Frank Sees solo Beatles bowing out....Black Keys Tuning Up.

Play-in Game Results: Men Without Hats 96, Floaters 21:

The Midget guy was a force, scoring 79 points getting feeds from the tall guy, who garnered a Star Wars Record 68 turnovers. Tony Signore, a Star Wars Junior Official was on hand to watch in horror. "They have to stop the Float stuff, a high school team could have beat those guys. Reminds me of the 'Center Sneak' in football. Reminds me of the old hidden ball trick, in baseball. The Floaters were caught with their pants down again."

Some good games are coming up this weekend. Frank Lalonde looks at a few of them.




To be sure, Men Without Hats use to field a strong lineup, but as defenses got better, and safety became a prime issue, their play seemed to stagnate along the way. At the core, Men Without Hats consisted of Ivan Doroschuk and his brother Stefan, with various other members, including a third brother, Colin, as well as Jeremie Arrobas, Tracy Howe, Roman Martyn, Mike Gabriel, Heidi Garcia, Jean-Marc Pisapia, Lenny Pinkas, and Allan McCarthy. Their 1991 squad, dominated by a radical offense known as the processed electric guitar, revealed a dramatically different strategy for the team due to synthpop falling out of style. That is not going to make their battle with Number 1 seed The Black Keys any easier. The Keys unique play, and use of an inspired defense ("10 am Automatic") was used in the video game MLB '06: The Show. With youth AND experience on their side, The Black Keys seem to be headed to bigger and better things. Meanwhile, MWH is probably going to be watching from the sidelines following their (inevitable?) first round ousting.

PREDICTION: The Black Keys 89, Men Without Hats 51----



Lyle Lovett, despite a regular season loss to The Dire Straits, has high hopes for moving deep into this year's tourney. As one magazine put it: "The secret of Lyle Lovett's endurance comes down to the three C's: class, charisma and consistency... In the coach's office and on court with his giant of a team, he's spent two decades gracefully matching genuine cagecraft with A-list leadership". Though normally low-key, his small-town life was brought to the public's attention on March 28, 2002 when Lovett was caught by a bull and rammed into a fence on his uncle's farm in Klein, Texas, before being pulled to safety. Lovett fully recovered after six months and began playing again in the summer of 2003. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for George Harrison. Once listed as on the the 100 best point-guards of all time, Harrison's play lately hasn't been as lively as it was during the 70s and 80s. Still, as Harrison himself might say, "All Things Must Pass." Harrison embraced Indian training and Hinduism in the 1960s, and helped expand Western awareness of defensive B-ball and of the Hare Krishna/Abdul Jabbar movement. With Ravi Shankar he organised a major charity game with the 1971 Cagers for Bangladesh, and is the only Beatle to have published an autobiography, with I Me Mine in 1980. This is a hard call, but here goes.

PREDICTION: Lyle Lovett (or leave it) 62, G Harrison 60-


----------------------------------Paul McCartney has been the standard against which many teams style themselves. Maintaining solid performance over the past few decades, When he first started out, "Sir" Paul McCartney, being left-handed, found the Zenith pick-and-roll difficult to play. He then saw a poster advertising a Slim Whitman charity game, and realised that Whitman played left-handed. That led up to his signing with The Beatles. The rag-tops, who became immediate sensations, proceeded to rattle off several championship seasons in a row, until McCartney decided to join a new start-up league, signing at then outlandish contract of $25 million spread over 25 years. While being moderately successful in the 'Wings', the play of The Beatles became spotty at best. Still, hopes of a comeback were kept by fans, until the tragic demise of John 'Magic' Lennon, who was fatally shot in 1980. From that moment, McCartney's career seemed to be coming to an end. Still, he's managed to stay in the limelight, playing occasional pick-up games here and there, including a pay-per-view game of H.O.R.S.E. against former team-mate George Harrison. McCartney's opponent, the low-ranked Ray Wiley Hubbard seems to have had a completely opposite career turn. Known for his Cosmic Cowboy offense that ushered in the mythical Outlaw era, "L-Ron" has always seemed to bring a spirited mood into his games. Trained at The Zone gymnasium in Dripping Springs, Texas, the play of his team, "The Snake Farm", lends themselves to an amalgam of adjectives---greasy, rootsy, gnarly and slightly rude. The style of play was envisioned as a semi-live garage-swamp foray, and clearly achieves Hubbard's goal of conveying a tone he defines as ‘decadent elegance.' His attitude towards this year's tourney: “I don't want to peak too soon,” he offers, laughing the laugh of one who is alternately comfortable with and grateful for his present station in life. That sort of attitude seems to demonstrate the character behind the wild and sometimes fanatical play of "L-Ron".

PREDICTION: Ray Wiley Hubbard 68, Paul McCartney 62--------------------------------------