San Diego

I recently had the pleasure of taking a trip with my lovely wife to lovely San Diego.  We spent a lot of time on the beach, which was as nice and relaxing as it always is.  In between all of that, we managed to drink and eat a lot.  Since the latter is probably a tad more interesting to you, dear reader, here are a bunch of awesome things that you yourself can do in San Diego.

WEDNESDAY

After a copious amount of sleep (we got in at what would be 4 AM Eastern), we had an extremely late breakfast at The Mission (link), which is, rightfully so, one of the most revered breakfast joints in San Diego.  Since we wanted to start off our trip by seeing the beach, we went to the location two blocks inland of Mission Beach, which was nicely nestled in between a bunch of rental properties and other small businesses.   The menu featured an equal amount of breakfast staples and Latino-themed dishes.  The first morning (yes, we went twice) I got the Breakfast Quesadilla (pictured below) while Adrienne got the Mission Chilaquiles.  Both were delicious and appropriately filling, which was good because we hadn't eaten in about 20 hours.  The second morning, we stuck to the basics and both got the French Toast.  Made with their homemade cinnamon bread, it was quite rich while still remaining light enough to not be overly filling, which is an amazing combination of traits for such a dish.

After we took a lengthy walk up and down the beach, it was already well into the afternoon.  Hence, we figured we should probably start drinking.  What would be our only significantly inland journey of the trip took us to the Alpine Beer Company (link) in the town of the same name.  While Alpine is famous for making one of the top rated beers in existence, they are both than just one beer.  That said, I had to start out with the famed Nelson, and it did not disappoint.  Surprisingly light in color (it's the half-drunk one in the front), the beer does a fantastic job blending a subtle rye touch with the right amount of Nelson hops.  Rye beers can often overwhelm with the bitterness of the rye combining with the hops, but this one goes the other direction to make a nice reserved beer that I could drink all day.

Next up in my sampler was Duet, a nice but not superlative blend of two of my favorite hops, Amarillo and Simcoe.  This was followed by Pure Hoppiness which, as you might guess, is a pretty straightforward hop bomb.  The final beer I had at Alpine was the Bad Boy, which was a lovely combination of the fantastic Maris Otter malt and, as the menu put it, "most of the C's.*"  If I had to choose a favorite of the day, it would be either Nelson or Bad Boy, for very different reasons.  Adrienne sampled most of their other non-hoppy beers, and wasn't as impressed by them as I was of mine.  Let that be a lesson to us all.

*For the uninitiated, that refers to the hops that pretty much started the concept of a West-Coast IPA.

Of course, there are a lot of other breweries in San Diego, so we kept plowing along.  Next up was Societe Brewing (link), which is located about ten miles north of downtown.  As with many west coast brewers, the focus there was also on the hop.  While Alpine was able to hit a bunch of different notes successfully, I wasn't as impressed by Societe.  There was a similar breadth of beers, but without as much depth and/or creativity.  That said, I still really liked The Dandy, which brought a little bit of everything together in a very focused manner.  Their highest-rated beer, The Pupil, was not as unified, and their English IPA (one of my favorite styles when done right) tasted bizarrely grassy.  All in all, it was a fine experience, which was enhanced by running into a group of people that we had just seen at Alpine.  This would not be the last time this happened this weekend, which shows that San Diego still has a hint of small-town feel about it, if you look in the right places.

For dinner, we headed to the nearby Hillcrest neighborhood (the area just north and west of the zoo) to visit Ortega's Bistro (link).  We both tended towards the seafood portion of the menu, with me ordering fish tacos and Adrienne ordering the shrimp tacos.  While I enjoyed the contents of my tacos, the best part of the dish was the fresh flour tortillas, which were as rich as any I've ever had.  Additionally, Adrienne's shrimp were about the best she's ever had.  If you're looking for a good Mexican dinner, you can't go wrong with Ortega's.


THURSDAY

Following another morning of eating at Mission and relaxing at the beach, we decided to try one of San Diego's entries in the FiveThirtyEight Burrito Bracket, Lucha Libre (link).  The main reason we chose this one was because it was six blocks from our hotel, which turned out to be quite fortuitous.  The food was great, but what made it truly unique was the atmosphere of the restaurant.  The walls were lined with pictures of Mexican wrestlers (hence the name), and there was even a Champion's Booth complete with all-gold regalia that you can reserve for up to four people.  This probably wasn't my favorite Mexican food of the weekend (the steak and shrimp were both a little dull), but there were enough nice touches (grilled cheese on the Queso Taco) to make it worth our time.

Infected with World Cup fever, we next decided to visit one of the most renowned soccer bars in San Deigo, O'Brien's Pub (link).  The beer list was a little picked over (probably because they were preparing for an Alesmith tap takeover later that night) but any place with Speedway Stout on tap can't be too bad.  There was a nice outdoor area, but we stayed inside to avoid the glare on the screens and stay close to the bar.  The game itself (a scoreless tie between Japan and Greece) wasn't exactly the pinnacle of soccer, but it was a lot of fun to watch with a heavily pro-Japan crowd that whipped into a frenzy at every major juncture.  (Here's a hint to that one fan on the patio - If management has to keep asking you to stop standing on your chair during the game, then you're probably a little too into the game.)

For dinner, we had our fanciest meal of the trip at Richard Blais' new restaurant, Juniper and Ivy (link).  The interior was open in a very modern way, with natural light coming from all directions, and the (Blais-less) kitchen in full view.  The menu was also quite modern - in lieu of the typical entrees section, there were many sections of smaller plates (one section was "Toast").  Since I had no real strategy for attacking such a menu, I deferred to the waitresses' selections, which were fantastic.  I started in the raw section with the Baja Yellowtail, which had the perfect blend of acid and sweetness.  Next, I had the Carne Cruda Asada.  It managed to work jalapenos into the dish in a non-grating way, which I consider quite the accomplishment.  Finally, I had the Black Sesame Churro.  This was a little out of my comfort zone (the sesame smells quite nutty), but couldn't go to a Blais restaurant and not have some weird flavored ice cream (tortilla, in this case).  For your dollar, most of the other places on this list are better, but it was a nice departure to enjoy some smartly conceived and unique dishes.

FRIDAY

Friday saw us enjoy another morning of breakfast and beaches.  Once the afternoon rolled around, we went to one of the many drinking establishments on 30th Street, Toronado (link).  This would turn out to be my favorite San Diego bar, for many reasons.  First of all, the beer selection was awesome.  I had my first ever taste of Russian River - in this case, the well-renowned and excellent Pliny the Elder (which would end up being at every other bar we visited).  Toronado also was the only place I saw beer from Almanac and Alpine (other than Alpine's brewery, of course).  I had a delicious blackberry sour from Almanac, and perhaps the best APA ever from Alpine.  Hoppy Birthday may be another name with an annoying pun on hops, but the beer was so focused and over the top with its hop profile (at only %5 ABV, too) that I didn't mind.  A nice bready malt balanced it out to make it more than just another hop bomb.  It just might have been my favorite of Alpine's beers. 

Toronado has a lot going for it besides just the beer.  The interior is straightforward and a little old-timey, which reminds me a lot of Krug Park in Omaha.  There is also a lovely beer garden out back with room for 50 or so people.  We spent the later part of the afternoon there, drinking beer and playing Trivial Pursuit with the limited cards they had.  The food is also good.  We split a BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato) for the second time on the trip, and I would say Toronado's was a bit better than the one we had at Alpine.  It didn't hurt that it came with a huge salad, which is a nice alternative to the typical side of fries.  All in all, this was one of my favorite places in San Diego - make sure to stop there if you're ever in town.

Following our afternoon at Toronado, we headed downtown as we had tickets to the Padres-Dodgers game that night.  We were pretty hungry, so we ventured to Neighborhood (link) for an early dinner.  Neighborhood prides themselves on "combining quality beer, locally sourced food, and intelligent design" and they didn't fail to deliver on any of those components.  While I enjoyed everything, my favorite part would have to be the garlic aioli that came with the steak tacos.  There's a scene near the end of the movie Ratatouille where the critic (voiced by Peter O'Toole) tastes the title dish, and has a spontaneous flashback to his childhood as a result.  For me, the garlic sauce was my ratatouille, tasting exactly like garlic bread fresh out of the toaster oven from my childhood.

After dinner, we still had plenty of time before the game and just a little bit of room in our stomachs, so we headed to Heavenly Cupcake (link) for some dessert.  This was one of the few places from our honeymoon that we re-visited, so you could we liked it a lot.  The frosting on my strawberry cupcake had the perfect blend of sweetness and tartness, with a lightness about it without losing substance.  The cupcake craze can be overbearing at times, but places like this make it worth it.

Finally, we ended our day at Petco Park, watching the aforementioned Padres game.  We had tickets directly behind home plate in the 300 section, which gave us a lovely view of both the game and downtown San Diego.  Petco is one of the nicest parks I've been to, both for the open and unique feeling of the stadium, and for the wide selection of craft beer available all over the park. I had a lovely evening watching a close game and enjoying a freshly-tapped Sculpin.

SATURDAY

I haven't written much about the beaches we visited, largely because they're all roughly the same.  There is some variation in the terrain and surrounding communities, but pretty much anywhere you go on the coast of San Diego will be nice.  That said our final day at the beach was a bit different.  We headed just south of Torrey Pines, climbed down a steep trail to Black's Beach (link), and took a nice stroll up the beach and back.  Torrey is probably my favorite golf course, so I was excited to take a walk just beneath it.  The beach was quite lovely and secluded, as you can tell from the picture below.  That seclusion just happened to lead to the most interesting discovery of the day: Apparently, Black's Beach is a nude beach.  As we made our way back to the trailhead, we noticed one nude person, followed by another, and shortly by a bunch more.  Us clothed people were still in the majority.  Still, we could tell that as the temps continued to rise, so to would the amount of nudity.  Thus, we enjoyed the rest of our walk at a moderate-to-brisk pace, and climbed the cliff back to the civilized world.

For lunch, we went to In & Out Burger.  I don't feel like I need to write a full paragraph on this, because you probably all know how awesome it is.  If you don't know how awesome it is, just go there next time you're in California/Arizona/Texas. 

The highlight of the trip came next, as we wandered over to the nearby Modern Times Brewing (link).  Getting there was not the easiest, as it's located in between strip malls, strip clubs, and ugly looking industrial buildings, with thoroughly unnecessary one-way roads surrounding it all.  Once we were there though, it was perfect.  Just the unique wall art and bar made out of books alone were enough to make it an interesting place, but of course the beer is what makes it special.  Adrienne and I each got a sampler of their four main beers, and each was solidly above average at the least.  Most great breweries are known for their special high-gravity beers, but making a solid line of "normal" beers is perhaps even more indicative of the quality of a brewery.

