Go Phoenix!

What Is This?
This is basketball god Steve Nash shaking hands with the Spurs after beating them with one eye.

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you love it when your favorite team beats its hated archrival?

Sports are about pride. And I don't just mean playing sports. For fanatics like me, even watching sports is a nerve-wracking, heart-stopping and pride-crushing experience.

At least that's how it was after watching my beloved Phoenix Suns get brutally knocked out of the NBA playoffs year after year by the universally hated San Antonio Spurs. Imagine Voldemort defeating Harry Potter in each of the seven books.

It seemed like the Suns couldn't catch a break against these guys: there was Joe Johnson's eye injury one year, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw's suspension another year and Tim Duncan's unlikely 3-pointer after that. In fact, the Spurs won 16 out of 22 playoff games against the Suns since '03. The Spurs and Suns were, once again, set to meet in the playoffs and I couldn't help but wonder if the result would be the same.

Not this year. The Suns swept the series 4-0 and thoroughly dominated the Spurs in almost every respect. No longer could my two friends/die-hard Spurs fans Andrew Shu and Ailin Zeng rub their victories in my face. It was my turn. As the weight of those past four playoff eliminations lifted of the Suns' shoulders, the weight of always cheering for the losing team lifted off mine. Victory was sweet.

And that steak dinner Andrew Shu owes me for a friendly wager on the series will be even sweeter.

March Madness: Hate It Or Love It, The Underdog's On Top

WARNING: Non-sports fans may experience a level of confusion and/or boredom while reading this post. Read at your own risk.





What Is This?
Picture 1: Watching New Mexico vs. Washington at my friend's house
Picture 2: My bracket. Note all the red (wrong picks)

It's that time of year again. A time of excitement. A time of broken hearts and dreams come true. A time of Davids, Goliaths and sometimes even Cinderellas. Put on your Dancing shoes sports fans, it's time for March Madness.

By now, everyone's probably filled out their brackets with overanalyzed picks for their dorm/high school buddies/office pool. And that bracket probably just got busted up when both Kansas and Villanova lost today. Don't you hate when your Final Four teams get knocked out early and you totally lose interest in your bracket? It's really discouraging. So in that spirit, I've decided to do a March Madness Hate It Or Love It list.

Don't you love the excitement of filling out a bracket?
The prospect of year-long bragging rights among friends and co-workers is so exciting!

Don't you hate it when someone who knows nothing about basketball ends up with a better bracket than you?
Forget those bragging rights.

Don't you hate it even more when that person is your close friend?
It's going to be a long year of hearing trash talk.

Don't you love the way anyone can win?
Old Dominion over Notre Dame? Murray State over Vanderbilt? Northern Iowa over Kansas University? I don't even know where Old Dominion or Murray State are. And how did Northern Iowa field enough people for a basketball team?

Don't you love the way March Madness brings together the best of friends?
I always look forward to going to a sports bar or a friend's house with a group of my closest friends to watch the games

Don't you love the feeling you get when you predict an upset?
I saw that one coming and you didn't. Which means I'm better than you.

Don't you hate the feeling you get when you pick an upset in your bracket and you're wrong?
Now I have to listen to "Hahaha, why would you pick THAT team to win? You're so stupid! What were you thinking?!". Time to come crashing back down to earth.

Okay, that's it for now. Enjoy the Madness! (UCLA Bruins 2011 NCAA Tournament Champs, you heard it here first!)

Studying And T.V. Do Not Mix

Finals Week Series Part 6



What Is This?
This is me streaming an NCAA basketball game while simultaneously trying to study math.

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you hate how hard it is to study while watching T.V.?

Today was a day of internal conflict because there were two things I could do:

A. Watch the opening round of March Madness
B. Study for my Math 32A final

Naturally, being the ambitious person that I am, I figured I'd try to do both because they're both pretty (equally?) important. So I sat myself down at a desk with my laptop streaming an NCAA game and my Calculus textbook opened in my lap. After an hour passed, I learned something very important. And it had nothing to do with math.

