Monday, March 12, 2012

Bracketology


It’s now mid March. And I knew this day was coming. Today is the day that the March Madness brackets came out. The males in our house are penciling in their choices. Oops. Correction. We don’t use pencil; we use pen so erasing can’t be done.  When you ink in your choices, you are committed.

I’d tell you that the men are researching, but apparently they already have the requisite knowledge. And at meals, they discuss end of season surges, etc. I think men should come with tags, so you know what you’re getting. I had no idea that when we were dating and Cal told me that he played soccer and baseball on a college team, it actually meant something significant. He should have come with a tag that read, “I really like sports. I think it’s great fun to watch men throw balls around.” In response to Cal’s sports comment, I said, “Oh, I was asked to join the NCAA, division one champion women’s sailing team.” He was impressed at the time. Now I know that he probably thought, “Sports chick. Great.” The reality was different. The sailing team asked me to join because they were very desperate and I knew how to sail. In all fairness, I would’ve joined—they had the sleekest yacht around—but my work schedule didn’t allow for sailing practice. Let alone regattas.

Later on, Cal discovered that I was present in a sailboat that hit a yacht. But I was NOT sailing at the time. I was yelling, “Come about, come about!” We still hit. But it was a glancing smack. A little spit and rubbing took the scrape mark off the yacht.

So that’s my encounter with organized sports (except that women’s softball team where I got run over at home plate). And now I'm faced with bracketology. My method is glancing at my bracket printout and filling it in, randomly choosing teams whose names seem nice. But don’t put my method down. Most years I get at least three of the Final Four. Right now, I’m trying to pick out a Cinderella team. I briefly considered Harvard, but as Cal says, “They calculated their chances, and they’re not betting on themselves.” In the meantime, I’m leaning toward Long Beach State. Not because I think they have a chance, but Cal’s mom got her BA there. So that’s a good enough reason for me. 

12 comments:

  1. My family has done brackets for the past few years now, and it's always fun to see what people come up with. We do no research, and none of us really follow college basketball, so basically we just guess. The year my sister won, her strategy was to pick the teams whose colors she liked best, which probably tells you something about how seriously we take this. ;)

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  2. Great analysis method. That's my choice too!

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  3. Great analysis method. That's my choice too!

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  4. The above comment was mom's. The ipad decided to send it over my name. Artificial intelligence always gets the best of us.

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  5. Joe hates it when I fill out a bracket and make better choices than he does. Mine are based on...well, nothing. His are calculated by his knowledge of all the teams, etc. So when I get a better score than he does it drives him crazy. I think I'll go fill out a bracket...just for fun :)

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  6. My husband complains I'm not more interested in his Fantasy Football team. I always reply that he can discuss it with me while we go shopping the mall for shoes.

    I let him have his boy things, and he lets me have my girl things.

    And yes, he should have come with a tag before marrying him. I had no idea it was *that* bad.

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  7. Sports is not in my genetic code at all. So when hubs is watching his favorite sports--football and basketball-I curl up with a book. :)

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  8. Yeah, I don't have the March Madness and have no idea how the brackets work. With your picking skills though, maybe you should use them on like...picking lottery numbers. ;)

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  9. I know nothing of bracketology. I'm a fan of the NBA and MLB, but my investment in the details only goes so far. Good luck getting through March Madness.

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  10. Thank goodness I'm not into sports that much, or else my life would seriously fall apart!

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  11. I'm with Cherie--I don't know much at all about sports (neither is anyone in the immediate family). I'm not even sure what you mean by brackets, exactly. :P

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  12. That's exactly the logic I use. I often pick gonzaga because I just like the sound of it. :)

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