Fast Food Rankings: Roy Rogers

3/9 brought the second day of Big East Tournament games. After getting to the Madison Square Garden area early, this blog set out to find some food. Pun City had sighted a Roy Rogers the day before, and set out to eat there (having never been to any of the chain's locations before).

What's this mean? Fast Food Rankings are Back!

Roy Rogers is a fast food chain based in Frederick, MD. Their first restaurant opened in 1968. This blog really doesn't know too much about them. A brief Google search shows that at least some locations do have drive thrus, so they meet Pun City criteria. One caveat is that Pun City has only been to one Roy Rogers. This particular Roy Rogers is combined with a Nathan's Hot Dogs, and is run by Riese Restaurants. This particular Roy Rogers was terrible.

Pros: Tough one here. One recalls there was plenty of seating available in the upstairs section. Seating is hard to come by in the Madison Square Garden area, so that was a bonus. Being in a location that offers other food options (in this case Nathan's) is good too. Pepsi products on tap was unusual, but a nice change of pace.

Cons: First, there was only one guy working at the Roy Rogers. This is surmountable in and of itself. Pun City ordered the Double Cheeseburger combo. The guy said, "Just move down to the register, they'll get you a drink." Pun City moved down to the register. No employee there. One minute passed by. No sign of another employee. Not even any noise eminating from the back of the restaurant to indicate there might be another employee. Pun City went back to the initial fry cook guy and was about to ask about his co-worker's absence, when the guy noticed this blog and said "No one there? I'll get him....MAX! CUSTOMER!" (muffled sound from back room). Fry cook, now turning to Pun City: "He'll be right there." Another minute or two passed by, no sign of Max. At this point, Pun City was seriously considering reaching around the machine and getting the soda for itself, but there was still the matter of paying for the food. Another minute passed and finally a Nathan's employee came around their counter and walked over to the Roy Rogers counter, getting the drink and taking this blog's payment. The cashier asked Pun City if it got the cheeseburger combo. Pun City said, "the double cheeseburger combo." At this point, the cashier charged this blog for the Double Bacon Cheeseburger. This wasn't noticed until later, but this blog figured it didn't have another half hour to kill to save 50 cents. Pun City believes the overall service falls under the category "horrible service."

Pun City moved upstairs to eat. They were in the middle of some remodeling or something, and there were giant tarps over one upstairs wall. The place has a huge open space without any tables, but there was plenty of seating available. Two police officers were upstairs, no one else was up there. Generally the place looked unkempt, but Pun City didn't really mind that much, and sat next to the tarp since that was the best spot for a backed chair. Nothing really too notable as far as atmosphere.

The double cheeseburger was terrible. The meat was too thick to really be palateable, and it was low quality meat as well. The fries were way too doughy, and too many had been punctured, which resulted in being saturated with grease to the point of inedibility. The bun wasn't even particularly good, although it was probably the best part of the meal. Well, except for the long-awaited Pepsi, of which there were no free refills.

Prices were very high, Pun City thinks it was around $7.00 for the combo. Granted, this was in New York City, so that's not as bad as in other markets, but this blog can only go on what it knows. Lack of free refills also a major strike against Roy Rogers, although other locations might not have this issue. Not particularly convenient to get to, unless you're in downtown New York or on the east coast.

Cripes, even their website stinks. Using the restaurant locator generally will freeze up their site.

Burger-Only Ranking: 2 out of 10 Fryers. This is being pretty generous. It is a lot of meat, so theoretically you get a lot of sustenance. The cheese and bun combo were alright, that might have carried the ranking above the minimum.

Overall Ranking: 1 out of 10 Fryers. Bad. Bad service, bad food, bad atmosphere, bad refill policy, bad cleanliness. Reasonably good location?

Pun City didn't give Roy Rogers a lifetime ban, because the employees seemed more apathetic than intentionally trying to mess with this blog, but Pun City definitely isn't going to be rushing back. Hopefully their other locations are better.

Want to see how Roy Rogers stacks up against the competition? Check out these other fast-food reviews courtesy of Pun City:

Bullets
Burger King
Culver's
Dairy Queen
In-N-Out Burger
Jack In The Box
McDonald's
Rally's
Sonic Drive-In
Wendy's
White Castle

Pun City's gotta get A&W in there too. Once this Big East trip wraps up, Pun City will post that.

Big East Tournament Trip, Day 2 (Part 2)

Getting to Madison Square Garden, Pun City was figuring that one would enter the building somewhere around the iconic cylindrical part of the complex. Alas, this was not the case. Due to renovations, they only wanted fans coming in at the 7th Street entrance. Pun City circled the building twice (admittedly once just for fun, but still on the lookout for how to get in), and came up empty.

As it turned out, the entrance is on a completely different block than the cylindrical "arena" portion of the complex. Eventually this blog was able to track it down.

Entering the facility, this blog soon found out that its seat was in the extreme back row of the Garden. It wasn't a bad view, but it was further back than Pun City had envisioned. The 400 level, while higher, was possibly better seating, since the 400 level is all of the suites. Another point to note, for anyone visiting MSG, is that if you have a ticket out, the ushers will check it. If you keep it in your pocket, and just go where you want, they won't check it.

Overall through the tournament, Pun City was impressed with the ushers in general. They pretty much let you move down wherever you want, as long as you don't have your ticket out, and no one boots you from your seat. The few times Pun City did get booted from a seat, the ushers were polite about it. During a blowout, this blog was able to venture down to the 15th row behind the basket, so that worked out pretty well. Beyond this, just moving about 4 rows down from the back row gets a much better seat, as you are no longer behind the scoreboard.

