Just in over the wire...

Calipari suggests new rule be applied retroactively, giving Memphis win

(Sportswire, San Antonio) John Calipari, head coach of the Memphis men's basketball team which lost the NCCA title game last night to Kansas, has called for a change in rules on three point shots to allow one foot of a shooter to be on or inside the three-point line at the time of the shot.

In an obvious attempt to curry favor with Pennsylvania voters,  Barack Obama selected the University of Pittsburgh to reach the NCAA Final Four. Pittsburgh has just lost to Michigan State in the second round, 65-54, an eleven point defeat.

Bill Burton, press secretary to Obama, brushed off the loss, explaining that the campaign expected to be competitive in Pennsylvania but not to win it. In a conference call with reporters, Burton slammed the Hillary campaign for injecting race into the campaign: "Pittsburgh's leading scorer was a white player. The public is sick and tired of these dog-whistle references by the Clinton Campaign."

Later in the conference call campaign manager David Axelrod slammed Clinton for being untrustworthy: "Hilary's campaign knows Michigan was never going to count, yet they continue to point to Michigan as a win. Voters are fed up with this `old politics.' It's just another sign of a panicked campaign knowing they cannot win, throwing the kitchen sink at us."

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer had no immediate comment.

Hey everyone, Hopefully March Madness transcends the "strike." We have set up a Yahoo Bracket called "Daily Kos Tourney Bracket" Group ID# 69123 I feel like I may be the only Kos'er MyDD'er left, but you all should join in now and fill out your brackets over the coming days.  Please use your MyDD or Kos names so we know who is winning.

To Join in you will need to set up a Yahoo sports account.  It takes all of 20 seconds to do, and the link to do so is on the Bracket page by 'Log in.'  Yahoo is also offering some form of money prize, if you choose to get junk mail in your inbox.  

We have no means by which to gamble for anything other than recs... so, how about when all is said and done we have a thread where 1st place gets three tip-jars, second, two tip-jars, and third gets a tip-jar - form everyone who joins in.  Not to mention eternal fame on Kos.  Unless somebody has a better idea.

As march Madness begins to sweep the country and bracket are being copied across the land in preparation for the largest amount of illegal betting since the Super Bowl, some folks would like to remind you that the games are being played by students. Yes, the players are enrolled in institutions of higher education and are supposed to be attending class and studying when not perfecting the art of the zone trap. To that end, over at Inside Higher Ed, they developed a bracket of the teams in this year's tournament based on their six year graduation rate. Their Final Four does not exactly correspond to what is likely to play out on the court.

In addition to that exercise in academic reality, the Democratic think tank, Center for American Progress, headed by former Bill Clinton aide John Podesta, has begun a campaign called Graduation Madness aimed at enlisting Nike, Reebok and Adidas into the battle for academic standards. They want to the three shoe companies to provide financial incentives to their schools for academic achievements and to not endorse schools that fail to meet academic standards. The bracket on the Graduation Madness site notes that 30 of the 65 schools in the tournament fail to meet the 925 minimum cut line APR standard set by the NCAA as an academic minimum.

While I applaud both efforts at drawing attention to academic issues, I am less hopeful that there will be lasting benefits. Every year at this time, we see the same thing occurring and the fact that it happens every year is proof that it has minimal effect. Hopefully, the effort by Think Progress may have some effect because it targets one of the schools' most significant sources of income. However, I can't say that I'm optimistic.

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