Murch Mudness

At some point this weekend or next my adopted Cinderella team was going to get knocked out of the NCAA basketball tournament. I can admit that now. That it had to be today, and by 2 points or so, did inflict some visceral discomfort. Yes, I am grieving big time. Like most fans, I come to have some serious empathetic and familial kinship with the players, especially those Seniors. I don't have a lot of happy March Madness history and memorable moments to fall back on - but here is one.

The zeitgeist is a little different, as co-worker who for years did yeoman work in assembling a wonderful on-line bracket with daily rankings and intriguing bonuses, e.g., for correctly picking underdogs, grew weary of the burden. I don't blame him at all. It was a lot of work, updating the system every year and no doubt dealing with back-chat from those who want to be waited on or feel they are somehow owed something.

Eric and I had participated for years, cherishing the daily updates on the relative rankings for the scores of co-workers and family members. We never won anything. Eric almost always ended up ahead of me.

It was fun.

Without that competition, with my team done, I will have to work at attending to the tournament.

Louisville? Pittsburgh? Ugh. I don't know how it could happen, but I want a long-shot to win. E.g., dinner-guests tonight were cheering for West Kentucky (Bowling Green) against Zaga. I just couldn't quite do that myself, but in hindsight that is just what I should have been going for.

Never mind the prior opponents of another local team. What a great mascot story!