Concessions are expensive. You could make the case that they're ridiculously expensive, but one thing to keep in mind is that all food in New York City is pretty high-priced. The cheapest item on the menu at MSG is a hot dog, for $5.75. Sodas begin at $6.00. Pun City's neighbors were ordering $8.75 beers pretty consistently. By comparison, outside the stadium, there's a White Castle 2 blocks away that this blog got 6 cheeseburgers, a large soda, and a sack of fries for $10.26. (This is usually in the $6-$8 range in the Chicago area).

Another unusual aspect of Madison Square Garden is its distinctive smell. It smells like a gigantic spilled beer. If it just smelled like a beer, that'd be alright. But it's a spilled beer, so there's some percentage of floor grime mixed in with the beer, which is generally unsatisfying. That said, you definitely know where you are when that smell hits you, and since you're watching good basketball (unless you watched the Knicks in the 7 years preceding this one), you may actually appreciate the smell, since you can associate it with other good things.

The games of the opening day of games, Connecticut beat DePaul, Rutgers beat Seton Hall in OT, South Florida beat Villanova on a last-minute collapse by the Wildcats, and Marquette beat Providence handily.

Notable happenings:

-Preceding the Rutgers-Seton Hall game, Pun City saw SHU cheerleaders handing out Seton Hall towels, and this blog happened to be wearing its Seton Hall hat, so it went over and grabbed one of those.

During the Rutgers-Seton Hall game, Pun City had moved down to the 200 level, around halfcourt. In the two sections in front of this blog, there were small groups of particularly boisterous supporters. One group of Rutgers fans was sitting to this blog's front left. A pair of Seton Hall fans was sitting to this blog's front right. One of the Rutgers fans was completely hammered, basically had his eyes at least partially closed the whole time, but still managed to be upright and recognize what was happening in the game (we'll call this guy "Totally Hammered Guy"). He had a particularly intense friend that seemed to be spoiling for a fight with SHU fans (we'll call this guy "Belligerent RU guy"). The Seton Hall guys also had a guy spoiling for a fight ("Belligerent SHU guy"), in addition to a preppy looking guy in a sportcoat that might not have been spoiling for the fight, but would have participated ("Preppy SHU guy"). The two groups shouted at each other through the game, mainly about how each school was better. Belligerent SHU guy was continually saying that SHU graduates make more money coming out of school, and I think Belligerent RU guy kept saying that SHU was a ripoff or something.

Anyway, eventually Belligerent SHU guy orders a beer for the totally hammered RU guy, and instructs the servicewoman to say something to the effect of "Have another one, I can afford to buy you this because SHU grads make more money than RU grads." Pun City gathered that this was the very edited result after the servicewoman refused to relay a few messages that Belligerent SHU guy had initially proposed. Much posturing ensued. The RU guys threw away the receipt, theoretically making it impossible to claim said beer, but once the beer purveyor arrived, the servicewoman recovered the receipt, and Totally Hammered Guy took the beer.

While all of this was going on, SHU squandered a lead they had no business giving up (8 point lead with 7:44 remaining), and RU pulled ahead by 3 late. Fortunately for the SHU guys, Jeremy Hazell hit a game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game to overtime. This ratcheted up the trash talking between the two groups, at which point Belligerent RU guy approached the SHU guys, threw a beer at them (somehow not connecting with either of them), and challenged the pair to a fight. After the beer toss, Preppy SHU guy had kind of grabbed at Belligerent RU guy and ended up ripping a 6-inch hole in Belligerent RU guy's shirt's armpit area. At this point, Belligerent RU guy officially challenged the SHU pair to a fight in the concourse once the game was over (one would assume that Totally Hammered Guy would have been involved as Belligerent RU guy's ally in this theoretical fight). The SHU guys both happily agreed to this.

This was probably the only time the entire tournament that Pun City didn't see any ushers anywhere near its seats. After a long while, some eventually came over, but they hadn't come over because of the fight, and had to be notified of what had happened before they took any action. Their action was not particularly swift, only standing in the tunnel near the two groups. Belligerent RU guy made another couple threatening motions toward the SHU group (holding up his fist a couple times, then punching his other hand). The ushers didn't do anything at this point, either because they didn't see it or because they didn't think it was anything worth acting on.

Alas, there was not an epic throwdown in the concourse following RU's win. The two SHU guys had sort of ducked out early when they saw SHU was going to lose in OT, and because they had self-servingly "reported" the RU guy as threatening them, the ushers let them go. The ushers did converge on the RU guys after the game, but they might have just done so to separate them from the SHU guys, or it's possible they held them afterward to discipline them further. Pun City wasn't going to stick around to find out, so this blog apologizes for the anticlimatic ending there.

NCAA Picks and Logic, Day 3

4 Kentucky vs. 5 West Virginia

Pick: Kentucky

Logic: Well, Pun City thought it'd be Clemson in this matchup, and Kentucky was way better than Clemson this year. That said, even with West Virginia in here, this blog would have chosen Kentucky. UK is super young, but they finished pretty high in the SEC, while West Virginia finished in the middle of the pack in the (admittedly strong) Big East. To an extent, Pun City thought that UK was just young and dumb enough not to know to lose this.

Result: Kentucky, in a close game.

Hindsight: Other than projecting the matchup wrong, this was a solid pick. Even with as young as Kentucky is, they have a lot of talent, and John Calipari has been using underclassmen the last few years, so he has increasing experience with this situation, and seems to be getting better at using those pieces correctly.

