Today is the real start of the NCAA tournament. I don’t believe the hype about it starting on Tuesday with the play-in game. Until they start playing four or more of them (one for each quarter of the draw) with teams that are not guaranteed, I will continue to ignore their calls for Tuesday being the start. Hogwash, it really begins today. There are 16 games today (and tomorrow), basically four at a time, four times over! That is awesome. Who cares if it is teams I haven’t heard of with stupid team names. But let’s face it, as the articles proclaiming how much of a loss companies face during the tournament from workers slacking off, the beauty of it is in the bracket.
I typically watch less than 10 games during the regular season. That may even be a high estimate. It is irrelevant, really. Come Championship Week, followed by the tournament, I become a drunk who fell off the wagon. I watch every single game I can. My lack of knowledge does not take any of the joy away from filling out a bracket (have you ever seen me turn down an opportunity to offer my opinion?) I love doing it. It is by far one of my favourite things to do each year. I have a ritual that I follow. I have been doing roughly the same thing for practically 15 years now. I have been told that I am a lunatic and that “others would think you are insane if they heard about it.” Well, its time to fess up.
I start Sunday night by watching the Selection Show. I briefly ponder it while the teams are revealed. I typically try to ignore the analysis presented by the hosts. I do not like to let bias creep into my realm. I cannot stand hearing who people pick ahead of time. Anyway, come Monday morning I pick up the USA Today. The paper does a phenomenal job covering the tournament, with a separate pull out section that is ideal for my purposes. They provide a capsule for each team, listing their record, key wins, starters, and a quick synopsis of the team strengths and weaknesses. It becomes my Bible for the week. (It is 10 times better now that the women don’t reveal their bracket on the same day. The paper used to put the women’s tourney in the same section, which would aggravate the crap out of me when I was flipping through it. No one cares about the women’s tourney unless they went to the school. If they say that they like it anyway, check their anatomy because they are probably fibbing about it.) I read one article by Dick Vitale, on what his thoughts are of the bracket. I don?t take any weight from his thoughts; I just enjoy the way he expresses himself. I then pull out each of the four sheets that has a quarter of the draw on it. Lastly, I find the page of the paper that has a small version of the bracket printed on it, fold it around the bracket, and inhale deeply. Its time for the madness, baby!
Monday is a day for cursory analysis. I go through the bracket once from top to bottom, filling in all the games that don’t require much thought. I may glance at a few team descriptions. This usually takes me through about 50% of the bracket. Tuesday is a day for deeper thought. I spread out the team capsule pages and investigate some of the games a little closer. This usually takes me through another 30% of the bracket. Come Weds., I make the really tough decisions and finish filling it out, agonising over it the entire time. After that, it is the fun part of entering the bracket online in the multitude of free sites and groups that are also doing it. To give an idea, I would say that I spent about 4 hours on it this week. That actually isn’t bad for me!
And then its time to watch your bracket unfold. I keep track in each round, noting how many I got right/wrong, how many of my teams are still alive for the next round. It doesn’t matter whether it gets blown to smithereens; it is just fun to monitor. I wish I had kept an all time log to see how I compare year to year. But that is just because I am a nerd and love statistics. Oh I am getting giddy just thinking about it!
Anxiously yours,
-Michael