Bullets: Merry Christmas, everyone

Dance, today

Last chance to get in the PFB bracket. Prizes to the top three. (Yahoo)

Here are my picks. (PFB)

If you hate college basketball, you should root for Iowa State. (Deadspin)

I always love Matt Norlander’s tourney haikus. OSU-Oregon: Pokes a mystery / Surreal year for Oregon / Joe Young: straight baller (CBS)

A look at offensive/defensive efficiency in OSU’s region. (PFB)

I agree with Berry here, a Kansas-Wichita State possibility is the best thing the committee did. (NewsOK)

Are you taking over or under 9.5 Big 12 wins? (Fox SW)

I can’t believe this is still a thing, but Larry Brown (of all people!) thinks Kentucky would make the NBA playoffs in the East. Idiotic. (Yahoo)

Here are all the teams that have entered the tournament with a perfect record. (CBS)

Which tourney teams could beat Kentucky. OSU? Nah — Le’Bryan Nash would have to drop like 30 and 10, and Phil Forte III would have to go 10-for-10 from the 3-point line or something. (ESPN)

Hoops misc.

The Anthony Hickey rule was erased by the NCAA. No more runoff transfers will be able to play immediately. (NewsOK)

Cool look at Coach Dickey’s impact on this year’s team. (Tulsa World)

Travis Ford has been justifying tournament losses for almost as long as I’ve been alive. (NewsOK)

Good check-in on Marcus Smart here by Anthony Slater. Stevens on Smart: “He was as ready defensively as any 20-year-old could be.” (NewsOK)

Robert Allen writes a defense of Phil Forte that Tyreek Hill’s lawyer would be jealous of. (Scout)

Football misc.

Here’s the final eight in the helmet bracket. How did West Virginia make it to the Sweet 16? I want a Michigan-Texas or LSU-Texas title game. (CBS)

Golf things

I talked about golf with No Laying Up for an hour yesterday. It was all kinds of fun. Lots of defending Richard F. (NLU)

Speaking of, here’s a great post on why Fowler doesn’t win more. (NLU)

Other sports

Good profile of Tim Arakawa here. I loved the story about his team traveling to Maryland from Hawaii as a kid. (Big 12 Sports)

Part 3 of our wrestling preview. Great job by Ty Ames. (PFB)

John Smith previews the NCAAs.

More stuff I’m reading

The truth about getting older is that there are fewer and fewer things to make fun of until finally there is nothing you rare sure you will never be. (Kleon)

Great teachers teach commitment. (Godin)

I really enjoyed this on the Harlem chess club. (New York Times)