3 Connecticut vs. 6 Cincinnati

Pick: Cincinnati

Logic: Both of these teams were from the Big East, and neither would be intimidated. Cincinnati only had to play 2 Big East Tournament games, so they wouldn't be as worn out as UConn would be. Also, Cincinnati had a better conclusion to their regular season than UConn. Conversely, UConn had a better Big East Tournament than Cincinnati, but this blog was under the belief that 5 games in 5 days really might just serve to wear them out.

Result: Connecticut

Hindsight: Apparently it wasn't too big of a problem for UConn to come back on short rest. Cincinnati played them pretty tough, so it wasn't an absurd pick, but Connecticut did pull away in the end. This pick was somewhat critical, and losing dropped this blog quite a few pegs in its pool. For future reference, UConn seems like they go just deep enough to where the short turnaround wasn't an issue, and Jim Calhoun probably rested these guys sufficiently in the days leading up to the NCAAs.

2 San Diego State vs. 7 Temple

Pick: San Diego State

Logic: Pun City's initial impression was to take Temple here. After thinking about it though, this blog wasn't thinking that Fran Dunphy would go from zero NCAA wins in the last 10 years to 3 in the same tournament (actually 2 to this point, but SDSU replaced Temple's entire path following this game after a change). Another call to reason was that SDSU had played well all season, and did not have a late-season distraction. This combined with the fact that both Kahwi Leonard and D.J. Gay are tough matchups for any team (even a good Temple team with Juan Fernandez), led Pun City to the pick of SDSU.

Result: San Diego State in 2OT.

Hindsight: Pun City is glad that it thought about this one twice. Of all the games to have a change of heart on, this one definitely merited the review. Fortunately the result was in this blog's favor. Hopefully SDSU can handle Connecticut this week, seeing as UConn was supposed to be Cincinnati.

12 Richmond vs. 13 Morehead State

Pick: Vanderbilt

Logic: Morehead State would get one win, but 13 seeds don't win 2 games in the tournament. Vanderbilt would get past Richmond and then have an easier game waiting for them.

Result: Richmond

Hindsight: Oops. That first round game made Pun City pay. In fairness, only about 1 in 50 people had this pick right, so it's not something to beat one's self up about. Had Pun City guessed that Richmond would face Morehead State, the pick certainly would have been Richmond, since when two double-digit seeds face each other in the NCAAs, the result is just about 100% in favor of the better seed.

3 BYU vs. 11 Gonzaga

Pick: St. John's

Logic: Too lazy to switch this after SJU had the late D.J. Kennedy injury. Initially, Pun City thought SJU would have fewer distractions than BYU, as there hadn't been any late-season dismissals with SJU. As it turned out, they had a later-season "dismissal" proxy with that injury. If Pun City had switched brackets, it would like to believe it would have put BYU in here. In any case, it was still underrating BYU after they lost Brandon Davies. BYU looks very strong, and this blog would be surprised if they didn't handle Florida this week.

Result: BYU, blowout.

Hindsight: This was the Gonzaga team that was supposed to show up on Thursday. BYU was underrated by this blog, and Pun City will have to try and recalibrate its "dismissal impact meter" in the future.

1 Pittsburgh vs. 8 Butler

Pick: Pittsburgh

Logic: Butler is good, but Pittsburgh has a Final Four-caliber team, so they should be able to handle BU. The Panthers have more size, and any coaching differences weren't enough to mitigate that discrepancy.

Result: Butler, in one of the craziest finishes in tournament history.

Hindsight: No one really could be blamed for picking either team after seeing how close this was. The Panthers did look a little nervous in the first half, without that stretch they probably would have been up enough to render late-game issues irrelevant. This was probably the best team in Pitt's recent history, but Butler had a lot of experienced guys playing well at the right time.

4 Wisconsin vs. 5 Kansas State

Pick: Wisconsin

Logic: Well, first off, this was supposed to be UW vs. Utah State. That would have been a much easier win, this blog guesses. Beyond this, KSU had a great end-of-year run, but they didn't quite have the talent to matchup with all of Wisconsin's weapons. That, plus the coaching matchup was a complete mismatch, Bo Ryan is a significantly better coach than Frank Martin.

Result: Wisconsin, in a nail-biter.

Hindsight: During the pregame, Pun City thought that Wisconsin would play them close until the half, then gradually pull away in the second half, for about a 10-point win. This didn't happen, primarily due to a great effort out of Jacob Pullen. If Pullen doesn't hit his first 6 (mostly contested) 3-pointers, this probably would have played out as expected. That said, Pun City knew Pullen would be available, so for future games, maybe think about individual player's "result spikes" like this, although the pick was accurate, so maybe don't think too hard about that. (More than likely UW having Jordan Taylor and Jon Leuer vs. KSU's Pullen would have led to a UW pick anyway).

2 Florida vs. 7 UCLA

Pick: Florida

Logic: UCLA was good, but they weren't as good as Florida. Even though Florida was overseeded as a 2, they were much better than a 7, so while this might play out similarly to a 4-5 or a 3-6, Pun City figured Florida could be counted on for a win.

Result: Florida in a close game.

Hindsight: Yep, kind of had this pegged. Luckily this blog had made a point to watch a couple Florida games on TV later in the year. More UCLA knowledge would have helped, but the Pac-10 wasn't so good that a nuanced opinion was required.

NCAA Picks and Logic, Day 2

Notable Picks, Day 2:


8 George Mason vs. 9 Villanova


Pick: George Mason


Logic: Mason was really tough this year, they had better athletes than a CAA team is supposed to have, and they won a tough CAA pretty handily in the regular season. Also, they were the favorite, as the 8 seed here. Villanova looked thoroughly unimpressive down the stretch, and this blog was convinced this trend was not reversible.


Result: George Mason, in a barnburner.


