March Madness Time

March Madness Time

I’ve never been a big basketball fan. I jumped on the Bull’s bandwagon during the 90’s, but I think the last professional basketball game that I’ve seen that I actually cared about was somewhere during their fourth or fifth championship season.

I’ve been getting more into college hoops though. It helps that most people I work with graduated from Illinois at about the same time I did, and that the Illini have had pretty good teams in recent years. At least one team I root for is capable of a prolonged winning stretch.

So anyway, the one basketball event that I’ve always enjoyed is the NCAA tournament, specifically the first two rounds. The first two rounds of the tournament is the most exciting sports event period. I’ve never done it, but I could easily see myself taking off work and just watching basketball at some sports bar for 12 hours straight, four days in a row. I’ve never even heard of half the teams in there, and the only way I know which teams are any good is that they’re seeded higher, but it’s exciting regardless. I’ve gotten a little better as I’ve been following it more in the past few years, but still, if you are looking for some tips on who to pick in your pool, you would probably do better by throwing darts at your bracket and picking winners based on who you hit than by asking me.

Despite my utter lack of knowledge on the topic, I still enter a pool every year. The pool that I’m usually in consists almost entirely of U of I grads. As a result, at least 75% of them pick the Illini to win it all each year. Since I’m the constant pessimist, this gives me an advantage, as I have no problems picking them to choke in the second round, which they often do. Even though they spot me one of the final four teams each year by, I still end up towards the bottom of the pool.

This year, I’m in real trouble, because I have to pick the Illini to win it. How could you not? Seriously? They’ve only lost one game all year, and it was only by one point. There were only a few other games that were even close.

So anyway, here’s a link to my brackets. Study it, and compare it to yours. If yours looks anything like mine, with the possible exception of U of I going all the way, then tear yours up and start over because you aren’t going to be winning anything.