MY FAVORITE COUNTDOWNS

Well, obviously, this would have to begin with the delightfully soothing Casey Kasem: "Now, on with the countdown!"

We took the Franklin basketball team on a road trip to play two games at Scranton University back in December 1998. As a reward for a good showing, we drove them into New York City the day after the tournament wrapped up, which happened to be December 31. Needless to say, it was starting to be a madhouse. High above the city street, I saw a clock marking the time until the year 2000. Since I'm likely not to be around for the new millenium, the clock taking us to 2009 will have to suffice.

Heck, plug your own special date in and start your own Countdown Clock!

Did you realize that the world's population very shortly is going to hit 6,666,666,666? No kidding! Nothing really dramatic happened on 6/6/06, so I'm not holding my breath on the devil taking over or anything like that. Anyway, keep hitting the refresh button and see the net gain of our population in the ten seconds since you last did so. OK, so instead of counting down we're heading the other direction, but you get my drift.

Or, on a smaller scale, how's the good ol' U.S. of A. coming along numbers wise?

Did you know that as of 8:18 pm EST on April 24, 2008, your share of the national debt was $30,747.14? Check here to see how dramatically our outstanding public debt is.

Eek! A much scarier countdown.

And, as you might guess, The Final Countdown.

AS IF I NEEDED SOMETHING TO CHEW UP MY SPARE TIME

Came across this little blurb a few weeks back on Yahoo...Sports Illustrated was going to start a website with access to every single article that has ever appeared in 54 years of the magazine's existance.

Seriously, chew on that for a moment. The greatest sports writing of the past half century, available in just a few short keystrokes. Not everything is up yet, but they're well on their way

For the hardcore IU fan, you can read about the championship of 1987. Or the article about Bob Knight that soured him on Curry Kirkpatrick.

How about the greatest literary April Fool's Joke in history?
Want to scroll back though the moments that earned Muhammad Ali the title of The Greatest? You wouldn't go wrong reading about the Thrilla in Manilla, the Rumble in the Jungle, The Fight, and the one with the Phantom Punch.
Sometimes they were really wrong.

Sometimes they did a pretty good job jumping on the bandwagon.

Secretariat has been mentioned in 469 articles over the years. Compare that to Larry Bird's 274, 136 for Magic Johnson, and Joe Montana with 177. Hey, none of them performed quite like Big Red did at the Belmont in '73.

And the covers are great, too. Back during college, I probably had something close to 300 of them wallpapering my dorm rooms. Really wish I'd held onto them in a folder, or at least had a picture that I could have attached here. Classy look, I tell you...

YOU SEEM A DECENT FELLOW; I HATE TO DIE

I'm terribly excited that I finally found this on the web. Two Octobers back I lamented on this blog that it was a crying shame that the single most entertaining sword fight in movie history was nowhere to be seen on the Internet. But no more!

It bears confessing...my ranking is based largely on the clever banter back and forth between the two. In terms of quality of swordsmanship or drama, perhaps these might be more to your liking. Sword, knife, or lightsaber!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Duel To The Death
The Empire Strikes Back (a close second)
The Mark Of Zorro
The Mask Of Zorro
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
The Phantom Menace
Rebel Without A Cause
Revenge Of The Sith
Rob Roy
Star Wars
Under Siege

EXCITING IS ALWAYS BETTER

In honor of Mario Chalmers and his game-tying three-pointer last night that forced overtime in the national championship, here's a rundown of some of the more memorable buzzer-beating shots over the past three decades in the NCAA Tournament.

Hey, start with the best for us IU fans...Daryl Thomas throwing a solid shot fake, then having the presence of mind to find Keith Smart for the shot to give the Hoosiers a 74-73 lead late. Why again didn't Syracuse call a timeout for four seconds???

The legend started here, with then relative unknown Michael Jordan dropping a shot from the wing to give North Carolina a one point lead. But what's bigger; Jordan's winner or Fred Brown's errant pass to James Worthy?

Let's go old school on ya...defending national champ Louisville gets knocked out of the 1981 tournament on U.S. Reed's midcourt shot as Arkansas moves on.

Same year, one round later...Danny Ainge goes 1-on-5 length of the court to bounce Notre Dame.


Around these parts, us Indiana folks are a little partial to homegrown product Bryce Drew pulling off the miracle. Great pass downcourt, phenomenal airborne touch pass to the sideline, and a beautiful stroke.

I missed overtime of the 1992 Indiana high school state championship game to stand in the Hoosier Dome concourse and watch this finish. Not a big Kentucky fan, but I really loved this group of seniors and it was devestating to see Christian Laettner's shot fall through.

I don't rate this one as high as the others because it was a layup, but there was no denying the drama of Tyus Edney going all the way in less than five seconds. Early round game, but it kept UCLA alive on their way to an eventual national championship.

The terribly anti-climactic championship game notwithstanding, the 1990 NCAA Tournament was easily the most exciting start to finish I've ever seen. This Sweet Sixteen thriller between Connecticut and Clemson, with Stanley Burrell firing a 90 foot bullet downcourt for Tate George's turnaround might be the most improbable of any on this list.

This is probably the most memorable, because of Jim Valvano sprinting around the court and the sheer magnitude of the upset of a phenomenal Houston team with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. A complete broken play with Derek Wittenberg's airball getting dunked in by Lorenzo Charles. I watched a replay of this game last week...what in the hell was Drexler still doing in to get his fourth foul in the first half?

James Forrest hadn't hit a three-pointer all year if I remember correctly. Nice time to hit a twenty foot turnaround with less than a second left on the catch.

With all due respect to Chalmers, was that even the most exciting buzzer beater in this tournament? There was still 2.1 seconds left after he made it, and it merely tied the game. How about Ty Rogers for Western Kentucky knocking Drake out in the first round?

Any I'm missing? I couldn't find a clip of Laettner double-pumping from seventeen to beat Connecticut and go to the Final Four in '90.

I'M JUST SAYIN'

My kid is adorable.

We got lucky. She's way better looking than her daddy was at three months old.