Consumed by madness
Matt Wilhalme
I’m a sucker for a longshot, what can I say? This year I caught March madness like the flu that had me in bed for almost two weeks, but I almost feel like the two weeks I watched college basketball this March would have been better spent with the flu.
As usual I went into my bracket picking the highest seeds nearly every time until I breezed through my bracket and ended up with the University of Connecticut winning the entire tournament handily.
That’s when I stopped myself. What is the point of picking a perfect bracket with all of the No. 1 seeds winning every game they play down to the final four placing one seed, versus one seed, versus one seed – boring.
So this year I decided I would go with the home team and pick an amazing bracket that no one else would pick and if my predictions were right, I would have the single most amazing bracket in the world, come on ASU.
Now that you know my secret, I’m sure you know the outcome of my bracket. Picking Cinderella teams is exciting and brings a whole new level of achievable happiness to playing the games in March.
Well, as it turns out, surprise surprise, my bracket turned into a big red “X” after the second game of round one.
Thus ending my run for a perfect bracket, again, and now I have no reason to watch the rest of the tournament.
The lack of surprises has killed my interest for another year and I can only hope for something miraculous to happen next year.
I’m not saying have the top rated teams going after each other for the championship is not great for the sport, it only means that they were accurately seated and have earned themselves the right to compete for the championship.
I cannot help thinking though, what if I had picked my bracket like a rational person instead of going with my heart.
I guess I’m just a bad gambler with an upset stomach.
