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1) Bernie Madoff. When was the last time you remember a guy with basketfuls of money walking into a court room and saying "Yes, I did it. I'm guilty. Please march me off to prison for the rest of my life." He can hire many expensive lawyers and, no matter how obviously guilty he is, he could have at least postponed the march to prison. But instead, he gave up.
Here's what I think - the reason he gave up was that there were some really interesting things that he (and others) REALLY did not want to come out. I believe there is a LOT more to this story that we will never know about since good old Bernie fell on his sword. And no, he and his wife should not get to keep the millions that they claim to have attained legally.
2) NCAA teams taking dives. At the end of the men's college basketball season, there is a 65-team tournament called March Madness. Schools that get invited into this tournament can stand to make significant money for themselves AND their conferences. Just before the big tournament, most conferences have their own mini-tournament. This year, almost all highly ranked schools (including the mighty Kansas Jayhawks) have lost early in their tournaments, which means that lower ranked schools are going to finish up looking better than expected.
Why does any of this matter? Two reasons:
A) The good teams are guaranteed berths in the big tournament already, so losing early means they can rest up a bit with little, if any, harm to their standing in the big tournament.
B) Letting some other, lower ranked team finish well just might mean that one more team from their conference will make the big tournament, meaning more money for their conference.
I know, this is just the whining from a bitter loser, but it has been amazing how many top 20 teams lost in their tournaments, and not in the championship round.
Not that this is going to stop me from rabidly following the tournament starting Thursday. (Sorry Mrs Notthat, but I may be a bit distracted this weekend. And next. And next.)
That's it - move along...
2 comments:
I hate Bernie Madoff. I wish he were Albanian or Norwegian. I also don't care about March Madness, since nobody I like will be in it. I will, however, root like hell for the Jayhawks, and expect Laker reciprocity.
Oh man, you want me to root for the Lakers? Well, since they are the only California team in the playoffs, I guess I will have to pull for them, especially against teams from the east or Texas. But I won't like it.
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