The highlights of the afternoon were many.  Black House is a fantastic coffee stout, with a little more subtlety than you might expect from a brewery that roasts its own coffee.  Blazing World is a IPA/APA/beer that is either really good or one of the best things I've ever had.  I couldn't quite tell which it was, even though I stole most of Adrienne's sample (don't worry, I traded her my Black House).   I have had beers that are more Simcoe-forward; this beer instead opted to blend it with Nelson and Mosaic to make quite the alluring combination.  Finally, there was my favorite of the day, Fortunate Islands, a hoppy wheat that rivals Gumballhead in it's domination of the category.  It is basically the same beer, except with a Citra-Amarillo blend instead of straight Amarillo.  Like the can says, it tastes like wizards.*

*Modern Times might have my favorite beer packaging of all time.  Not only do the cans look nice, but they also have the ingredients (even the malts!), as well as fun descriptions:

Not ready to be done with our revelry, we headed to the third top-100 bar of the trip, Hamilton's Tavern (link) in central San Diego.  We were probably a touch burned out at this point, so we didn't enjoy this as much as our other stops.  That said, it was still a great place with a good selection of beer on tap.  And taps, lots of taps:

For our final meal in Southern California, we stopped at another participant in the Burrito Bracket, El Zarape (link).  Whereas Lucha Libre had been more representative of the "new wave" of eateries, El Zarape was a much more old-fashioned establishment, complete with a too-small kitchen tucked in behind the counter.  Adrienne ordered entirely too much food, while I ordered just a lot of food.  My chicken burrito came with few frills, but was as delicious as anything I ate on the trip.  You could say it was too juicy, but that would be a ridiculous thing to say.

And with that, our trip came to an end.  Almost everything we did was a highlight in some way, and I would recommend you do just about everything we did on your next visit to San Diego, if you have the time.  And if you don't have a next visit to San Diego planned, well, you should plan one.

College Gameday's Mystery Location

College football is just three months away.  In that span of time, I will write some fun posts about the exciting journey that the 2014 season is sure to be (I will also enjoy my summer, because I don't get paid for this and I'm not a psychopath).  For now though, let's talk about an relatively meaningless thing that arose from a tweet yesterday.

As you all know, College Gameday is far and away the best preview show for college football (and perhaps any sport).  Sure, it's far from a perfect show, but it does a great job representing the madness of the sport in a mostly lighthearted way.  As much fun as it is to watch crazy fans at different locations represent their school, it's just about as fun to try to guess where the show will go in coming weeks.  Luckily, one of the producers is often more than willing to encourage that anticipation.  Which brings me to the tweet from yesterday:

This year, @CollegeGameDay will broadcast from a location that we've never been to before. Always fun.
— Lee Fitting (@leefitting) May 28, 2014

Before I go any further, let me say how much I love the tone of this tweet.  He's privy to some information that thousands of fans would love to have, and shrugs it off with an "Always fun."  Never change, Lee Fitting.

As you might guess, the goal of this post is to figure out where this new location might be.  Before I make my top guesses, let me eliminate a majority of games with the help of the schedule, a list of previous Gameday sites, and my expansive knowledge of college football [citation needed].

It can only be a game from the first three weeks

If you take a look at the TV schedule I linked to, there is a pretty significant drop-off in planned TV games after week 2, and a drop-off to almost no planned games after week 3.  ESPN often waits until Sunday morning to determine the location for the next week's Gameday, for the same reason that TV matchups have only been determine a couple of weeks out:  They want to go to the best games possible.  Since a lot can happen in the first three weeks, I am guessing that Fitting's proclamation won't go beyond that.  Case in point: Gameday went to Fargo for week four last year.  This wouldn't have happened if a couple of the notable games lost their luster (ND-MSU, Wiscy-ASU), and if NDSU wouldn't have notched their big upset over Kansas State.

Gameday is going to prioritize major games

Yes, Gameday likes going to smaller games, but they generally only do so when there aren't any obvious bigger games (see my example from the last section).  The first three weeks give us:

Week 1:
Florida State vs. Oklahoma State in Arlington
LSU vs. Wisconsin in Houston
Clemson at Georgia

Week 2:
Michigan at Notre Dame
Michigan State at Oregon
Virginia Tech at Ohio State
USC at Stanford

Week 3:
Georgia at South Carolina
Texas vs. UCLA in Arlington

Week three doesn't give us too many marquee games, but the first two weeks are absolutely loaded.  It's going to take quite the special game to beat out those games with major playoff implications.

Gameday has already been to all of the locations for those marquee games

They've actually been to most of these sites multiple times, including a surprising six visits to South Carolina.  The site that is closest to being a non-visit is Reliant Stadium in Houston, but they did travel there in 2005 for a Katrina-relocated Bayou Classic.  Combining the early parts of the schedule and the list of previous Gameday sites just doesn't give us a classically obvious answer.

Given all of the above, here are my top guesses for the mystery Gameday location (sorry Baylor, your schedule is too awful to merit inclusion on this list):

#4: Oregon at Washington State (Week 4)

I know I said the game would have to be in the first three weeks, but Washington State is a favorite of the Gameday program because of its dedicated fans, so I'll give this a tiny, tiny chance of being the game Fitting speaks of.  Washington State is unlikely to be great (though they certainly may be good), so I doubt Gameday has this circled on their calendar.  Additionally, Oregon's week 2 battle with the Spartans gives them a decent chance of coming into this game with a loss, so I doubt Gameday would commit to this game so early.

#3: Louisiana at Ole Miss (Week 3)

Here is the first game that has a fighting chance of being the one.  The Grove is by far the most notable college football location that has yet to host Gameday, so I am sure they are looking for every excuse possible to make a visit (promoting the new SEC network wouldn't hurt either).  As I said earlier, week 3 is the most likely week in September for a less-hyped game, so this would make a lot of sense.

#2: Penn State vs. UCF in Dubin, Ireland (Week 1)

This game makes sense on a lot of levels.  There are so many big games on the first week, that choosing more of a novelty might be the best bet.  Taking Gameday to foreign soil would be quite the accomplishment for the program.  Plus, we would get to see how people from other nations react to Big and Rich. 

All that said, I still think this game is fairly unlikely for a couple of reasons.  One, while both Penn State and UCF are bound to be good teams (37th and 27th respectively in the preseason F/+ rankings), I don't necessarily think the allure of Ireland is enough to overcome the middling matchup.  Two, the game begins at 7:30 eastern time, so I'm not exactly sure when Gameday would air here.  I doubt they would actually start at 4:30 AM, and I severely doubt they would tape delay it.  Logistical reason may doom this game from the start.

#1: Sam Houston State at Eastern Washington (Week 0)

Sorry everyone, I tricked you earlier in the post.  When I said the game would have to be in the first three weeks, I am betting you didn't know there was a week zero.  My bad.  The two best FCS programs (non-NDSU division) square off a week before everyone else gets started.  Furthermore, the game is on ESPN, and it will be played on a red field.  Gameday generally has a season preview show the week before the season in a studio in Bristol.  I am betting that they take this show on the road this year.  This probably isn't the sexiest answer to Fitting's tweet, but I think it's pretty cool that Gameday appears to be rewarding a program that has achieved great success (they won the 2011 title) despite being in the middle of nowhere (and yet having to compete with several nearby FBS programs for recruits).  Time will tell if I am right.

Bracket Thoughts 2014

Another season of college basketball is nearing its end, which naturally means that we have a bracket.  A glorious, glorious bracket.  I want to spend some time sharing my thoughts on that, but I also want to share some thoughts on the sport at large.  I'll lead off with a bunch of mini-posts jammed together for your convenience, and then talk about the specific brackets on the back nine.  If you just came here for a quick summary, here it is:  BASKETBALL!!!  If that's not enough for you, keep reading.

Note: The majority of the numbers in this post come from kenpom.com.  Some sections were written before the data from Sunday games were uploaded, so the ratings may look slightly different now.  Everything should be close enough to support my points, at the very least.


My Rant at the Committee (In the Form of an Elegy for the Runnin' Utes)

If the committee said it's choosing the "best season achievement profiles" instead of just "best teams," I'd buy them each a donut.
— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) March 16, 2014

Snap judgment: Seems like, if anything, the committee utilized new team metrics less this year than the past.
— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) March 16, 2014

I have a very odd tendency to start rooting for random college basketball teams for reasons even I can't always discern.  This year, one of those teams was Utah, who is a pretty fun team to watch.  Delon Wright is basically a better version of Rajon Rondo, and the rest of the team came together to be one of the most efficient units in the Pac-12.  By most advanced metrics, Utah is one of the best 37 at-large teams.  KenPom has them 37th, LMRC has them 46th, Sagarin has them 39th, and BPI has them 34th (remember than 10 or so of the teams ranked above them get automatic bids, so being in the thirties means you should be strongly considered).  A season ending blow-out against Arizona didn't help these numbers, but they had built up enough good will to be a team worthy of inclusion.

And yet, the Utes didn't make the tournament field* and weren't particularly close according to most pundits, largely because of their terrible RPI (notice which stat sticks out as the outlier for Utah on Massey's composite ratings page).  There are a lot of qualitative reasons they might be underrated: they were terrible the last couple of years, they're still perceived as a mid-major, and they play late at night on the East Coast.  In the end though, it all comes down to the bad RPI.

*The small consolation is that Utah gets to play at St. Mary's in the NIT.  St. Mary's tiny gym is one of my favorite venues in the sport, so that will be a fun little treat for a hoops nerd like me.

The two main reasons for their surprisingly low RPI are easily found on the front page of kenpom.com.  First, Utah ranked 294th in luck.  This shows that Utah lost a lot of close games (they went 0-3 in overtime, for example).  If a couple of bounces would have gone their way, they could have easily won 2 or 3 more games and their record would more closely match their true talent level.  Second, Utah ranked 350th in non-conference strength of schedule.  There are only 351 teams.  Whether they should or not, the committee (and thus, those that bracketologize) treats a bad non-conference schedule like the plague:  You had better be otherwise sparkling or they're not going to let you into the dance.*  I understand the desire to encourage good non-conference schedules, but in the end, this practice leads to the committee rewarding strong-scheduling ADs as opposed to strong-playing basketball teams.

*I know that the committee has shown a constant commitment to punishing teams with bad schedules, so missing the tournament should never come as a surprise to a coach/AD that schedules a poor slate.  That said, when the richest teams have a guy whose job it is to manipulate the RPI, that should be a sign that maybe the system is a bit broken.

