Liveblog Madness 8

Halftime. KSU may have caught a break when Southern Miss' big guy turned his ankle on Shane Southwell's foot. Probably Shane's best play of the season; to his credit, though, he has only attempted one shot today, and yes it failed to hit the rim but the point is he isn't trying to do too much. Angel Rodriguez seems a little off - both his lobs to JHR have been slightly off. I like our chances in the second half with Samuels back on the court. His second foul was a questionable nudge while KSU was pressing, so I'm hopeful he can stay out of trouble.

Colorado State is now down 8. They missed some gimmes toward the end of the first half, and seem to be cooling off from 3 and getting turned over more in the 2nd half. Murray State should win; still, they remind me of a rec league team with a ton of talent that cross themselves up when trying to do too many fancy things. If anybody should know about guys with more talent foolishly screwing up plays for the sake of style, it's the guy who often played against guys from K-State's black student union Saturday mornings at the rec.

Davidson/Louisville just started. I suppose I will write off the Rams and pay attention to Louisville's terrible new unis instead.

Liveblog Madness 7

Back-to-back illegal screens by Thomas Gibson allow Southern Miss to get back within a point. He and Jamar Samuels each have 2 fouls. Still 5 minutes left this half.

Lost somewhere in the discussion of alcoholism's effects is Larry Eustachy's face.

Liveblog Madness 6

KSU had an early lead with good defense, but have lost it due to bad passes, mostly on tries to force it inside to take advantage of their size.

Really poor shooting so far on both ends. Focus after the under 12 timeout seems to be finding shots for McGruder - he's hit a 3 and been found in the post twice.

I am really hungry on these steroids, folks.

Liveblog Madness 5

A rare look inside the KSU locker room before their tipoff against Southern Miss, where we see the unflattering gut of Coach Martin that is usually well hidden by his suit coat.

First possession predictably results in a foul. McGruder hits both, and then the color man calls him McGruber in what is hopefully the first of many such mistakes today.

Liveblog Madness 4

Four already? Seems like a good time to say that I took 30 mg of prednisone this morning.

Bill Raftery just made an observation about Colorado State's use of the pump fake, and I didn't yell at him and call him a racist, so I guess that's just a Bob Knight thing.

CO State's got a white forward that's already got 7 rebounds. He'll need to keep this up if they are going to win - I don't think the team will continue to shoot such a high percentage. They are 45% from the field and still only up 5.

Liveblog Madness 3

First commercial break. Colorado State looking good so far - up a few points. CBS has elected to put the giant scoreboard on top of the screen showing the scores of games that have not yet occurred - very cool.

Domino's commercial just ran about parmesan bread bites. "We have test kitchens at corporate headquarters, but some store owner in Ohio was the one who came up with this!" A true genius. Easy to see how cheese sticks cut into smaller pieces was beyond even the genius chefs in Domino's main kitchen.

Colorado State hits a 3 to go up 10-3.

Liveblog Madness 2

Murray State vs Colorado State about to tip off! CBS has a little montage they show as they're heading into game coverage that shows 3 plays from tournament past: Laettner's turnaround to win against Kentucky, Chalmers' three to force overtime against Memphis, and the 3/4 court heave by Butler's Heyward to... fail to win the national championship against Duke? One shining moment, indeed.