march madness

Sunday Confessional: my March madness

/ Tracy Abell

For someone who’d supposedly sworn off men’s college basketball, I’ve sure watched an awful lot of shooty-hoops over the past ten days. As in, nearly every single game played.  My bracket is an abomination due in large part to not having watched any games or read about any teams or players this season. I was one hundred percent clueless coming into the tournament.

For example, I picked Purdue to win it all. Instead, Purdue, which was one of the 1-seeds, got knocked out in their very first game by the 16-seeded team from Fairleigh Dickinson. Apparently, it was the worst upset in March Madness history. However, because San Diego State beat Creighton today, I actually have one correct pick in the final four! (Note: I’m aware there are few things more yawn-inducing than someone blathering about their bracket, but I wanted to document my experience here. 🙂 )

Despite my lack of skills in picking winners, I’ve had so much fun this year watching the games. I truly love college basketball and mostly stopped because the NCAA tournament exploited the athletes who were barely getting by (as in, not having enough to eat) while the NCAA literally made a billion dollars a year, most of it from the tournament. It’s still very bad, but as of 2022, athletes can now earn money from endorsements and sponsorships. (So there you have my justification for participating in March Madness, which isn’t solid, I know.) But I have to say, it’s given me a lot of joy.

And now that we’re down to four teams that I’ve watched play in multiple games, I’m going to make one more prediction: UConn* will prevail.

*Wildebeest predicted this from the start.

Overdose of swag

/ Tracy Abell

I watched a whole lotta college basketball yesterday and saw some amazing plays. My absolute favorite, though, came in the Michigan – Houston game last night. Michigan was behind 63-61 with 3.4 seconds left. Michigan inbounded the ball and got it to Jordan Poole, a freshman player I’d all game referred to as Shorty Shorts, who threw up a 3-point shot to beat the buzzer.

Here he is just after releasing the ball and then being chased by ecstatic teammates:

The craziest 3-point shooting form ever.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When asked about the unlikelihood of his freshman player who hadn’t scored in the second half making that shot, Michigan coach Jim Beilein said that Jordan Poole has “an overdose of swag.” He said Jordan makes buzzer beaters in practice all the time and that he dreams of making them in games.

Well, that dream came true. And if it took an overdose of swag to achieve it, then sign me up. I’m officially adopting some of that swag.

Documenting my bracketology wizardology UPDATED

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

As of this moment (6:32 p.m. MT), my bracket ranking looks like this:

It’s hard to read, so allow me to highlight a pertinent detail:

This means that my bracket is better than 99.7 percent of the tournament brackets. Woot!

I’m posting this here and now because I’m pretty sure I’m about to fall in the standings. I have Oregon beating Kansas, and that’s just crazy. After watching Kansas play their last two games, I’m thinking they’re gonna keep on winning. As in, the whole shebang.

But at this moment in time, I look pretty damned smart.

UPDATE:
Well, the Oregon Ducks did, indeed, beat the Kansas Jayhawks. My bracket ranking is now this:

I’m in the 99.9 percentile which, according to Zippy, means my bracket is on a par with roughly 14,000 other elite brackets. WOOT!

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Don Draper would’ve done it better

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

I don’t watch much network television so usually avoid commercials. But because I’m all about March Madness, I am now, unfortunately, also all about commercials.

Which is how I know that there’s a pharmaceutical targeted at those with opioid-induced constipation.

Granted, it’s a tough sell. Still, I have to believe Don would’ve found a way to inject some magic into the ad campaign.

 

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How to multi-task during March Madness

/ Tracy Abell

Today is the first day of March Madness which means basketball ALL DAY LONG. And I confess that I’ll watch these games ALL DAY LONG. However, I got up and got some stuff done before the tournament started. I did maintenance on my two worm bins (mite infestation YUCK) and worked on my writing project. But since then I’ve been parked in front of the television, switching between games (where there have already been two nail-biters, yo). In my defense, I am multi-tasking.

Here I am shredding newspaper for the worm bins. Not only does it relieve some guilt regarding the time I devote to watching men’s college basketball, it turns out that ripping paper into strips is a good way to let off steam when the team I’m rooting for is behind.

Shred on.

 

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