As March As Two Mad Things

I wanted to take off work next week, so that I could go to Kentucky.  However, around here spring break is next week, and there was no leave available then.  So to get revenge, I took off work the last two days.  I went to the Krogers on Tuesday and stocked up on food for my marathon ballgame watching.  I got home from work Thursday morning and, after a quick blog post, went straight to bed.  That two hour nap was enough sleep to keep me going through sixteen games of basketball.  I turned on the picture in picture so that I could watch two games at the same time.  I kept my remote controls within reach so that I could change channels during commercials and flip the sound from one game to another.  There was even a time that I needed to watch three games at once, so I watched the third on my laptop.

The tournament got off to a great start with Morehead State beating Louisville 62-61.  I loved seeing Rick Pitino lose in the first round.  Though I was disappointed that two teams from Kentucky had to play each other in the first round.  The only other instate match-up was Penn St/Temple, unless you count Georgetown/VCU.  If that was not bad enough, UK, the third team from Kentucky, was playing at the same time.  I do not remember how often multiple teams from other states were playing at the same time, but basketball is more important in Kentucky than in those other states.

If you count Morehead’s 2009 win over Alabama State in the “play in game,” this win gives the OVC a tournament win for the third year in a row.  Hopefully these two wins will give the conference more respect from the tournament selection committee and from future recruits.  Unfortunately other teams from the conference have all lost in the postseason.  Murray State, Austin Peay, and Tennessee Tech lost to Missouri State (NIT), Boise State (CBI), and Western Michigan (CIT) respectively.  All of those loses were on the road.

My bracket was perfect through seven games before Richmond beat Vanderbilt.  My first day record was 12-4.  I got two upsets right (Morehead State and Gonzaga), but picked three that did not happen (Belmont, Missouri, and Michigan State.  The Spartans were my Saint Patrick’s Day pick on Thursday, but their green uniforms were not enough to beat UCLA.

The only upset that I picked for Friday was Tennessee, but they did not even show up.  Not surprising since their coach was all but fired earlier in the week.  So after today’s four upsets, my second round record was 23-9.  5 of the 7 second round upsets came out of the Southwest bracket, and 3 of the 11 seeds won.

All of my television watching dreams were coming true until around 7:20 Friday night when my cable went out.  I had just fixed supper, so I had to force myself to concentrate on eating to hold back the tears.  I could not even watch games on the internet because I get my internet from my cable company.  So I grudgingly left my house a day and a half earlier than I had planned.  I joined my friends at church, where we hang out most Friday nights and watched the rest of the night’s games there.

My picks for the next round are pretty boring.  Kansas State, Morehead State, and Michigan State are the only lower seeds that I picked, which means that I have already missed the UCLA/Florida game.  For me, Donavan is in the same category as Pitino, which means that I am forced to cheer for UCLA tomorrow.

Church on Sunday is really going to cut into my basketball watching, but by then I may be ready for a break anyway.