Elite

In 1985, the March Madness bracket expanded to 64 teams. This is the modern era of college basketball. This is the 39th tournament since then. 

Four times in basically 40 years, Illinois has reached the Elite Eight.

1989

2001

2005

2024

They advanced to the Final Four in 1989 and 2005. Have a chance as an underdog to do it again this year on Easter Sunday.

- - -

When looking at the list above, and deciding what years would be best to be at Illinois, you would pick being a Senior in 2005, right?

- - -

For reference, in the modern era:

Missouri has made three Elite Eights and zero Final Fours.

Purdue has made three Elite Eights and zero Final Fours, but has a chance to change that today.

Wisconsin has made four Elite Eights and three Final Fours.

- - - 

Even if this run ends on Sunday, Illinois Basketball is back. 

This is not a promise or guarantee of anything that will happen beyond the next two weeks. But making the Elite Eight is definitively something. Hopefully the next Sweet 16 is not 19 years away. But without saying anything about future seasons, it's objectively true that Illinois Basketball made it out of the darkness and back into the light.

Infinite Craft

So there's this game called Infinite Craft. You start with Water, Fire, Wind and Earth and by combining those elements, you create new ones, which you can then combine infinitely, even creating things that no one else has ever created. 

When you combine Las Vegas + New York it crafts Atlantic City.

I was first introduced to it on YouTube, where I saw as a competitive race to get to certain topics. 

As a solo experience, it can be somewhat interesting, but I found that I needed a target. So I thought why don't I see if I can get to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. 

On my own I made it to New York and Park and Campfire but I had no idea how to get to either a human or football. So I looked up a guide to get me started. 

It got me to football and then I started on my quest to craft Patrick Mahomes. 

Along the way, I got some really funny combinations, so I started keeping track of them:

Super Bowl + MVP = Tom Brady (annoyingly)

Tom Brady + Player = Cheater (amazingly)

Chicago + MVP = Jordan

Jordan + Kobe = LeBron

Chicago + Cheater = Politician

Michael Jordan + LeBron = God

Jordan + Soybeans = Soy Sauce

This was the best one, so I made a quick video:

All of that was great, but I never really got close to Kansas City. 

I moved on. Later I was showing the site to Grant, and he said what could we combine with fire. And I was like, well if you combine Chicago and Fire, I'm sure you'll get the Great Chicago Fire. So I did that, and it crafted Bulls. I was confused for a while, but then I realized it interpreted Fire in that moment at Chicago Fire (soccer team). So it gave me another sports team. 

But that gave me an idea. 

Bulls + Fire = Steak

Steak + Fire = Barbecue

Barbecue + City = Kansas City

Holy Hannah, I did it. And what a way to get to Kansas City too! From there it wasn't that hard.

Kansas City + MVP = Mahomes

Mahomes + Chiefs = Super Bowl

Mahomes + Kansas City = Super Bowl

Chiefs + Park = Arrowhead

Mahomes + Kobe = GOAT

Then I started combining Mahomes with everything I could think of and soon I created 6 terms that no one else had ever crafted. These are called Discoveries.

Interestingly, I was not the first person to craft Corn Mahomes.

Bracket Mission: Pass Kirat

This year's bracket group is wide open because basically everyone picked a different champion. Even the people at the bottom could rise to the top if they get the champion correct. 

In fact, of the 11 eligible bracket entries, only 2 people have their Champion eliminated. 

Of those 9 remaining, we're covering 8 teams, half of the Sweet 16:

UConn, Purdue, Illinois, Houston, Arizona, Clemson, UNC and Tennessee.

Teams alive that no one picked to win it all:

Alabama, SDSU, Creighton, NC State, Duke, Marquette, Gonzaga, and Iowa State. 

So assuming that the Champion will be from the first list, that will take care of that. Whoever gets the Champion right, wins the contest. 

Except for one thing. 

Did you notice that I said of the 9 brackets remaining, we're covering 8 possible champions. 

