The Big Dance

I may have commented about this last year, and if I did, I don’t care … so there.

We a day away from one of the greatest sporting events in the world, March Madness. So many would-be prognosticators come out of the wood-work around this time every year, that I’m surprised Punxatawny hasn’t gotten involved with this – I’m sure that ground-hog has a wide-open calendar after February.

You couldn’t swing a dead cat and not hit somebody who truly thinks he/she truly knows college basketball. Most of these people have probably seen a few highlights on ESPN throughout the year, and based on this amount of “research,” they feel confident in their picks. These are the same people who probably wouldn’t feel confident in telling you what they’ll probably be eating for lunch later in the day, but with this “bracketology,” they all think they’re experts.

That’s the fun (aggravating) part of this time of the year – somebody who never paid attention to college basketball always seems to win. Last year, I came in first in two pools, and second in another pool (making about $500 in the process) – and I didn’t watch an entire basketball game all season. Somehow, I just “knew” that Vermont would upset Syracuse and dash the hopes of half the participants in basketball pools throughout the country. I picked a few other upsets, based on nothing more than a hunch. But, man did I feel like a genius at the end.

This year, I’ll probably fail miserably. I’ve already invested more time in trying to pick the winners than I did in the last 5 years combined. I’m sure that I have already outsmarted myself, trying to find that improbable upset. But, hey, I can’t think of a better way to spend a day at work, than going to ESPN.com, and rooting for teams that I didn’t even know existed a few weeks ago.

One of these years, I’m going to take Thursday and Friday off, and go to a bar to watch the games. I hear a lot of people do that, and I think that may be fun. Of course, with St. Patrick’s Day falling on Friday, I think I’ll avoid the “Once-a –year” Irish people, and enjoy the games at home.