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Welcome to The Bloch,
You’ve probably heard that the Suez canal is blocked. It has been since last Tuesday. If you haven’t heard or have only seen a headline, I’ve included a link in the text with motion graphic representation of the ship’s path and where it got stuck. As of Sunday, they are still unable to dislodge the ship. It is basically a skyscraper lodged sideways in a river. Basic physics says an object at rest stays and rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an unbalanced force. The ship was moving, then it got hit by a massive gust of wind and got lodged in the canal. Now they have to muster up greater force than the wind to get it unstuck. That could take a while. Meanwhile global shipping is totally messed up, and this could affect the cost of anything and everything we buy. (UPDATE: Sunday night they started getting the ship dislodged…)
Now, the main topic of my letter today: basketball. I discussed the low ratings of the March Madness tournament on a previous letter. To follow up on that, according to Deadline, “The CBS coverage of the annual tournament to determine the college basketball championship saw the network clock in with an 0.8 rating and an average of 3.26 million viewers, easily outdistancing the field. While that led Friday, it was down significantly from two years ago in both numbers.” This is potentially consequential for the NCAA and CBS, as a 0.8 rating is in cancellation territory on the big networks.
The reason I believe this is important is because it seems like college basketball is dying a slow death. Duke and UNC didn’t make the tournament this year, and the best players are smart enough to know they should skip college if they can go straight to the league. I used to love watching college ball, but now the NBA is far more exciting in my opinion. More on that in a minute. First, for anyone who is interested, here are the biggest bracket busting games of the tournament so far.
15 seed Oral Roberts University beat the 2 seed Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the tournament, defeating them 75-72 in overtime.
Underdog 12 seed Oregon State beat 5 seed University of Tennessee 70-56 in their opening game in the NCAA Tournament.
13 seed University of North Texas Mean Green beat the Purdue Boilermakers 78-69 in overtime to secure their first NCAA Tournament win in school history.
11 seed Syracuse defeated 6 seed San Diego State University in the first round of the tournament, securing a 78-62 victory.
4 seed, Virginia was upset by 13 seed Ohio. Virginia won the 2019 NCAA Championship, and became the first defending champion to lose in the first round since the UConn in 2012.
11 seed UCLA beat 6 seed Brigham Young University 73-62.
14 seed Abilene Christian University Wildcats defeated 3 seed Texas 53-52, sending home a team that was considered a lock for the Final Four.
11 seed Syracuse beat 3 seed West Virginia in the second round after their win over San Diego State. According to Syrcause.com, Syracuse’s 75-72 win was the most-watched NCAA Tournament game between March 15 and March 21. This game brought in a 4.52 rating for comparison with the 0.8 on average.
The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles delivered their second upset of the tournament by defeating the Florida Gators 81-78 in the second round. With the win, Oral Roberts secured their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 1974.
12 seed Oregon State beat fourth-seeded Oklahoma State University 80-70 to advance to the Sweet 16.
The 7 seed Oregon Ducks beat 2 seed Iowa Hawkeyes 95-80 in the second round of the tournament.
Unfortunately over the weekend, the cinderella teams all went down except for 12 seed Oregon State who beat 8 seed Loyola to move to the Elite 8. Oral Roberts and Syracuse both lost in the Sweet 16. As of the time of recording this, 11 seed UCLA still has a shot to advance, and USC and Oregon will battle it out tonight. Fight On.
In the NBA, here’s a status update:
With Lebron injured, Nikola Jokic is leading the MVP race with a 54% probability of winning the award. He’s doing it all this year, averaging 27 points 11 rebounds, and 9 assists. He’s followed by James Harden with 18% probability. Harden is averaging 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists.
The big talk in the league over last week and the weekend is around the trades and free agent signings leading into the end of the season. Here are the most consequential moves made:
Nets get Harden from Rockets (Jan. 14)
Blake Griffin signs with the Nets (March 10)
Bucks acquire PJ Tucker from Rockets (March 19)
Magic trade Gordon to Nuggets (March 25)
Heat acquire Oladipo from Rockets (March 25)
Clippers deal Lou Williams to Hawks for Rondo (March 25)
76ers acquire George Hill in 3-team trade (March 25)
LaMarcus Aldridge agreed to a deal with the Nets. (March 27)
Andre Drummond says he's joining Lakers for playoff race (March 28)
Naturally, the triumvirate of Harden, Irving, and Durant in Brooklyn is ridiculous. When you add Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge to the mix, their crunch-time lineup has 41 combined all-star game appearances. Wow.
The Lakers picking up Drummond is also huge. They will need his size to compete in the playoffs. Don’t sleep on the Los Angeles Clippers either - I have been saying they need a new point guard for a while now, and Rajon Rondo might just be the secret sauce that gives them an edge. If Lebron and Anthony Davis come back strong from their injuries, the Lakers are still my favorite to win the championship this year. But with the moves made recently - Harden, Griffin, Aldridge, Drummond, Rondo; this is shaping up to be an NBA playoffs for the ages. Personally, I can’t wait to watch.
Until next time.
Bloch
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For the Love of Basketball