thought: some of these old cartoons that I used to watch as a kid are genius.  I’m watching a little bit of Ren and Stimpy… why do the cartoons for kids nowadays suck so much?

Basketball For The Ages!

I’ve been watching a ton of basketball lately (two different teams), and I have to say that it’s really cool to see both sides of the spectrum, being one large team in an amazing conference, and one small team in a forgotten conference.  These two teams are the Syracuse Orange and the Binghamton Bearcats.

As a Syracuse fan for much of my life, from when I was young, when I was a student there, and now that I am an alumni, I really was used to my team always having a shot at the NCAA championship.  They are always very talented, and they belong to a major conference in the Big East, which always gets plenty of bids for the tournament.  I would have loved them to get farther than the first round during the 4 years that I attended, but hey, we can’t all get what we want… the lacrosse championship last year was good enough.  But as a fan, I took it for granted that my team always had a shot.

I’ve been going to Binghamton games for the past couple years now, but this year was the first year that I went to every men’s home game, considering I wasn’t at Syracuse anymore and was home for them.  Most thought this team wasn’t going anywhere, and with the way they were playing, I thought the same.  They were very inconsistent at the beginning of the season, but after a while, kind of found their groove and created that team chemistry that they were missing.  Many people criticized the team because the new guys were kind of outcasts, but talented ones that couldn’t stay on other teams for whatever reason.  They had their egos, and it showed early, but the team prevailed and won the America East conference championship yesterday.  Binghamton is going to the NCAA tournament.  This is their first ever tournament berth and the area is very proud of them.  The fans were great (though not all year…. many Binghamton kids are complete fairweather fans, but the real fans were great), and I am happy to see some national coverage for a team that has lots of talent and could make for an upset in the first round.

Syracuse just amazed me at the end of the season during the Big East tournament.  Honestly, 6 OTs – when you are already pretty much guaranteed a spot in the big dance – and you keep playing as hard as you can for 6 OTs?  I was disappointed when they lost last night to Louisville, but I am proud of them for the wins against UConn and West Virginia.  That is tough, and I am glad to see people actually commending them for it.  Yes, the team has flaws – Devendorf  talks way too much for sure, but he is talented and people notice that.  Flynn dribbles way too much and has too many turnovers, but the guy has a lot of heart and I respect him for it.  No doubt about it, the team is extremely flawed… but what team isn’t?  Here’s a great NY Post article by Steve Serby that sums up most of what I feel about this team right now: Clock Caught Up With Boeheim’s Bunch

Obviously, Binghamton is very different from Syracuse though, as only one team from these small conferences makes it every year.  Without a perfect conference tournament, these teams will not have a postseason.  And rightfully so, as they really don’t play the best opponents.  They are both flawed teams, talent wise and personality wise, but they both prevailed.  Both made headlines with stupid players (Devendorf punching a girl in the face, Alvin stealing condoms from Wal-Mart).  And the NY Times will rip anyone, but who cares about that awful paper anyway?  But I really thought it was cool to watch from two different perspectives, with teams that are so similar in a few ways, but so different in others.

I’ll be interested in seeing what’s in store tonight, and to see the seeding.