Hindsight: Again, seeing more CAA would have helped. This would have made the pick more educated, but Pun City probably would still have picked them. Villanova stinking down the stretch left too big of a stench to reasonably consider them, even though they looked tough early in the year. This pick was pretty well played, although Villanova played extremely well.


6 Xavier vs. 11 Marquette


Pick: Xavier


Logic: Xavier looked pretty unstoppable in the A-10. They have a good system and also went deep into the tournament last year. They should have been used to playing high level opponents. Marquette looked alright down the stretch, needing to play their way into the tournament for the last month (and doing so). But they had major weaknesses and a knack for losing close games. Additionally, this blog figured lots of people would pick them in its pool, and this would be a chance to get a leg up.


Result: Marquette going away.


Hindsight: Marquette probably could have been supported by similar "consecutive important game" logic that Morehead State got. Also, Pun City forgot these two teams played last year (early), and Marquette won, against what was a better Xavier team. Granted, Marquette was better last year too, but in general the change in the two teams was comparable. Also, they both knew about each other, and theoretically MU knew more about XU since they had won the first meeting. The lesson is that a team playing well that had beaten the exact team with similar personnel recently should get picked.


7 Washington vs. 10 Georgia

Pick: Washington

Logic: It didn't take much more than Pun City thinks Mark Fox of Georgia is a horrible coach. He's a good recruiter, but within games he seriously struggles. That and he hasn't exactly risen to the occasion in the tournament lately. Beyond this, Pun City had seen Washington play a few games, and they were decent. For whatever reason, this blog had a lot of faith in the Pac-10 this year, despite not really seeing many games out west.

Result: Washington, in a very close game.

Hindsight: Georgia's talent kept them in this game, but Washington ultimately had better coaching. Pegged pretty well, although some definite anti-Fox bias thought that Washington would win more handily than actually occurred. For future reference, if it's not going to be a close game, don't pick against Georgia.

8 Michigan vs. 9 Tennessee

Pick: Michigan

Logic: Tennessee had a lot of stinkers this year. Both teams have tough systems to prepare for on short notice; Michigan with their 1-3-1 zone and Tennessee with their uptempo offense and trapping defense. That said, John Beilein had made a great Elite 8 run with West Virginia, and while Bruce Pearl had gotten to the Sweet 16 with Milwaukee, this blog wasn't convinced that was any better. Basically the coaching matchup was a wash. What convinced Pun City to pick Michigan was that they had played very well down the stretch, and Tennessee was not impressive. The huge distractions Tennessee was dealing with (Bruce Pearl's probable upcoming firing) didn't help their cause either.

Result: Michigan in the biggest 8-9 blowout in history.

Hindsight: Tennessee's distractions were gigantic and ultimately got them crushed. Michigan was winning for most of the game, but not in blowout fashion until the second half. Huge distractions (player suspension, coach under investigation, player injuries) very overwhelmingly favor the opponent. Off the top of its mind, Pun City can think of Minnesota being under investigation, then losing to Gonzaga in the first round (roughly 2002?), this year's Tennessee team, St. John's losing DJ Kennedy this year, and a late injury affecting Purdue last season. Only Purdue was able to get out of the game with a win (and they somehow won two games, including one over a game Texas A&M team). If there's late negative news about a team, look for them to lose. (Another exception, though arguably not a fair comparison, is Purdue's suspension of Kelsey Barlow, but they had a 3 seed and were unlikely to lose, plus Barlow was replaceable, this blog would argue, as he was only playing 20 minutes a game - at any rate, Purdue won this year too). Maybe the rule should exclude Purdue, but only Purdue.

5 Arizona vs. 12 Memphis

Pick: Arizona

Logic: Sean Miller is a very good coach in general. Arizona won a tough Pac-10, and had Marcus Williams, a probable lottery pick this year. Memphis is coached by Josh Pastner, who U of A passed up in the process of choosing Miller. This blog doesn't really know how good of a game coach Pastner is, but it is wont to believe that he must be at or below average, seeing as he is known for his recruiting. Conference USA wasn't too great this season, and Memphis didn't strike this blog as being particularly disciplined when this blog was able to watch them. Based on seeding, Memphis needed to win their conference tournament just to get in to the tournament, so that was another strike against them.

Result: Arizona in a barnburner.

Hindsight: Not sure what, if anything, can be learned from this. It might have helped to see some of the Conference USA tournament games. Memphis going in to UTEP to get that title probably should have struck this blog as more impressive than it did. Arizona maybe didn't play as well as their ceiling would dictate this year, but this blog doesn't feel like it saw enough of their games to make that judgment. Pun City had Memphis underrated and Arizona either properly rated or slightly overrated, but as it turned out, not enough to pay for it.

7 Texas A&M vs. 10 Florida State

Pick: Florida State

Logic: Pun City had seen Texas A&M about 5 times this year on TV, and they really did not impress very much. Outside of their Duke game, this blog hadn't seen Florida State too much. It was known that Florida State had a pretty high ceiling, so they were capable of good things if they showed up, but obviously to be a 10 seed, they had to have struggled some this year as well. The pick was definitely dictated by Texas A&M not having too high of a ceiling, as well as it seeming like a rebuilding year for them in this blog's opinion.

Result: Florida State in a close game.

Hindsight: This was fairly on point. One fact this blog didn't know until after the game was that FSU had not won in the tournament since 1998. It's unclear if prior knowledge of this would have changed Pun City's pick, as an argument could be made that they were overdue, or that they were doomed to lose. FSU certainly had better athletes than Texas A&M did, but Mark Turgeon coached them to within a few points of this game.

