March Madness Fantasy 2018 - The Draft

This year’s draft order saw Brian picking first, just like last year, and Dan picking last, just like last year:

Brian
James
Gavin
Stu
Jake
Bob
Shawn
Luke
Chris
Dan

“I’M SEEING DOUBLE - FOUR KRUSTYS”

Since I was last in the draft order, I thought I would need to think outside the bun for a winning scheme. My idea was to draft both top Virginia scorers with picks 10 and 11 - go all-in with the best but least offense-oriented team. Then, as I was logging into the draft, my television displayed the news about their 6th man, De’Andre Hunter, missing the tourney with a broken wrist. Did I think, “Oh, the same thing happened to Oregon last year, and they reached the Final Four,” or, “Well, that just means that my two Virginia players will get even more playing time.”? No, I panicked and redesigned my strategy on the fly.

Anyway, I do not have two Virginia players. No one does. But here is who selected two players from the same team:

JAMES - 2 from Butler, 2 from Arizona State (Both 1.5x bonus teams! Look for James to jump out to the early lead!)

JAKE - 2 from Michigan State, 2 from Creighton

DAN - 2 from North Carolina, 2 from Gonzaga (I considered getting 3 from Gonzaga, because my mind was failing throughout the evening!) (These teams are in the same region, because see previous comment.)

CHRIS - 2 from Kansas

BOB - 2 from Villanova

Whoa, 5 owners selected teammates! Only one (me) did that last year!

“I’VE TRAVELED FIVE HUNDRED MILES TO GIVE YOU MY SEED”

No 6 or 7 seed players were selected. Number of players chosen by seed:

1   16

2   15

3   13

4   9

5   6

6   0

7   0

8   5

9   1

10  5

11  4

12  3

13  0

14  2

15  0

16  1

Gavin and Stu each have three 1 seed players. Brian and Jake did not draft anyone from a 1 seed.

“TEAM. GET ON TOP” -- PRINCE (R.I.P.)

Most players drafted per team:

1 Kansas 5

1 Villanova 5

2 North Carolina 5

3 Michigan St 5

1 Virginia 4

2 Duke 4

2 Purdue 4

3 Michigan 3

3 Texas Tech 3

4 Arizona 3

4 Gonzaga 3

“I BELIEVE IT’S TIME TO MULTIPLYYYYYYY” -- REO SPEEDWAGON

21 of the 80 players selected were from seeds 8 and above and earn the 1.5x multiplier. Dan and Stu lack any 1.5x bonus players. James has the most bonus players, with 5, including his Texas Southern play-in game guy. Chris has 4.

“LET’S GET REGIONAL” -- OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN

Players drafted per region:

Midwest 24

East 20

West 19

South 17

Everyone has at least one player per region except Dan, who has no one from the East. Dan drafted 5 West region players, and Chris drafted 5 Midwest region players.

“BALANCE” -- MR. MIYAGI AT SOME POINT, PROBABLY

Will their players knock each other out of the tourney? From least balanced to best balanced, I guess, it’s kind of arguable:

Brian has 2 players that play against each other in the round of 64, and 2 players that could meet in the Sweet 16.

Dan has 3 players that could meet in the round of 32.

Gav has 2 players that could meet in the round of 32, and 4 that could meet in the Sweet 16.

Luke has 2 players that could meet in the round of 32.

Jake has 5 players that could meet in the Sweet 16.

Chris has 4 players that could meet in the Sweet 16.

Bob, Shawn, and Stu have 2 players that could meet in the Sweet 16.

James’ players cannot face each other until the Elite 8.

“DON’T PUT ME IN THIS POSITION” -- SOMEONE EXPERIENCING AN INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT

Only 5 players are classified as centers, and Bob drafted 3 of them. 24 forwards were picked, and the remainder is 51 guards. Gav has all guards but for 1 center, and Stu and James drafted 7 guards and one forward.