THIS WAS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Trying to study with the T.V. on is just a huge waste of time. Don't try this. It's a horrible study habit. Especially when your final is the next day. (This rule applies to Facebook too, you Facebook mongers, so power down or deactivate your Facebook for Finals Week!)

Looks like the general trend for these Finals Week Series Hate It Or Love Its has been this: focus on one thing and stick to it. Multi-tasking and studying for finals do not mix. Anyways, one last final tomorrow and it's back home to the Bay Area for some quality R&R. Can't wait; all these Hate Its during Finals Week kind of make me depressed.

I'll have a separate Hate It Or Love It specially designated to March Madness coming soon, so check back.

As Seen On TV

What Is This?
This is me outside Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you love it when a place you see on TV lives up to its billing in real life?

TV makes things look good. Usually, that means expectations are set high and the thing in real life can't possibly live up to what you've built up in your head. It's kind of like the Great Gatsby syndrome (if you didn't get the reference, read the book. It's good). But on the rare occassion something lives up to its billing, its a great feeling.

For those of you who don't know, the Los Angeles Lakers are kind of like the New York Yankees of basketball. And Staples Center isn't just an arena. It's a Mecca of sorts for basketball fans around the globe.

Did You Know?
The L.A. Lakers are named the "Lakers" because they are originally from Minneapolis, near the Great Lakes.

On Friday night, I actually got to go to Staples for a Lakers game. Let me tell you this: Staples is all that it's cracked up to be, and then some. The rundown buildings on the outskirts of Downtown L.A. miraculously transformed into the blaring music and flashing lights of L.A. Live within a city block. The whole scene had me at hello. This was the place I'd seen on ABC and ESPN for the past eight years. There I stood, across the street from the holiest place in basketball, eyes like saucers and a jaw that might as well have been unhinged. The night only got better from there as Selena and I witnessed Kobe Bryant do his thing and the Lakers dismantle the Philly 76ers. I'm proud to say I soaked in every minute of that night; the Lakers game experience definitely lived up to the hype.

Sometimes, you just have to be there.

Basketball fans: Kobe or Lebron? What about Kobe or Michael? Let's hear it.

Men Are From Mars

Selena Kuo filling in for Bryan!



What Is This?
This is Bryan watching the NBA All-Star Game during our Valentine's Day dinner together.

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you hate it when the person you're eating with watches the TV more than they converse with you when you're at a restaurant?

Keep in mind that this view is what I was looking at for a good 75% of the dinner. The remaining 25% of it was filled with "Hm?'''s, ''Oh yea uh huh'''s and ''Of course I'm listening to you'''s. Oh and at one point I'm pretty sure he actually said, ''Selena, watch there's only 1 minute left!''. I mean first of all, this game was the All-Star game, meaning the result of it doesn't even matter. Second of all, watching TV is supposed to be something to do when there's nothing else to do. Third of all, it's Valentine's Day for goodness sakes! The only upside to this I can think of is that I got to eat more of the fries without him noticing.

For all you girls out there, don't you ever wonder what makes watching sports so appealing to guys? What makes it so that guys would rather watch 10 tall sweaty men throw around a ball instead of engaging in a nice conversation? It's one of the great mysteries of the world. Maybe men really are from Mars!

Hope all of you had a boyfriend-watching-TV-during-dinner-less Valentine's Day!


--Skuo

Ballin'

What Is This?
The game Paper Toss, what else?

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you love it when you sink a ridiculously long Paper Toss shot? (Bonus if it's in front of five or more people)

There's a sports star inside all of us. Think about it. When you're done with a paper towel in the bathroom or finished with a piece of scratch paper at your desk, do you walk over to the trash can and place it in? Only if you're dunking that paper with authority. You know the drill: You're Lakers star Kobe Bryant, down one point. You run the 3-2-1 countdown under your breath and then let the wadded paper go from way beyond that imaginary 3-point arc. You fade to the side a little and hold the perfect follow through for extra style points. Most of the time, your shot clanks off the rim and you have to do the walk of shame across the room to clean up your miss. But sometimes you bury it. And you feel good not only because you saved yourself that extra 10 feet of walking but also because for a second, you're not a kid done drying his hands or an office worker disposing of his spreadsheet. You're a champion.