A Profile In Madness: A Guide To The 2009 NCAA Tournament
March 16th 2009 17:30
Madness is tonic and invigorating. It makes the sane more sane. The only ones who are unable to profit by it are the insane.
~ Henry Miller
~ Henry Miller
Here we go again…
On the cusp of my favorite time of the year, the madness has set in and it’s time for boys, girls, men, women and everyone else in between to begin franticly filling out their brackets in the hopes of pride, glory and money.
What March Madness evokes in me beyond the illusions of monetary grandeur is a sense of purity in competition. No matter the millions of dollars one school puts into building up their basketball program or the favoritism shown by Dick Vitale or the crew on ESPN it all comes down to who puts the ball in the basket last when the buzzer hits.
This same sense of fair and open competition reflects through on the bracket sheets when even the novice who never watched a game all year has the same shot of winning the money in the pot as the sports junkie who personally attended every game with his pen and paper to record the stats point for point.
Yes I am truly on the cusp of madness and if you don’t hear from me this week it’s because for the first time in years I am truly free. Free from sneaking my phone on the job to track the score of my picked upset of Morgan State to knock off Oklahoma or making up that story about a bladder infection as to not miss my Mountaineers hit the last second buzzer shot to knock off Dayton in the first round.
In a world gone crazy this is my oasis when the things that carry me through the year are taken away. The sound of a musket being shot off on Mountaineer field, The Carolina Panthers storming their way to victory, Watching the Washington Redskins Fall on their faces yet again or seeing the worlds greatest wrestler Mr. Randy Orton win yet another championship.
The madness has put my sanity on hold and no matter what kind of crazy stuff is going on up the street on Capitol Hill this will be my week to soak in the glory that is March….
As I put my rambling on the Back burner let’s proceed with the real reason of why I’m putting up this post. To try and make sense of the closest NCAA field of 64 teams I have ever scene in my years of unadulterated madness. A field that begins with the number one overall seed Louisville which most likely won’t make for many surprises as they have received the crown of inevitability from the NCAA selection committee.
As much as I loathe the Cardinal I am forced to give the Devil his due and pick the birds to cruise through to the second round against whoever the play in winner is. For those of you who are playing for the advanced point system you have a quandary on your hands.
Whenever I can’t pick between two teams I have never scene play I like to pick them for their school names. My favorite of all time is the Wichita State Shockers (I’m sure all the Dane Cook Fans got that one)
So now I’m faced with my favorite state abbreviation of Bama (Alabama State) and the ever so Classic Morehead State. What’s a boy to do but pick Bama since the Roll tide is missing from this year’s field…
GGGOOO RRROOOOOLLLL TTTIIIDDDEEEE!!!!!!
Moving On…
In the Midwest Bracket I’m going to go ahead and pick Siena, Arizona, Cleveland State, and USC as my first round darlings. I like Louisville in at least the Sweet 16 but I’m kind of stuck in the bottom of the bracket as far as Michigan State is concerned. There a tough tournament team and will give my Mounties a good game.
Of all the tournament surprises to come I believe that the West Bracket is wide open for the money. Memphis is ultimately going to steal the show with Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Mizzou turning heads. In the words of Kurt Angle “It’s True, It’s True” UCONN will go down to Texas A&M in the second round.
Moving on up, to the east side, I finally got myself a piece of the pie….
Oh sorry for the Jefferson’s theme song but I was feeling a bit nostalgic as I watched Duke pop into the bracket. Imagine this, a young version of me on his couch watching Duke vs. UK biting his finger nails as the shot heard round the world burned through the rim sending Duke past UK and ultimately on the road to winning the NCAA Championship. Ahh the memories but we’re not talking about the same old Duke and this year won’t be any different.
In this group we have those damn dirty PITT Panthers who love to screw up my bracket simply because they know my burning hate of rivalry for them. I still like the kitties in at least the Sweet 16 with my surprises coming from Xavier, VCU, American University & Texas. This bracket is up for grabs with Duke going down in the second round yet again at the hands of Texas, VCU turning heads with a Sweet 16 run and Xavier breaking some more hearts along the Monongahela River.
Moving down to the South side we run into every one’s annual trendy pick of UNC. For all those that want to believe the hype I’m sorry to tell you that it’s not going to happen in “09” or any other time in the near future. This bracket has nothing but mine fields in the form of Butler, Western Kentucky, Gonzaga, Syracuse, and Temple.
Like a Stephen King novel the monsters of March Upsets will strike hard in the South side with UNC as an early victim at the hands of Butler.
With my upsets on paper through the early rounds it’s time for me to lay my cards on the table and pick my Final Four. As much as I would love to just take you in a room and whisper sweet nothings in your ear about a fairy tale where WVU just absolutely storms through the odds en route to the National Championship my logical brain just won’t let me do it. This is the reason why I do 5 brackets a year.
Easy solution right?
Logical brain sees a Final Four with Louisville, Memphis, Texas and Oklahoma representing their respective brackets. Heartbreak will hit the city of Memphis yet again thanks to the dirty birds of Louisville who will hand Oklahoma their second national Championship loss in the year of 2009.
A word of Advice…
If you’re going to use my ranting as gospel when you’re filling out your office pool I would highly recommend against it. Most likely my fingers are going to start shaking and my twitch will set in when filling out my final brackets in my respective competitions. My neurotic nature will not allow me to be able to give you an honest answer of what I’m going to be thinking when I wake up tomorrow morning so here’s my advice…
Pick because you like one state better than another, choose the cooler mascot, or think analytically as to whether a golden gopher could really take down a Texas Longhorn. No piece of advice I could ever think up will be 100% right nor could it be 100% wrong as this form of gambling is all about luck.
Drop the fear and splurge the five bucks to get into your pool at the office or do one of the free one’s on line. Lady luck is waiting for you. The question is really whether she’s looking to shine on you or to give you that swift kick in the butt and laugh at you…
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