8 UNLV vs. 9 Illinois

Pick: UNLV

Logic: UNLV was one of Wisconsin's few losses this season, and they had two top-10 teams in the Mountain West this season. Illinois was extremely inconsistent, Pun City believes not winning two games in a row over the last month and a half of the season. Even if Illinois's "good" team showed up, this blog didn't figure it was in danger of beating UNLV. The Rebels were likely to get a solid win.

Result: Illinois in a blowout

Hindsight: Whew, where to start here. First- UNLV hadn't won the Mountain West tournament on their home floor, so that should have been a red flag. (Primarily since they hadn't even finished 2nd). Second - UNLV was probably due for a loss in the first round, since they'd done better than expected during the last few tournaments. Third - While BYU and San Diego State were very good in their conference this year, UNLV hadn't actually beaten either of them, so that was some dumb logic in the first place. Illinois showed up with their good team, but Pun City is convinced that it hadn't thought through the UNLV evaluation well enough to deserve a win, even if Illinois's bad team showed up. This was a mistake in judgment, due to not reasoning out the UNLV evaluation thoroughly or accurately.

6 Georgetown vs. 11 Virginia Commonwealth

Pick: Georgetown

Logic: Two-pronged approach to the logic here. First, Georgetown just lost to Ohio University in a 3-14 upset last year, so they had to have learned from that, and it wouldn't happen again. Second, VCU had the short turnaround from Wednesday to Friday, needing to fly from Dayton to Chicago in between.

Result: Virginia Commonwealth, resoundingly.

Hindsight: The "it couldn't possibly happen two years in a row" argument fared very poorly this year. VCU benefited the way that Pun City had hoped that Clemson would benefit given the recent game, as opposed to Georgetown's one Big East game. John Thompson III, outside of his Final Four appearance, does not appear to be a good tournament coach. VCU came out of that tough CAA and had played meaningful games for a long period. An additional bonus, one to keep in mind, was that VCU was an 11 seed facing a 6 with the short turnaround, while Clemson was a 12 facing a 5. Low seed differential and keeping in game atmospheres (while GU did not) led to this win for VCU. Also there was probably a decent amount of the AAU "not intimidated" factor here, as VCU's guys were probably from the same areas that GU's guys came from.

Day 2, Big East Tournament Trip

The first day of games, bringing the 9 through 16 seeds in to Madison Square Garden. This was the first time that Pun City had been on the New York subway system, and early on, it seemed very similar to Chicago. Some performers in the waiting area, but nothing of note on the train.

Another first was Pun City being in New York City. Overall it's extremely loud in the city. While Pun City had heard about this on World Of Jenks, this blog was still very surprised at just how loud it was everywhere Pun City went. This was very striking to this blog.

One thing this blog can get out of the way ahead of time is the set list for each Big East band, at least that Pun City could decipher:

Cincinnati: Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi, Low Rider, All The Small Things by Blink 182, Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes, Five Minutes To Save The World by Madonna and Justin Timberlake, Cold Hard Bitch by Jet, Johnny B Good by Chuck Berry, Y'all Ready For This, Hey Baby (the would you be my girl version, not the Gwen Stefani version), Call Me Al by Paul Simon, Dynamite by Taio Cruz, and Rock and Roll Part II by Gary Glitter.

Connecticut: Holiday by Green Day, Johnny B Good by Chuck Berry, Poker Face by Lady Gaga, Knock On Wood by Joe Cocker, Proud Mary by Tina Turner, Theme from Rocky, Hey Baby (the would you be my girl version, not the Gwen Stefani version), Land of 1,000 Dances, Rock and Roll Part II by Gary Glitter, The Impression That I Get by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Y'all Ready For This, Take On Me by A-Ha, Woolly Bully, and Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes.

DePaul: Free To Be Real (that one from the diet commercials), Forget You by Cee-Lo, Sportscenter theme, Very Superstitious by Stevie Wonder, Free Ride, Thriller by Michael Jackson, and Dance and Shout by Shaggy.

Georgetown: Y'all Ready For This, Just Dance by Lady Gaga, Girlfriend by Lil Romeo, On To The Next by Jay-Z, and Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night by the Black Eyed Peas.

Louisville: Hold On I'm Comin', What Is Love by Haddaway, Theme from Blues Brothers, Jump Jive and Wail by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Still Fly by the Big Tymers, So Hard by Rihanna, Stayin' Alive, Shattered Dreams by Offspring, When I Ruled The World by Coldplay, and Rock and Roll Part II by Gary Glitter.

Marquette: We've Got The Funk, Holiday by Green Day, Jump Jive and Wail by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Land of 1,000 Dances, Proud Mary by Tina Turner, The Impression That I Get by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, the Theme from Blues Brothers, Rock and Roll Part II by Gary Glitter, Y'all Ready For This, What I Like About You, School's Out For Summer, Tequila, Call Me Al by Paul Simon, and Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes.

Notre Dame: Oh What A Night, Soak Up The Sun by Sheryl Crow, Jenny I've Got Your Number, Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog, Crazy Train by Ozzy Osborne, Eye Of The Tiger, I'm A Believer by Smashmouth, and Take On Me by A-Ha.

Pittsburgh: Back In Black by AC/DC, Eye Of The Tiger, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, and Dynamite by Taio Cruz.

Providence: O When The Saints, Carry On My Wayward Son, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, Angel Is The Centerfold by J. Geils Band, and Crazy Train by Ozzy Osborne.

Rutgers: Zoot Suit Riot by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Thriller by Michael Jackson, All The Small Things by Blink 182, Beat It by Michael Jackson, Poker Face by Lady Gaga, Crazy Train by Ozzy Osborne, that "Down on the Corner" song from Forrest Gump, among other places, Y'all Ready For This, What I Like About You, Some Day Love Will Find You, The Impression That I Get by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

St. John's: That Foo Fighters song that goes "What If I Say I'm Not Like The Others...", Crazy Train by Ozzy Osborne, Thriller by Michael Jackson, Call Me Al by Paul Simon, Girlfriend by Lil Romeo, Jump On It, and that song that goes "Thanks for the memories even though they weren't that good...."