The common refrain that I hear from committee members is that they want to select the 37 best at large teams.  While that sounds good on the surface, actions indicate that they don't actually mean it.  From this article comes this telling quote:  "It is just doing the best job that group possibly can to find the best teams based on the games they played, the games they won."  Once again, this sounds a lot like the deserver argument I've detailed in the past:  Because so and so teams won certain games, they deserve to be in the tournament regardless of whether or not they are actually one of the best at large teams.*  What's most disappointing about this is that we live in an era where we can do better than this, and yet we choose not to.

*Of course, an RPI/resume based approach will overlap with a more advanced approach most of the time, so it's not like the end result of the selection process is completely terrible.  But still, we can do better.  Louisville is not a 4-seed. 

Pro sports teams don't have this problem, because fans generally accept that the centralized scheduling and rules for qualifying for the playoffs are mostly fair.  Sure, an 8-8 division champion may make the NFL playoffs occasionally, but there is so much transparency to the process that it is generally accepted.  On the other hand, the non-centralized nature of college basketball permits us to select teams for the postseason based on them being the actual best teams.  Because of the advances in sports analytics and the availability of advanced metrics, this is now a quite reasonable and even easy exercise.  But rather than using that unique opportunity, the selection committee falls back towards evaluating profiles in a near-political manner, as though that's a rigorous and fair way to evaluate the best teams.  I hope that in the future the NCAA and it's committee will become more enlightened, but for now we'll just have to accept things for the way they are.  Luckily for us, the tournament is still pretty awesome as it is, even without Utah in it.


Some Specific Complaints About Non-Utah Teams

While I didn't have high hopes for Utah's inclusion in this year's tournament, there were some pretty disappointing picks at the back end of the tourney.  SMU and Louisiana Tech didn't come from the best conferences, nor did they have flashy offenses.  What they did have was two of the most punishing defenses in the land, which would have given them the ability to win multiple games with a favorable draw.  After Middle Tennessee made last year's bracket with a very similar background, I was pretty surprised that the Mustangs and Bulldogs were passed over for a very average NC State team.  The UAB and VCU picks from three years ago were a tad odd, but I think you have to go all the way back to Air Force in 2006 to find a more stupefying pick for the tournament.

I was also surprised that injuries appear to no longer have any bearing on tourney seeding.  Colorado reverted to a pretty average team after the loss of Spencer Dinwiddie (they went from 31st to 64th in the KenPom ratings, and they sit 58th in Sagarin), yet they'll be wearing white against a strong Pittsburgh team.  BYU was already a pretty marginal case before the loss of Kyle Collinsworth, so I am quite surprised they managed to avoid Dayton, let alone make the field.  I understand how it seems unfair to penalize a team for losing a star player, but the committee needs to make those tough decisions.  If a team isn't what they were when they were compiling their resume, then that should be reflected in the bracket.

*Speaking of NIT teams, I just watched the NIT selection show because I am a bracket junkie.  At the end, Andy Katz spoke with the NIT selection committee chairman, who looked and sounded like a long lost cousin of Joe Lieberman.  His reading off the list of teams that just missed out on the NIT in a quiet, sad voice was one of the most hilariously depressing things I've ever seen.


A Pretty Good Year for Mid-Majors

In a year in which prominent mid-majors like Creighton moved up to major conferences and the Mid-Majority readied to close its figurative doors, it might seem like the small conferences are in trouble.  While there were a few signs of decay (eg. the Valley not having anyone remotely near the bubble), the season was actually an overall success for small schools.  Of course, Wichita's amazing season got the majority of the limelight (deservedly), but a lot of other programs managed their best seasons in years.  Thankfully, the majority of those schools passed their conference tournament tests and will get their chance to pull an FGCU and captivate the nation for a weekend.

In the past couple of years, I've always made note to comment on who made it and who got tripped up in their tourney.  This year, I thought I would put everything in chart format to illustrate the good fortune we saw this year.  While I think the 3-5 seed lines are pretty strong this year, they'll still face some good challenges from many of the following teams:

 

Note: A conference was included in this list if at least one team was in the top 100 of the KenPom ratings, and that team (or teams) had a level of separation from the rest of the league.  That is why teams like Belmont and Toledo, for example, don't show up on this list.

For all of the complaints I had about the committee's work this year, they did a really good job of putting the mid-major teams in their proper order.  There isn't a super strong 15 or a weak 13 like we've seen in previous years.  As a result, a lot of the 4-13 and 5-12 matchups should be great.


Slow Tempo

Given that I watch a lot of basketball, it's only natural that I have developed a pet theory or two about how the game works.  One such line of thought that came about during last year's tournament concerns teams that play at a very slow pace.  As you might remember, last year's tournament was particularly memorable for a number of unlikely occurrences, the most notable being Florida Gulf Coast's run to the Sweet Sixteen and Wichita State's run to the Final Four.  What you might not have noticed is that those runs started with games against teams that like to play quite slowly.  To illustrate this, here are the five slowest teams that qualified for last year's tournament (for reference, the average tempo for the 2013 season was about 66 possessions per game):

If you are perceptive, then you will have already noticed that all of those teams landed seeds where they would be considered favorites in the first round.  If you have a good memory, then will you have already noticed that all of those teams also lost in the opening round last year (To follow up on earlier references, Georgetown lost to FGCU, while Wichita knocked off Pitt in an absolutely loaded 8-9 game). 

Of course, a five team sample is hardly conclusive.  If I would have increased the sample to six teams, then it would include Florida, who made it all the way to the Elite Eight before running into a Michigan team that damn near won the title.  That said, it's a little scary that the four teams atop that list are perhaps the four that are most associated with disappointing tournament results over the past decade.  My theory behind this is pretty simple: Good teams that purposefully play fewer possessions leave themselves more vulnerable to losses to inferior opponents.  If you have 5-10 fewer possessions to assert your dominance, then there is a greater chance that you could be upset.

I hope to do a little more digging into this in the offseason to see how real of a relationship this is.  In the meantime, the slowest major conference teams in this year's field are Virginia, Syracuse, Baylor Michigan, and Cincinnati.  Do with this information what you will.


One-sided teams

One aspect of basketball that I find preferable to football is that every player has to play both offense and defense.  Sure, there may be three point specialists and such that can only do one thing well, but there are still contributions those people can make on the other side (eg. defensive big men can set screens on offense).  Because of this, excellence in the sport requires supreme athleticism and versatility to a degree unparalleled in most other sports.

However, that line of thinking is being threatened a bit this season.  While there have always been unbalanced teams (think 2012 Missouri), I've never seen the top of the rankings littered with so many teams that only excel on one side of the ball.  Here are the top ten teams in efficiency for both offense and defense, and where they rank on the other side of the ball:

As you can see, many of the very best teams in the nation are surprisingly lopsided.  This phenomenon hasn't limited itself to the best teams either.  League doormats like Boston College (#30 offense, #298 defense) and Northwestern (#312 offense, #17 defense) tended to show an even stronger contrast.

I'm not exactly sure what the reasons behind this phenomenon might be, but I do know that the preponderance of one-sided teams means that there is a high chance that we'll have a champion that only excels on one side of the floor.  In the first eleven years of the efficiency era, every single champion has had a top 25 offense and defense.  Of course, those teams have six tournament wins baked into their final efficiency metrics, which probably skews those figures upwards.  Still, we have a chance to see a truly mediocre offense or defense win a title this year.  Be prepared.


One More Note About Creighton

I already spent some time talking about how awesome Creighton was this season, so let me try to keep this short.  As you already know from the above section, Creighton led the nation in offensive efficiency this season.  Their adjusted offensive rating was 125.7 (measured in points per 100 possessions, adjusted for opponent), which tops this year's Duke team and one of Chris Paul's Wake teams for the best offense of the last twelve years, according to KenPom.  The reason for this is that the Jays are probably the best shooting team ever.  And no, that is not an exaggeration.  Against the 9th toughest defensive schedule in the nation, the Jays shot 42.2% from three (#1 nationally) and 56.2% from two (#3 nationally).  There are a lot of reasons to be wary of picking the Jays for a deep run in the tournament, but their shooting will give them a very good chance of winning no matter who they play.


On Andrew Wiggins' Awesomeness

Coming into the season, there was a good deal of hype for the highest rated freshman class in years.  And of those freshmen, none was more hyped than Kansas' Andrew Wiggins.  As the season progressed, the hype died down a bit, and people began picking on supposed holes in his game.  The narrative seemed to become that Wiggins was a disappointment, because he wasn't the next Kevin Durant.  While I think holding a teenager to those kind of expectations is a little ridiculous, I also think he's not all that far behind where Durant was when he was a freshman.  Here is a comparison of Wiggins' season with Durant's 2007 at Texas:

Upon examining those numbers, you will probably conclude that Durant was better as a freshman.  I wouldn't argue with that, as Durant's combination of efficient shooting, high usage rate, and defensive skill is hard to match.  That said, Wiggins isn't far behind, especially when you consider the different contexts in which they played.  Wiggins has fewer rebounds and blocks in large part because he gets to play alongside Joel Embiid and Perry Ellis, who are both great post players.  This means Wiggins is more free to roam the perimeter looking for his shot and setting up fast breaks.  Durant, on the other hand, was often the tallest player on the floor for Texas, so he had to handle a lot of those duties for the Longhorns.  Additionally, Durant found himself on a team full of freshmen and sophomores, so he was free to put up those high usage rates you see above.  Wiggins joined a team with more talent in place and a better coach (Self>>>>Barnes), which means he didn't need to carry the same load as Durant.

In the end, Durant was better in 2007 than Wiggins in 2014, but it was closer than the narrative indicates, largely because Bill Self didn't need Wiggins to be Durant.  The injury to Embiid may change that, which makes Kansas' tournament fate all the more interesting.  If Wiggins can propel his team to a deep run, then his season at Kansas may just end up being the superior one.  For this reason, Kansas might just be the most interesting team to watch this postseason.

Now, onto the brackets:


EAST

The East is probably the least "sexy" bracket, but there's still a lot here to like.  Harvard is as good of a mid-major as you'll see, and they'll get their chance to win games in back to back tournaments against a potentially vulnerable Bearcat team.  Shabazz Napier has the chance to finish off a brilliant career with a Kemba-tastic type run to the Final Four.  Providence's Bryce Cotton was playing more than 40 minutes per game at one point of the season, so he will indubitably have a say in whether or not the Friars can upset the enigmatic Tar Heels.  And Virginia and Villanova represent a couple of teams that surprised this season with fantastic, unselfish play.  In a lot of ways, the East is the most wide open bracket, which could make for some fun times.

