Monday Medley

What we read while Mega Millions disproved rational choice theory…

• John Calipari won his showdown with Rick Pitino, the ex-Wildcat coach and Calipari’s former mentor. Of course, the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry predates those coaches. Chuck Klosterman, meanwhile, fears what a Kentucky championship could mean for college basketball’s future. John Gasaway ain’t buying it.

• It was a rough week for fans of President Obama’s health care law, as the oral arguments at the Supreme Court did not bode well for the individual mandate, which puts the entire bill in jeopardy. Molly Ball of The Atlantic and Jonathan Chait at New York are already wondering what will happen if the bill gets struck down. Orin Kerr opines on the individual mandate oral argument. Meanwhile, health care keeps getting more and more expensive, with few solutions in sight.

• Speaking of The Atlantic, its Facebook timeline now stretches back into the 19th century.

• Splitsider remembers the greatest April Fools’ Day joke of them all.

• How did the Daily Mail become England’s biggest paper?

• Senator Rand Paul, fresh off blocking more needless drug laws, blocked a bill ramping up sanctions on Iran.

• Who killed last summer’s debt deal?

• Someone speaks up about fraternity hazing at Dartmouth. We’re just glad to see a prominent university other than Duke come under fire for once.

• A Marxist analysis of modern capitalism. And speaking of modern capitalism: An underage prostitution ring, brought to you by Goldman Sachs.

• Is there a separate legal system in America for Muslims? It certainly seems that way sometimes, based on what people pay attention to.

• Kurt Vonnegut’s response to the burning of his books.

• Two interesting looks at copyright law: A story on Apple’s war with Android, and a look at how copyrights kill books.

• Speaking of Android: Is it an Android phone or a condom?

• Tyler Cowen reports on remembering e-books compared to paper books.

The Double Bonus: Final Four Preview

The Double Bonus podcast is back to break down the most important questions of this year’s Tournament: What was this year’s worst commercial? Are all 15-2 upsets alike? How did the winner of the West Region not start with the letter “M”? And just how bad was Duke this year? Tim and John S also break down the Final Four, and make predictions for every possible iteration of this weekend. They also break the mold with their choice of theme music. Click here to have your mind completely blown!

The Double Bonus: NCAA Tournament Preview

It’s the return of the Double Bonus Podcast! The NCAA Tournament has brought Tim and John S out of their unintentional retirement. Today they break down all four regions, pick all 32 games in the First Round (We don’t buy into the new terminology here at NPI), and make their Final Four predictions. Neither technical glitches nor an utter lack of awareness of what happened in college basketball this season slowed them down! It’s a podcast so long it had be split in two: Listen here for Part One, and here for Part Two, the grand finale!

Against Brackets

There is nothing better than March Madness. But like all great things, March Madness gets exploited in the name of some stupid shit. And the ubiquity of various pop culture brackets every March is one of the most annoying trends.

This year’s bracket du jour is Grandland’s “tournament” of characters from The Wire. On paper, I should love this, as it combines two of my favorite things: March Madness and The Wire. And while I’m always in favor of conversations about the greatest television show of all-time, I was only mildly pleased by Grandland’s bracket—and not just because of the huge flaws made by the committee.

The Double Bonus: Final Four Preview

The Final Four begins tonight, and Tim and John S are back with the Double Bonus podcast to break it all down. Today they’re discussing the value of underdogs, the amazing Kemba Walker, the sneakiness of VCU, the lack of #1 seeds, the perimeter defense of Butler, and they break down every possible championship game (although Tim shoots down John’s plan to break down every conceivable championship game). Click here to listen to their witty words of wisdom!

The Double Bonus: Sweet Sixteen/Elite Eight Recap!

It’s the Double Bonus Podcast! Today John S and Tim are recapping the Regional Semis and Finals: They’re discussing more Harrellson/Zoubek comparisons, the pantheon of Duke Sweet 16 losses, the unfair maligning of Jimmer Fredette, the genius of Brad Stevens and Shaka Smart, and, most importantly, the Elite Eight run by the Gonzaga women. Click here to listen to the sweet sounds of the Double Bonus!

The Double Bonus: Sweet Sixteen/Elite Eight Preview!

Tim and John S are back to break down the second weekend of the 2011 NCAA Tournament! Today they’re discussing which really is the most exciting weekend of the year, whether or not Josh Harrellson is this year’s Brian Zoubek, the possibility of an NCAA Tournament Redemption Island, the dominance of the VCU Rams, and the last decade of Wisconsin Badger basketball. Oh, and they also give their picks for the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight. Click here for the magical elixir that is the Double Bonus podcast!

NPI Comes Alive!: The Double Bonus Podcast

Welcome to NPI Comes Alive! It’s the podcast branch of the NPI network. Our first edition brings back The Double Bonus, with Tim and John S finally breaking down this college basketball season. Click here to listen.

The Double Bonus: Duke Wins!

Tim and John S collected themselves after last night’s brilliant National Championship to bring you this special National Championship Edition of The Double Bonus:

TIM: So John, are we allowed to breathe now?

JOHN S: I guess you can. I still haven’t. That game was the most nerve-wracking, heart-wrenching, emotionally draining game I’ve ever watched as a Duke fan. It unfolded almost like a nightmare. Butler was doing to Duke exactly what it had been doing to teams all Tournament long: Staying close and then holding them without a field goal in the final minutes. It looked like it was setting up perfectly for a Butler comeback, with Nolan Smith, our best player throughout the Tournament, and Kyle Singler, our best player in the Final Four, each clunking shots off the front of the rim, setting up not one but TWO attempts at the game-winner by Butler’s star.

And I, like so many others, thought they were both going in when they left Gordon Hayward’s hands….

Talkin’ Basketball: Michigan State vs. Tennessee

Well, Tim and John combined to go an impressive 1-3 yesterday. Guess which one of us got the only game right! Here’s a hint: It was Tim. Hopefully we will fare better today. The first game on the docket features two of John’s favorite coaches, Bruce Pearl and Tom Izzo, going head-to-head in a game that will hopefully wash the stink off of last night’s Bob Huggins-John Calipari duel.

TIM: John, I’ve had a lot of fun at your expense these last few weeks, from your decision to knock Butler out in the first round to your incredible ability to pick games incorrectly on second and third tries. But, there has been one thing (and one thing only, it seems) that you have been right about where I was wrong: You just don’t pick against Tom Izzo in March.

JOHN S: Well, first of all, some of my incorrect second or third tries were not what I had originally said, so that’s a little unfair. For example, I had West Virginia in the Final Four in my original bracket so….basically I’m a genius.

But yeah, it’s hard for me to really take credit for the Tom Izzo thing, because by now everyone should realize that Michigan State almost always outperforms expectations in the Tournament. Only three times in the last decade has MSU lost to a team seeded lower, and once was in the Final Four to national runner-up Arizona and another was to a George Mason team that would end up in the Final Four. Just as often, the Spartans have made surprising runs of their own, including one to the Elite Eight as a 7-seed in 2003, to the Final Four as a 5 in ’05, and to the National Championship game last year as an unheralded 2-seed. Izzo simply knows how to coach in the Tournament. So it’s not really surprising that Michigan State is once again in the Elite Eight, even in spite of the injury to Kalin Lucas.