AND NOW, HERE ARE EVERYONE'S PICKS:

Brian needs 1 seeds to lose, and Cinci and Michigan to have strong showings.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	1	Brian	MW	2	Duke	Marvin Bagley III	F
2	20	Brian	S	2	Cincinnati	Gary Clark	F
3	21	Brian	W	3	Michigan	Moritz Wagner	F
4	40	Brian	MW	8	Seton Hall	Desi Rodriguez	F
5	41	Brian	W	2	UNC	Kenny Williams	G
6	60	Brian	E	12	Murray State	Jonathan Stark	G
7	61	Brian	W	14	Montana	Ahmaad Rorie	G
8	80	Brian	E	3	Texas Tech	Jarrett Culver	G

James’s hopes are dim unless both Butler and Arizona State each win a game.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	2	James	MW	1	Kansas	Devonte' Graham	G
2	19	James	E	10	Butler	Kelan Martin	F
3	22	James	E	5	West Virginia	Jevon Carter	G
4	39	James	MW	11	Arizona State	Tra Holder	G
5	42	James	E	10	Butler	Kamar Baldwin	G
6	59	James	MW	11	Arizona State	Shannon Evans II	G
7	62	James	S	1	UVA	Ty Jerome	G
8	79	James	W	16	Texas Southern	Demontrae Jefferson	G

Gav is a 1 seed supporter: Villanova, Virginia, and especially Xavier.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	3	Gavin	E	1	Villanova	Mikal Bridges	G
2	18	Gavin	W	1	Xavier	Trevon Bluiett	G
3	23	Gavin	S	1	UVA	Devon Hall	G
4	38	Gavin	MW	11	Syracuse	Tyus Battle	G
5	43	Gavin	E	9	Alabama	Collin Sexton	G
6	58	Gavin	E	4	Wichita State	Shaquille Morris	C
7	63	Gavin	MW	2	Duke	Trevon Duval	G
8	78	Gavin	W	10	Providence	Alpha Diallo	G

Stu is balanced with 1 seed players, but would benefit most from Kentucky and Texas Tech wins.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	4	Stu	E	1	Villanova	Jalen Brunson	G
2	17	Stu	MW	1	Kansas	Malik Newman	G
3	24	Stu	W	2	UNC	Theo Pinson	F
4	37	Stu	E	3	Texas Tech	Keenan Evans	G
5	44	Stu	MW	3	Michigan State	Cassius Winston	G
6	57	Stu	E	5	West Virginia	Daxter Miles Jr.	G
7	64	Stu	W	1	Xavier	J.P. Macura	G
8	77	Stu	S	5	Kentucky	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	G

Jake’s best path to victory is with Michigan State, with support from Purdue and North Carolina.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	5	Jake	W	2	UNC	Luke Maye	F
2	16	Jake	MW	3	Michigan State	Miles Bridges	G
3	25	Jake	E	2	Purdue	Vincent Edwards	F
4	36	Jake	S	8	Creighton	Marcus Foster	G
5	45	Jake	S	4	Arizona	Allonzo Trier	G
6	56	Jake	S	8	Creighton	Khyri Thomas	G
7	65	Jake	MW	3	Michigan State	Nick Ward	F
8	76	Jake	E	3	Texas Tech	Zhaire Smith	G

Bob is betting on Duke and Villanova, and would like KU to be upset early.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	6	Bob	MW	2	Duke	Wendell Carter Jr	F
2	15	Bob	E	1	Villanova	Donte DiVincenzo	G
3	26	Bob	E	2	Purdue	Isaac Haas	C
4	35	Bob	MW	8	Seton Hall	Angel Delgado	C
5	46	Bob	MW	5	Clemson	Marcquise Reed	G
6	55	Bob	W	3	Michigan	Charles Matthews	G
7	66	Bob	E	1	Villanova	Phil Booth	G
8	75	Bob	S	4	Arizona	Dusan Ristic	C

Shawn wants Duke, UNC, and KU to lose.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	7	Shawn	W	4	Gonzaga	Johnathan Williams	F
2	14	Shawn	E	1	Villanova	Omari Spellman	F
3	27	Shawn	S	1	UVA	Kyle Guy	G
4	34	Shawn	S	2	Cincinnati	Jacob Evans	G
5	47	Shawn	E	2	Purdue	Dakota Mathias	G
6	54	Shawn	MW	4	Auburn	Mustapha Heron	G
7	67	Shawn	MW	3	Michigan State	Jaren Jackson Jr.	F
8	74	Shawn	S	11	Loyola	Donte Ingram	G

Luke needs 1 seeds to lose, and would like Arizona, Missouri, and Wichita St to be the teams that beat them.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	8	Luke	S	4	Arizona	Deandre Ayton	F
2	13	Luke	MW	1	Kansas	Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk	G
3	28	Luke	E	4	Wichita State	Landry Shamet	G
4	33	Luke	W	3	Michigan	Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman	G
5	48	Luke	S	10	Texas	Mohamed Bamba	F
6	53	Luke	W	8	Missouri	Michael Porter Jr.	F
7	68	Luke	S	5	Kentucky	Kevin Knox	F
8	73	Luke	MW	3	Michigan State	Matt McQuaid	G

