Basketball Owns Me

Because you totally care about my college basketball obsession:

• For the third consecutive year, I've picked a Duke / Arizona Final. Yes, I know it will never happen, but whatever, I get to dream, right?
• Conversely, for the first time, I actually picked Duke to win. Of course, this probably means that Arizona will actually win and I will cry like a little girl. Just kidding. Arizona never wins anything.
• I seriously have no clue about any of the other teams this year. I swear, it's like the only basketball I watched all year was the ACC and all the Illinois games that were on CBS. Oh, and the occassional Big 12 game that came on ESPN Plus. Therefore, this year more than ever I'm totally going by third-hand anecdotes and which team has a better color scheme. (I like the cut of Pacific's jib.) I will, however, no longer consider which mascot looks cooler, after last year's debacle with Georgia Tech (seriously that is a fugly mascot. it alone should have disqualified them from the finals).
• Sadly, this year I have no one to root against. Nevada is still my arch nemesis, but I really want them to beat Texas, for reasons that are conflicted, to say the least. And I know they will receive a quick beatdown from Illinois if they do, so double bonus.
• Actually, strike that, the team I'm actively rooting against is Kentucky, about whom I know little but it offends me that they have a number 2 seed and I haven't seen them play this year. Would also say the same thing about Washington, but I did get to see the PAC-10 final this weekend. They beat my Arizona however, so there is a tiny nugget of hate. I kick them out of my bracket relatively quickly (I'm telling you, look at the stunning colors on Pacific).

So this year I actually have a job, which conflicts with the tournament. In years past it was no big thing to skip a couple days of class for the sheer entertainment of this week, it falls beautifully right after midterms, but now I'm all in a quandry. This is totally what old feels like, isn't it?

Weirdly enough, this is the first year since I started college where I have nothing riding on my picks (last year my entry fee was several canned goods and I proceeded to have the 3rd worst score out of the entire dorm quad, thank you very much Georgia Tech). I have entered no pool, save the ESPN challenge so that I can track just how misguided I was earlier in the week. It will probably be much better for my rage now that there's no pressure to win. (I can recall a time that was junior year in which my head nearly exploded, watching my only winning upset pick (Marquette) snatch away their victory. And then my head actually exploded when they kept winning.) Easing that pain may go a long way to my keeping what's left of my sanity this Spring.

That's totally a lie, my sanity is already gone. Go Wildcats! The Arizona kind! Not those Kentucky ones!