2011 ncaa tournament

Charlie Sheen and Jimmy Fallon Jump on the LIU Bandwagon

Photo: Bill Kostroun/AP2011
Photo: Bill Kostroun/AP2011

We here at The Sports Section have long waited for the day we could cheer on one of the city’s NEC teams in the NCAA Tournament, and tonight we’ll have the chance when Brooklyn’s own Long Island Blackbirds — the No. 15 seed in the East region — take on the second-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels. But the bandwagon we’re driving is getting crowded: Late Night’s Jimmy Fallon adopted the Blackbirds this week as his show’s official team for the tournament, and today we learned that Charlie Sheen — surely after carefully considering the merits of each school in the field — picked LIU to reach the National Championship game. (We’ll just assume that he’s actually rooting for LIU, if only to make his crazy bracket look good. Incidentally, he picks Akron — who’s already lost — to go all the way, though the championship game, according to his bracket, will end in a tie. Say it with us: Duh, tying.)

Tonight’s game tips off at 7:15 on CBS. In the meantime, if you’d like to psych yourself up with a musical tribute to LIU coach Jim Ferry, as performed by Fallon’s house band, the Roots, you can do that below.

Charlie Sheen and Jimmy Fallon Jump on the LIU Bandwagon