NCAA Conference Tournament Viewing: Why You Should Root for the Favorites

For many of you, this will be the first time you have watched college hoops since last year.  For others, sadly, that time has not yet arisen.

So here is my advice for you all:  as you watch these smaller Tournaments, root for the favorite.  Every favorite.

This goes against the grain of the natural instinct we all have as fans:  seeing the Cinderella story, the impossible dream, the buzzer beater that gets the ugly kid into the big dance.  But the fact is that if every regular season conference champion won their tournament, the four play-in games would all feature 20+win teams (as opposed to the 20 LOSS Liberty team that has already qualified this year), and the back-end of the field would be much, much deeper.  And we’d still consider them Cinderellas, as who would expect a team from the Atlantic Sun or Big South to do anything anyways?

To me, this is the logical path towards a 16 beating a 1:  when a senior-laden squad from some tiny school that would typically be a 15 or 14 seed gets shoved back to 16, because the upsets by lower ranked teams in conference tourneys don’t happen.

My final point:  we don’t remember the thrilling conference tourney buzzer-beaters from years.  We do remember Tournament buzzer-beaters.

There are some exceptions, obviously.  Seeing chaos in the larger tournaments is a lot of fun, especially as upsets of the bigger teams does not take them out of a bid.  And if you have a rooting interest in a smaller school; self-interest wins out, obviously.

But in all other cases:  in one-bid leagues, hope the better seed wins.  It’ll make the real Tourney that much better, and Cinderella will still be attending in any case.  She'll just be tougher to get into the carriage at the end of the night.

- Snilch

Vintage Trouble at TT the Bears - March 5, 2013

While I struggle with my next blog post, Denis and I hit the Cambridge, MA scene last night, with one goal in mind -- to prove we were not THAT old.  (Spoiler alert:  it turns out we are.)

But thanks to Alan's recommendation, we were lucky enough to get into the sold-out show for Vintage Trouble.  The scene was set outside TT the Bears with the custom Vintage Trouble tour bus, sponsored by... Supercuts.  (Pictured here -- if I get a photo from Denis with the Supercuts logo I will post it here.)  If you see these guys, you will realize how ironic that is.

Opener Leogun got one of the best receptions for an opening band you will ever see in Boston.  And they deserved it.  A great compliment as an opener on this bill, their mid-tempo combo of rock and pure enthusiasm made their jam-band feel from a three-piece really work.  Definitely worth seeing again; I will have to keep an eye on them.

Vintage Trouble's set was an old-time revival meeting celebrating rock and r&b.  I've never quite heard the guitar tonality they were producing in that acoustically challenged room at TT's -- it was awesome.  Slow songs had energy, quicker songs had fury.  A great group of musicians, with a absolute showman of a lead singer who managed to get Cambridge fans to interact with the band.  On a TUESDAY.  (If you've ever seen a show in Boston, you'll know how rare this is on a weekend.)

Fantastic energy, fantastic playing, great songs that never seemed to end (partially because they would "stop" for applause, then get the audience to sing along to the chorus  and go back into the song again), and just a fun show.  It would have been great to see the encores... but it was a Tuesday, and we were old.

Merch rating:  I bought their CD (and should have bought Leogun's too).  I will definitely watch them next time, although by that point they will at least be at the Paradise, perhaps even the House of Blues.  I would have bought a t-shirt as well if I didn't leave; next album is bought without waiting to hear how good it is.

- Snilch

P.S. If you want to get a taste of what these guys are like, check out their appearance on David Letterman (below) earlier this year.

Back... finally

Yes, here we are at the start again at The Snilch Report.  We're going to try something different this time around -- we'll be posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until my attention wanes again (probably by Friday).  The Whiskey Dregs is no more (at least for music reviews), so this is where you will see stuff from me for the time being.

Please adjust your social calendars accordingly.
  
- Snilch

Just the Stats, Ma'am

We've reached the end of year two. I figured it's about time to quantify and tabulate this sucker.

So I did some research; if you are interested, here are a lot of numbers:

In 2007, there were 19 posts, 17 of which were posts that included album reviews.
In 2008, there were 28 posts, 20 of which were posts that included album reviews.

In 2007, I reviewed 40 albums. They broke down like this:

8 (20%) Car Changer
10 (25%) Portable
4 (10%) CD Rack
9 (22.5%) Sell-back 1
9 (22.5%) Pile of Death

In 2008, I reviewed 148 (!) albums, which is insane - that's a 370% increase in production! (I think I need to talk to the auto makers.) They broke down like this:

23 (16%) Car Changer
55 (37%) Portable
36 (24%) CD Rack
23 (16%) Sell-back 1
11 (7%) Pile of Death

In terms of the ratings:

• Both years, most albums (35% overall) went into the Portable CD Case. Now, if I were reviewing all albums and albums "cold" (i.e., with no reviews or recommendations), I'd expect that number to shift downward towards the CD Rack or Sell-back 1; because I'm selective to begin with, the CD Rack or Portable CD Case would be what I expected in terms of landing spots. Conclusion: I like good music. (This is a self-fulfilling prophesy.)
  
  
• The percentage of "bad" albums (Sell-back 1 & The Peaches Pile/Pile of Death) dropped almost exactly in half between 2007 and 2008 -- from 45 to 23%. The primary beneficiary was the CD Rack, which jumped from 10% to 24% of albums reviewed. Conclusion: I listened to Pitchfork less this year.
  
  
• I've reviewed 96 albums I'd call very good to great in the last two years. That is WAY too much. Conclusion: I listen to WAY too much music.

Prior to this post, I had never actually posted in either January or April, for whatever reason.

And that's The Snilch Report, by the numbers. Good night, and good luck.

- Snilch