Selection Sunday reflections

By Rick Morris

After digesting all of the drama of Championship Week, I joined the rest of the country in scratching down the brackets at 6 PM EDT tonight (never mind the fact that they're available almost immediately on the Internet -- like this printable one -- for those of us who grew up jotting down the brackets starting back in the '80s, it's a part of the fabric of our lives). At that time, I was joined on a conference call by FDH Lounge Dignitary/FDH college hoops analyst Nate Noy. Here are our thoughts, region by region.

MIDWEST/INDIANAPOLIS

^ Ohio State got screwed by getting bounced down to an 8 seed. Although the court in Dayton is marginally closer to their campus, they still face a potentially ugly fate at the hands of Louisville in the second round -- if they get by Siena, which isn't a layup.

^ Nate had the entire tournament plotted out ahead of time and when Arizona got dropped in as the 12 seed here, he was flabbergasted and called it a travesty. He immediately knew that Auburn, who he thought would be in, was out.

^ Another Ohio team that got the shaft was Cleveland State, which deserved better than a 13 seed and a no-chance game against Wake Forest. Also, if Louisville was really the top seed out of all the #1s (deservedly so, BTW, for winning the toughest league in the history of college hoops in the regular season and the conference tourney), then how the heck do they get Wake as the #4 in their region? Don't tell me Wake is slotted below Xavier!

^ West Virginia looks to be a team that could make a long run from a lower seed. 6 seeds in the Elite Eight don't happen every year, but Coach Hug will have his squad ready to go against whoever they would face on the way, including Kansas, Sparty and BC.

WEST/GLENDALE

^ The top of this bracket didn't have a ton of surprises, but Nate really thought that Purdue deserved a bit better than their 5 seed -- and he saw that the committee did them no favors by delivering a potential second-round matchup with another underseed in Washington.

^ Memphis was the victim of one of the committee's biggest screwjobs as they should have been one of the 1 seeds, as we noted immediately on Twitter. Their path to the Elite Eight isn't especially traumatic, though.

^ Utah State is a very dangerous 11 seed lurking in Boise next weekend -- not too far from home.

EAST/BOSTON

^ Nate's conspiracy theory going into the unveiling was that the selection committee would gin up a UConn/Duke regional final to take place in Boston. That didn't happen, but Duke was in this region like he thought they would be. Both Nate and I see, at this time, a Pitt-Duke regional final, but we disagree on the outcome. I don't think the Blue Devils can stand up to Pittsburgh's physicality.

^ A hot Florida State team is a dangerous order for a Wisconsin squad that almost had its bubble popped. Actually, when the Badgers got slotted as a 12, I joked to Nate that TVs were being flipped to other channels all across Michigan and Minnesota. Imagine our surprise when the Wolverines and Gophers ended up with even higher seeds than the Badgers! That really doesn't seem right.

^ For all its protestations of innocence, the committee always throws in a few "storyline-oriented" matchups. The Texas-Minnesota tilt will no doubt be used as a platform for CBS announcers to talk at length about the resumes of the head coaches.

^ Technically, Villanova is not considered a home team in the tournament even though their first-round game will be contested in their home city of Philly. News flash to the tournament: if you're sleeping in your own bed during this regional, it's a home freaking game!

^ The committee punished UCLA for a disappointing season with a 6 seed -- and a first-round matchup against Virginia Commonwealth, who has proven that they are no March speedbump.

SOUTH/MEMPHIS

^ If you go by my rule of thumb that any time you can make a strong case for an upset that you should write it in on your bracket, you should take Butler to win the 8-9 tilt with LSU.

^ The last tournament teams can be completely predictable, if you follow everything as closely as Nate, who was shouting, "Akron! Akron! Akron!" when it came time for the 13 seed against Gonzaga to be announced. Like their Northeastern Ohio counterpart, the Zips got a certain one-and-done from the committee. Unlike the Vikings, their fate is fairly justifiable.

^ Michigan is thrilled about receiving their first tourney bid since 1998. Will they be so happy after running into the battle-tested buzzsaw of Clemson? Doubtful.

