I can’t say I’ve ever watched a college basketball game from beginning to end. I know I can say I’ve never been to one. Even in my five years of college I never went to one. Also, I’m 24 and until this year I hadn’t filled out a bracet.
Growing up on Long Island, there was no room for college sports. For me, there was the Yankees, the Mets, the Knicks, the Nets, the Islanders, the Rangers, the Giants and the Jets. I guess it’s different if you grew up in Arkansas, where the nearest professional teams were Texans.
This year though, sitting at work I got asked a few hours before the first round began “Hey, wanna get in on a bracet? They’re due at noon and they’re $5.”
“Sure.”
Now I know very little about college basketball. I don’t know the teams very well at all. I know UConn won last year, and I listen to sports radio and kinda pay attention so I can keep up with conversation if it leads there, but otherwise I know nothing. I poked around a bit online, tried to make educated decisions based on what the analysts at Sports Illustrated and ESPN were saying, and filled out my bracet. I wasn’t expecting much outside of losing my $5.
Well, the Elite 8 teams are in and I picked 6 out of 8 of them. I picked 11 out of the 16 teams for th Sweet 16. I picked 23 of 32 teams for the first round. My guess was that so far, I’m not doing terrible in the standings.
Turns out, I’m tied for second place. Wow.
I dont remember the prizes off the top of my head, but I know I’m beating everyone I work with in the standings (it’s not just our office but a lot of people around the country). It’s not such a huge feat to pick winners though. In ESPN’s standing last year a woman won who picked winners based on the color combination of the teams playing and which one she thought was the nicest, I think that’s great.
So I’m rooting for teams for the first timeduring the NCAA tournament. Let’s go UConn, Texas, UCLA and Florida. Then let’s go Texas and UConn, then let’s go UConn. Or something.
