Cooper Allen's blog

At last, after a long 82-game season, the NBA playoffs have arrived. The NBA postseason is really a season unto itself. It begins today and will extend into June. The eventual champion could play as many as 28 games if every series goes the distance. I can't wait, especially since my beloved Hawks could very plausibly still be playing by the second round for the first time in a decade.

Congratulations to North Carolina on winning their fifth national title last night, beating Michigan St. decisively, 89-72. The Tar Heels began this season as the top-ranked team in the country, and while they didn't remain in that spot all year, they entered the NCAA tournament as one of a handful of teams thought to have a legitimate chance at winning the title.

Cooper Allen and Nick Perretti (Live from the Tavern on the campus of American University)

6:51:  30 minutes until tipoff for AU's first round NCAA tournament game against Villanova. Follow the action here as Nick and I live blog the game from the viewing party at The Tavern.

7:01:  President Obama picked Villanova in his bracket . Cooper Allen picked AU. So far today, the president's 5-2 on his picks. I, however, am 7-0. 

Readers, I have neglected you once again. After assuring you I had, at last, settled on a format for my blog -- the list -- I disappeared from the scene for far too long. Forgive me. Again.

First things first -- those of you who read Anna Tauzin's blog on Thursday are probably wondering how our intramural basketball team fared that night. I'm happy to say the Nut Grafs started their season off with a nice win, 35-26! We're hoping to continue our winning ways next Monday night.
 

On Monday, during a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind., President Obama was asked about the possiblity of having a beer with prominent conservative commentator Sean Hannity. He said he was unaware that Hannity had recently extended the invitation, but acknowledged he was "always good for a beer."

Just as I was about to publish a long overdue blog entry -- in which I, in part, bemoaned my recent struggles with crafting a good theme/niche/concept for this blog -- my Observer colleague
Russ Choma offered a very timely post about different ways to emerge from this blogging abyss I’ve found myself in.

Before I shift focus in this blog to political coverage, it’s time for one final Super Bowl edition.

After a quick review of the last 20 Super Bowl matchups, I counted seven that, by any measure, were really good games. So, bringing to bear that highly scientific finding on what tomorrow's game may have in store, I’d say there’s about a 65 percent chance we’re in for a lousy game.

Let me preface this second blog entry with some overview, as many of my colleagues at the American Observer have already done, of what to expect from future entries.

While I don't plan to devote all of my blog entries to sports subjects, given that we're just a few days away from the big game and given that more than a few of my contributions to the American Observer so far have been about the NFL, it only seemed appropriate to address the Super Bowl in this inaugural edition.

A few random thoughts...

-Glad to see NBC's not going overboard on its coverage