Another wild week awaits area hoops fans. The madcap, non-stop college hoops action of Thursday and Friday represents the pinnacle of sports viewing for many fans. Sneaking out of work, bracket in hand, for an extra hour of lunch is an annual ritual for many a weary office drone. At this point next week, our brackets will be hopelessly crumbled, highlighted and marked with cryptic marginalia. Right now, however, hope springs eternal. Don't forget to......

Yesterday we took a look at our area NCAA basketball teams that have already secured a spot in the Big Dance. In our second installment, we examine the bubble teams, as well as those unfortunate enough to miss the postseason. American University Eagles (20-11, 10-4) The AU Eagles kept rollin' on Sunday against Army, downing the fifth-seeded Black Knights in front a rockin' Bender Arena by a score of 72-60. Junior Guard Garrison Carr went......

This wild and historic season for the American University men's basketball team has nearly come off the rails twice in a week. Last Wednesday, with the chance to clinch the regular season Patriot League title (and with it, home court advantage throughout the conference tournament), the Eagles couldn't keep up with second-placed Navy and lost 83-68. But the Midshipmen then turned around and helped them out by losing to Colgate, meaning their win last Saturday......

With a number of area teams gearing up for a playoff run, it's an exciting time for sports in the Washington area. Here's what you should be watching this week. Don't hesitate to leave your own suggestions in the comments, and, if you're so inclined, shoot me an email with suggestions for next week. Tuesday Most of this week's slate is packed with some great action. Tuesday is an exception. For those that aren't reading......

The American University men's basketball squad may be heading into Patriot League play at 8-7, but you have to figure head coach Jeff Jones still isn't sure what kind of team he has. Is the real AU the team that dropped home games against Maryland-Baltimore County and labored to beat Jacksonville at home? Or is the real AU the team that knocked off the Maryland Terps and gave Atlantic 10 contender Dayton U a game......

A day after Washington’s loss to…yes—hated rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, I find myself indulging in that oft-snarked out tendency of Redskins fans: the telling of sweet little lies. At least we didn’t get run out of the stadium, as we did against the Patriots. At least we didn’t collapse stupidly, like we did against the Eagles. At least the team we struggled with was a quality team (insofar as anything the NFC produces this year......

The Germans have a lot of long words that encompass very difficult concepts. Words like "schadenfreude," "Hubschrauberlandeplatz," and "Verantwortungszuständigkeiten." I don't know if they have word for the frustration you feel when you've thought that your team had already managed to overcome the mistake you thought was going to cost them the game -- like a fourth-quarter Ladell Betts fumble -- only to discover that the relief-shattering error that was going to lead to a......

Written by DCist contributor Brett Gellman The Maryland Terrapins (4-5, 1-4 ACC) enter Byrd Stadium for their home finale tonight when they take on #8 Boston College (4-1, 4-1 ACC) in an Atlantic Division showdown. The Terps are reeling from a three game losing streak after falling to UNC 16-13 last Saturday while the Eagles national title hopes fizzled after Florida State stunned BC 27-17. Both teams look to rebound after the disappointing losses. While......

Southeast Jerome. Sheriff Gonna Getcha. Coach Janky Spanky. The Ghost of Southeast Jerome. Most of the 2005 season, and a few times last year, Clinton Portis showed that he wasn't only electric on the field by holding press conferences dressed up as ridiculous characters, who he named and gave purposes. The get ups were such a hit that they even made a t-shirt about them (hey, we all knew that Snyder wouldn't let a chance......

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist......

73-89. Anyone who would have predicted that record at the start of the season would have been seen as either an optimist, an idiot, or both. After starting the season 9-25, the prognosticators who saw 100 losses seemed generous, but somehow the Nationals managed to play .500 ball (64-64) for the rest of the season, finish out of last place in the NL East for the first time since 2003, and win 2 more games......

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. LAist saw national headlines soar this week with......

In beating the Eagles in their nest last night, there were a number of plays you could point to as being critical--not the least of which was Laron Landry's game-ending decapitation of Philly wideout Kevin Curtis to seal the deal. But if you were a fan looking for something a little defining or divining, the Skins offensive series to end the first half was probably the stretch of play that gave you that first tingle......

Although 192 protesters were arrested Saturday during the March to End the War and competing counter-protest by the Gathering of Eagles, by most measures turnout was low. The Post's Marc Fisher notes in his column that the small numbers of people who marched over the weekend is more a measure of a lack of enthusiasm for protesting in this country, rather than a lack of strong feelings against the war -- just visit any popular......

Marc Fisher: As the Senate gets ready to debate the District voting rights legislation, Fisher lists the dozen top reasons why senators from both parties should vote to enfranchise the city's residents. The more and more we look into it, the better the case looks. Let's hope the Senate agrees. Tom Knott: You know Knott's verbal insanity is in good form when the title of his weekly column is "It's Gathering of Eagles vs. nitwit......