Kirat and I both picked Houston to win it all. Which means if Houston wins it all (or at least is in the final game against a team from list B) I need to pass Kirat to win. 

He's currently 10 points ahead of me. So let's look at our differences. 

I have Illinois winning on Thursday. He has Iowa State. 40 points at stake that will be going to one of us. Either I'll be up 30 or down 50. 80-point swing.

I have Tennessee winning on Friday. He has Creighton. Another 80-point swing. 

Then in the Elite Eight round of games...we have the same winners advancing to the Final Four, except he has Purdue and I have Tennessee. If Creighton or Gonzaga win the Midwest region, then no points...but if is a Purdue-Tennessee regional final, then that's a 160-point swing between me and Kirat. 

And then in the Final Four weekend...I have UConn advancing to the title game and Kirat has Arizona. 160 points at stake in that game...and possible a 360-point swing if they're playing each other. 

That's it. Those are the 4 differences that remain. To pass Kirat, I'm rooting for Illinois, Tennessee, and UConn. 

And I'm rooting against, Iowa State, Creighton, Purdue and Arizona. 

This is art

Stakes for Illinois

Illinois hasn't made a Sweet Sixteen since 2005. 

Here are all the times that Illinois has made it to the Round of 32 since then:

2006: Lost as a 4-seed to 5-seed Washington

2011: Lost as a 9-seed to 1-seed Kansas

2013: Lost as a 7-seed to 2-seed Miami

2021: Lost as a 1-seed to 8-seed Loyola

2022: Lost as a 4-seed to 5-seed Houston

It's not great any way you slice it. But this is the best path yet, even better than as a 1-seed. 

Just get by 14-seed Morehead St and 11-seed Duquesne and you'll be playing in prime time.

March Madness Picks

Quick snapshot of my thoughts entering the tourney.

I think it's super hard for UConn to repeat so even though all the rankings say they're the best, I'm not picking them to go all the way. 

Purdue has such a history of choking that I would not at all be surprised if they fall short of the Final Four. 

I'm also all the way out on North Carolina, Marquette and Kansas. 

SOUTH

I like that Houston was a top seed last year but fell short of the Final Four. I feel like that's good experience that will help them this year. So they're my title pick.

Only thing that scares me about Houston, is I have a hunch that Duke and Kentucky could recapture the magic and meet in the Elite Eight. 

EAST

I'm not scared about Illinois getting past BYU, but I don't really know about Iowa State. Apparently Auburn is super good so they got a tough draw with UConn so early, so who knows. Feels like this region belongs to winner of Auburn-UConn. 

WEST

I like Michigan State to knock off UNC. I think this region is the most chaotic with New Mexico, Grand Canyon, and Mich State all having decent chances to make waves. Arizona is my pick to emerge from this region.

MIDWEST

Kansas to lose early. Creighton-Tennessee should be a good one. The more I look at Purdue, the more I don't trust them. 

If I was building a perfect Calcutta roster it would look like:

Houston

Tennessee or Arizona

Kentucky or Creighton

Auburn

Michigan State

Nevada

New Mexico

Samford

San Diego with Niraj Recap

San Diego has been on my list to visit forever. We even booked a summer family trip there back in January of 2020 but didn't get to go. So when Niraj mentioned that he was interested in going, it didn't take me long to make it happen. 

FRIDAY

First thing we did was get lunch at The Crack Shack. A work friend told me about this place in 2017 and I finally got to try it.

The spicy chicken thigh was way better than the regular chicken breast. Worth the wait!

Next we headed over to Stone Brewing at Liberty Public Market.

They had a large outdoor space, but we grabbed an open spot at the bar. Niraj was able to pull up the Illinois game on his phone while we sampled beers.

From there we were pretty close to Sunset Cliffs beach so we headed over to walk off some of the beer. 

I call this next one, Ocean Wisdom.

We stayed around for the sunset. Only appropriate given the name.