Chris needs KU to make a Final Four, a long enough run to make his selection of their 4-best scorer and sprained center (Udoka Azubuike is likely to sit in the round of 64) worthwhile. He needs first-round upsets to take advantage of his bonus players.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	9	Chris	E	2	Purdue	Carsen Edwards	G
2	12	Chris	MW	1	Kansas	Udoka Azubuike	C
3	29	Chris	MW	10	Oklahoma	Trae Young	G
4	32	Chris	W	12	South Dakota St	Mike Daum	F
5	49	Chris	MW	12	New Mexico St	Zach Lofton	G
6	52	Chris	MW	1	Kansas	Lagerald Vick	G
7	69	Chris	S	3	Tennessee	Admiral Schofield	F
8	72	Chris	MW	14	Bucknell	Zach Thomas	F

Dan almost certainly needs Gonzaga to meet North Carolina in the Elite Eight to stand a chance of winning. If that game went to triple overtime, all the better.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	10	Dan	MW	2	Duke	Grayson Allen	G
2	11	Dan	W	2	UNC	Joel Berry II	G
3	30	Dan	W	5	OSU	Keita Bates-Diop	F
4	31	Dan	S	3	Tennessee	Grant Williams	F
5	50	Dan	W	4	Gonzaga	Killian Tillie	F
6	51	Dan	W	4	Gonzaga	Josh Perkins	G
7	70	Dan	W	2	UNC	Cameron Johnson	G
8	71	Dan	S	1	UVA	Isaiah Wilkins	F

2017 Recap - Music

First, here is a playlist of 2017 songs I liked that didn't make my official 2017 soundtrack: 2017 part two

Now, have you heard about this new way to listen to music? You can subscribe to a service and “stream” as much as you want! Combined with my local library, this allowed me to listen to a lot of albums this year. Excluding those I only listened to once or twice, here is how I classify 2017’s albums:

This is remastered album sounds great, I hope they do this to more Beatles records!

• Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th anniversary remaster

Superb

• Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
• Lorde - Melodrama
• The New Pornographers - Whiteout Conditions
• Spoon - Hot Thoughts

Real Good

• Arcade Fire - Everything Now
• (The great songs are significant enough for me to ignore the clunky “Infinite Content” songs. For reasons I cannot articulate, like the “Chemistry” lyric, “Go to the city / Go to the store / Ask for a loan from another bank”.)
• Allison Crutchfield - Tourist in this Town
• (These are very good songs with bad production values despite distribution by a respected label.)
• Alvvays - Antisocialites
• Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps

Solid.

• Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound
• Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
• Aimee Mann - Mental Illness
• Diet Cig - Swear I’m Good at This
• U2 - Songs of Experience
• (No one is going to go bonkers over this group of songs, but I’m happy that I like most of them, and very happy that they are still an operational rock band.)
• Waxahatchee - Out in the Storm
• Shins - Heartworms

Multiple good songs on these but also a song or two that I dislike enough to bump it down here

• St. Vincent - Masseduction
• (I thought this was the year, but I may be doomed to like only two St. Vincent songs per album forever.)
• Wolf Alice - Visions of a Life
• (“Beautifully Unconventional” and “Planet Hunter” are just the silliest things, and I’m sure they are not meant to be.)
• Beck - Colors
• Kesha - Rainbow

Fine but not memorable, or too one-note to keep my interest over the entire album

• Ryan Adams - Prisoner
• XX - I See You
• Queens of the Stone Age - Villans
• (Sharp downturn after the first two songs. Some of those songs really grate on me.)
• Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights
• Phoenix - Ti Amo
• Liam Gallagher - As You Were
• Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?
• (Have not decided if this is legitimately good or British Nickelback.)
• Tristen - Sneaker Waves
• HAIM - Something to Tell You

Man, I tried, but I’m just not digging it

• Real Estate - In Mind
• Father John Misty - Pure Comedy (papa johns misty May 2017)
• Texting my pal:
• “I think this new Father John Misty album is good (!) but repetitive and I lose interest halfway in.”
• (30 minutes pass)
• “And after I lose interest but keep listening, I get madder and madder about the repetition and I’m back to hating him.”
• So anyway, I much prefer Papa John's Misty
• Feist - Pleasure
• Lana Del Rey - Lust for Life

2017 Soundtrack

I do this every year. These songs are what I loved this year, or what reminds me of this year, and are arranged in an order that flows well, or at least fine. The playlist used to be designed to fit on an 80-minute CD, but the march of time is relentless and this particular group of songs is about 4 minutes beyond that.

