Thursday, March 20, 2008

I didn't even fill out a bracket this year

The NCAA's are about to start in about 20 minutes and I didn't fill out a bracket. What's more, I don't care.

The byproduct of the "one-and-done" culture of college sports is that it's hard to really get to know a team, the back-to-back National Champion Florida squads being the exception that proves the rule (except I've always hated Florida). A friend of mine said it best on the first day of college football season: "This is the worst sports day of the year. You have no idea what's going on and you're supposed to know everything." Now I didn't go to a major university, so I don't have a proud sports tradition to follow, but my own tradition has been to latch onto the most interesting team. I can't find distinctly interesting teams any more.

Nowadays, the stories are almost all hackneyed and repeated: so-and-so got a scholarship because of blah blah blah, everyone hates Duke, no one on the east coast has seen Pac 10 team X, etc. None of this is meant to belittle the tournament, which I'll still lovingly watch for the next month. But the point is that my patience or ability to pretend I know the slightest thing about it is long gone, and I'm the guy who ran the school pools in sixth, seventh and eighth grades. If the secretary up front can win the whole thing, what's the point?

If you feel like you must bet on a game, we'll push you toward our buddy Cleveland Frowns' pick, Kent State, long a Me and Pedro favorite. Much love for the Golden Flashes.

2 comments:

Ben said...

This is a terrible post.

cannatar said...

Even I filled out a bracket!

I'm trying to think real hard, but I'm not sure I can name a single college basketball player. So, basically, I'm the "secretary up front."