So after the first day of the NCAA tournament (note that is the first day of the SECOND round which I still call the FIRST round because I still haven't gotten used to those bracket buster games) I was feeling pretty good.
No, check that. I felt great.
I had only lost two teams, UNLV which got upset by Colorado, and Harvard which lost to Vanderbilt. I could admit to myself that picking Harvard to beat Vanderbilt was probably a poor choice, but UNLV losing to Colorado? Eh. It happens. Part of the tournament.
Plus, some of my choices had been rather astute. I had picked VCU to win. I had Iowa State winning even though the public was leaning towards UConn. Considering I had only watched three basketball games this year, all of which featured the rather lackluster but perhaps unfortunate Virginia Tech Hokies, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I even allowed a bit of hubris, that vice I despise among almost all others, to creep into my discussions at the office. I labeled my bracket "Nick's Bracket of Awesomeness" and started talking about how the real challenge for me was going to be in the second round, where I had Notre Dame defeating Duke, and how by Monday my bracket would look like a vast green meadow because when I get a game right I highlight in green.
Well, this morning the Bracket of Awesomeness is more like the Bracket of Middling Disappointment.
Who would have thought that Norfolk State would beat Misourri and Lehigh would be Duke? That Ohio would beat Michigan and USF would beat Temple? I sure didn't. And today my bracket has a bad case of the measles.
The only silver lining in all of this is that if I didn't think that many favored teams would suddenly "go all wobbly", as Margaret Thatcher would say (and no doubt did whilst watching her "Bracket of Iron" get trashed in utter disbelief), then my co-workers probably didn't either. Officially, that means nothing. Winning the competition means only that I have the pride of being champion this year, because company policy prohibits gambling of any sort at work. Unofficially, it means that those two cases of delicious Newcastle Brown I will get if I win could still be mine.
Oh, and I would show you a copy of my bracket if I could, but I am a little technologically challenged today, it seems. I promise that eventually I will post it. For now, let's let the Bracket of Middling Disappointment remain also the Bracket of Mystery.
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