March Madness

When I was 11, my mom came home from school with an NCAA Tournament Bracket and asked if I'd fill it out for her. Her school had an office pool and she had no interest or knowledge of college basketball and thought maybe a pint-sized version of myself would have better luck filling out a winning or at least competitive bracket, than she would. I remember 3 things from filling out that bracket:
#1: My mother required that I pick her alma mater, the #14 seed University of Portland, to win at least one game. Knowing little to nothing at the time of the NCAA Tourney, I agreed and 3 days later watched Portland get throttled by #3 Villanova by 34 points.
#2: Against my father’s advice, I picked #12 Drexel to upset the #5 seed Memphis Tigers. Why did I pick Drexel? At age 11, I knew virtually nothing about college basketball, but I knew that my favorite NBA player was named Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, and Drexel and Drexler sounded similar so I went with it. I liked “The Glide” so much, that I took Drexel to win not only their first round game but also their second round game. I remember this because Drexel beat Memphis and my dad came home and was shocked that I had picked it correctly. Going into the 2nd round game, I didn’t think there was any chance Drexel would lose. If I had known at the time that you could actually bet on sports, I would have put all of my paper route money that I had in the bank, (maybe $50) on Drexel to win that second round game. What happened? They lost to eventual national champion runner up Syracuse by 11.
#3: It was because I filled out that bracket, and got to follow along as the tournament went, that I fell in love with NCAA basketball. 48 games during the 4 days of the opening weekend? Yes please. 12 games of the most competitive, exciting basketball, with moments like this during the 2nd weekend? You betcha! 3 games in 1 city, with all 4 teams 2 wins away from immortality? There is no compassion in the sporting world, or any other aspect of daily life (except maybe a beer pong tournament, which coincidently also uses a bracket formula). Two years later, my college decision was made for me when Gonzaga made one of the more improbable runs in NCAA Tourney history (as seen in the link above), and my life has never been the same. Every March, my opinion changes roughly 865,000 times, on how Gonzaga will fare in the tournament, and when the time comes to fill out my bracket, I will almost always let my heart take over on at least one of my brackets and have Gonzaga going deep in the tournament. Does this make sense? Not really. Every year when I have the Zags making a run into the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 (or even the Final 4), it makes their eventual loss suck just that much more. Not only is my favorite college basketball team out of the tournament (almost always to a team that I have talked myself into us beating), but my bracket is all but shot. Would it make it sweeter if someday the Zags do make a deep run and I have it correctly in my bracket? Of course. Does that mean I’ll do it again this year? Probably. But you should know that as I’m doing it, I will be shaking my head asking myself why.
11 years ago when I filled out my first bracket, I picked teams because I liked their names or because my Mom went to school there. Today, I spend an unhealthy amount of time researching FG% and Free Throws per possession to determine my picks. Has it helped? Hell no. I have never won a bracket pool. I’ve been in pools with 10 people and I’ve been in pools with 300 people, but the result is always the same. Me=not winning.
The NCAA tourney isn’t like any other sporting event in America. You have good athletes competing for immortality, and with “no monetary gain.” No team can coast through the tournament and to win it all, you have to get some breaks and have some bounces go your way, or you’re not winning. Oddly enough, you have to have the same luck to win your friendly pool. I filled out my first bracket 11 years ago and I didn’t win. I still have never won a bracket challenge and have no idea what it feels like. I didn’t play college sports, and I played high school sports poorly and have no idea what it feels like to win a tournament, but I have an idea that, for myself, winning a bracket pool would be as close to that feeling as I will ever achieve.

Until next time……

Judge Jury and Joe

Hello again Blogosphere,

Inspired by my cousin Martha (weareemar.blogspot.com), I have decided to re-enter the world of blogging and let the world in on my opinions about current events and random thoughts. I won't pretend that this won't eventually (quickly) turn into a blog consisting of rants/outbursts stemming from being a tortured Blazers, Gonzaga, and Mariners fan, but I will do my best to include some entries about other current events and things that bother me. I also can't promise that I will update this religiously or on any sort of schedule. I will promise though that the more readers I get, the more often I will update.

Until next time.......