Best First Round Matchup:  Iowa State vs. NC Central

It's pretty tough to pass up the slugfest between Cincy and Harvard, or the point guard-off between Bryce Cotton and Marcus Paige.  Despite that, I'm sticking with my favorite mid-major champion in NC Central.*  Even thought the MEAC has produced several first round upsets (including Hampton over Iowa State), this might be the best team the conference has ever put forward.  In addition to liking the team, I also really like the matchup.  NC Central isn't particularly tall, as is true of many MEAC teams.  Luckily, Iowa State has even less effective height.  Melvin Ejim and Georges Niang are great players, but they're both only 6'6".  NC Central should have the option to try for points in the paint, should they so desire.  I still think Iowa State will survive and advance, but this will be a strong test for the defense-challenged Cyclones.

*Coach LeVelle Moton tearing up at the end of the game that sealed his alma mater's first ever tourney berth might have been my favorite moment of Championship Fortnight.

Best Possible Matchup:  Virginia vs. Michigan State

Virginia gets a reasonably easy draw in the East, which is odd considering they're probably the least deserving one seed.  That said, they're still a great final four capable team, and Michigan State could pose a major threat if the Spartans continue their recent roll.  Tony Bennett and Tom Izzo are two of the best coaches in the game, and they have teams that are versatile enough to create a back and forth of pure, unadulterated, coaching strategy.  The player to watch here is Malcolm Brogdon, who just might be the most underrated player in the country.  The sophomore doesn't have any one skill that sticks out; Rather, he plays solid defense, and acts as a bit of a second point guard for an offense that is sneakily one the best in the country.  Finally, Joe and Gary Harris will get to fight for the most valuable Harris award, which I just made up.

The Pick for JerryWorld:  Michigan State

The Spartans are a tricky team to get a handle on.  On one hand, they've looked impressive at the beginning and end of the season, which is not coincidentally the times that they had their full complement of players.  On the other hand, this team isn't as deep with talent as other Michigan State squads we've seen in the past.  The drop-off in skill from Payne and Dawson to the bench is noticeable (especially on defense), which means the Spartans will have to look out for refs with loose whistles.  Michigan State does give up more free throw attempts than it takes, so that's definitely my biggest worry about this team.  Other than that, I don't see a lot of problems.  The Spartan starting five has a blend of talent and experience that is unmatched in the bracket; As a result, I like them to conquer the region.


MIDWEST

Yes, Louisville being a four-seed is ridiculous.  What makes it even more ridiculous are the two teams directly below them in the Midwest: Saint Louis and UMass.  I love the Billikens and Chaz Williams is one of the most exciting players in the nation, but in no way do these teams deserve their seeds.  As Nate Silver pointed out, it's all because of the RPI.  For some reason, the American got pounded in the RPI this year, while the Atlantic-10 stood out (Both conferences had a collection of bad teams at the bottom, so we can't say that's the reason).  The committee can talk about looking deeply at the resumes and watching games and such, but when a bracket like this is as nakedly seeded according to RPI, then it's hard to take them seriously.

All that said, this is probably the strongest bracket in the tournament.  Wichita, Michigan, Duke, and Louisville make for a loaded top four that could go any which way, and Tennessee and Kentucky could make for a couple of fun spoilers.  Yes, it seems a little unfair that a 34-0 season gets you such a tough draw, but the Shockers don't seem to mind tough draws, and the committee assigns teams to regions for geography as much as anything else:

Best First Round Matchup:  Iowa vs. Tennessee

The 8/9 and 7/10 matchups are pretty underwhelming here, so I'm passing on those (I don't know of a way to quantify this, but Texas-Arizona State might be the game with the least impact on the outcome of the tournament).  Though I like the pointsplosion potential of Duke-Mercer, I'm going to go with the only matchup that is actually considered the "first round."  Tennessee may have lost a bunch of close games, and Iowa fell down hard at the end of the season, but these are still both top-30-or-so outfits that have legitimate Sweet Sixteen potential (I would complain about the committee again, but at least they got these teams in the tournament).  This game is worth watching if only for the matchup between Jordan McRae and Roy Devyn Marble.  Both are similar players, except McRae is a little more electric, while Marble is as smooth of a customer as you'll see on a basketball court.  If I only give you one commandment for filling out your bracket, it is to pick the winner of this game to beat UMass.  Just trust me.

Best Possible Matchup:  Wichita State vs. Louisville

This was an amazing game in last year's Final Four, and I see no reason for that to be different this year.  Louisville isn't quite as deep as last year's championship-winning behemoth, but Russ Smith is probably the best non-McDermott player in the land, and Chris Jones and Montrezl Harrell replaced Siva and Dieng nicely.  On Wichita's side, the interplay between guards Fred Van Vleet, Ron Baker, and Tekele Cotton is special, and Cleanthony Early is the kind of athlete that a mid-major needs to take their team to the next level (And a 115 O-rating with 26% usage isn't too bad either).  Duke-Michigan would give us the chance to see unprecedented offensive fireworks on the bottom half of this bracket, but when forced to choose, I'll take the slugfest every time.

Very close runner-up: Wichita vs. Kentucky.  I had hoped to get this matchup two years ago, when Wichita was almost as good as they are now.  I'm pretty excited to see Kentucky's dominance on the offensive glass go up against Wichita's defensive rebounding ability (#5 in the country).  Because the Shockers can get rebounds and limit fouls, I think they matchup well against the Wildcats, but it should still be a great game.

The Pick for JerryWorld:  Louisville

Michigan gets a reasonable draw on the bottom half of this bracket, but I'm not doubting the Cardinals after their performance over the past two seasons.  The road for Rick Pitino will be tough, but it was tough last year, and they don't have to play someone as good as 2013 Colorado State in the round of 32.  I really want to see the Shockers make a second straight run, but they have to clear a much tougher third-round hurdle in Kentucky, and they don't have any one player quite as good as Russ Smith.

SOUTH

The South is a very odd region.  Kansas, Syracuse, and Ohio State are a trio of teams that looked like potential champions earlier in the season before injuries (Embiid) and poor play (CJ Fair, Aaron Craft) greatly diminished their chances.  On the other hand, UCLA and VCU both snuck under the radar most of the season, but are fully deserving of their seeds.  Add in Pitt and New Mexico and you have yourself a bracket that could go any number of ways. 

Of course, I haven't mentioned that team at the top of the bracket that has a pretty good chance of making everything else in the South irrelevant.  The Gators do just about everything well - their somewhat high turnover rate (17.8%) and poor free throw shooting (Patric Young) are about the only holes I can poke in their title chances.  They don't have a free pass to the Final Four, but they have as a good of a chance as they could hope for at ending their three year streak of losing in the regional final.

Best First Round Matchup:  New Mexico vs. Stanford

There aren't a bevy of fantastic matchups early in this bracket, so let's take the one that features some really tall guys.  Led by Cam Bairstow and Alex Kirk, the Lobos check in at 7th in the nation in effective height (of tournament teams, only NM State and Kentucky are taller), while Stanford isn't far behind at 13th.  Neither team is great at rebounding, so the main focus of the battle in the paint will be for points.

Best Possible Matchup:  UCLA vs. VCU

It's an eternally fun exercise to imagine how well VCU's havoc defense will match up against potential opponents.  UCLA might be the most fun opponent to imagine, primarily because of the brilliance of 6'9" point forward Kyle Anderson.  While Anderson can't move particularly fast (his nickname is Slow-Mo after all), he is as smart with the ball as anyone in the country, and he should be able to simply pass over the top of most trapping defenders. 

The Pick for JerryWorld:  Florida

This was the easiest pick to make.  Florida draws potentially tough matchups with Pittsburgh and VCU in the top part of the bracket, but the bottom half features an Embiid-less Kansas and a reeling Syracuse.  There are still reasons to believe that any of the teams seeded two to seven could make a run if things go right.  But while those teams need a lot to break right, Florida just needs to keep doing what they do.  I trust that Billy Donavan knows how to make that happen.

WEST

The Midwest is the best bracket, but the West is probably the most fun bracket.  The top half features a couple of punishing defenses (Arizona, San Diego State) getting tested by a bunch of top 25 offenses (Oklahoma, ND State, Oklahoma State).  The bottom half however, is all about offense.  The only two teams that crack the top 50 in defensive efficiency are Nebraska (30th) and 15-seed American (46th).  So there's going to be some points.  And likely a major clash of styles in the regional final.  Awesome.

Note: Nowhere is the committee's goal of seeding to the region clear than in the West.  Only one team (American) hails from the Eastern time zone.

Best First Round Matchup:  Oklahoma vs. North Dakota State

Oklahoma State-Gonzaga is an awesome 8-9 tilt, and Baylor-Nebraska has the makings of a classic, but I'll take the offensive shootout between the Sooners and the Bison.  Both teams feature top-25 offenses, but they go about achieving those results in completely different manners.  Oklahoma likes to push the tempo (17th in the nation), and takes a reasonably high number of threes (led by Buddy Hield's 224 three point attempts).  North Dakota State, on the other hand, likes to take it slow and prefers two-pointers (they're good at making them, too - 56%, which is good for 4th in the nation).  In spite of shooting down low a lot, they never get blocked (5% - best in the nation), although in fairness, that's partially representative of the smaller athletes in Summit Conference.

Best Possible Matchup:  Wisconsin vs. Creighton

Michigan and Duke have a good chance of putting on an offensive clinic in the Sweet Sixteen in the Midwest bracket.  The potential matchup between Wisconsin and Creighton could be even better than that.  Both teams like to operate on the perimeter, but this game might be decided down low.  Creighton's interior defense leaves a lot to desire, but McDermott is more than capable of at least making things difficult for Frank Kaminsky and Nigel Hayes.  At the same time, Doug is perfectly capable of driving to the hole, and smart passing from Austin Chatman and Grant Gibbs often leads to good looks near the basket.  I would tend to favor Wisconsin because they're not going to turn the ball over, and they're not going to let Creighton get to the line, but Creighton's capable of putting on a shooting display that can overwhelm just about anyone.

The Pick for JerryWorld:  Arizona

If Arizona is able to continue playing well enough without Brandon Ashley, they should roll.  Much like Michigan State though, I worry about foul issues.  Arizona only has six solid rotation players, so a foul-heavy game could take a special toll on them.  That said, they've been pretty good at avoiding fouls this season (57th in the nation), so it's only a minor worry.  In theory, they could get outscored by one of the teams on the bottom of the bracket, but I think they'll be able to find ways to score enough to win against whichever subpar defense they face.