The recent antics of the anti-war ANSWER Coalition, including pasting signs on utility boxes advertising their planned protest this Saturday on the National Mall despite orders from the city not to, resulting in several arrests and thousands of dollars in fines, haven't won the group many new fans among locals. Even though the District is a heavily liberal town populated by people who mainly agree with their stand on the war, ANSWER's attitude toward the......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

Earlier this week, Washington safety Pierson Prioleau spoke about his own season-ending knee injury as an ominous sign of setbacks to come. He seems prescient now. On Sunday afternoon, the Redskins took themselves out of contention early and often as the Philadelphia Eagles turned the match into a low-effort rout. Along the way, Washington gave up big plays, took the business end of a throttling fluke fumble, and, in the snakebitten way Prioleau described, suffered......

Wednesday’s unseasonable warmth called for sunny day music. A happy coincidence then, that Ben Kweller, a purveyor of cheerful college rock, was headlining the 9:30 club that evening. Looking at the small crowd of underage early arrivals jostling for position, a question came to mind: is Kweller an artist or a phase? To paraphrase a famous film quote, it seems that he gets older but his fans stay the same age. The answer came......

Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa... -Austinist reveled in the dumb antics of some U.T. law students and posted some great audio from former New Orleans natives who've decided to stay in Austin. But the best news for Austinist? They were voted Best Local Entertainment Web Site by the local Austin alt-weekly. Congrats, Austinist. -DCist gloried in being told their musical tastes made......

The D.C. area was well-represented last year in the men's NCAA basketball tourney, with all three Georges winning at least one game, and of course, George Mason making an improbable run to the Final Four. However, the area women were no slouches either, as Maryland grew into a powerhouse, winning the national title, and perennial tourney team George Washington, who've made the tourney in 13 of the last 16 years, reached the second round. This......

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery. Phillyist rejoices in the Phillies' wild card chances, mourns the injuries sustained by Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse, and goes pirate on our asses. SFist notes that Guns and Roses were in town, that San Franciscans are taking over reality TV, and that the San Francisco Chronicle's skills of original nomenclature could use some......

Residents of the District and their elected leaders have long agonized over the state of D.C. schools, a third rail in Washington city government off of which reform attempts gleefully bounce and into which depressing sums of money disappear. Frustration over the city's subpar performance in public education becomes more difficult to bear, however, when the success of school districts in the city's suburbs are brought to light. This week, the Post's Jay Mathews harnesses......

Though ranked sixth in the country, George Washington has been characterized as an overrated team. Given the opportunity to prove that their 26-1 record and 18 game winning streak wasn't just a house of cards, the Colonials instead folded, losing 68-53 to Temple in the first-round of the Atlantic Ten tournament. The loss is not only disappointing and gives fuel to the team's critics, but it likely cost them a couple of seeds in......

If any of you went to see The Cloud Room at the Black Cat last night, you probably noticed that Film School, set to open for the band, wasn't there. What would cause a band to miss a show at such short notice? Laryngitis? Broken fingers? In-fighting? Unfortunately, the fine fellows of Film School fell victim to a much more nefarious plot. Two days after investing a hefty chunk of hard-earned change into a brand......

It wasn't three days ago the D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams ebulliently announced that he had won a bet with Philadelphia Mayor John Street over last Sunday's Redskins/Eagles match-up. Now four cheesesteaks richer and riding a wave of confidence, Williams is betting that the Redskins will defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday's first round playoff game. Should he go two for two, he'll pick up six Cuban sandwiches from Tamba Bay Mayor Pam Iorio, should......

A lead story in the Post's Metro section this morning is the stuff to either make you queasy or curious. It involves one house, eight entomologists, and 70,000 bugs of assorted variety. It also features a man paid $11 to sit in a lawn chair with a patch of skin exposed for up to eight hours a day, a guinea pig for testing insect repellants. This isn't the stuff that real news is made......

For the Washington Redskins, the 2005 regular season was an unpredictable series of dizzy highs and swampy valleys as the team went from looking like a playoff shoo-in to an NFL also-ran. With only the thinnest post-season hopes remaining, however, the Skins made Tony Kornheiser look like a genius and rattled off December wins even as critical competitors – the Falcons, the Vikings, the Cowboys – hit the skids. It all culminated in yesterday afternoon’s......

For the first time since 1999, the suddenly hot Washington Redskins are going to the playoffs after a sweet but hard fought new year victory against the Philadelphia Eagles. Eat it, Phillyist! Murders in Washington Area Increase: While the District's murder tally for 2005 dropped for the second year running, homicides in the area rose as Prince George's County and Fairfax County increased their share, writes the Post. The region recorded 466 killings in 2005,......

Good morning, Washington. Are you ready for the new year? We can't say that we're quite ready to say goodbye to 2005 — it's been a pretty good year for us. On the other hand, it'll be nice to have a new set of resolutions to ignore. Have you got any? District Spends Lavishly On Travel: In a story that strongly recalls November's contracting scandal, the Post reports on D.C.'s big-spending attitude toward employee......