March Madness: C'est Chouette, Bébé!*

I am absolutely dominating my office's NCAA tournament pool. Probably because I'm the only one in it.

While the French do have a passing interest in basketball (well behind soccer and rugby, but ahead of f'rinstance baseball), that interest is in the NBA variety. The French just don't do college sports; if Université Lyon competes in any intercollegiate sporting events, I'm unaware of it, as it certainly doesn't show up in the papers.

So while the odd game featuring the San Antonio Spurs (here referred to as "Tony Parker and his teammates", which is something like the Japanese-market version of Star Trek being called "Sulu, Master of Navigation") turns up on France 4 at 3AM, if I want to follow my beloved Heels I generally have to do so via dodgy Chinese video-streaming websites. Alternately, I try to find a North Carolina radio station that broadcasts online and has neglected to switch off its streaming feed when the basketball game comes on. I was having good luck with an AM talk radio outfit in Hendersonville ("where the heavens kiss the peaks") for a while, but they seem to have gotten wise or received a nastygram from the NCAA for webcasting without having bought the rights.

Fortunately for me this year, the NCAA is webcasting every single tournament game live and for free, so I'll be able to watch (albeit on my laptop screen, with glitchy video and WiFi that drops at the least opportune times). Now if they could only do something about that time difference so the games don't run from 3 to 5 AM...


*"It's awesome, babeee!"