There are times when proud men must admit their mistakes. I started the 2005 NCAA Tournament 1-3. I won 18 of the next 20 games. Then I finished a disturbing 4-4 late by Friday night. Syracuse had lost to Vermont and Kansas was beaten by a school named Bucknell. Final Four dreams were dashed. Laying on the ground in despair for ten minutes, I could not believe that yet another year had been wasted. As I pulled myself off of the ground, my ribs sore, I knew it was over.
The day started out with NC State's fourteen-point deficit. By the end of the game, Julius Hodge had willed his team to a win. Florida held off Ohio. Iowa State decided to win a first round game four years too late for me, and Oklahoma State managed a victory.
Someone may have pissed UNC off, possibly by saying they are an uninspired team, but 59 points in the first half end those criticisms, for now. All Oakland had to do to stay in the game was shoot better, limit their turnovers, defense the three much better, play better transition defense, and a whole host of other assignments. Defensively it looked as if the each of the five Oakland players wore magnets that forced them to bunch up together as if it were a soccer game full of six-year olds. Atrocious.
New Mexico scored eleven points in the first half. Remarkably they finished the contest with 47. Southern Illinois beat St. Mary's. Central Florida came back to make a game of it against UCONN, but when their Golden Knight mascot fell off his chair before the game even started, I knew that was a bad omen.
The evening brought shit. My brother told me towards the end of the Syracuse-Vermont game, "looks like we gotta game!" I rebutted, "Looks like we got three Vermont alums wearing striped shirts." I didn't realize that you are allowed to mug a player only if his name starts with "Hakim Wa" and ends with "rrick". And the end of a career for G-Mac. Oh Gerry, we hardly knew ya.
I don't even want to talk about the ODU and GW games. I knew Mississippi St. would win because of Frazier. Not so much his playing, but the fact that his name is Winsome. But how much is some? Does it include a win against Duke on Sunday?
Well, I got the wrong #14 seed. You know what Bucknell rhymes with? Fucknell. Not to offend anybody, but Kansas is full of a bunch of stupid bastards! They ran the Duke play to perfection except Wayne Simien is no Christian Laettner. Think about that one Wayne. Plus you owe me at least $130 jerk! The last time I picked Kansas to go to the Final Four was 1997, when Jacque Vaghan and company lost to the eventual champs, Arizona, the #4 seed. Damn it, damn it, damn it! Stupid bastards!
Now we move to the round of 32. It's all about restoring my pride. I finished the first round a morbidly dismal 23-9. If you picked only the higher seeds, you'd have finished 24-8. Just another chapter in my book of failure.
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