^ The claims of their front-running fanbase aside, Syracuse really didn't deserve to get the 3 seed over Gonzaga in this region. There could well be orange-colored tears running in the second round, though, with a difficult matchup potentially looming in #6 Arizona State.

OTHER THOUGHTS

^ Nate and I agree that St. Mary's has a legitimate beef, especially with Arizona, Michigan and Minnesota all worming invites. 26 and freaking 6 and they're in the NIT? C'mon now. I also feel that San Diego State, with their 23-9 mark and 37 RPI, got disrespected by the committee. All in all, only four mid-major teams received at-large invites this year, as lower-tier Big Ten and Pac Ten squads were able to take what they really did not deserve.

^ In a season that proved how rampant parity really is right now, extending through an upset-filled Championship Week, I had embraced the conventional wisdom going into March Madness about how the tournament itself would be full of upsets and how absolutely vital the concept of examining matchups would be to forecasting each game regardless of respective overall skill levels. I still believe that -- which is why I'm struggling with my first instinct when looking at a potential Final Four. In the end, if these are my final picks (which will be posted here on the site this week for your benefit), I won't be happy about going with so much chalk. In the Midwest, I like #1 Louisville in the final over #6 West Virginia (the exception to my apparent chalk fetish). In the West, I like #2 Memphis over #1 UConn. In the East, I like #1 Pitt over #2 Duke and in the South, I like #1 North Carolina over #2 Oklahoma. That gives me three #1s and a #2, a very disquieting thought in this of all years. In the national semifinals, I like Louisville over Memphis and North Carolina over Pitt and Louisville over North Carolina in the national championship. As I say, though, those may not be my final predictions once I get a chance to move beyond initial impressions.

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XI

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

FDH Lounge Show#49: March 11, 2009

By Rick Morris

Tonight’s 49th edition of THE FDH LOUNGE (7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) is completely given over to a special edition of THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER. It’s our fifth annual FDH Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft and the Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge will help you sort through the value of all of your favorite baseball players in ’09.

Above all, your preparations for your own Auction Day or Draft Bay should include downloading our free FANTASY BASEBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009, a co-promotion with our friends at Sportsology.

If you can’t watch our show live, be sure to catch our FDH archives right here.

2009 NFL Mock Draft, Version 2.0

By Jason Jones (posted by Rick Morris)

Here is the first post-combine NFL mock draft from FDH:


1
DET
Aaron Curry
OLB
Wake
2
STL
Jason Smith
OT
Baylor
3
KC
Eugene Monroe
OT
Virginia
4
SEA
Michael Crabtree
WR
Texas Tech
5
CLE
Brian Orakpo
DE
Texas
6
CIN
Micheal Oher
OT
Ole Miss
7
OAK
Malcolm Jenkins
CB
Ohio St
8
JAX
Rey Maualuga
ILB
USC
9
GB
Everette Brown
DE
Florida St
10
SF
Matthew Stafford
QB
Georgia
11
BUF
Brandon Pettigrew
TE
Okla St
12
DEN
B.J. Raji
DT
BC
13
WAS
Andre Smith
OT
Alabama
14
NO
Brian Cushing
OLB
USC
15
HOU
Beanie Wells
RB
Ohio St
16
SD
Knowshon Moreno
RB
Georgia
17
NYJ
Mark Sanchez
QB
USC
18
CHI
Louis Delmas
S
W. Mich
19
TB
Michael Johnson
OLB
Georgia Tech
20
DET
Vontae Davis
CB
Illinois
21
PHI
Jeremy Maclin
WR
Missouri
22
MIN
Eben Britton
OT
Arizona
23
NE
James Laurinautis
ILB
Ohio St
24
ATL
Larry English
OLB
USC
25
MIA
Aaron Maybin
OLB
Penn St
26
BAL
Alphonso Smith
CB
Wake
27
IND
Duke Robinson
OG
Oklahoma
28
PHI
LeSean McCoy
RB
Pitt
29
NYG
Connon Barwin
LB*
Cincinnati
30
TEN
Alex Mack
C
California
31
ARI
Clay Matthews
OLB
N. Illinois
32
PIT
Eric Wood
C/G
Louisville

Video Clips: Fun Timewasters

By Rick Morris

From time to time, we try to accommodate our Lounge content consumers who just want some fun, light entertainment. Hence this edition of our Video Clips series, entitled "Fun Timewasters." These are simply some video clips that you can enjoy and consume in the form of good, mindless entertainment. On with the show!