We were staying at the Hotel Republic. Here's the lobby.

And here's us having a pre-dinner cocktail at their terrace bar.

For dinner, we walked to the Gaslamp District and opted for a spot recommended by our first driver, Tacos El Gordo. Here's the action shot of the guy cutting the meat for our adobada tacos.

We each had two adobada and one carne asada. Really great. 

Afterwards, Burnsy found a place called the Whiskey House.

Upon entering we found out it has the world record for number of whiskey bottles. 

They had a lot of classic and wild stuff on the menu. I couldn't help myself once I saw they had a peanut butter old-fashioned. As I was ordering, I thought there's no way this is going to good, right?

But it was. It was incredible. It tasted like whiskey and peanut butter but in the best way. I still can't believe it worked.

I even got the bourbon brownie, because I'm built different.

SATURDAY

We started Saturday by going to Morley Field for disc golf. We found out when we got there that it's known as the best course in California, it has tee times and admission fees.

The funniest part is that with about 20 people watching, I shanked my first shot a full 90 degrees to the right, into the parking lot, narrowly missing a bunch of cars. I then had to play in a group with 3 strangers for 3 hours after hitting such a terrible shot.

This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

After disc golf, without having eaten anything, we had our first meal of the day at 2:45pm. We got a car up to La Jolla Cove and ate at George's. Lunch with a view!

After lunch, we walked down to get a closer look at the La Jolla sea lions. 

All that walking meant it was time for beer. To Ballast Point Brewing!

This is Little Italy at the golden hour.

We had dinner outside at Bencotto, and it was awesome. 

We started with the 30-month aged parmesan reggiano that came with carmelized figs that were as good as the cheese.

Then I had the best lasagna of my life.

Burnsy got the squid ink pasta with shrimp.

After dinner, we wanted to check out this tiki bar I had researched online, False Idol. We walk in, we see a display case with a False Idol logo on a napkin. I ask for a table and they seat us. 

So here we are and they give us a menu that doesn't have any tiki drinks on it. 

I was very confused. I start googling for the tiki menu. I find one online.

So I'm thinking they gave us the wrong menu. But Burnsy is way ahead of me. He says were not in the tiki bar yet. I'm like what do you mean. We saw the logo. He says there's a secret entrance with skulls. It's a hidden bar within a bar.

So I start wandering around this bar, and sure enough, there is a secret entrance with skulls. 

We had to wait a bit since we didn't have a tiki reservation, but soon we got in to the hidden bar within a bar.

The glasses were so cool that we each got one.

SUNDAY

As luck would have it, Illinois advanced to the Big Ten Championship AND it was St. Patrick's Day. So we went to the best sports bar in San Diego AND it happened to be an Irish pub.

I got the whiskey-buffalo wings and they were so good. Top all-time wings?

Good place to watch Illinois be crowned champs!

After that, we got a ride to Coronado Island. The Hotel del Coronado is pretty fancy and was built in 1888, the largest resort in the world at the time. We knew we didn't want to stay here, but that didn't stop us from checking it out.

Or visiting their beach.

I even found time to make my first Calcutta pick. 

Before we left Coronado Island, we stopped to get some gelato.

When we got back to the hotel, I took this shot from our 6th floor window.

For our last dinner, we went back to The Whiskey House because it was so good two nights prior.

Burnsy got some insane nachos and I got the en fuego burger.

MONDAY

On our last day we checked out of the hotel and walked to Little Italy again.

This time we went to Not Not Tacos, a restaurant by Sam the Cooking Guy, a youtube chef I watch a lot of. Delicious.

After that we walked around before getting our last beers in at Hidden Craft, a self-service bar. I love the self-service so I can basically make my own flights one at a time.

One last time to marvel at the low planes arriving over downtown San Diego.

This was a super fun trip and a nice change of pace from the usual San Francisco/Kansas City visits.

Unexpectedly awesome food town for sure.