Seton Hall: Cleveland Rocks, Knock On Wood by Joe Cocker, Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, Touch Me Baby by Tom Jones, Love Potion Number 9, O When The Saints.

South Florida: Jenny I've Got Your Number, Call Me Al by Paul Simon, Rollercoaster by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jump Jive and Wail by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Angel Is The Centerfold by J. Geils Band, You Really Got Me, You Can Feel It All Over by Stevie Wonder, Thriller by Michael Jackson, and the Theme from Rocky.

Syracuse: CBS College Basketball Theme, We've Got The Funk, Sell Out by Reel Big Fish, So Glad You Made It, Sportscenter Theme, Call Me Al by Paul Simon, Y'all Ready For This, and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga.

Villanova: Theme from Blues Brothers, Just Dance by Lady Gaga, Hey Baby (I want to know...), and All The Small Things by Blink 182.

West Virginia: Dirty Deeds by AC/DC, Someday Love Will Find You, Come Out and Play by Offspring, Hold On I'm Coming, House Of The Rising Sun by Bob Dylan.

That's a big list there. Pun City supposes that's enough for one post. Day 2, Part 2, coming up next.

NCAA Pick Logic, Day 1

Notable Picks and Lessons for Pun City's Future Picks:

5 West Virginia vs. 12 Clemson:

Pick: Clemson

Logic: No one really knew what advantage or disadvantage the 12s would have coming off of a Dayton opening round game on Tuesday. This blog's opinion was that it would help Clemson, having played recently, as opposed to West Virginia, who had been eliminated in their first Big East Tournament game. Pun City knew ahead of time that West Virginia is a tough team, but figured that Clemson would be in more of a "game mode" than the Mountaineers, who had played one game in 2 weeks.

Result: West Virginia

Hindsight: Early returns are that the Tuesday opening round game seems to be a disadvantage even for the 12s. Also, it seems like Bob Huggins doesn't have any issues getting his team ready to play first round games. The lesson would be to keep an eye on the other Dayton at-large team (VCU) to see if any team can compete given the short turnaround. Another lesson is that Pun City should probably overlook any anti-West Virginia bias it harbors (at least while picking), and that bias is sizeable.

4 Kentucky vs. 13 Princeton

Pick: Kentucky

Logic: While Princeton came out of a very tough Ivy League, it was unlikely that they'd have the firepower to keep up with Kentucky, who generally smokes their first round opponent, even though Pun City doesn't really think Kentucky is too great this year with the number of freshmen they use.

Result: Kentucky on a last-second shot.

Hindsight: Princeton was underrated, for sure. Without any "name" players, they still were pretty cohesive. While a Princeton pick would have been wrong, it probably would have felt reasonable. Pun City is fairly convinced it had Kentucky rated about right though. We'll have to see in further rounds, but this blog feels like it had this reasonably well-picked, despite not having seen Princeton this year.

6 Cincinnati vs. 11 Missouri

Pick: Cincinnati

Logic: Having seen Missouri only a couple times, and not having been too impressed with them (not to mention they barely made the tournament), Pun City was not ready to jump on their bandwagon. Cincinnati had looked strong in the late season (and Pun City had personally witnessed this with a road win at Marquette as well as a Big East Tournament win), and this blog was fairly confident in their abilities. Missouri's style, while difficult to prepare for, at least had 4 days to get prepared for, instead of 2 in the next round. Added in with Mick Cronin coaching UC, and his experience coaching a good Murray State team through OVC battles, this blog was fairly confident in the pick.

Result: Cincinnati, pulling away late.

Hindsight: This was pegged just about perfectly. We'll see how Cincinnati does in future rounds, but as of now it seems like Pun City had them rated well, and this blog definitely thinks it had Missouri figured out accurately.

7 Temple vs. 10 Penn State

Pick: Temple

Logic: 7-10s are critical in Pun City's pool, as all games are 1 point throughout the tournament. Going 0 for 4 on 7-10s will kill your chances. Fortunately for Pun City, this blog had seen multiple games of each of these schools. Temple looked very strong in the Atlantic 10, only losing consistently to Xavier. Fran Dunphy was very overdue for a win in the tournament, and this was most likely his highest seeded team. Penn State had to make a late run to get in to the tournament, but they were solid. This blog thought that Penn State never really seemed as dominant as Temple had, plus a slight coaching edge was held by Dunphy over Penn State's Ed DeChellis.

Result: Temple on a last-second shot.

Hindsight: Whew. Penn State really had a great shot at this one. Although they generally played from behind most of the game, and only tied it late, Penn State definitely could have pulled this out. To some extent, Pun City was lucky with this one, since it ended up being pretty close. That said, Temple's worst-case scenario was going to overtime if they missed the last shot. This blog would like to think that the "overdue Dunphy" factor is what ultimately won this game for Temple, and that was a huge factor in Pun City's pick, so this blog probably had that about right. The lesson is to keep watching the A-10, and Big Ten teams even if they look like marginal qualifiers.

7 UCLA vs. 10 Michigan State

Pick: UCLA

Logic: Michigan State had looked pretty bad for most of the year. They had been buoyed by a brutal schedule, which kept their RPI up, and a really weak bubble, which essentially locked anyone in that had an RPI above 30. UCLA competed strongly in the Pac-10 all year, and although Pun City didn't really get to see much Pac-10 this year, this blog did know it was a pretty tough conference, so this blog didn't fear calling their number in this game.