Here's the recently-released SNL audition for the late, great Phil Hartman:



That nutjob Nancy Pelosi jumping up repeatedly during the recent presidential address to Congress:



A fart ringtone? Really?



You've probably never seen a kazoo used in QUITE this way:



Hacky-Sac in the office:



Oh my ... a Chris Brown public service announcement:



This is really freaky -- a San Francisco TV station reporting about the trend of reading the daily newspaper on your computer -- IN 1981!

Geopolitics roundup

By Rick Morris

We have long covered geopolitics at The FDH Lounge, both in terms of our own analysis and linking to great coverage elsewhere. Here’s our latest roundup of top news and analysis on the Internet.

^ The Long War Journal says that new terrorist camps are springing up in Yemen.

^ The Investigative Project holds up evidence that civilian casualty claims in Gaza were grossly inflated.

^ The Donovan has great news that the US Army is working to bring down suicide totals in the ranks.

^ The Counterterrorism Blog reveals that terrorists are penetrating the Pakistani army in great numbers.

^ The Counterterrorism Blog speaks about how governments are appeasing terrorists by voluntarily applying Sharia (Islamic law) in various areas.

^ The Counterterrorism Blog tries to figure out who was really behind the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.

^ The Counterterrorism Blog talks about how criminal cartels are taking advantage of the credit crunch by luring in legitimate businesses in need of financing.

^ The Belmont Club looks at North Korea's warning to the West about interfering with its missile test.

^ In From The Cold goes over Garry Kasparov's statement that the Putin/Medvedev junta is actually in a lot of trouble.

^ The Mudville Gazette reveals a key aspect of how the Iraq drawdown is a fraud.

^ Michael Yon says that the West is struggling to keep from losing in Afghanistan.

^ Jane's examines how the US military opened a transit route between Russia and Afghanistan.

^ Jane's says that apparently even the knuckle-draggers in the Iranian government are now ambivalent about Ahmadinejad.

^ The Foreign Policy Magazine Blog has some lighter-side news: even dog shows in Russia are now rigged – the prez’s dogs won at the big Russki dog show!

^ The Foreign Policy Magazine Blog talks about how Britain is in a tizzy over Obama’s snubbing of Gordon Brown.

Who's in Charge at CBS Radio?

By Tony Mazur

A couple of weeks ago, "Free FM" suffered its official, and, for some, long-anticipated demise. With Howard Stern leaving for Sirius Satellite Radio in 2005, CBS Radio had to fill in the cracks. In 2006, CBS unveiled their sure-fire format to give the middle finger to Howard: Hot Talk. All talk, all day.

Howard's old stations were split in three regional syndicates. Van Halen singer David Lee Roth took over the East Coast affiliates, Shane "Rover" French's Rover's Morning Glory had the Midwest region, and former Man Show and Loveline host Adam Carolla took over the West Coast stations. After a few months, the stations started to tank, and some changes needed to be made. All but three of Rover's stations (including WCKG in Chicago, his one-time flagship) dropped his show, and Roth was subsequently canceled in favor of XM's Opie & Anthony.

While there are still FM talk stations, by 2007, the Free FM moniker became a thing of the recent past. Most of them have since flipped to FM sports talk or CHR, aside from WJFK in Washington D.C., where it remains FM talk but does not have the "Free FM" branding. The final Free FM station changed formats in February 2009, when Los Angeles's KLSX (the former flagship home of Adam Carolla and Tom Leykis) flipped to a Top 40 format.

Gregg "Opie" Hughes has been hinting recently on The Opie & Anthony Show that WXRK (once known as WFNY, a Free FM station) will be canceling their show due to a format change, not because of low ratings. Indeed, the announcement was made that on March 11th at 3:00 PM ET, WXRK will become "92.3 Now", a Contemporary Hits format to compete with rival WHTZ.

