Maddy McMarchson

My bracket had a decent second round of the tournament, but my third round was terrible.  I finished the round 8-8 and have already lost half the games in the next two rounds.  My bracket’s only chance at redemption is if I got the title game right.  After watching some or all of 31 of the 32 second round games (I refuse to watch Duke games) and the eight Saturday games, I saw only parts of four games on Sunday.  Whether watching or not my predictions did not come true.

So now that my bracket is toast, I can cheer for the teams I like, instead of the teams that I picked to win.  BYU is now my team.  I rarely pull for the Mormons and still hold a grudge from that time they killed a bunch of Arkansans.  This is BYU’s 26th time in the tournament, the most appearances of any team without a trip to the final four.  In the midst of their best season ever, one of their players violated the school’s honor code.  BYU suspended Davies for the rest of the season and in the process jeopardized their chance at a championship.  This is in stark contrast to what you would expect from a major college sports team.  I remember one time when a Murray State player got a DUI and was suspended for half of a half of a game.  My respect for this team and school has growth immensely, and I would be cheering for them even if they were not playing Florida.

My number one rule when filling out my bracket is that Duke does not get past the sweet sixteen.  Every year they get a high seed and play their first two games in North Carolina.  Because of that, it is foolish to pick against them in the early rounds.  This year I picked Texas to beat them in the next game.  The Longhorns lost Sunday, so it is now up to Arizona to beat Duke.

I have picked Wisconsin, Florida State, VCU, Richmond, and Marquette to lose all eleven games that they have played.  VCU and FSU play each other next round, so I will have to pick one of them, but I will continue to pick against the other three.