FINAL FOUR

Last year, picking a champion was easy.  Florida was extremely underrated (they were #1 in KenPom) and had an easy draw (they were a 3-seed and Georgetown was the corresponding 2-seed).  While that didn't work out for me, I was still happy with my decision, as I was at least trying to zig while everyone else zagged.  This year, the main title contenders seem a bit more obvious.  Early returns show my Final Four teams all among the popular picks to win it all.  Much like last year, I like Louisville a lot.  However, they would have to come out of a tougher bracket, while Florida gets the easier half to navigate.  Thus, I will go with Florida, for now.  I might be changing this a few times over the next couple of days.

The fantasy portion of my Final Four picks is also difficult.  For the second straight year, all of my favorite teams (Creighton, SLU, Wisconsin, and Wichita State) got put on the same side of the bracket.  Thus, I can't dream of some awesome championship game matchup as I go to sleep tonight.  That said, I've taken quite the shine to NC Central over the past couple of weeks, so I'll be rooting for Creighton over NC Central in the title game.  Even though that matchup is the longest of longshots, there's a decent chance that we could see these Eagles at least make a little noise much like last year's Eagles.

Basketball in 2014: Three Teams

If you haven't noticed, the college basketball season is winding down.  Soon, the talk of bubble teams and one seeds will be over, and we'll have actual brackets and tournament games to fawn over.  I don't think this season quite lived up to the insane hype that preceded it, but it was still great nonetheless.  Most of the highly-touted freshman performed well, but we didn't exactly have 5 shiny new Kevin Durants dominating everything. 

As I am a huge fan of the sport, I was able to catch at least a little bit of most of the teams in consideration for the tournament.  That said, I still have my teams and those three teams dominated my attention, for better or worse.  These three teams supplied me with pretty much every emotion possible as they ran the gamut from the pinnacle of excellence to the essence of terribleness.  So I don't spend the whole of my bracket post talking about these teams, I thought I would give them their own space here.  This will allow me to not only talk about their seasons, but also to give a little consideration toward the future.

Notre Dame: Blerg

I wasn't a fan of the Irish before I went to Notre Dame, which makes it all the crazier to me that this is already my eleventh season as a fan.  Tournament greatness has escaped the Irish over that span, but at least there's always been a competitive squad in place.  Indeed, the Irish have always been a team that could conger up massive upsets, season-saving winning streaks, and give the hope of any given season finally being "the one."  That is, until this year.

This chart pretty much says the same thing as the above paragraph, but with numbers instead (all numbers from KenPom):

If there's one main compliment to be made about the Mike Brey era, it's that his teams rarely stink.  Besides this year's team, the only other team that isn't quite tournament quality would be the underwhelming 2005 squad, and they weren't that far off from being good.  Even the 2006 team (AKA. The Passion of Chris Quinn) that lost every single close game in new and inventive ways was a top-30 team.

The obvious question is what on earth happened this year?  The easy answer would be that Jerian Grant's suspension crippled the team.  Grant was the best player on the team, and honestly, one of the best I've ever seen play for Notre Dame.  During the telecast of the ND-UNC game last Monday, Jay Bilas theorized that ND would have been a top-25 team if Grant was around.  If that premise is true, then Grant's absence would explain everything.  While I agree that losing Grant was huge, I think this team was a little bit "doomed" from the start, for a couple reasons:

1. They weren't that good when Grant was playing - After the Ohio State game (Jerian's last game before the suspension), ND was 52nd in the KenPom ratings.  This is certainly better than the end product turned out, but it would still rank among one of the worst results of Brey's career.  These mediocre numbers weren't conjured out of thin air or anything; the team was 8-4 with home losses to Indiana State and North Dakota State (decent teams, but still).  The root of this mediocrity was the terrible defense.  Brey-coached team are rarely good on that side of the ball, but losing a decent defender in Grant isn't enough to explain away a defense that barely cracked the top 200.

2. Garrick Sherman - Garrick was the number one option in the offense but he just wasn't very good.  His O-rating was 99.0 (average is 100), with a usage rate of over 28% (just shy of top 100 in the nation), which means we spent a lot of time feeding a mediocre player the ball.  I still appreciate his overtime heroics from last year's Louisville game, and it's not necessarily his fault that Brey featured him so much, but he might just be my least favorite ND player ever.

The good news is that I think this will be a one year blip.  The returning core of Grant, Jackson, Vasturia, Connaughton, and Auguste should be formidable, and incoming talent should be as strong as ever.  I'm not under the impression that ND is necessarily going to start contending for ACC championships, but I think the program can get back to that comfortable level of winning that it's enjoyed for a while now.

Creighton: Making History

I am not often prone to hyperbole.  That said, this season of Creighton basketball is likely to go down as one of the most special seasons in this sports fan's life, for many reasons.  The most obvious reason would be the future Wooden Award winner, Doug McDermott.  There's been a number of great players on the teams I root for over the years, but I don't think there's ever been as dominant of a season as the one #3 is having.  Watching games while rooting for your favorite player is one thing; watching games rooting for someone like McDermott to pass the next hall of famer on the all-time NCAA scoring list is a whole different beast.  While I will always be a Creighton fan and have high hopes that they're going to be great next season, it still might be tough to adjust to just regular old basketball next season.

Of course, that "regular old basketball" is a completely different animal from what it was before.  Largely because of McDermott's success in his first three years (A Catholic orientation, huge arena, and dedicated fan base didn't hurt either), Creighton just wrapped up its first regular season in the Big East.  Not only did I get to enjoy Doug's march to 3,000, but I got to do so against a brand new set of tradition-laden opponents.  Many of the great matchups against teams with large trophies from their past endeavors suggested future rivalries that may become some of the best in the sport.  While I've always enjoyed rooting for the Jays, these last couple of years have been quite the ride.  I'll be sad to see it end, but thanks in large part to this extended run of good fortune, the Jays are set up to succeed for the long run.

Saint Louis: Saying Goodbye

The 2012 season was the campaign in which I started playing close attention to advanced metrics in college basketball.  While this opened up my eyes to a lot of new things, none was as great as my newfound love of Saint Louis basketball.  I came about the Billikens in a fairly innocuous manner:  I was perusing the KenPom team rankings and saw that Saint Louis, a team that hadn't made the tournament in years, was all the way up to #10 with very little national fanfare.  Since I knew nothing about them, I decided to find the next game of theirs that was on TV.  That game happened to be their penultimate conference affair of the season, a Tuesday night game against Xavier.  When they went on a massive run to start the second half, Chaifetz Arena was rocking and I was hooked.  Rick Majerus' brand of ferocious defense and smart yet aggressive offense was a perfect match for my sports-watching sensibilities.

If you follow basketball at all, you probably have a decent idea of what's happened since then.  In case you don't, here goes:  In the tourney, Saint Louis got stuck with a nine seed and an insanely tough draw in Memphis.  They made it past that and gave Michigan State a hell of a game before losing by four, in what would be Coach Majerus' last game.  He would leave the team during the summer for health reasons, and then died tragically on December 1st.  The interim coach Jim Crews performed admirably and helped to rally the team to win the A10 regular season and tournament championship.  The team bowed out in the third round again, this time to a plucky Oregon team that refused to miss threes.

That brings us to this season, which feature the last vestiges of Majerus' thumbprint in the starting lineup.  The five seniors have been strong, but the team has faltered a bit without the depth from previous years' teams*.  Luckily, the team is still the top seed in the A10 tourney, and will likely draw a decent seed in the NCAA tournament.  I don't have the same hopes of a final four run that I did last year, but there are reasons to believe that the Billikens could see the second weekend with a favorable enough draw.

*I love this picture and quote, but the funny thing is that Saint Louis was actually a better team the last couple years than this year.  It goes to show that getting a top ten ranking requires a lot of luck in addition to a lot of skill.

Of course, at some point later in March the Billikens will lose, and the senior starters will no longer be senior starters.  At that time, Saint Louis will barely resemble the outfit I fell for three years ago.  I haven't been terribly impressed with the efforts from the bench players, so I don't necessarily have a lot of hope for next season.  This leads me to conclude that this will likely be the end of my short-lived Billiken fandom.  It's been a great run, but I doubt that I'll DVR games next season to make sure I catch say, Tanner Lancona in action.  Luckily, the beauty of college basketball is that there are always other awesome teams out there that need a random guy from Ohio to root for them.  Since I seem drawn to teams coming out of nowhere to be good (Saint Louis and last year's Colorado State team), I have a couple of teams in mind.  In the meantime, I will enjoy what little time I have left with Dwayne Evans and Jordair Jett.  The resolve and unselfish nature of this team will be something I always remember.

Think For Yourself

When I come across something ridiculous, I often have the impulse to write about it.  Unfortunately, that impulse is rarely translated into action, mostly because of time constraints.  There are also times where I get close to finishing a post, but just don't feel good enough about it and let it go.  For example, there is an unfinished post about the Michigan fan who held up the Lizzy Seeberg sign on Gameday that's just begging to see the light of day, but never will.  I think the main issue for most of these failed posts is a lack of knowledge on my part:  I feel that I don't know enough about certain issues to speak with authority on them.  Thus, I generally stick to sports, TV, and the occasional autobiographical indulgence (like this paragraph!)

All that said, I came across a couple of tweets this week (on the same day) that reinforced perhaps my biggest worry about modern organized religion.  Since I think this point is important, and I think I can convey it efficiently and effectively, here we go.

First off, here is the first tweet:

Apparently any movie about overcoming adversity and not being afraid of stuff is secretly part of the gay agenda. http://t.co/5cSzTpfFdh
— Walter Hickey (@WaltHickey) February 18, 2014

And here is the second tweet:

Hadn't heard of Patrick Henry College before I read this. I won't be sending my daughter there. http://t.co/LPfEFjX7oS (HT @akmcquade)
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) February 18, 2014

For those who didn't click the links, let me provide a one sentence summary of each.  The first link is from a fellow Blogger user who sees anti-Christian messaging in the Disney movie Frozen.  To quote:

"The words to "Let it Go" are clearly not Christian-values friendly, by any stretch of the imagination, when understood and heard. This is not an innocent song, with a catchy tune. It is rebellious. It mocks moral absolutes. It is careless. It is unaccountable. It is anti-obedience. It is regardless. It is selfish."

The second link details the problems with Patrick Henry College, and how a focus on strict obedience to their version of Christian principles overtakes almost everything else, including the safety and well-being of its female students.

