Well, now's not the time or place for that. The point is that in the letter Buddy denied that lobbyist Ali Waldman was the source of the Busey article or had any influence on the writing of it. Well, I have to take him at his word for that, at least for now. And the fact is that I was beginning to have
doubts myself -- even though originally the circumstantial evidence was persuasive and a good source gave me strong reason to conclude that was the case. That's why I took the posts off two or three days ago. Now I want every reader, Nevins and Waldman foremost, to know that I'm sorry for posting something that I now believe shouldn't have seen the light of day.
But I'm going to guarantee you right now that I am not going to be sorry for the investigative column I have coming out next week about the Busey smear and its aftermath. The source of the story isn't of paramount importance in this saga; it's what Buddy did with it and how it was used by the political vultures to destroy the campaign of a good candidate that matters. And that's what you're going to read about next week.
Now onto something of more vital significance -- what about the Final Four? Before the tournament started, I picked Florida to beat UCLA in this game. Well, my feeling now, my gut feeling, is that UCLA is going to win tonight. I'm not sure why. Part of it is the revenge factor -- Arron Afflalo is a great player and great players take losses personally. He and Josh Ship and Collison and Mata and the rest of them are going to do everything they can to get UF back for last year's loss. Motivation is so damn important in sports. Another is what I saw UCLA do to Kansas, a very good team. Florida, on the other hand, is a classicly great team with a superb coach (so good he might wind up at Kentucky). Hunches aside, the smart money is still on the Gators, but I'm sticking with the Brus.
As for the other game, I'm thinking Ohio State. No need to go into detail on that. So I'm seeing UCLA-OSU on Monday. But hey, I've been wrong before.