The hot talk format, in my humble opinion, could have worked with the right promotion and marketing. However, it seemed like CBS preferred to send juvenile jabs to Stern and Mel Karmazin rather than making sales. Well, who's laughing now? Howard and Mel are counting their millions while CBS is firing people and flipping formats left and right.

CBS Radio has dropped the ball with this one once again. It's to the point that they could really care less about their programming. Rather than have a lineup of talented show hosts, it is much cheaper to throw a block of songs on shuffle, in no particular order. CBS is decaying and it's leading to the demise of terrestrial radio.

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue X

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Rush Limbaugh: Obama's Watchdog

By Tony Mazur

Rush Limbaugh has always been in the forefront when it comes to political controversy since he signed on back in August 1988. The "Drive-By Media", as El Rushbo calls them, will throw everything including the kitchen sink to take down Limbaugh. The media has done what they can to make Rush look like the anti-Christ, and, according to many, they've succeeded in doing so.

Limbaugh was an annoyance for Bill Clinton during his tenure in the White House, but for President Barack Obama, Rush is not just a nuisance. He is a threat.

The economy, as anyone with a third of a brain will tell you, is in bad shape. However, it appears that fixing the economy rests solely on Obama's shoulders. The rest of the Democratic Party in Congress, most notably Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are actively finding loopholes to permanently shut Rush Limbaugh's mouth.

After a failed attempt at reviving the so-called "Fairness Doctrine", Pelosi is interested in promoting "minority ownership" with radio companies. This would be a gigantic step to regulate various radio shows, specifically conservative talk shows.

This is a clear attempt a censorship. Also, with an administration hell-bent on saving jobs, instilling a Fairness Doctrine and eliminating conservative talks shows would KILL radio. Rush Limbaugh is responsible for saving AM radio. Otherwise, AM radio would have went by the wayside like 8-track tapes and Giga Pets. Liberals are upset that Air America never caught on (presumably because one has to have an imagination to listen to the radio).

Rush Limbaugh has once again topped the headlines on many occasions for hoping "Obama fails". I listened to him the day he made that controversial statement, and I knew exactly what he was talking about. Rush wants Obama's socialist policies to fail because he believes that they are harmful to the country. Limbaugh's critics, who hear out-of-context snippets, claim that Rush's wish for an Obama failure would mean that the country would fail also. There are also many who think Rush's statement is purely racial because of Obama's skin color.

Rather than leveling the playing field, the goal for the Democrats is to clear the playing field. These kinds of tactics have been used in communist and fascist regimes throughout world history. With conservative talkers such as Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michael Medved, Glenn Beck, etc., out of the equation, Obama and the Democrats can do whatever they please without criticism, since the media is disgustingly liberal.

As the Dow Jones continues to plummet, and as more Americans go broke by the second, the real issue is to exile Rush Limbaugh, whom, by the way, seems to be the only person that makes a lick of sense these days. Change we can believe in? Not I.

FDH Lounge Show #48: March 4, 2009

By Rick Morris

While THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) is the program where nothing is off-topic, as it happens, tonight’s program is completely loaded with sports topics.

After The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries, we are joined by our good pal, STN Host Ken Becks (Gridiron Evaluations, Mondays from 7-8 PM EST) of the wonderful Gridiron Evaluations site. With the start of NFL free agency, the fallout from the combine and Ken’s big news about his site’s forthcoming relaunch, we’ll have much to discuss with “The Scout.”

Then, after a brief examination of “This Week in The FDH Lounge,” we are joined by another good friend of ours, STN host Sean Trench (The Vegas Wise Guys, 2-4 PM Monday-Friday and Friday Night Hoops, Fridays from 6-7 PM EDT). With March Madness on the horizon and the final NBA transactions of note before the playoff chase finalizes, we’ll have a lot of basketball to go over with our expert.

In Hour Two, Russ Cohen of Sportsology joins us to help examine the release of our big joint project, FANTASY BASEBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009. We’ve got all of the fantasy – and non-fantasy – content you need for the ’09 season and Russ will help us break it down. Click the link to see for yourself what we’ve got!

Later in Hour Two, we get an early start on THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER with a special World Baseball Classic draft to celebrate the huge “best vs. the best” tournament.