There is a lot of stuff going on in those two links, so I won't touch on it all (I could give the first link an FJM treatment if I really wanted to, but I won't).  The core issue that both of these posts touch on is that free thought and rebellion seem to be viewed as anti-Christian principles.  In the first article, the author point blank says that a couple of times.  In the second article, the uniformity and unrelenting nature of the school seem to pervade any hope of the subjects of the article becoming fully-functioning adults.  It seems clear that the desire for power and control of the administrators supersedes the ability to behave like an actual Christian towards the young adults trusted to their care.

In the end, this highlights what has always been my main concern of organized religion:  The human thirst for absolute power corrupts the underlying message, which is normally a good one of love and caring.  When we encourage young people to merely be obedient to the rules in place and not think for themselves, it makes waste of the gift of intelligence (which coincidentally, is something religious people generally believe comes from God). What is even worse is that this kind of upbringing can lead to situations like the one described in the second article, where young people who are trying to deal with repressed feelings make mistakes that they never intended to make.  There is much wisdom in the collective products of religion, whether it be the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Bhagavad Gita, but like all products of humans, they are not perfect.  If we allow ourselves and our children to realize this and "rebel" against the status quo by thinking for ourselves/themselves, then we can live a life that is both Christian and fulfilling.

Top TV of 2013

The popular sentiment in 2013 was that the "Golden Era" of TV was coming to an end.  With Breaking Bad airing its final episodes and Mad Men finalizing its exit strategy, the last great anti-heroes are set to join Tony Soprano, Vic Mackey, and others in wherever it is that characters go when their shows are over.  This may sound bleak, like television will never be quite as good again, but that's not really true.  For each legendary show that has ended, three more great shows have popped up in their place.  There are all more places to watch TV, more ways to watch TV, and more variety on TV than at any previous time.  Walter White and Don Draper will be missed, but in all honesty I think I'll be too distracted by all of the shows still airing to dwell on their absence.

Because we're in a time when there are so many excellent programs (and because I watched a lot more this year), I've expanded the list to 25 shows.  I figure that if I can write preseason capsules for 25 college football teams that I haven't seen play yet, I can write the same number of passages for shows that I've seen the entirety of.  Recently, there seems to be a lot of backlash among critics about having to rank shows, but you will see none of that here.  I love ranking things.  That is literally half of what I do on this blog.  With each entry, you will see a quote from the show that shines a light on what I love about each show.  I will also put an asterisk next to the name of the show if the capsule is particularly spoilery, in the interest of preserving surprise for more plot-oriented shows.

One final note: A lot of the write-ups, especially the first ten or so, will probably sound more negative than they should.  I love all of these shows, so writing 25 paragraphs about how awesome they all are would get old.  Rather, I want to show the difference between my very favorite shows and those that fall just short, so as to better describe what I found great about TV this year.


Shows I watched this year that didn't make the list: Homeland, The Office, How I Met Your Mother, Top Chef, Trophy Wife, The Good Wife, Happy Endings, Don't Trust the B, Community, The League, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The common refrain among many of these shows is that they had one or two excellent episodes, but lacked the overallconsistency of shows that made the rankings.  It's Always Sunny had the Emmy episode.  The Good Wife had the episode where the firm split in two (which was the only episode I happened to catch).  The Office had its spectacular finale.  Community had the Jim Rash-penned Freaky Friday episode.  In the end though, it was such a strong year for TV that I couldn't reward shows simply for one great episode.  Well, except for the first entry on the list, I guess....


#25 - Children's Hospital (Cartoon Network)

"CHANCE BRIGGS!!!" - Chance Briggs

And of course, the countdown begins with probably the most ridiculous show on the list.  One that was ridiculous enough to move the setting to Japan for the whole season for no other discernible reason that to make MASH jokes.  While the show was as good as it's always been, the half-hour long season finale took things to a new level.  I've always seen the 12-minute running time as beneficial to the show, as the breakneck pace of gags and tomfoolery might get old if stretched to a full half-hour.  "Coming and Going" quickly put those concerns to rest by showing an unexpected amount of range in splitting the characters up two-by-two into their own storylines.  Of course, those stories were as silly as ever (Owen seeks out his first ever orgasm only to realize he's had thousands), but their lengthier execution showed how Children's Hospital can continue to flourish, even in its old age.


#24 - Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox)

"My wife was murdered by a man in a yellow sweater!" - Jerald Jimes

No show on this list is as likely to climb up the 2014 list than Michael Schur and Dan Goor's Brooklyn Nine-Nine.  The duo has already shown the ability to turn a normally-drab workplace into a hilarious atmosphere (Schur on The Office and both on Parks and Rec), and the fact that Brooklyn started out stronger than either of those two leads me to believe that great things are on the horizon.  The first half-season of the show was far from perfect, but we've already been treated to some good characterization and hilarious comic setpieces ("Thanksgiving" features both a deeper understanding of Samberg's Peralta, as well as the plotline that leads to Andre Braugher screaming the above quote at a perp).  Of all the shows on this list, this is the one I am most likely to recommend to others, as there is quite simply something for everyone.


#23 - Archer (FX)

"Something something danger zone" - Sterling Archer

On the eve of the beginning of its fifth season, Archer keeps plugging along, stuffing more jokes into each episode than almost any comedy on the air.  While the show has never resonated on a deeper level for me, there are few shows I watch over and over more than Archer, largely because there is a certain richness to many of the gags that benefits from multiple viewings.  The fourth season didn't necessarily break any new ground (although the reveal of Lana's pregnancy could lead to some interesting storylines), but it kept putting the characters into fun situations such as invading Sealab* or partnering with a rather flatulent dog for a mission.  Archer may never be my favorite show on television, but it's one I always look very much forward to.

*Jon Hamm made an appearance as a young Captain Murphy (which was brilliant casting).  This will not be his last appearance on this list.


#22 - New Girl (Fox)

"You don't wanna wait forever for the caulk to harden." - Nick Miller

New Girl certainly has some issues, but the back half of its second season was remarkable for two big reasons.  One, the show found the sweet spot between goofy and sincere, and turned that into a truly unique atmosphere.  Jokes and throw-away lines take on a cadence that is unlike any other show, even seemingly similar ones like Happy Endings.  Two, the show was able to use that atmosphere to create one of the most sincere and successful will they/won't they situations with Jess and Nick.  The buildup to their relationship was handled with great comedic touch, while still treating everyone like real people.  New Girl shows how you can take the seemingly narrow scope of the "hang-out" show formula and make something truly unique with it.


#21 - Arrested Development (Netflix)

"A Bob Loblaw law bomb." - Bob Loblaw

The fourth season of Arrested Development was simultaneously an inventive reimagination of the medium and an overstuffed mess.  For every moment when multiple plotlines came together brilliantly, there was also one where something just didn't work.  I'm not sure that it will grow on me either, as I've re-watched a good portion of the season in the past few days without it improving my impression of it much.  All that said, we finally did get another season of the Bluth family, which I can't really complain too much about.  The show was dragged down a bit by the "look at me" nature of some of the references to past seasons*, but when it kept things sweet and short (like with the above quote), the show hit it out of the park.  If nothing else, the return of Arrested Development showed that if you wish for something hard enough, it just might happen.

*I would be interested to see a new show try a structure like this.  I imagine it would be both better and worse:  Better in that it wouldn't lean too heavily on past jokes, and worse in that we wouldn't have any knowledge of some of the characters that don't appear until later episodes.


#20 - Hannibal (NBC)

"This is my design." - Will Graham

There is a lot to like about Bryan Fuller's adaptation of the Hannibal Lecter story.  The set design and art direction is more stunning and intriguing than perhaps any other network show (or any show, for that matter).  Mads Mikkelsen's turn as Hannibal retains all of the creepiness of past portrayals while still finding enough originality to avoid any hints of staleness.  And the overarching story of the season* leads brilliantly and logically to the fantastic conclusion that I wouldn't dare spoil here.

*The episodic elements are a little "case of the week"-ish in that they often don't matter in and of themselves (think later-season House, where the patients often just served to reflect House's internal turmoil), but the serialized elements of the show are strong enough to overcome this.

All that said, the greatest strength of the first season of Hannibal was Hugh Dancy's turn as the perpetually unraveling FBI profiler Will Graham.  The phenomenal ability of the show to put us into his mind was largely dependent on Dancy's ability to mix the composure required by his character's profession with the terror that resulted from his mental state.  The great drama of the first season of Homeland centered on the impossibility of knowing what goes on in another person's head (namely Brody).  Hannibal took this a step further in that the central theme is unawareness what goes on in your own head.  All the grisly murders in the show are surely terrifying, but nothing is quite as frightening as Dancy's Graham not knowing what is and what is not reality.  In a time when the outside world is becoming less and less of a mystery, the inner working of our brains remain one of the least-understood things.  Given that, shows that highlight that as well as Hannibal may just be the most important ones on TV.


#19 - Game of Thrones (HBO)

"The realm? Do you know what the realm is?  It's the thousand blades of Aegon's enemies.  A story that we agree to tell each other over and over til we forget that it's a lie. (...) Chaos isn't a pit, chaos is a ladder.  Many who try to climb it fail, and never get to try again.  The fall breaks them.  Some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse.  They cling to the realm or gods or love.  Illusions.  Only the ladder is real.  The climb is all there is." - Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish

Game of Thrones shares a lot of thematic resonance with one of my favorite shows of all time, Deadwood.  Both shows deal with the creation and maintaining of communities, and use their primitive settings to deal with modern themes from a comfortable distance.  That said, the above quote shows a stark difference between the two shows.  Whereas the members of the Deadwood community tend to all agree to the aforementioned lie (in spite of their differences, the whole town comes together against the tyrannical nature of George Hearst...also there is a two-parter literally called "A Lie Agreed Upon"), the residents of Westeros have fundamentally different understandings of society.  Some parties try to unify the kingdom, while others' only concern is for themselves.  That the latter group wins a lot in season three paints a bleak picture of humanity, but it might be more appropriate for the times, given the harsh political and economic climate.*

*Yes, politics has always been terrible, so the current state of affairs really isn't any worse than any other time.  That said, society has made so many advances that it seems like we should be beyond a lot of the stuff that goes on.

As a show, Game of Thrones tells as majestic and wide-sweeping of a tale as anything on television.  The problem with this is that there is so much going on that we start to lose touch of some of what made the earlier seasons great.  In season one we spent a lot more time learning about what makes characters tick, and saw a lot of great character development as a result.*  In season three, the only characters that seem to go through a major progression that isn't death are Jamie and Brianne (Bran learns how to control minds, too, so that's something).  Season three of Game of Thrones was a tremendous spectacle that deserves recognition, but I hope future seasons return us a bit more towards the basics.