You can download a zipped folder of mp3s here. You can also play a goddamned Spotify playlist here, but the first song isn’t on Spotify because it’s an original mashup masterpiece that I screwed around on for a good hour.

This year’s cover art is “The Smoker”! This cad was painted by Dutchman Frans Hals circa 1623. “The loose brushwork on this octagonal panel—its original shape—captures the bustle of a tavern interior as caught in a corner of the viewer's eye. Although the painting's attribution to Hals has been questioned occasionally, the execution is entirely typical of his less ambitious genre pictures dating from the 1620s,” says the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was very fortunate to visit art museums and also other things in New York, Chicago, Boise, Sacramento (and its more impressive surrounding areas), and Los Angeles this year. Did I see works of art finer than “The Smoker”? You bet I did. Were the subjects of any of those paintings as dope or as chill as Mister Smoker? Hell no.

1. Peter Bjorn and John featuring James Cromwell - Young Folks / Young Pope

(Download this song alone here.) In New York City, I saw “Oh, Hello” on Broadway (I mean, practically on 6th Street) on Saturday, a Comedy Cellar lineup including Aziz Ansari, Todd Barry, Judah Friedlander, and Michelle Wolf on Sunday, and “The Young Pope” advertisements everywhere. Singing “Young Pope” instead of “Young Folks” started as a gag and soon became impossible to get out of our heads. And those first few episodes were pretty good, but I didn’t finish the series. Sorry, Jude! Don’t take it bad!

2. Tom Petty - Walls (Circus)

I would say I “somehow missed this great Tom Petty song”, but I know exactly why I missed it - it wasn’t on the radio and I never watched “She’s The One” or listened to the soundtrack. It was included in Fluxblog’s huge collection of songs that represented the 1990s, so I happened to find it there, right in the wake of Petty’s death.

My biggest memory associated with the Jennifer Aniston vehicle “She’s The One”? I’m glad you asked! Brian and I. High school. Fall 1996. German class. We’re forbidden from speaking English, but my man knows enough Deutsch to inform me that he saw “Sie ist der Ein” over the weekend.

3. Selena Gomez - Bad Liar

As I heard Chuck Klosterman say on a podcast this year, it’s probably a bad sign for Selena Gomez’ career that I like her new song. You know what else is bad for her career? Having lupus! And starring in a Woody Allen movie!

4. Spoon - Can I Sit Next to You

We just got into our hotel in Chicago, and my coworkers say they want to go look for food, and I say, “I’m going to the Art Institute byeeeeeeeeee” and hustle away, knowing I’ve only got a few hours before it closes. I put in earbuds and start listening to the few new Spoon tracks I have on my phone, the ones they gave me in advance to thank me for being the kind of dinosaur that pre-orders albums. Living my suburban life, I rarely do the urban thing of listening to music as you walk past others on busy city sidewalks, pretending you’re John Wick strutting to a soundtrack. But look, I was feeling this song, okay? The beat was hitting all the right spots in my brain, and I was feeling energized, feeling like a badass, maybe like John Wick with fewer personal tragedies, exiting the subway, walking up the steps, which were slightly damp from the mist and fog, and it’s a good thing I was holding on to the rail because I slipped on those steps. I didn’t wipe out completely and tumble down the stairs, but I did dangle from my support arm while I re-established my footing. And I didn’t feel very badass anymore.

5. The Beatles - Hey Bulldog

I listended to the "Screw It, We're Just Going to Talk About the Beatles" podcast this year, and I thought the remastered 50th anniversary edition of "Sgt Peppers" was great -- check out "Getting Better" and enjoy the enhanced drums and bass. "Hey Bulldog" was unknown to me, as I didn't spin the "Yellow Submarine" album all that much or ever and never saw the animated movie. 2017 is likely the last year that I ever discover a less-known Beatles song that I like.

6. Lorde - Green Light

Lorde's "Melodrama" is the best album I heard this year. I started listening to it this summer and haven't stopped, and struggled to pick among "Green Light", "Supercut", and "Perfect Places" for this playlist.

7. The New Pornographers - Whiteout Conditions

We arrived at Liberty Hall when the doors opened for the New Pornographers show, and it was clear that their fans have aged with them, as those we stood in line with hustled up the stairs to the seated balcony. So, we stood in the front of the floor. From that position, I could not hear the keyboards of Blaine Thurier, and the loudest sounds came from Carl Newman's amp and the drumset. It was nice to hear the songs differently, particularly "Avalanche Alley", the closer on the new album.

