Hey there gang! How’s it going? Welcome back to another week of Life, Love? Sport (Thursday Orgy Edition). As I’m sure you’ve heard, last week was a crazy orgy of college basketball that I’m still trying to get over. In fact, the couch at the Campus Times hasn’t seen this much love since? ever. There were 16 games on Thursday and Friday, followed by eight games on Saturday and Sunday. Thank God for my hearty bladder. Otherwise, there would’ve been trouble.
Anyway, this week is going to be pretty much an NCAA lovefest followed by perhaps a word or two on baseball because the Red Sox and A’s played in Japan and everyone I know woke up at 6 a.m. to watch the games (Psych! No one watched the games, let’s be honest). Off we go! Only in America can a sport get almost no attention for 11 months and then become the most popular event for the remaining month. Speaking from personal experience, it’s been a roller coaster ride between cheering for the underdogs to pull games outta their ass and sweating my bracket. So far, it’s been underdogs 1, my bracket 0.
But no matter, just watching the games has been truly exciting. For example, I learned that Stephen Curry was robbed of an opportunity to play in the ACC, as reminded by every announcer for two straight days. We get it! He wasn’t good in high school. Move on. Gosh. On the downside, Gus Johnson got shafted to Denver, where all the lamest games were played. Where was Gus when the “Tampa Turmoil” happened? Can you imagine his excitement level if he had to call three-straight upsets? They would still be removing bits of Gus Johnson from the arena. I love that man.
Now that we know the sweetest 16 teams in the tournament, let’s break them down in order of who I want to win it all. Western Kentucky is my pick. Can you imagine a Western Kentucky vs. Davidson final? With Gus Johnson announcing? Humanity would end as we know it. Also, no one’s bracket could possibly have predicted that, so I won’t feel as bad about my bracket. But in regards to Western Kentucky, just the fact that they got this far calls for a celebration.
To honor them, the LLS has decided to do a little background check on the Hilltoppers. Western Kentucky University is located in Bowling Green, Ky., with close to 14,000 full-time students. As a basketball program, the Hilltoppers have the 16th most victories in the history of the NCAA.
Speaking of my bracket, stupid, stupid UConn went out against San Diego State and ruined a Final Four pick. This is becoming a pattern with UConn where they lose to opponents that shouldn’t be within 20 points of them. Who can forget George Mason? And that was with a significantly better cast. It seems that traditional powers are having a hard time reloading after a particularly productive class. For example, Duke is no longer as good as it waswith Shane Battier or Jayson Williams. Florida lost their starting five and missed the tournament. Ohio State has also missed the Dance.
Quickly switching gears to baseball, the Red Sox and A’s split their opening series in Japan. Everyone and their mother predicted the split. On the negative side, we just wasted two weeks on the opposite side of the world when we could’ve spent that time getting ready for the 160 games we have to play the next six months.
Now the Sox have to go to L.A. for some spring training games followed by a trip to Oakland to finish the series followed by two days off before playing Toronto. That made me tired just writing about it.
As for the other teams in the majors, I’m pretty excited to see the Tigers in action. And it’s not because I like Detroit, more because the Tigers seemed to have targeted the Florida Marlins and raided that team. Miguel Caberera, Dontrelle Willis, Jim Leyland, Gary Sheffield – the list goes on and on. Maybe their owner has some kind of fish fetish, who knows?
Final Fact:
The chances of picking a perfect bracket are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1.
Maystrovsky’s column appears weekly. Maystrovsky is a member of the class of 2009.
