As I sit here, the Saturday morning of the first weekend of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, looking at my battered bracket, I think to myself “I am not good at this picking games thing.” And it is true, I am not. I remember one year, many years ago when I worked at a sports bar, I got every game on the first day correct. The next day, maybe I had three wrong. Then the third and fourth days the wheels came off and I returned to usual form. But in recent years, my bracket was ruined by 3pm on Friday (2 years ago) and last year it was all jacked up before the night games on Thursday. It was glorious failure. At least this year it was late Friday before the dumpster came calling for my bracket.
It’s all in good fun. I am only in the challenge at work, which we don’t have to pay to play, so I am not out anything. It’s more about the fun of the tournament than anything. There are some prizes for the winners, I have no idea what, because you can’t miss something you know nothing about. We got food on Thursday and Friday at work, so I am already a winner anyway.
The March Madness gets people riled up though. In between games the other day, they showed a story about what happened with one of the players from the Virginia team that lost to a 16 seed back a few years ago. I knew it was a big deal, but I didn’t realize it was a death threat worthy big deal. And the abuse the team, and individual players, got on Twitter and social media was beyond awful. After the game, they had to get the team out, and they had to sneak them out, take them to a different hotel than they had stayed at, and basically swoop them out of town because there were death threats and violent threats. The players had to turn off their social media because they were attacked at every opportunity. These are young individuals, late teens, early 20s. They didn’t want to lose that game, it happened but they didn’t lose on purpose or to bust anyone’s brackets. I hadn’t thought of the continuing attention the losing team would get, just the accolades to the winning team. It made me feel awful for those boys.
Kentucky lost as a three seed the other day. I heard they were getting it bad too, that the threats and abuse was being piled on them too. I get that people gamble and get pretty invested into this tournament, but it’s just games people. Check your emotions a bit. Are you really threatening a group of young athletes because you are going to likely lose your office pool? We live in a scary time.
So to balance that scary, I give you this: Apparently, Yale didn’t bring their band to their game yesterday. They ended up beating Auburn, which was an upset. (Watching the TV guys beat up Charles Barkley about that has been pure entertainment!) The Idaho band learned that Yale didn’t have their pep band there, so they got some Yale T-shirts, and stayed and played for them during their game. I am sure this was just what Yale needed to be victorious! But that right there, that is the pure fun of this tournament. Young college kids, being excited and having fun. The Band Geeks stepping up for the athletes, and keeping a fun atmosphere going. I am sure that busted more than just Charles Barkley’s bracket, but it is a great story.
Well, if any of you still have a somewhat structurally sound bracket, I wish you luck moving forward through the rest of the weekend and the tournament. I will pick a team with a fun mascot to follow the rest of the way through, or maybe I am a Yale/Idaho fan now. Who knows? I am merely an observer now… I will be over here scavenging for any leftover wings and ranch.
Coco's Veiw of the World 