Result: UCLA, after just about giving away the game late.

Hindsight: Man, this felt pretty lucky in hindsight. Michigan State was down huge early, but had a +23 run in the second half to cut it to 3 right at the end of the game. Pun City only realized after the game was on TV that UCLA had a fat center, which is generally a big red flag for this blog. That said, this would have been another brutal loss to take, especially if both Princeton and MSU had been chosen.

5 Vanderbilt vs. 12 Richmond

Pick: Vanderbilt

Logic: Vanderbilt had just lost last year to Murray State in the first round. One would think that they'd have learned from that and wouldn't let it happen again. Pun City had seen Richmond about 3-4 times this year on TV, and never did they appear very good. They weren't especially great in the Atlantic 10, falling to 4th for most of the year, before winning the conference tournament to get in to the field. This blog assumed that they were out of wins, and Vanderbilt would be prepared and more talented.

Result: Richmond

Hindsight: Both had pretty equal talent. It's possible that Vanderbilt had not seen the Princeton offense earlier in the year. This actually overlaps well with Kentucky struggling against Princeton. The lesson is that southern teams don't run the Princeton offense much, so they probably will be unprepared to face it come tournament time. Kevin Stallings is such a good coach, this blog is perplexed that he hasn't gotten them to figure it out yet. Maybe Chris Mooney is just that much better of a coach.

8 Butler vs. 9 Old Dominion

Pick: Butler

Logic: Butler was probably one of the top 10 best-known teams for this blog going in. Old Dominion wasn't especially well known, having only seen them win an early season tournament in the Virgin Islands (on TV). Pun City also knew Old Dominion won the CAA tournament, but they hadn't won the regular season, so this blog wasn't overly impressed with them. Butler on the other hand, Pun City had pegged. They struggled early, then collapsed in the middle of the Horizon League conference season, then made a late run. Pun City knew that the Horizon League tournament win in Milwaukee would have been huge, that's a tough place to play with the fired up crowd, which it would have been for the final. That win signalled to Pun City that Butler was firing on all cylinders, so they'd be a tough out in the NCAAs.

Result: Butler, on a last-second shot.

Hindsight: This was classic "high knowledge vs. low knowledge". This blog had high knowledge of Butler and thought they were good, so Pun City picked them. ODU definitely had way better athletes, but that probably happens with about 2/3rds of Butler's opponents. The last-second shot is a little deceptive, since BU goes to OT at worst in that scenario. But, ODU led for a good portion of this game, so they were no slouch. If there's any way to watch more CAA hoops during the year, do it.

4 Louisville vs. 13 Morehead State

Pick: Morehead State

Logic: Morehead State had Kenneth Faried, one of the top 5 or 6 players in the NCAA, and a hugely underrated player. This blog knew he would create huge issues for Louisville, a somewhat undersized team that certainly wouldn't have anyone to contain him. Also, the Ohio Valley Conference had been murder all year, so it wasn't like Morehead State hadn't seen a string of tough games before (Austin Peay and Murray State both provided ample competition for them this year). Even though Morehead hadn't won the conference regular season, they were able to get out of the OVC tournament with a bid. Louisville, while good, was in somewhat of a rebuilding year, that just happened to turn in to a great season. That said, they were young, and relied on two backcourt players to get the bulk of their offense going. They also were down huge to Marquette at home before making an epic comeback to win late, but this if anything turned Pun City off to them, because why are you down that far to Marquette in the first place? Probably the hugest reason this blog picked MSU though, was that both of these schools were from the same state. Any time you see a mid-major playing a high-major from the same state on a neutral court, you know the small school won't be intimidated. This is really their chance, so they'll be salivating. Furthermore, because they're from the same region, all of these guys have been playing their opponents in AAU through middle school and high school. Completely not intimidated.

Result: Morehead State on a last-second shot.

Hindsight: This pick was right, but the logic was bad. Louisville's Preston Knowles was injured in the second half, and missed most of it. Without that, Pun City doubts Morehead State wins. Additionally, this is not at all a misleading last-second shot, because if MSU misses that shot, they lose the game. This blog also came to find out that MSU's head coach Donnie Tyndall went to share notes with Louisville's Rick Pitino in the offseason, so the two programs had pretty good knowledge of each other. Pun City never knows what to make of that situation, it seems like the teacher and the student each win about half of the time. MSU definitely was not intimidated though, they salivated and won this one, so this blog was happy with the result.

5 Kansas State vs. 12 Utah State

Pick: Utah State

Logic: Kansas State started off the season very poorly. They also had dismissed a couple players in mid-year, at which point the team played very well. Utah State had a mystique about it. Stew Morrill won't go to early-season tournaments, or play anyone that doesn't give him a home-and-home, so their strength of schedule is always garbage. The underground opinion was that if Utah State had gotten the chance to play any of these major schools at home (or neutral court), USU would have won. Pun City hadn't actually seen USU play at all. While it did think that KSU was playing very well late, this blog wasn't overly impressed with Frank Martin's coaching, plus it's not often that player dismissals bode well for future results.

Result: Kansas State, near blowout.

Hindsight: Middle-Knowledge vs. Low-Knowledge, and Pun City picked the Low-Knowledge, despite thinking that KSU was playing well. This probably would have been tough either way. USU's going to win one of these eventually, especially with the number of seniors they always seem to have. Ideally in the future this blog would want to at least see a team once if picking them over a team that this blog has been impressed with. Really not a great pick, this blog feels lazy looking back at it.

