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Saturday, March 18, 2006

Madness II

Very very dedicated readers of this blog will remember that I am mediocre at best when it comes to predicting the outcome of these NCAA basketball tournament things, and that I am a singularly ungracious loser to boot.  However, because it is rumored that there are some college basketball teams in the Research Triangle Park area, I stopped into a Chapel Hill bar last night and watched a couple hundred people go very, very quiet during the second half of the UNC-Murray State game.  Murray State, you’ll recall, is one of those perennially dangerous first-round teams, partly because no one can remember where they’re from.  That makes them very hard to locate when you’re trying to box ‘em out.  (In fact, almost forty percent of Americans are unable to locate a state named Murray on the map.) I did not endear myself to the locals by yelling every few minutes, “Go Murray State Salukis!  Lose by merely two or three in the final moments!” (And yes, I know that they’re not the Salukis.  Southern Illinois are the Salukis.  Murray State are the Erasers.) Maybe that’s why everyone was so quiet!

Anyway, I am getting crushed like a bug in the Atlanta bracket, where I picked UNC-Wilmington to beat a questionable George Washington squad who turned out not to be that questionable, picked Syracuse to “have momentum” rather than to “be exhausted,” believed that the Salukis (ahem) would upset the Mountaineers, failed to foresee Northwestern State (traditional crosstown rivals of Northwestern) upending Iowa, and, in a self-inflicted wound, picked Iona over LSU just for the hell of it.  However, to my credit, I do have George Mason over Michigan State in the Washington bracket, though I marred that one by getting a little upset-happy and picking Utah State over Washington and Seton Hall over Wichita State as well.  Like everybody else in the world, I went with Montana over Nevada in the Minneapolis bracket because it was a deadly 5-12 matchup (see Utah State-Washington, above), and I almost almost almost picked UW-Milwaukee, where I have some friends, over Oklahoma, where I have some other friends.  I also almost went with Alabama over Marquette in the Oakland wing (I’m sorry to report to Oaktown Girl that I had the NC State Wolfpack beating Cal’s Bears of Gold in the Atlanta bracket, though), and I do not care that Bradley beat Kansas last night because I have Pitt beating Kansas on Sunday anyway.

Overall, I’m 22-10 for the first two days.  Here’s hoping that Boston College smelled the Pacific coffee and is all ready for next week’s upset of Villanova.  And go Illini, beat Washington, and then lose to Connecticut by only two or three!

UPDATE:  Dammit, Illini, I said lose to Connecticut by only two or three.

UPDATE MARCH 19:  OK, be honest now—who had George Mason meeting Wichita State in the sweet 16?

Posted by Michael on 03/18 at 12:13 PM
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