Stardate 74-20110120 - Echo Chamber
CHICAGO -- It can't be said enough: most of what we do as college basketball fans is try to figure out exactly what it is we're looking at. Keeping proper perspective during the season is difficult, impossible sometimes. Up there, north of the Red Line, it's easier because ranked and regarded teams measure themselves against each other on a nightly basis.

Game 7-091 - NCAA First Four, Game 2
During a blowout, you need blowout material. In this case, a lot of talk about formal wear, Doctor Who and the All-Bowtie Team would have to suffice. Meanwhile, on the floor, UAB took a long and hard road to make it to the NCAA Tournament, overcoming past mistakes and a badly-timed loss to qualify for one of the last at-large bids by way of the selection committee's antiquated RPI-based system.

Good Morning Hoops Nation February 2
CHICAGO -- So much of modern life is blocking, filtering, limiting. There is so much information coming at us every day that we must become fighters of information, lest it overwhelm and submerge us completely. We battle back with fast-forward buttons, delete keys, spam-guards, RSS newsreaders, trusted conduits, earphones. We achieve small victories, but never truly win.

The Buckaroo Banzai Revelation
I've been reading the newsletter for a few weeks now, but I'm feeling unsure about donating. I remember TMM as an uplifting site with a positive message. Your writing has taken on a much darker tone and I'm not sure I like it. I have one question for you: why did you even come back when you don't even seem to enjoy this?

Road Report - Empty City
NEW YORK CITY -- Who is the poet laureate of Long Island? I pondered this question as I walked along the Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike from the train station towards Hofstra University, past Mexican laundromats and dimly lit gyro joints. In a flourescent storefront, ladies with tall hair were getting their nails done by patient and stone-faced Koreans. But who will tell them? .