6 OTs !

All-time classic game played last night in a match-up of two original Big East schools: Syracuse and UConn. 40 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime later, the Orange moved on with a 127-117 win.

A few thoughts:

* While six OTs was one shy of the NCAA record of seven, it has been a long time since two such contrasting, yet evenly-match power teams where involved in an epic game. The Cuse's offense runs through guards 6'0" (maybe) Jonny Flynn and 6'4" Eric Devendorf. UConn is built around 7'3" Hasheem Thabeet.

* Either team could win the National Championship, assuming they can recover from the emotion of last night.

* Orange junior guard Andy Rautins, is a tremendous passer. It seems hard to believe that he averages just 3 assists per game.

* The winner of the game (Syracuse, as it turns out) got a break with West Virginia winning over Pitt. Both WVU and Cuse will play their third game in three days tonight; if Pitt had advanced, the extra bye day may have played a bigger role.

* UConn associate head coach George Blaney earned his salary last night: after every whistle, he was subjected to a rhetorical monologue from UConn head coach Jim Calhoun.

Freeze Tag at Grand Central Station

The Full Rudy

Interesting profile of Rudy Giuliani as both Mayor and candidate in this month's Vanity Fair. Author Michael Wolff calls him "nuts", but goes on:

It's a Catch-22 kind of nuttiness. What with all his personal issues—the children; the women; the former wives; Kerik and the Mob; his history of interminable, bitter, asinine hissy fits; the look in his eye; and, now, Judi!, his current, prospective, not-ready-for-prime-time First Lady—he'd have to be nuts to think he could successfully run for president. But nutty people don't run for president—certainly they don't get far if they do...

Rudy, arguably, is the most anti-family-values candidate in the race (this or any other). And yet, in some sense—which could be playing well with the right wing—what he may be doing is going to the deeper meaning of family values, which is about male prerogative, an older, stubborn, my-way-or-the-highway, when-men-were-men, don't-tread-on-me kind of thing.