Intro

Four posts deep and I never introduced myself, so here goes:
My name's Dan. I graduated college in May '08 and now I work as a writer in the entertainment industry. As the masthead says, I'm 5'9", white, Jewish and I love sports--watching, playing, punditing.

I've been a college basketball fan since 1995, when UVa made the Elite 8 and UCLA beat Arkansas to win the title. As for my personal loyalties, I live and die by the University of Illinois Fighting Illini and the University of Virginia Cavaliers. I cried tears of joy when the Illini beat Arizona to make the Final Four in 2005, and I cried tears of sorrow a week later when we lost to North Carolina in the title game. Why these two seemingly random teams? I defer to Don Corleon's comments about the importance of family--these are the schools of my parents and the schools I grew up rooting for.

There will be a lot of basketball talk but this blog will cover all aspects of college athletics--player, games, coaches, administrators and theory. There may even be an occasional pro sports post. I promise nothing. I will occasionally refer to articles from ESPN, SI, whatever, but the stuff you read here will be significantly different in content, tone and style from what you get on the sports sites.

Topics of future posts:
- The System: Why I win my tournament pools and you don't
- Recap of the 2009 tournament and season
- Why the selection committee is getting smarter by the year
- Jayne Appel: The sexiest athlete alive
- The Colin Powell All-Stars: 1st place players on last place teams
- Grading the 1st year coaches and the new hires

Feel free to comment with suggestions. And remember, I love each and every one of you, except those that don't agree with everything I say.