Another Year of NCAA Bracket Blues

Photo Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

I do not watch much college basketball during the regular season, and every year when it’s time to fill out my brackets, it’s like that reoccurring bad dream. You know what I’m talking about. The test you have to take for the class you never attended.

Tonight, eleven of the sixteen I selected are moving on. You would think that I’d feel pretty damn good about that percentage given that I didn’t hand in one iota of homework the entire school year.

But the second seeded Michigan State team that I picked to win the National Championship tanked in the first round. I wish I could say, “It isn’t so,” Tom Izzo. You, me and a million other poor schnooks never saw Middle Tennessee that close in the rear view mirror.

Of all the brackets in the world, why did one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history have to walk into mine?

My game plan every year is to take more risks, but a fifteen seed beating a two? That’s like being the lucky gladiator who bet David over Goliath.

I gambled a little with Gonzaga over Seton Hall, but didn’t go with my gut when it came to Syracuse. USC tugged at my heartstrings causing heartbreak, and although I would have loved to see the Long Island boys at Stony Brook get past Kentucky Wildcats, I let my brains talk me out of that one.

The Hoosiers knocked out Calipari’s kids, so not much brilliant bracket work there, which now leaves two of my final four put out to pasture.

I have Kansas over Villanova, and Oklahoma over Oregon, against the prayers of my two brothers who live in Portland. Sorry guys – it’s bracket business.

And it ain’t pretty – especially for me, knowing that I’ll be watching the final game on April 4th at home, just like the team I picked to win the whole damn thing. And you can bet the bank that I’ll be back next season for yet another round of reoccurring bad dreams.