You heard it here first. OK, maybe you didn't hear it here first maybe it was the second or third time you've heard it. I can't conceivably know all of you who read this and what you've been told or read by the time you finally get down to my tiny space on the ‘net.
I've always said that you have to stick with what you believe in. Apparently, I believe in broads, cigarettes and being lazy – but I digress. Being a fan means being a fan when your team is up or down. Being a fan means believing in your team, picking them to go all the way.
I believe in Michigan State basketball. I believe in the Big 10. This is my story.
I picked an all Big 10 Final Four and my alma mater as the champion this year for my multiple pools. No, I didn't expect to win, but it would have been fantastic if I did. Right now, I'm guessing I won't win. Currently, I'm dead last.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the world's biggest sports guy. I follow stuff only occasionally because there are just too many Friends reruns to watch for the twenty-third time to have time to get around to watching the millions of hours it takes to keep up with college basketball. By my count there are 2,145 NCAA basketball teams. And that's not even counting the women, because lets, face it, who does? How the hell can anyone remember all these teams, who their star players are and whether they'd do well against a position offense or a shooting one.
So when it comes time to pick brackets, I look at the seedings and my mind goes totally blank. Even if, by some chance I've seen the team in question play, I will have long forgotten it by now. This makes me ‘that guy' who picks almost exclusively by the seedings. Which is stupid, I know. If that's all there was to it, we'd only need four games total between the four top seeds. I know you sports guys hate people like me in your tournament, and thats OK with me. You can blow it out your ass, because unless I win, none of you will care.
This year was the first year in recent history that I don't remember the analysts talking smack about the Big 10 conference and how much they suck. They had given us a pretty high power ranking and we were the conference to watch going into the tourney. That's all over now. A handful of upsets and the Big 10 is out.
So I'll say it before anyone else has a chance to: it was not a good showing for the big 10 this year in the Big Dance.