March Radness Update

And some tall basketball players to boot!

We're through the first week of the NCAA tourney with action set to resume tomorrow. As has been the norm in recent years, there were many upsets and many busted brackets. My strategy of doing even less research than normal (which isn't much) has resulted in me doing even more poorly than usual, which I should have seen coming. Here are some other notable notes:

• The legendary P00PSH00TER 2 is the overall leader, because of course! I have no actual idea who this is, though. It also begs the question - was P00PSH00TER already taken as a bracket name?
• The Raz Card Blog and Roxfan17 have the highest overall PPR. I'm not exactly sure what PPR means, but I am guessing that it's the equivalent to Yahoo's total possible points. People that have the highest total possible points are usually sitting in better shape than the actual leaders, since you can really ruin your future score by overreaching (or under...) on a pick.
• In Worst Place, and with pretty much no hope at this point, I'm sorry to say is Tribecards. As promised, this year's worst place "winner" is going to get something truly terrible. You guys may as well start emailing me with your list of things David really doesn't like. (Michigan Wolverines, maybe?)

Because this is a card blog and there must be cards to look at, here's another look at some cards that Howard has sent me. This is basically Part 2 of my last post.

Howard hit up the very beginning of my Portland Trail Blazers want list, by sending most of the Topps team set from their inaugural season. These cards are in tremendous shape for being nearly 45 years old! None of the players are depicted in actual Blazers uniform as they were just getting the franchise up and running at the time. Rick Adelman would play for a spell for Portland and would later become the head coach during one of the franchise's most successful runs, with two NBA Finals appearances and a franchise best 63-win season among his accomplishments.

Pat Riley?! This is actually one of the most expensive cards of the group, if not the most expensive. My knowledge of early hoops cards is pretty lacking, but I know this one commands some bucks. Riley never actually played for Portland, having been selected in the expansion draft from the then-San Diego Rockets before being sold to the Lakers before Portland's first season of play began. This wasn't as big as the team's whiff on Moses Malone, who they grabbed in the ABA merger before instantly trading him off. (They might have had some other whiffs, but I'm not going to talk about those.) The back of Riley's card, incidentally, claims his home as Portland which seems unlikely.

Schlueter is the only player in the '70-'71 tallboy lot that I have actually seen play in person... sort of. In the '80s and '90s he was a part of a locally traveling Blazers alumni team and I know I got to see him play in a high school gym or two against some faculty. My scanner ate part of his card's border.

The card backs are delightfully adorned with the old timey Topps cartoons that we all know and love.

The tallboy format (is that what we're calling it?) has been resurrected time and time again, and Howard sent me a few similarly sized cards from a couple of decades later.

I don't think I ever owned any NBA Jam Session cards until now, but I am happy to have them. I remember buying a couple of packs of NFL Game Day that came in the same size and then instantly being frustrated that I didn't have any appropriate Ultra Pro sheets for them to occupy.

Thanks again to Howard!