Posts by Shane Ryan

April 12, 2013
The Masters: 10 Wild Weekend Outcomes That Aren’t Totally Impossible

The great thing about the opening Thursday and Friday of the Masters is the existence of pure possibility. When you look at the leaderboard, you can ignore the unpleasant fact that someone named Marc Leishman is in the hunt with Dustin Johnson — one of golf’s most boring humans and the darkness to Ben Crane’s […]
April 9, 2013
The Pain of Losing Well: Michigan’s Heartbreak

In the hallway outside the Michigan locker room, we the media huddled on the far side of the retractable dividers, a mass of cameras and notebooks and digital recorders. Inside, head coach John Beilein had a few minutes to speak in private with his players after they’d lost the national championship game to Louisville. When […]
April 8, 2013
Luke Hancock’s Next Act

When Kevin Ware went down with a broken leg in Louisville’s Elite Eight win over Duke, most of his teammates reacted with varying degrees of shock. There was, of course, the immediate cringing; it was a gruesome injury, and the grimaces and recoils only made sense. Soon, others were crying. But after turning his head […]
April 8, 2013
The 50 Best Tweets About King Karl Hess, The Notorious R.E.F.

If you live in ACC country and you follow college basketball, chances are you have some strong opinions about a man named Karl Hess. And chances are, those opinions are negative. Hess is a referee (the same way that Napoleon was in the military), one that was always destined for the grandest stages and the […]
April 4, 2013
The Cardinal Rules

An obscure stat, a mysterious inventor, and the Louisville crew that redefined college basketball statistics.
March 29, 2013
The Hardcourt Shuffle: Fall of the House of Hoosier and Other Thoughts

The End of the Great Hoosier Debate Trying to guess the legitimacy of the Indiana Hoosiers has been a season-long brain teaser, and I’ve consistently taken the “overrated” side of the debate. Every time it looked like I might be right, as with the near-loss to Georgetown and the losses to Butler, Wisconsin, and Illinois, […]
March 27, 2013
Looking at the Sweet 16 Teams in 16 Words

Today we’re looking at every Sweet 16 team the only legitimate way: With just 16 words each. 1. Louisville: Russdiculous is so fast he just wrote this, deleted it, and did my taxes … for 2015. 2. Oregon: QUACKETY QUACK QUACKLES QUACKO QUACKS LOUISVILLE QUACK quackin QUACKER. (That’s DuckSpeak for: We are screwed against Louisville.) […]
March 25, 2013
America: Burn Your Stupid Brackets and Scatter the Stupid Ashes

I am sick of the rage. I am sick of the anxiety. I am sick of inferior college basketball teams coming together for triumphant wins, or superior ones falling apart for ungodly losses, when I have clearly filled out my bracket to indicate that it should have been different. This is a mockery, and we […]
March 25, 2013
Sergio Garcia Has Another Dramatic Moment With a Tree

Remember this? That was in 1999, and even though Sergio Garcia finished second to Tiger Woods in that tournament, it seemed to hearken the start of an exciting career. At the time, we thought the “fearless exuberance of youth” would translate into sustained success; a high ranking, major victories, and a place alongside Seve Ballesteros […]
March 22, 2013
March Madness Men of the Day

For our final Man of the Hour, as the early games wind to a close, we turn to a mid-major hero whom I dismissed without cause in my Midwest Region picks, but who is currently putting me to shame with a great performance against Cincinnati. He is:

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