8. Allison Crutchfield - I Don’t Ever Wanna Leave California

My LA hosts were late meeting me at the Getty Museum due to their wrangling of a lost dog, so I listened to music while browsing Van Gogh and James Ensor. And when a wildfire threatened to destroy the museum weeks later, I was like, "Oh, I know where that place is. I had tacos in the cafeteria."

9. The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon

This is what was played when the lights went down and U2 came onstage for the Joshua Tree 30th Anniversary tour.

10. Lucy Dacus - Direct Address

After my mishap rising out of the Chicago subway, I switched from Spoon to Lucy Dacus, and looked at old paintings. It's a calming album and it was a great experience to listen to it while I wandered around. And you know this painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"? I had no idea that it was made with pointillism. That was a pretty huge surprise. I felt dumb, but excited.

11. Arcade Fire - Creature Comfort

(concert is a month away)
ME: Are you still going to the Arcade Fire concert? It intrigues me.

TJ: I am going, I bought a GA ticket because apparently that's the business what with 360 stage and all. Anywho, you should come, it's going to be real good.

ME: Wellll let me ask my lovely wife if she can cover the kids. I would bring Paul - he likes listening to the Everything Now title track - but he hates loud places.

TJ: Just put some ear plugs on him. He won't know the difference. 

ME: Oh, also, I don't want to pay $100 to bring a 3-year-old to a concert where he'll be trampled

TJ: Get him some stilts. Listen you're posing a lot of easily solved problems here

(concert is 5 days away)

ME: Hey I'm not going to go, but I will be with you in spirit

TJ: I'll throw an extra battery at Win Butler in your honor

(concert is 1 day away)
ME: Well well well looks like the kids are at grandma's tomorrow night. If I get a floor GA ticket 
can I sit on your shoulders while I expose my breasts to the band? 

(five minutes pass)

ME: Oh yeah I am on call this weekend. Good job, me, you cancelled plans to see this show twice now!

TJ: Come on!

(two hours pass)

ME: No joke, Paul got a fever 10 minutes after I sent those texts. My life is a real mess!

TJ: You are actually cursed to not go to this show

12. Ryan Adams - Outbound Train

Look, I'm as surpised as you that I have a Ryan Adams song on here.

13. Cloud Nothings - Modern Act

This is a good band and this is a good song.

14. The xx - I Dare You

Yeah, another good song right here.

15. Mount Eerie - Soria Moria

Did I say Lorde's album was the best of the year? Mount Eerie's "A Crow Looked At Me" makes Lorde's wonderful album look like a pile of puke. I've written about it before, and I feel the same way about it - it's beautiful and terrifying and it makes me appreciate my life and my family.

If you hear him sing "In the National Gallery in Oslo / There's a painting called Soria Moria" and are curious about the painting referenced in the song, here's the Wikipedia background on "Soria Moria" and here's the artwork:

16. Soundgarden - Rusty Cage

My pal Jeff lost two of his most beloved musicians this year - Petty and Chris Cornell. I cranked "Rusty Cage" several times after Cornell died, and I hope I don't always associate this song with slowly exiting my grocery store parking lot.

17. The Sundays - Here’s Where the Story Ends

18. Bel Biv Devoe - Poison

19. Poe - Trigger Happy Jack

20. For Squirrels - Mighty K.C.

These four songs were among the hundreds from Fluxblog's 1990s survey mixes, which I listened to in preparation for a playlist for my 20-year high school reunion. The Sundays and Bel Biv Devoe were disqualified from the playlist because they were pre- Fall 1993, but Poe and For Squirrels made the cut. No one heard that 4-hour playlist, though, because our venue had weird amps with weird coaxial thingies instead of a regular aux cord. I made a shortened version of the playlist on Spotify.

Smells Like More Podcast Names

JUST LAST NIGHT, in the shower, I was re-thinking my selections for what I’d name a podcast about Pearl Jam. From there, it was just a short hop over to the next topic: my name for a Nirvana podcast. From least to most favorite, my names are:

I Found My Friends

I’ve Become Your Pupil

All Our Pretty Songs

Here We are Now

Territorial Pissings

Unit Shifters

Today, I read in Splitsider that there is at least one Nirvana podcast out there, and its name is not as good as any of mine: Heart Shaped Pod.

But maybe it's a good podcast - I don't know! I haven't listened! I'm too occupied with Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About The Beatles this year!