"basketball" news and stories

If you're like me, then you look forward to sporting events for, er, well, the food. March Madness is at the climax this weekend with the Final Four (LSU vs UCLA, Florida vs George Mason). Though it truly will be madness at some of the more popular sports bars around town, particularly anything near a college, that's all the fun, isn't it? Some options in and around LA that also serve food, in case you want to get there early to squat on a spot, especially since UCLA is playing:

• El Guapo Mexican Cantina, 7250 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046, (323) 297-0471, www.elguapo.homestead.com
• Sports Harbour, 13484 Washington Blvd, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292, (310) 823-0933
• Mr Pockets, 516 N Sepulveda Blvd, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266-6706, (310) 372-4343
• Yankee Doodle's, 1410 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401, (310) 394-4632
• Lucky Baldwin's, 17 S Raymond Ave,Pasadena, CA 91105, (626) 795-0652
• Q's Billiards, 11835 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025, (310) 477-7550, www.qsbilliards.com  
• Big Wang's, 1562 N Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028, (323) 469-2449
• ESPN Zone, 1500 S Disneyland Dr, Anaheim, CA 92802, (714) 300-3776, www.espnzone.com  

Now that the St. Patrick's Day buzz is winding down (and boy, will you be paying for it in the morning!), the hype for the weekend, at least in this Slashfoodie's world, is March Madness. (That's college hoops for the uninitiated.)

For me, unlike football season when I really enjoy watching men in tight pants run around after a small oblong ball, basketball season is much more for the excitement of...getting together with friends (even if they're cheering for the other team), drinking beer, and eating (especially corndogs!).

Since this weekend will be packed at the local sports bars all day (games start fairly early and go back to back), the best strategy is to go early for brunch. Breakfast is even better. Barney's Beanery, with one location on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, and a second satellite location on 3rd Street in Santa Monica (how's that for confusing?), opens early, and though it's a sports bar, has an enormous menu, half of which are breakfast items. Now, I'm not going to say that their eggs Benedict or short stack of pancakes are to die for, but they sure taste good at 10:00 am with a Hefeweizen.

To be truthful, I have no idea what a corn dog is, and quite frankly I may be better off in ignorance. But apparently it involves plenty of beer (which is fine) and something called tater tots. To me, tots are children so anything that involves them, microwave ovens, ("sure you can squeese another one in they are only little!"), yellow mustard and ketchup might not turn out to be too bad. 

National Corn Dog Day is coming up on the 18th of this month. It might just be too much to cope with if this quote from the Official Corndog Day website is any indication - "it as the happiest day of basketball and meats on sticks that you'll ever have. National Corndog Day coincides with the Saturday of the final 32 teams in NCAA basketball tournament . This Saturday is the only day all year that one can watch a quadruple-header of college basketball games (that’s a good 7-8 hours of college hoops) from start to finish without having to change the channel. NCD officially starts with the tip-off of the first game – 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern. To help pass the time, have fun with our friends, and to celebrate being blessed with such a thing as a college basketball tournament, we eat Corndogs.! Lots of Corndogs..."

No please... I'll pass. But if you want to join in there are a list of states with events listed; parties I assume in aid of this national celebration (that frankly can stay in the US!).

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