I take over on KU-OKState

I've taken OVER 145 for Kansas-Oklahoma State, a game which has a 17 point line. I don't think I've screwed around with a line that high this year. Not in hoops at least. I've reviewed the scores of the two teams' last five games, and see no reason why the total isn't higher for this game. I haven't kept up with OKState much this year, but last year they were noteworthy for some sick scorer, and for neglecting defense. Whats-his name has probably gone pro at this point, but their defensive liability most likely remains, though their totals are not as high as Kansas.'

I'm watching 'Cuse at 'Nova right now. 'Nova is favored by 3.5, but trails by five right now, 43-38. Villanova is ranked higher at the moment, but 3.5 feels about right, given our collective memory of Syracuse the last couple of years. Villanova plays it's home games at the Wells Fargo Center, an arena built in 1996 that was named the First Union and Wachovia Center until the Real Estate Crisis of 2008 caused these banks to be swallowed up by Wells Fargo. I guessed that something along these lines happened before Wikipedia-ing the Center and finding out for myself.

The Wikipedia page claims that there are two other arenas named after Wells Fargo, in Tempe and Des Moines, but on my way to this page I found a list of Wells Fargo Centers that also included Denver, LA, Miami, Minneapolis, Portland Oregon, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Tampa, as well as a Wells Fargo Center for the arts in Santa Rosa, California.

The Tampa and Portland Centers used to be named for First Union as well. Perhaps they still would be, but First Union was taken over by Wachovia in 2001,before Wachovia took it upon themselves to underwrite enough bad home loans to put themselves out of business.

I don't recall Wachovia buying First Union in 2001, but I remember Wachovia's demise in 2008. I was in Florida with Pennsyltucky Dave, and remember talking shit because the bank that held my mortgage was taking over the bank he had an account with. Trust Americans to boil mergers and acquisitions down to provincial rooting interests, as if Wachovia and Wells Fargo were the Eagles and 49ers. Wachovia's roots are not in Pennsylvania, but in North Carolina, but Dave & I were oblivious to this at the time. I still was until a bit into the second half, when I read Wells Fargo Center on Villanova's floor. I finished Matt Taibbi's Griftopia earlier today, which mentions the above banks in conjunction with the '08 real estate bubble collapse.

Syracuse held on to beat Villanova, a team Pennsyltucky Dave tends to root for

a.) because they are a school in Philadelphia

b.) they are generally successful in hoops, and

c.) Penn State sucks at hoops. Not that this has prevented them from beating Michigan State this year.

Taibbi describes his book as less about finance, and more of a crime story, making it a nice lead in for the Dennis Lehane books that came in the mail today. Hopefully the US Economy won't shrivel up and disappear in A Drink Before the War. Not that this will bring it back or anything.

Kansas leads 17-14, six minutes in. Without doing the math, I like my chances.

After doing the math, this works out to 206 points. I imagine it will slow down sometime in the next 34 minutes. I gotta pee.

I peed. And ran five miles. Kansas won 92-65, beating the OVER by 12 points. Yay.