resignation sets in


well, it's settled. i am not going to repeat and win my ncaa pool this year. analyzing my bracket, it kind of surprises me, even today, that i only made three real reaches this year. and by reaches, i mean true gamble picks that would separate my bracket away from the mainstream "hey, look. i've got all the one and two seeds in my elite eight!" brackets. everyone picks a first-round upset or five. they only cost you 10 points anyway. so, those don't count as reaches unless you've got a fifteen over a two or a sixteen over a one.

my three reaches were these:

arizona st. over syracuse, through to the sweet sixteen - i had zona st. losing to oklahoma in the next round, so this wasn't a huge reach, but i was picking against the hottest team in the country and everyone's new favorite player, jonny flynn (i admit it. i like him too.). i had seen zona st. four or five times this year and every game i saw, james harden was the freaking man. heads and shoulders better than any other player on the floor, including their home win over ucla. boy, what a bust he turned out to be. turns out i put too much stake into the ucla game, because turns out ucla sucks. they got destroyed yesterday. zona st. and harden got wiped out in the first game today. 1-8 shooting in the first round. 2-10 today. awesome. thanks for showing up, james. maybe he was already thinking about the nba draft. i have no idea. anyway, first reach...fail.

wake forest to the final four - well, shit. the only true upset of the first round comes at the expense of my sleeper pick of the tournament. saw bits and pieces of several wake games this year and was severely impressed each time. they beat carolina. beat duke. had all the makings of a very good and balanced basketball team, brimming with at least three (maybe four) guys that'll play in the nba. they were young, sure, but so is every good team in college basketball these days. something weird happened down the stretch to them, though, and i just didn't want to believe it. i think i read they went 7-6 in their final thirteen games. not terrible, but not a team that was going to win four straight through good teams and make the final four. bad choice on my end. i got bit. two fails.

oklahoma to win it all - no, picking a two seed to win it isn't going to melt anyone's brains, but when only 4.4 percent of the country (according to espn's bracket tally) is holding hands with me, i'll chalk that up as a solid reach. carolina has serious flaws as a team even if lawson looked good yesterday. louisville will not hit their threes during at least one game this tournament. they better hope the other team is off too. pitt doesn't score easily enough for my taste. and uconn? i've never really felt uconn this year, even though they've been the most impressive team of the first two rounds. when making my picks, i could totally see this being a carmelo in 2003 situation. blake griffin, best college player on the planet, would take his team on his very broad and athletic shoulders through the rest of the good-but-not-great field. freshman willie warren would be his gerry mcnamara-esque second fiddle. and the supporting cast would fill whatever role blake griffin needed them to on their way to cutting down the nets. this still could happen, but syracuse, version 2009, still looks like the hottest team in the country as of this morning. carolina looks worthy of a one seed again. then likely pitt in the semifinal? then louisville or uconn in the final? yikes. four top ten teams, four straight wins? i just don't believe it can happen anymore. it took all of three days for my confidence to be crushed.

so, i concede defeat and i will golf clap some bracket that has north carolina winning it all, stepping over me and all others to claim victory. from this point forward, i will root for good games the rest of the way. pathetic wisconsin/xavier does not apply, hence the time stamp on this post.

from this point forward, i put on my cap and prepare for the braves to destroy my soul. wbc semi tonight. two more weeks of spring training and rooting for my new man-crush, jordan schafer, to win atlanta's centerfield job. softball in nine days. it's baseball season, folks.

who needs brackets, right?