Friday night, Week 1, NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament … Middle Tennessee State, USC, Xavier, and Rhode Island ...
How’s your bracket look, bruh? Mine is all jacked up! But for good reason. A few years ago I adopted a new strategy for filling out the yearly office bracket. Sentimental favorites every time. At least I get the few days before the action starts to live in a carefully constructed reality. I like it better than I like winning a few bucks of my mates to be honest.
So tonight, I thought I would go through the story of how I have so many “favorite” NCAA basketball teams. My brackets are pure gold on occasion. And, since the POTUS bracket is a thing of the past, mine is all you have left.
So there ...
But first, a word from our sponsors ...
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jump wit me …
Bracketology
Remember when POTUS was cool?
ESPN came up with a great idea during the Obama administration. POTUS was a well known fan of basketball, as well as an avid player.
Like many of us, Obama loved the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and drawing up his own brackets.
Part of the fun of March Madness is the prediction of the eventual champion. Office pools crop up every year testing predictive powers and offering bragging rights.
ESPN sent out a reporter yearly to get Obama’s picks.
My many ways to have a “favorite team” …
I grew up in a rural-ish area. The nearest professional team was in DC. The state university played fairly well some seasons but was never a national power. Although, the logo of the NBA is from West Virginia.
The basketball coach, however, was beloved in the state. Almost as much as the head football coach and certainly more than any of the politicians except perhaps our pork barrel champion Senator.
I went to college at what is called a “mid-major”. We had a decent enough student body and put together a few teams that could challenge for the Atlantic 10 Conference bragging rights from time to time. We even show up at the Big Dance on occasion.
So, my collection of childhood teams isn’t very deep and there aren’t a lot of basketball teams in my family history.
A few family members have rooting interests that pass casual. Nobody really went to a big school much less a big basketball school.
And my own alma mater is a college basketball also-ran, at best. Although the names on the back of the jerseys are often much better than the names on the front of many teams.
I will root for teams for many reasons.
Sometimes, I like the mascot or the colors or the cool uniforms. I’m only human after all.
Sometimes, I pull for a friend’s team because I know they are watching and rooting.
Sometimes, I root for a school’s tradition and history of great coaches.
Sometimes, I just root against Duke.
Okay, I always root against Duke. I mean, right?
So Who Makes the Cut?
That my friend, is a timely question as this diary is reaching it’s mid point. I should get down to it.
Did he just say mid-point? Jeez.
Because of family:
- Wichita State Shockers
- University of Colorado
- University of Oklahoma
- Arizona State University
- Marshall University
- Ohio State (when that person is there)
- University of Kentucky (again, same thing)
Because of “Tradition”:
- Georgetown University
- Temple University
- Princeton University
- Villanova University
- St John’s University
Because of the Underdog factor:
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Drake University
- Valparaiso University
- George Mason University that one time
- Rhode Island*
yeah, see my problem?
Perchance ... A Solution?
So, there is one final alternative. One school might just win the rose of my perpetual NCAA Men’s Basketball fandom.
That school, Iowa State University home of the Cyclones. Don’t slip up and say home of the Hawkeyes. That has happened to me before by accident and I almost had to sleep on the couch.
The dog doesn’t even sleep on the couch.
you see what I’m saying here?
So, Cyclones of Iowa State, I shall cheer for cardinal and gold laundry forever after … until you suck
* Two words … God Shammgod
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A new way to seed the tournament?
The NCAA Is Modernizing The Way It Picks March Madness Teams For 40 years, the selection process relied way too much on strength of schedule. Now the league is ready to rethink that system.
from fivethirtyeight (take this with a grain of salt)
By the Way, here's a link to Spike Lee's He Got Game on YouTube (full movie)