And, no, I'm not overly sad that my own Bears lost. They were playing a team that was slated for a 4 or 5 seed only a few weeks before and the game was tied with a minute to go. Given that they were easily the weakest on paper of the Pac-10 teams in the tournament and that the Wolfpack has a reputation for defending post players like Leon Powe extremely well, I really can't complain. Now if Ben Braun can only find a shooters camp a la Pete Newell's big man camp to send his guards too, while simultaneously convincing Leon Powe to come back for one more year and improve his medium-range game and ball handling, next year could be something special for my Bears. In the meantime, I will content myself with rooting for our Baby Bear cousins to the south, who share our fight song and colors, albeit in etiolated form. Besides, I have friends tangled up with Westwood, from
elizabeg and yourbestfiend to a certain resident of Pasadena and, for the moment, his soon-to-be-ex colleague whose Panthers struggled valiantly today but were overmatched by Florida. Go Bruins! Go Huskies! Go Cats! 