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Get inside March Madness with SI.com's Luke Winn in the Tourney Blog, a daily journal of college basketball commentary, on-site reporting and reader-driven discussions.
3/12/2008 08:44:00 AM

Day 1: It All Begins ... For the Third Time

Memphis-Tennessee
Bob Rosato/SI

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- On the first day of the third year of this Tourney Blog, I am awake much earlier than normal. Businessfolk might rise at this hour -- it's 7 a.m., and light has yet to peek through the curtains -- but sportswriters definitely don't. Syracuse's annual bubble quest at the Big East tournament doesn't begin for another five hours. That will be the beginning of 28 straight days of work for this blogger ... which is actually far more exciting than it is daunting.

This, I guess, should serve as your welcome-back post. A rundown of what's going on in my camp:

• I'll be covering the Big East tournament in NYC this week ...

• ... and the whole NCAA tournament, from various sites, after that.

• For the first time, the blog has an RSS feed. If you don't know what that is, just ignore it; if you do know what it is, subscribe.

• The Blog Pool is happening. Can we top the 642 entrants from last year? I think so. Don't let me down. Details coming tomorrow on how to join. There's a good chance it'll be on Facebook.

• In news that adds absolutely nothing to your reading experience, I'm using a new MacBook Air this year. It affects my blogging experience ... by exactly three pounds. I feel much more svelte.

• Finally, just to give you something extra in the mornings, the blog is building a Tourney playlist. One free mp3 each day, curated by our friends at gorillavsbear.net, who are running their share of shows at SXSW this week in Austin. The first one, in honor of the dateline on this post, is Brooklyn band Yeasayer, whose music was recently described by the New York Times as "Tribal yet futuristic, with flashes of African and Middle Eastern melody, and tangles of electronic effects that recall 1970s progressive rock." Enjoy it: Yeasayer - 2080.

Back with more today, and every day 'til we're done ...

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posted by Luke Winn | View comments (1) |

1 Comments:

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Posted: March 12, 2008 6:28 PM   by Blogger Longhorn Road Trip
Glad to see you tackling this again. I can only hope we end up at one of the same NCAA sites and that I get the chance to pick your brain for a few minutes. Enjoy the four weeks!
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Tourney Blog Playlist
Curated, one mp3/day, by:
Gorilla
(Right-click the song names and choose "Save As ..." to download for your iPod)

  1: Yeasayer
      2080
  2: The Black Lips
      Not a Problem
  3: Band of Horses
      The Funeral
  4: Beach House
      Gila
  5: Del T.F. Homosapien
      Bubble Pop
  6: Midlake
      Roscoe
  7: The Cave Singers
      Seeds of Night
  8: Grizzly Bear
      On a Neck, On a Spit
  9: Girl Talk
      Hold Up
10: Destroyer
      Foam Hands
11: Iron and Wine
      Innocent Bones
12: Panda Bear
      Comfy in Nautica
13: King Khan & the Shrines
      Welfare Bread
14: Spoon
      The Underdog
15: Stephen Malkmus &
      The Jicks
      Cold Son
16: Caribou
      Melody Day
17: She & Him
      Why Do You
      Let Me Stay Here?
18: Panda Bear
      Comfy in Nautica
      (xxxchange Remix)
19: Amanaz
      Khala My Friend
20: Writing On The Wall
      Buffalo
21: Holy F---
      Nude (Remixed)
22: Quiet Village
      Free Rider
23: Stephen Malkmus &
      The Jicks
      Baltimore
24: Tapes 'n' Tapes
      Hang Them All
25: Tree Wave
      May Banners
26: Sufjan Stevens
      Chicago
27: Cat Power
      The Greatest
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