At work last Wednesday night, our newspaper ad rep asked if I had big plans for Spring Break. As opposed to saying that I graduated four years ago and have pretty much been on Permanent Spring Break for the past 12 months, I just said, “No, I’ll be in Ames.” It was much easier. She was also doing nothing exciting, just going home. While waiting for the owner to grab some info, I sneaked a glance at one of the TVs because there was a rare moment of basketball in an otherwise crappy Big 10 tournament game (more on this after the break). I added to our conversation, “Actually, I’ll probably spend the entire week watching basketball. I LOVE tournament time.” She looked at me briefly, and said, “Ah,” and then went back to her non-work. I have never before received a look which conveyed so much in such a short amount of time, most of which was variations on the theme of, “I have suddenly realized that you’re sad and pathetic, and I have no desire to ever again speak with you.” So I laughed. Maybe you had to be there, but it was one of the funniest things I have witnessed in a long time.
Incidentally, I have spent most of the past week watching college basketball, which is pretty sad and pathetic. We should start a fortune-telling company.
***
So my bracket this year was perfect for a total of about 10 minutes – right up until the end of the second game (out of 63 total). I had Davidson over Maryland, which was almost a brilliant pick, right until they didn’t score in the last 3 minutes of the game.
My sophomore year of high school (back when they only let 12 teams into the tournament, games were played outdoors on dirt courts, and the NCAA was an honest organization devoted to academics instead of printing cash), I entered a large pool after pretty much not paying any attention whatsoever to the entire NCAA season. This was before the internet would tell you which wrong picks to make, so I did it on my own, based on name recognition, seed, and the team’s regular season record. I won, of course.
(Incidentally, there was certainly no money involved in this, because gambling is wrong, gambling on college sports is wronger, and doing so on school grounds is right out. Even the teachers did not have pools for money, because it was so wrong, and it would undermine their authority to discipline misguided students, which would also be very wrong. I did not win $70. I just wanted to make this clear.)
Since then, I have not been able pick anything but my nose. So my opinions on all of this can probably be ignored. BUT…
How on earth did 6 teams from the Big 10 make the tournament and only 4 from the Big 12? The Big 10 is TERRIBLE. I watched the Big 12 (Kansas/Texas) and Big 10 (Ohio St/Wisconsin) Championship games at the same time, and there was no comparison: the Big 10 is just flat awful. I eventually stopped changing the channels because the Big 12’s COMMERCIALS were more interesting than the Big 10 game. And this was between the 2 BEST TEAMS! It is common knowledge that after Ohio State and Wisconsin, there is a significant talent drop-off in the conference.
The selection committee claims that it doesn’t pay attention to conferences, but maybe they should, because this is horrific. On the plus side, it did make it much easier to fill out my bracket. Illinois? Purdue? Gimmes. Of course, the Big 10 always seems to over-perform in tournament settings due to the speed of play (or lack thereof) and the non-officiating, so maybe it will backfire. Nonetheless, my question is this: who would you rather see in the Final Four? Texas or Wisconsin? Kansas or Ohio State? Oklahoma State or Indiana? See what I mean about talent drop-off?
Point made. Back to the TV. I am NOT pathetic.
