NCAA Tournament Pick ‘Em

It’s the greatest time of the year again…spring is just around the corner, and maybe even better, the NCAA Tournament is about to tip off!  Think you can guess how the men’s bracket is going to play out? Sign up for the Parkside Youth Tournament Pick ‘Em and show us what you got.  The winners will receive gift cards to iTunes… Here’s how to play:

1. Sign up for a Yahoo! account if you don’t already have one
2. Go to the Yahoo! Sports Tournament Pick ‘Em Page
3. Click “Join a Group”
4. Click “Join Group” on the left of the screen
5. Enter in the following info: Group ID is 33785 and password is warehouse
6. Select “Save & Continue”. You are now officially part of the competition! (More instructions below…)

The bracket will be announced on Sunday, March 14th. You’ll have until the start of the first game on Thursday March 18th to make your picks. So, after you have registered, be sure to go back to the Pick ‘Em page between the 14th and 18th to fill out your bracket (under “My Picks”). Keep things real by talking smack to each other and stay tuned to see if you’re smart enough (or lucky enough!) to win it all…and, oh by the way, go Blue Devils!

It can be done…

From our Student Body game on Sunday, proof that 3 golf balls can indeed be stacked on top of one another…nice work Zach.

March Madness Night 1 Pics

Check out pics from night 1 of March Madness!

March Madness Standings

The week 1 results are in, and here are the standings:

1. Williams College Purple Cows - 40,000 pts
2. Saint Louis University Billikens - 27,500 pts
3. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers - 20,000 pts
4. UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs - 17,500 pts

Let the trash talking begin…

Don’t forget ways to score more points for your team next week:

1. The “Spirit Award” for best-dressed is worth 10,000 points
2. Each new person you bring is worth 1,000 points…so bring friends!

March Madness kicks off tomorrow!

The wall is ready to go…

March Madness Team Intros: Team 4

Last, but not certainly not least, Team 4 of March Madness 2010 comes from just south of San Franciso, CA and competes in Division III of the NCAA as an independent member.  The campus of this school overlooks the Pacific Ocean, but the lure of the beach hasn’t prevented their athletes from practicing, as they have recently won national championships in water polo (2006), tennis (2007), and women’s club rugby (2005-2006).

As for their mascot?  He goes by the scientific name of Ariolimax dolichophallus, and is no stranger to the big stage.  You might have seen him on Fear Factor a few years ago, or in Reader’s Digest, when he was named the best mascot of 2004.  He also made an appearance in a court case involving campus mascots, this having been written about him in Crue et al. v. Aiken in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals: “We give the best college nickname nod to the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Imagine the fear in the hearts of opponents who travel there to face the imaginatively named ‘Banana Slugs’”.  I couldn’t have said it better myself.  The fourth and final team of March Madness 2010, the University of California, Santa Cruz Banana Slugs, and their mascot, Sammy the Slug!

March Madness Team Intros: Team 3

We’re now one week away from March Madness and it’s time to meet team 3.  From Saint Louis, Missouri and somehow playing in the Atlantic 10 Conference (not seeing the Atlantic Ocean anywhere close), this team comes from the oldest university west of the Mississippi River.  It is the alma mater of Brian McBride, the only American to score a goal in more than one FIFA World Cup Tournament, Bob Ferry, the dad of Cleveland Cavaliers’ GM Danny Ferry, and some guy named Bradbury Robinson, who threw the first legal forward pass in football at this university in 1906.  As for the guy who threw the first illegal forward pass?  Forgotten by history.

This team’s mascot was recently tapped as one of the “coolest” in all the country.  He was designed by Florence Prentz, a Missouri art teacher and illustrator, just two years after Robinson’s epic pass in 1906.  No one is quite sure what her inspiration for the character was, but no matter what the origins, he is described as having a “cheery personality, a broad smile, and a rotund belly”.  Some have described him as an elf, some have said he’s a vampire, others think he’s an alien, and still others have said he bears a striking likeness to a former coach, Coach Bender.  Must have been one ugly dude.  I’m not sure what he is, but I give you the third team of March Madness: the Saint Louis Billikens and their mascot, The Billiken!

March Madness Team Intros: Team 2

Another day, another March Madness team is revealed.  Team 2 in the competition comes from Williamstown, MA, at the base of Mount Greylock in the Berkshire Mountains.  Representing a highly selective private school, this team participates in the NCAA’s Division III NESCAC Conference in most sports, except for skiing and squash (what is squash?), where they are Division I.  And just in case you thought that people don’t really care about squash, check out the trash talking that went on during the 2010 NCAA squash championships.  I kind of feel bad for the little Yale guy.  He didn’t deserve that.  But I digress.

If you were to create an ideal team mascot, you’d probably design something that is both intimidating and represents your school well, right?  Well, this team doesn’t need to play by your rules.  Located at the base of a mountain, and with school colors of purple and gold, I give you team 2 of March Madness 2010: the Williams College Ephs (pronounced Eefs, with a long e) and their mascot, Ephelia, the book-reading purple cow!

March Madness Team Introductions: Team #1

We’re now less than 10 days away from the kick-off of SI’s March Madness!  And it is time to begin unveiling the 4 teams that will be competing at this year’s event.  When you come on that first Thursday (March 4), you will be placed on one of these teams and compete for points throughout the month.  Then, at the end of the month, the points will be totaled, a winner will be declared, and superiority will be established.  Each day this week, a new team will be revealed.  Without further ado, let’s meet team 1.

Hailing from Bowling Green, KY, and playing in the Sun Belt Conference, this team recently visited the Sweet 16 of the 2008 NCAA tournament.  Supported by its red towel waving fans who loudly sing the uber-creatively titled fight song, “Stand Up and Cheer”, this team is not one to back down from a challenge.  As for the origins of the red towels?  A legendary coach from this program was fed up with the team’s athletic towels being stolen, so he had them made red, and then proceeded to do such things as throw them to the rafters, beat them on the floor, chew on them, twist them, and cry into them.  Do rabid fans need any more inspiration than this?  Not at this school.  No stranger to the big stage, having finished 6th in the 2009 Capital One Mascot of the Year Competition, this team’s mascot is large and in charge…and that’s about all he’s got going for him.  The first team of March Madness 2010, I give you: the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and Big Red!