*Joffrey is great example of this.  In season one, we saw Cersei spoil him to the point that we understood why he is a terrible person.  This year, we pretty much just saw him be a crazy person with little depth.


#18 - Masters of Sex (Showtime)

"I can spot a statistically average masturbator from a mile away" - Dr. Bill Masters

In a lot of ways, Masters of Sex is two shows in one.  One show follows the exploits of Dr. Masters and his partner Virginia Johnson through both the successes and failures of their study of human sexuality.  The other show establishes a context for this study; a society in which gender roles dominate and true sexual desires are repressed.  The first show is fantastically done, weaving in details of Masters and Johnson's characters to tell a full fledged story not just about an academic work but also the people behind it.  The second show is....not as good. 

It's not that I don't think the second show is necessary; without an understanding of the setting of the show and customs of the times, the viewer would be easily confused by the character's odd decisions.  Instead, the problem with Masters of Sex is that this second show isn't done all that well.  One example of this is the story of the provost and his wife.  Beau Bridges and Allison Janney were both fantastic, but the story line just didn't do anything for me.  I could tell the point of the story (that repressing ones' true desires leads to unhappy people), but there wasn't enough complexity in the characters to elicit a genuine response.  The first season of Masters of Sex laid a solid groundwork for a long-running show; I hope future seasons are able to draw out the supporting storylines a little bit better.


#17 - Mad Men (AMC)

"I grew up in Pennsylvania, in a whorehouse.  The closest I got to feeling wanted was from a girl who made me go through her john's pockets while they screwed.  If I collected more than a dollar, she'd buy me a Hershey Bar.  And I would eat it alone in my room, feeling like a normal kid." - Don Draper

Judging by the "best of 2013" lists I've seen thus far, Mad Men has fallen out of the critical eye a bit.  This isn't to say that the new shows that have displaced it haven't earned their praise, but I don't think Mad Men has fallen very far (if at all) from when it was the peak of television drama.  The focus shifted away from some of our favorite characters (most notably Roger), but did a lot of great things with the integration of CGC and Pete's troubles with Bob Benson.  I still think the show leans a little too heavily on replicating familiar American history,* but when the show gets to the payoff of all of the character work it's done over the years (Don's speech from above), there isn't much on TV that's better.

*It would be admittedly weird for the show to not at least mention the numerous events of 1968.  Weiner and company did a reasonably good job of integrating these without dwelling on them too much.


#16 - The Americans (FX)*

"Come home" - Elizabeth

There were new shows that I liked better this year, but I don't think there was a debut with as much promise for the future as The Americans.  The first season of the show relied a little too much on single-episode concerns, and also had a little too much back and forth on the relationship between Elizabeth and Philip, which was honestly a little confusing from week to week.  I was never quite sure how they felt about each other, which I guess could have been on purpose...they are spies after all.  Still, a little more clarity on this might have brought the show into better focus.  Judging by the above quote from the end of the finale, I think season two will address this problem head on.

All that said, there were so many great things that earned this ranking and make me excited to see what happens next.  The fantastic use of era-specific music underscored the very eighties-ish cinematography and atmosphere.  The terrific performances of Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich, and (especially) Keri Russell lent a human touch to a time marked by paranoia and fear.  Most of all, what makes The Americans great is that it takes the feeling of its era and plays it out beautifully in the story of its characters.  In particular, the progression of Nina from a low-level Russian employee to double-agent (or is it triple-agent?) shows the impact of the Cold War on its participants.  On the whole, The Americans is able to pull off the neat trick of feeling very large and very small at the same time, which makes for a wholly satisfying watch.


#15 - Veep (HBO)

"Sir, we have a system that I believe to be....robust?" - Sue

During its first season, Veep was a consistent stream of terrible people being terrible to each other in the most hilarious manner possible.  Season two kept the same formula as the first, but took it to a whole new level.  Not only did the characters get fleshed out a little better (Mike bought a boat!  Sue gets to testify in a hearing!), but the stakes are raised as well.  Whether Selina is trying to successfully bring hostages home (and take the credit at the same time), or strategizing to get her name in the running for the presidency, Veep is consistently great and one of the fastest half-hours on television.


#14 - Orange is the New Black (Netflix)

"I'm here to surrender." - Piper

For the first episode of OITNB, we see Piper's entrance into prison mostly from her own eyes.  This is entertaining enough, and is an interesting exercise for anyone who can envision themselves in her shoes. But that story alone isn't what makes the show one of the best of the year.  Rather what makes OITNB great comes in the next 12 episodes.  Over the course of the first season, we come to see prison from many other's eyes thanks to the focus on the tremendous ensemble (and generous helpings of back stories).  This exercise reveals that OITNB possesses one of the most vibrant and communities of people on television.  Sure, not every character is fully-drawn after just thirteen episodes, and some of the characterization is a tad simplistic, but the end result is still fantastic.  OITNB provides one of the best meditations on community and relationships that television has to offer.


#13 - Parks and Recreation (NBC)

"I am tired of not being married to this woman." - Ron Swanson

Is Parks and Rec showing its age?  Yes.  Is it still one of the best comedies on television?  Also yes.  There may be a little less character development than there once was, and the threats to Leslie's career may be a little more cartoonish, but the show is still able to deliver legitimate emotional moments (Leslie and Ben's wedding, pretty much the whole London episode) in between the constant hilarity.  By the way, I'm still waiting for the commercial release of Cones of Dunshire.


#12 - Rectify (Sundance)

"Because I know you, because I know you, because I know you" - Kerwin

The Sundance Channel burst onto the scene this year with three terrific new shows, of which, Rectify is the first to appear on this list.  Both it and the other two shows (which you'll read about shortly) dealt with a central mystery and the claustrophobic nature of small towns.  However, Rectify was unique in that the mystery wasn't the main attraction of the show.  Sure, Daniel's guilt and/or innocence in the decades-old crime is of major importance, and I'm sure it will come up once or twice in future seasons.  But what's paramount to the first season is simply how Daniel is able to reintegrate into a society that both doesn't want him and has forgotten about him.  The methodical and reflective pace of the show normally wouldn't work for me, but the fantastic work by Aiden Young makes everything interesting, even if it's just walking around a convenience store and taking in two decades worth of changes.  In fact, it's actually quite refreshing for a show to take its time and not focus solely on the central mystery.  By employing the slow burn to build up Daniel's character and his relationship to those around him, the eventual reveal of his fate will likely hold far more meaning.


#11 - The Returned (Sundance)*

"Sorry, you must have been worried, but something really weird happened." - Camille

If I was only including the first seven episodes of the French series The Returned in my evaluation, then the show's placement would be much higher.  The series works to build up the mystery of why the dead are coming back so well, gradually revealing piece after piece while providing clues to solving other parts.  The mood and tone of the show is unparalleled, with the Mogwai-penned score providing a perfect backdrop.  Finally, the characters and the fantastic acting that helps create them provide legitimate emotional stakes which take the central mystery beyond a simple matter of intrigue to a place where we really care what happens to these people.  And wow, the kid that plays Victor is fantastic.

Of course, I have to count everything that happened in 2013, so I have to include the disappointing finale, which goes a little out of its way to be oblique.  There is a spectrum of ways to handle a show like this:  You can gravitate towards the end of obsessively trying to answer every question, or you can take a more mysterious approach and not be afraid to leave things open-ended.  While I generally favor the latter method, The Returned goes a little too far in that direction.  This isn't to say that I absolutely needed some sort of resolution to happen in the finale.  However, the extraordinary events of the finale (the horde approaching the Helping Hand, the flooding of the town, Chloe's kidnapping) are the kind of things that should make characters stand up and ask questions.  Instead, everyone accepts everything at face value, and we're left with very little resolution to the tension at hand.  I am hopeful that this is just a blip in an otherwise awesome series, but it does shine a light onto how well the central mystery will hold up over time.


#10 - Eastbound and Down (HBO)*

"Victory is its own reward" - Kenny Powers

The common question entering the fourth and final season of Eastbound and Down was whether or not another season of the show was necessary.  The plan had always been for just three seasons, and the previous season ended on a rather definitive note (Kenny leaving baseball to be with April) that would have worked well as a finale.  Then the fourth season rolled around, and these questions were put to rest as the show was as great as ever.  No other show on television is able to strike the tonal balance between normal life and surrealness that personifies the quest for fame.  Just as Kenny Powers carries himself with no doubt in his abilities, Eastbound and Down makes itself necessary simply by existing.

The fourth season of the show saw more of the same (Kenny being an asshole but pretty much never the biggest one, Stevie being Stevie, etc.) but with enough of a wrinkle to make it an essential part of the series.  Kenny still seeks out fame as he always has, but this time his playing days are past him.  Instead, Kenny looks towards his friend's Around the Horn-type show to launch him to stardom.  It's fitting that Kenny's least substantive attempt at fame is the one that ends such a desire once and for all.  Yes, trying to throw baseballs for a living is inherently kind of silly, but Kenny's quest to return to the majors could at least claim some sort of noble goal.  When Kenny realizes the folly of his ways, he leaves it all behind and chooses a live with April.  This may seem like a cop-out of an ending*, but in reality it's perfect.  Kenny's perpetual quest for fame was always a thinly-masked desire to be accepted and loved.  When he realizes that no one will love him as much as his family, there is really no other choice.  Eastbound and Down was always known as crass and unforgiving, but its less-talked about heart is what gave the show balance and made it great.

*Yes, I know there's the whole story/dream sequence thing at the very end, but even after a few views I don't know exactly what's going on there, so I'll leave it alone for now.


#9 - Girls (HBO)

"Don't tell anyone this, but I want to be happy" - Hannah Horvath

For most shows on this list, it was pretty easy to find a quote to sum up my feelings about the show.  It's fairly telling then that this exercise was most difficult for Girls.  The main reason for this is that Girls was so many different things in its second season.  It was an earnest look at the difficulties young adults encounter as they go down the path of life.  It was a satirical take on the unearned privilege and false drama that populates that journey.  And it was often a series of hilarious events happening to a group of rather odd characters.  Don't waste time trying to pin down what exactly Lena's Dunham's show is, because it is no one thing.  Any show with the range to explore the inner workings of all its characters (compare Hannah's breakdown in "One Man's Trash" to Adam's in "On All Fours") deserves to be appreciated for the versatile entity that it is.

*Fun note: Andrew Rannells, who played Hannah's roommate/ex-boyfriend Elijah ,went to my high school.  So did Nicholas D'Agosto, who plays Ethan on Masters of Sex.  Good times for Prep.  And no, not all Junior Jay alumni are insanely handsome men.


