Day 2 Sucked

It happens every year, so it shouldn't surprise me. Yet, after going 14-2 to begin the tourney yesterday, I somehow conned myself into thinking, "Wow, this could be my year" and that my start was a sign of good things to come. How much better could it have gone? The 2 losses were a 12 seed over a 5 and an 11 seed over a 6, and all of my Sweet 16 teams were still alive. I was golden.

So today I left for Denver and was relegated to radio-only coverage (which was spotty at best for most of the day), but I was up to 17-3 and still had all of my Sweet 16's alive. Then came the first wave of the night games and all heck broke loose. Let me begin with this: I hate Taylor Coppinrath. I hate Vermont. I hate Catamounts (I don't know nor do I care what a Catamount is exactly, all I know is that I hate them all).

And now I must root for them.

Why? Because they beat Syracuse. Yes, the same Syracuse Orange that I had going to the FINAL FOUR. I got caught up in the hype (and coupled that with my hatred of Duke) and thus Syracuse was the pick. So what now? Well, I can assure you this: your bracket is not good when one of your Final Four teams is out IN THE FIRST ROUND. Not only am I not winning any of the three tournament challenges I'm in, but even worse, my $100,000 Grand Prize from ESPN.com's Tournament Challenge is gone. I just knew I was going to win too (how could I not with a 14-2 start!??!?!?).

Now I must edit this post because freaking Bucknell just decided to take out my SECOND Sweet 16 (and second Elite Eight) team of the night in beating Kansas 64-63. So now I go into the second round with a bracket that has been crushed and a record that is a mediocre 24-8, meaning I went a solid 10-6 today. All of this with an AlbeQUIRKY region that was a perfect 8-0 (maybe because I lived there for a year?). now 24-8 doesn't sound bad, and most years I'd be happy, but 14-2 to 24-8 is nothing special, espcially considering I have only SIX of my Elite Eight teams left and we're only done with the FIRST ROUND. Now it's time to REALLY strap yourself in and just HANG ON for the ride.

My conference (the Pac-10) went a weak 2-2, and my regional conference (the Mountain West) didn't do any better in going 1-1. At least my other semi-regional conference (the Big XII) went 4-2 (I hate the east coast).

Actually, this is my own fault. I take full responsibility and all of the blame. Last night, while talking on the phone with E.Dubb, I made the mistake of saying, "Dude, there really weren't any upsets today. There wasn't anything cool, it was almost....boring." Uhhh....what else could I EXPECT to happen? That was an infinitely stupid thing to say. So today (invariably) my bracket went where all of my other brackets have always gone (yeah, there). But here's what is so cruel, for 1 1/2 days I was tough, standing tall, and naive enough to think that maybe I really did have this thing conquered.

So here is what I've decided, I NEVER WANT TO SEE AN UPSET AGAIN (unless UA is playing and they aren't favored). I WANT EVER HIGH SEED TO WIN. I WANT DUKE, UNC, WASHINGTON, AND (here's my exception to this rule) ARIZONA in the Final Four. I want UA to avenge its two losses to UW and I want Duke to beat UNC, just so I can have the pleasure of yelling and screaming into Daner and E.Dubb's phone (they won't answer, it'll be their voicemail) after UA wins 74-70 and makes up for that 2001 National Championship game (which is why Mike Dunleavy is in the same group as Taylor Coppinrath - see above if you don't know what this means). So since I have this in print, that means I've just guaranteed a Wake Forest-UNC championship, with UNC winning and me being subjected to Mike Pacini and Kellen Gustavson telling me how UNC is the best team in the history of the world for the next thirty-five years.

Maybe I should just give up the excitement (now I see why it's March MADNESS) and find some boring sport that puts me to sleep, has no excitement, and is really really boring to watch. Maybe I'll go see when ESPN's next showing soccer....