Then, at our usual time of 9:30 PM EDT, THE GOON SQUAD comes your way for a look at everything NHL. From the big Anaheim/Pittsburgh deal to anything else deadline-related, we’re on top of it. Also, Sean Avery returns to Gotham, the Red Wings grapple with an identity crisis in net, Martin Brodeur makes it back to the ice … we’ve got so many big hockey stories to talk about tonight.

If you can’t watch us live, you can listen to us on-demand on the FDH archives. Regardless, we urge you to tune in for the program with the widest variety of any on the air today, THE FDH LOUNGE.

Limbaugh, Hannity credibility-challenged after W years

By Rick Morris

After more than 20 years of national syndication and a prime commonly regarded to have come and gone during a period of opposition to the Clinton Administration, Rush Limbaugh is once again the hottest broadcaster in America due to his active feud with the new Obama crew. Surely, this is proof, if proof were yet needed, that what is good for El Rushbo ain't necessarily good for those he claims to represent.

Sandwiched in between Limbaugh's battle against President Bubba and his current clash with Obama were eight years of completely sycophantic shilling for George W. Squish -- and the same is true of America's biggest Rush-wannabe, Sean Hannity. Way before Barack Obama took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, George Bush was spending like a drunken sailor, backing ill-defined and ill-administered federal bailouts and tainting the political image of sound public policy with his watered-down, wimpy "compassionate conservatism." By creating a climate where a cypher like Obama could succeed, George Bush largely created him. Indeed, inasmuch as FDR did not invent his wild ideas, but took Herbert Hoover's government intervention several steps further, Bush may go down in history as the man who directly laid the groundwork for Obama based on his own practice of government intervention. And as John Derbyshire notes in Pat Buchanan's great paleoconservative journal The American Conservative, Rush and Sean were brown-nosing through it all. As Derbyshire further points out, there are far too few intellectually honest talk show (and really entertaining) hosts like Glenn Beck -- and virtually none who are interested in explaining to people the advantages of Austrian economics.

Clearly, Limbaugh, Hannity and their ilk (including Mike Gallagher) are mere political hacks, Republicans and opportunists first. This is why I am so troubled that conservatives are flocking to them, especially Limbaugh, and playing into the White House's hands by creating a national Obama vs. Limbaugh debate. Given every advantage, fair and unfair, that the president has at his disposal, this is a losing fight -- and the hard-nosed among us know that tactics are every bit as important as principle. It's not enough merely to have the right ideas, it's equally important to have the commitment to use them properly -- and at a time when Republicans in D.C. are virtually powerless anyway, cultivating an image as blind obstructionists is woefully counterproductive no matter how drunk on your own self-satisfaction it makes you.

If, as Limbaugh claims, conservative ideas are what are most important, let them stand as the symbol of opposition to the ObamaJunta, not some bloated gasbag who takes different stands depending on who's in the White House. Because my warning is heartfelt, I am saddened by the fact that it will be dismissed out of hand by so many on the right who I admire -- including, I predict, some of my fellow FDH Lounge Dignitaries. They are falling into a trap by letting the White House create a disastrous one-on-one battle with a man the American people know to be a phony based on his conduct over the last eight years. New faces, untainted by the debacle that George Bush inflicted on American conservatism, are the only ones fit to make the case for an alternative to Obama. But given the fact that so many on the right have yet to even come to grips with the legacy of Bush (he was largely ignored at the CPAC conference in Washington, instead of being recognized as an anchor that would have to be removed from around the proverbial neck), I fear that the conservative movement -- like the economy -- is still nowhere near the bottom.

RIP Paul Harvey

By Rick Morris

Any of us who were ever educated in broadcasting or spent any time in the industry understand the story and the accomplishments of Paul Harvey. He was a great self-made broadcaster who merged journalism and the craft of storytelling to create an art form that lived on for several decades. His voice now stilled at age 90, he left behind an incomparable legacy and countless reels of tape enlivened by his one-of-a-kind voice and style.

Here is the clip of his final Saturday newscast:



Paul Harvey, you were one of a kind. Good Day! RIP.