#8 - 30 Rock (NBC)

"That's our show.  Not a lot of people watched it, but the joke's on you, because we got paid anyway." - Tracy Jordan

It may not seem like it, but yes, 30 Rock was actually on the air in 2013.  The last five episodes of the final season aired in January, and they served as a perfect send-off to one of the greatest comedy series ever.  30 Rock did often meander a bit (especially in its later years), but the final blast of episodes accomplished so much in a seemingly effortless manner.  Jack said a final goodbye to his mother, deepened his friendship with Liz, and determined the course of the rest of his career.  Liz started her family by adopting kid versions of Tracy and Jenna and moved on from the end of TGS.  Kenneth took over control of NBC in perpetuity thanks to his oft-mentioned immortality (the St. Elsewhere fakeout at the end was just perfect).  And Ottavia Spencer suggested changing the name of Tracy's Harriet Tubman biopic to "Tubgirl."  The ridiculousness of those four sentences shows just what the show could be and why it was so unique; Yes, it was a goofy show, but it was brilliantly goofy, and it always had the Liz-Jack backbone to keep it grounded.


#7 - Enlightened (HBO)

"I'm just a woman who's over it." - Amy Jellicoe

The first season of Enlightened played out a fun hypothetical: What if someone in a vulnerable state completely bought in to new age philosophies and focused her life on nothing but her own self-actualization?  This idea made for great television, but Enlightened didn't truly hit its stride until the second (and sadly, final) season.  One reason for this was that the plot was a little more focused on Amy's quest.  Adding Molly Shannon and Dermot Mulroney as key cogs in the drive to take down Abadon helped flesh out the story better.  However, the biggest reason for improvement was that the supporting cast got the spotlights they deserved.  While neither was as good as season one's "Consider Helen," the episodes "Higher Power" and "The Ghost is Seen" helped to deepen Eli and Tyler's character to the point that they were just as important to the story as Amy.

All in all, Enlightened was one of the most unique shows on television this year.  While most shows focus on something extraordinary (Walter White and Will Graham are geniuses, Game of Thrones is about the fate of a kingdom, etc.), Enlightened kept the focus on the ordinary and the mundane.  In doing so, the show was able to shine a light on a part of life most of us can identify with: feeling powerless against the larger institutions in life and figuring out what to do about it.  Amy Jellicoe may be a stubborn and grating character, but her fight against tyranny and for self-fulfillment was perhaps the best view of humanity on this list.  It was also one of the best things on TV this year.


#6 - Top of the Lake (Sundance)*

"You've got a real teacher now, make sure you pay attention to him." - GJ

Top of the Lake might have been the least "TV-like" thing on TV this year.  Episodes started and ended seemingly at random.  Cliff-hanging revelations in the central mystery were few and far between*.  The cinematography seemed wider and grander than all other shows, with a chase across New Zealand cliffs resulting in perhaps the most haunting image of the year.  For a channel that specializes in showing movies, Top of the Lake was a perfect gateway into the world of TV.  One big advantage that the medium of TV has over movies is the additional running time with which to build characters.  Top of the Lake employs that advantage spectacularly, with Elizabeth Moss' Robin and Peter Mullan's Matt being two of the deepest, most nuanced characters on television.  Their battle, both literal and metaphorical, for the heart of the small town in which the story takes place ended up as one of the best works of 2013.

*The final reveal of Sgt. Parker being behind Tui's disappearance was a little out of left field (and perhaps unnecessary to the story), but it fit with the creepy vibe of the character, so I was fine with it.


#5 - Bob's Burgers (Fox)

"Quickie Kissit:  Where the currency is kisses and everyone is rich"  - Tina Belcher

As television has evolved into what it is now, the family sitcom has gone a bit by the wayside.  Some of the best comedies of the past focused on families, but most of the best comedies today consist of workplace and/or hangout based models.  The notable exception to that is Bob's Burgers, which has sneakily created perhaps the best family on TV.  It has done this by not focusing on being realistic but rather by being real.  Yes, things like talking toilets and table setting competitions are bizarre, but the human interactions that underscore them are as genuine and earnest as anything on TV.  And of course, the show is hilarious (just try to get those songs out of your head).  In deftly managing this balance between the funny and the sincere, Bob's Burgers has become my top comedy of 2013.*

*I worked out the order of the list in early December before everyone published their best of lists.  I thought this entry in particular would be a unique recognition.  It was not.


#4 - Orphan Black (BBC America)*

"We're clones, OK?" - Alison

As I watched the great first season of Orphan Black, a part of me worried that the show won't be able to hold up to the weight of its mythology.  As we learned more and more about the origins of Sarah and her "friends", a lot of layers were added to the story that may not hold up through multiple seasons*.  Of course, there is also a part of me that thinks the other part is stupid for worrying so much about a show that was damn near perfect.  Sure, there is a chance that the plot falls apart in the future, but due to the fantastic character work the show did with the different clones, I think this show will be interesting regardless of where the story goes.  With the impressive differentiation between the quick-thinking Sarah, the uptight Alison, or the frantic Helena (among others), Tatiana Maslany's incomparable work as the clones was the greatest out-of-nowhere surprise of 2013.

*Upon a second read, it may seem like I'm ragging pretty hard on the plot, but that is all worries about the future.  This year, it was mostly fantastic.  When a mystery show works its reveals as well as Orphan Black did, it goes to show just how exciting this kind of storytelling can be.  That excitement plus Maslany's performance makes this a top five show for me.


#3 - Justified (FX)

"You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole.  You run into assholes all day, you're the asshole." - Raylan Givens

When people discuss the top current dramas on TV, Justified often gets overlooked.  I think part of this may be the misconception that it's still very episodic/procedural as it was in its early days, but the main reason is very simple:  The show fails to be elite at any single thing.  It doesn't posses a trait as superlative as the acting of Breaking Bad, the character development of Mad Men, or the insane scope of Game of Thrones.  Of course, you've probably noticed the "#3" next to the shows name by now, so something about the show must be great.  That something is everything. 

While most other shows can point to a couple things as what they do best, Justified is quite simply great at everything.  If you're looking for plot, Justified does it as well as anybody, building to thrilling and coherent conclusions at the end of every season.  If you turn the focus to the characters, Rayland Givens is fascinating as a lawman as wounded and angry about his past as he is sly and smooth in the present.  The acting is superb with Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins deserving the yearly Emmy nominations that they never get.  And finally, the whip-smart dialogue is worthy of being inspired by Elmore Leonard, and is often hilarious to boot.  Even though Justified isn't labeled a comedy, I find myself smirking as much during it as I do during anything (adding Patton Oswalt as Constable Bob doesn't hurt).  More than any other show on the list, Justified has no weaknesses, and is an elite show as a result.


#2 - Treme (HBO)*

"Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans" - John Boutte

Unlike some of the shows that appear lower down on this list, Treme doesn't wow you with polish or execution.  Storylines can be a little rough around the edges, and not all of the acting is top-notch (though some of it most certainly is).  Instead of laying out perfect calculated set pieces like some shows, Treme takes the opposite route, inviting the viewer into the messy occurrence that is real life*.  As a result of this approach, Treme feels like perhaps the most lived-in show I've ever seen.  That sense of place and of real characters that inhibit it, make the show one of the most unique things on TV.

*Not coincidentally, the jazz/blues/etc music featured in the show serves as a metaphor for the structure of the show itself.  Just as jazz is free flowing and improvised, so to does the show come off as the characters simply living their lives.

The final season may have been abbreviated, but it still packed the same punch as all of the other seasons.  The Chief's descent into illness was tragic, but his resolute nature throughout was a testament to the man he was.  Davis' attempt to grow up was surely futile from the start, but it did add an important layer to a character that did often appear to be the simple goofball that he came off as.  Annie's struggle in choosing her career path was often a bit disconnected from the rest of the show, but the storyline went a long way in showing how far the character had come from the first season.  These stories, as well as all of the others big and small, wove together beautifully to paint the picture of a diverse and vibrant city.  Treme was never "The Wire: New Orleans" as many fans wanted it to be, but there's nothing wrong with that.  By carving its own niche in the world of drama, Treme became a truly indispensable portrait of a community rising from the ashes to carry on its unique way of life.


#1 - Breaking Bad (AMC)*

"I did it for me.  I liked it.  I was good at it.  And I was....I was alive."  -Walter White

Breaking Bad was awesome this year.  I probably didn't need to tell you that.  Yes, "Felina" probably wrapped the show up a little too neatly, but that alone wasn't enough to detract from an otherwise nearly-perfect season of television.  Instead of continuing on and being the millionth person to wax poetic and sing the show's praises, I'll take a different angle and talk about a larger theme of the show that I feel goes overlooked.

During the final run of Breaking Bad critics wrote ad nauseam about the thematic and moralistic implications of Walter White.  It got to the point where people were even writing commentary about these interpretations.  While I enjoyed the debate about what the show was and what it wasn't, I don't really want to continue any of those arguments here.  As the hyperlinked column says, Walter White can be many things, all at the same time, and I often like to leave it at that.  Rather, I want to offer up an interpretation of the "message" of the show through my own lens.

For me, the quote at the beginning of this section is one of the keys to unlocking the importance of Walter White.  The other key is the final scene of the series, where in his final moments, Walt looks upon his creation with pride.  The common theme between these two moments is the sense of pride and fulfillment that Walt feels from his meth empire.  This pride provides the counterpoint of the pilot, when Walt felt dejected by his job, his brother-in-law, and even his wife.  Thus the journey the series takes can be seen as Walt's journey to self-actualization.  While that is a noble goal in and of itself, the series shows that too narrow of a focus on this can be disastrous.  Sure, Walt was able to vanquish all of his enemies, but it cost him everything he had, most notably his family.*  The lesson that we can all take away from this, is that the journey to self-fulfillment should be one of balance.  While it's good to strive to be all you can be, you must be careful and spend time to reflect on the costs of the journey.

*This is part of why I didn't think "Felina" let Walt off the hook that much.  Sure, he got to avenge the Nazis, free Jesse, and (perhaps) get some money to his son, but he had already paid the price for his sins when he left town in "Ozymandias."  Everything after that was more focused on tying up loose ends in the plot.


Programming Note:  Given the amount that I have written over the past few months, I think I am due to take a little time off.  The new job is starting to ramp up, and basketball is about to hit conference play, so it would probably be best to take some to time to "relax" and focus on that.  I'll return on Selection Sunday with some thoughts about what will probably be a crazy bracket.