6 St. John's vs. 11 Gonzaga

Pick: St. John's

Logic: St. John's has a great coaching staff, and two great players, so this blog figured they'd be in good shape playing Gonzaga, who hadn't impressed most of the year, although they played strongly late in the WCC and in the conference tournament. This blog hadn't seen as much Gonzaga as usual though. The Red Storm's DJ Kennedy had gotten injured in the Big East Tournament, but his prognosis wasn't illuminated to this blog until Tuesday night before the NCAA tournament. At this point, Pun City was too lazy to change 6 brackets to take St. John's out. Another factor was that Purdue had lost Hummel late last year, and they still played strongly in the NCAAs, so this blog was wary of switching out in case SJU would use that as inspiration. Also, SJU had a bunch of seniors that hadn't played in the tournament before, so this blog thought they'd be fired up.

Result: Gonzaga in a blowout.

Hindsight: Do what you can to make the switch. SJU's experience was primarily losing experience for the first 3 years. All the coaching in the world couldn't help them in this tournament, and the injury occurred too late for the team to adjust to their new roles. Gonzaga looked extremely strong, and apparently they had been that good late in the regular season and in the WCC tourney. Another tipoff should have been that SJU didn't do particularly great in the Big East Tournament, essentially home games for them, where they barely beat Rutgers.

That's all this blog's got for now. But Future Pun City: Keep these in mind.

2011 Big East Tournament Trip - Day 1

This is somewhat of a shot in the dark. Obviously Pun City didn't publicize this trip too well, no preview or really a whole lot of lead time informing Pun City's friends either. But yes, this blog did go to a tournament this year, and it was the Big East, and it was awesome.


Monday, March 7th, flying from Milwaukee to Baltimore, then a 2.5 hour layover, then in to LaGuardia. At that point, this blog needed to take a bus across town to a hostel that this blog had reserved in advance.


Relatively uneventful day, with the exception of being this blog's first venture to a hostel. Pun City chose the hostel for several reasons. First off, you can't beat the cost. It was roughly $50.00 a night, which in New York is about rock bottom. This blog had reserved a 4-6 guy room (they require the same-gender room assignments), and for the first 4 nights, there were 6 bunks in the room. It's possible one of those remained unoccupied, or at least didn't have anyone there simultaneously to Pun City, but the room was pretty well-occupied.


This blog's roommates were from New Zealand, Japan, Spain, and France. This blog only talked to the New Zealander, which was somewhat surprising since you don't usually end up in the room at the same time while awake, much less while everyone else was awake. The other countries were derived from hearing introductions while trying to sleep.


Another sleep deterrant was that the room light was on when this blog got back for the night. Pun City at first assumed it was locked in that position for certain hours, but this was proven incorrect later in the trip. Each bed had an individual night light, so those really should have been used when moving about the room at night, not the overhead room light. (Eventually I think a few roommates caught the drift).

Upon further review, there was another event this evening. Pun City had asked the hostel security/concierge where the nearest sports bar was. The guy directed me to Amsterdam 106, a bar without signage on the corner of, you guessed it, Amsterdam and 106th. They have about 5 screens, but all 5 of them were tuned in to the Knicks game at the time. Pun City, not knowing any other venue, just went with it, figuring it could get those switched shortly. After walking in and seeing practically every seat filled, this blog asked a waitress if there was anywhere it could sit. She said yes, right on this barstool that already had a jacket on it.

Pun City was a little wary of the arrangement, but hey, she said it was alright. (It turned out that the jacket was the bar owners'). The waitress took this blog's order, and this blog then focused on getting the game switched over. The frazzled, weary bartender set Pun City up with a soda, and this blog asked her if she could switch one of the channels over to a college game. She said, "You'll have to wait for Paul, he knows how to do it. He's a regular, the remote is here, but it switches all the channels unless you do it right, and he's the only one that knows." Well, Paul ended up venturing in, and he obliged with the switch. One important part of the switch was that Pun City knew the DirecTV channel for ESPN, which this blog hadn't known until very recently, so that was a huge boost. Iona vs. Saint Peter's, the Metro Atlantic championship game, was on, and this blog was pleased to be able to watch it.

Paul asked this blog, "Is that THE Iona?" This question, in just about any other city, would seem very unusual, but Pun City remembered where this blog was sitting, and said, "Yeah, it is." Paul said, "How about that! I'm a Gael. I went to their middle school and high school." That was kinda cool. Shortly thereafter, Paul left. This was important, because Pun City thinks that he was the owner, or at least knew the owner enough to have some sway.

This blog's foreign waitress, who had a light grasp of the English language, was discussing something with the bartender soon after Paul left. It turned out that the short-order cook had cooked this blog's burger well done, and not medium as ordered. This blog wasn't too worried about it, but yes, would have preferred a medium, so this blog asked to have it redone. Well, apparently the order had either been entered incorrectly by the waitress, or put in the wrong order by the bartender, or just messed up inexplicably by the cook. Well, the cook seemed pissed when he noticed the issue. So much to the point that he stormed out of the building, seemingly for good. This pissed off the bartender to no end, as she was arguably the next in line to cook. Pun City didn't really mind waiting, since the hostel didn't have any TVs, so this blog figured that it would wait around and see what happened. After about 15 minutes, the cook walked back in and prepared the burger correctly. After some broken English apologies from the waitress, and an apology that doubled as a diatribe against the cook from the bartender, this blog got its food, assuring everyone that it really was no big deal.

The bartender ended up giving this blog the meal for free, and this blog believes that she did so at her own expense, forgoing her one free meal from the restaurant for the night. This blog had said they didn't have to do it, so Pun City gave a tip roughly the same as the cost of the burger and was on its way. After that, some sleep and preparation for a full slate of 4 games the next day.