As our March Madness live-blogger put it at the beginning of Dime’s all-out Big Dance coverage, Thursday was one of the few “guy days” of the calendar year — like the Super Bowl, only since it starts in the middle of the workday, you’ve got people sneaking TV’s into the office, hitting the “Boss Button” on their monitors and stashing live-streaming iPhones in desk drawers. Pound-for-pound, is there a better sports day out there? We doubt it … The game of the day had to be UCLA’s win over Virginia Commonwealth. Read More »

With the morning, afternoon and evening sessions out of the way on Day One of the Big Dance, we’re down to just four more games, featuring Duke, UCLA, Oklahoma and Illinois. You can check out the earlier action by clicking the red live links…

* Duke/Binghamton is underway; the Devils lead 10-7 five minutes in. What’s the percentage of basketball fans around the country you think who are pulling for Duke to lose? Somewhere in the 40s? The 50s? I have a shameful secret: Read More »

If you missed the morning and afternoon games, check out Dime’s coverage via the live links in red. This third session’s action features Texas, Villanova, Gonzaga, Michigan and Clemson, among others…

* Michigan and Clemson tip it off. As everyone has stated, this is the intriguing contrast in styles, with Clemson’s full-court pressing uptempo game versus Michigan’s zone D and three-happy offense. And right away, Clemson almost forces a turnover by trapping one of UM’s guards in the corner. Read More »

In order to prevent carpal-tunnel-by-scrolling, we’re breaking up the Madness blog into sections. After Memphis, LSU and Texas A&M advanced earlier, here’s the next set of games…

* There’s like 200 people in the stands for this Purdue/Northern Iowa game. It looks like a Memphis Grizzlies home game. Purdue is up 20-8 midway through the first half; the Boilermakers are leasing studio apartments in these kids’ shirts. Read More »

Covering the first day of the NCAA Tournament as it happens…

* March Madness makes you do silly things. I actually spent a decent amount of time last night making a food schedule for, as I described it to my fiancee, one of the few “guy days” of the year. With the games tipping off around 9:30 a.m. West Coast time — too early to go with pizza or Subway — I figured I’d get some of the addictive breakfast sandwiches at the deli next to my building to start, then subs around lunchtime. I actually did all this BEFORE filling out my bracket. Read More »

Hopefully the first round of our NBA Jam-inspired pro 2-on-2 tournament won’t mirror the first round of March Madness this week; zero upsets as determined by our readers’ votes. There was one tie — in the Phoenix/New Jersey matchup — but with the Dime editorial staff serving as the tiebreaker, we went with Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire getting the win. Read More »

As I’ve said before, the first day of the NCAA Tournament is my favorite day of the year. Unfortunately, it seems some people just don’t understand. Yesterday I got the most depressing e-mail ever from one of my buddies. I seriously almost wanted to cry. I don’t want to get him in trouble, but this is all he had to say: “I am assuming Dime doesn’t send out emails like this…” Read More »

That’s one of my favorite quotes, which comes from Austin’s pops whenever he sees highlights like this one. Whoever edited this montage together is the man – it’s an awesome compilation. My favorite clip has got to be when LBJ stalks T.J. Ford as he slows down to try to avoid James, but gets his lay-up smacked.

When the Rockets lost to the Spurs over the weekend, one of their biggest problems was an overall indecisiveness and lack of an offensive identity in the fourth quarter, whereas San Antonio knew exactly who they were going to and what they were doing in crunch time. In last night’s double-overtime win over the Pistons, the Rockets had it figured out:Feed the ball to Yao Ming. Read More »

The list of seriously relevant basketball players always dwindles as the regular season draws nearer to the playoffs. You’re seeing it this week with the NCAA Tournament (Anyone heard from Jodie Meeks lately?), and in the NBA it’s especially true — heading down the playoff stretch, only a select few dominate the nightly highlight shows and blog rolls.

You have to consider these things when putting together a magazine. Cover options are plentiful earlier in December, but as the postseason gets closer, they become limited. Read More »