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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.
3/19/2008 05:41:00 AM

Day 8: En Route To Omaha; The SI Library

Psycho T Checklist
Psycho T and other stars start working on that last checklist box on Thursday.
AP

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- This is the day it really begins. A 6 a.m. flight to Omaha (via Detroit) awaits, so this is the final hometown dispatch before I officially hit the road for the NCAA tournament. Mount St. Mary's emerged from the play-in game more than eight hours ago, and open practices will be held today for the Thursday-Saturday sites. Mostly these are just shoot-arounds and dunk-fests, since coaches aren't going to give their game plans away in public -- but I'm a little jaded at this point. The first time I went to the NCAAs, as a fan in 1994, I forced my dad to spend six hours in the stands at Weber State watching those things.

• If you do one thing today, join the Tourney Blog pool. We were up to 5,030 members as of last night -- a number that's completely stunning to me, since we had only 644 last year. Converting it to Facebook has really paid off ... even if there has been some grumbling amongst the old folks. (Once you're signed up for the SI Bracket Challenge application on Facebook, there should be an invitation to join the Blog Pool on the home page.)

• To leave you with some decent reading in the meantime, I compiled "The 2007-08 SI Library": a compilation of links to all the college hoops feature stories that have appeared in the magazine this season. Below, sandwiched between images of the regional covers for our tourney issue and the regional covers for our preview issue, is some excellent work. Study up until I check back in later on Wednesday.

Click for larger coverClick for larger coverClick for larger cover
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March 18: Cut From The Same Cloth: John Thompson III (by Alex Wolff)

March 18: Does Size Matter in the NCAA Tournament? (by Grant Wahl)

March 12: Going Gaga for Gody: Notre Dame's Luke Harangody (by Luke Winn)

March 4: March Madman: North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough (by Grant Wahl)

Feb. 26: Fan Abuse in College Hoops: How much is too much? (by Grant Wahl)

Feb. 20: Twins Peaking: Stanford's 7-foot Lopez brothers (by Kelli Anderson)

Feb. 12: Fast and Furious: Memphis' Dribble-Drive Motion (by Grant Wahl)

Feb. 5: A Time To Heal: Kansas' Darnell Jackson (by Luke Winn)

Jan. 29: Good News Bears: Scott Drew & Baylor's Revival (by Kelli Anderson)

Jan. 22: Down Underdogs: St. Mary's Patty Mills and Vandy's A.J. Ogilvy (by Kelli Anderson)

Jan. 17: The Life And Times Of Rick Majerus (by S.L. Price)

Jan. 9: B-Easy Does It: K-State's Michael Beasley (by Grant Wahl)

Dec. 24: Escape From Jonestown: San Diego's Rob Jones (by Gary Smith)

Nov. 13: A Fight Between Friends: Kevin Love & O.J. Mayo (by Grant Wahl)

Oct. 9: Bruce Pearl Makes Tennessee Relevant Again (by Grant Wahl)

Our preview-issue covers, from October:


• Finally, for for your music fix ... The tourney playlist, curated by the folks at the peerless music blog Gorilla vs. Bear, rolls on, one free mp3 at a time:

Day 8's track is Grizzly Bear's On a Neck, On a Spit. One more pick from a Brooklyn band before we skip town.

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posted by Luke Winn | View comments (1) |

1 Comments:

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Posted: March 19, 2008 9:49 PM   by Anonymous Anonymous
Luke -
In the SI cover challenge on the website, it keeps listing an option of Drake Bulldog. Do you think that the creators/editors possible mixed up Butler's Bulldog (Blue) who is in the top right corner??
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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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