Madness!

Even though I barely followed college basketball this year, I'm still very excited about The Tournament and, of course, my bracket.

I love brackets.

I filled one out on ESPN.com, and so far I'm doing worse than President Obama, but better than LeBron James. (The thing I'm proudest of, though, is what I named my entry: "One Shining Bracket." Oh, it makes me chuckle every time I think of it. Tee hee!) In case you're wondering, I have KU as my national champion, beating Kentucky in the title game (I couldn't resist the symmetry of KU vs UK); my other final four members are K-State (because I like the idea of KU playing K-State in the semifinal) and Duke (because I've read multiple people who have sports opinions for a living snarking about how the selection committee handed Duke the South region on a silver platter). For now, here's my Day 1 report:

The worst thing that happened to my bracket
Vandy losing. I had Vanderbilt in my Elite Eight, so it's a real blow that they lost to Murray State. I don't know if I had heard of Murray State before today. March Madness is so educational! (Tied to for second-worst-thing-to-happen-to-my-bracket are the losses by Notre Dame and Georgetown, both of which I had in my Sweet Sixteen.)

My best pick of the day
Well, the only real upset I picked today was UTEP over Butler, which failed to come true, but I did pick both of the 9s over the 8s (Northern Iowa over UNLV and Wake Forest over texas), which are each little upsets and pretty OK if you lump them both together. Right?

Best pick I made based on spite
I only picked texas to lose to Wake Forest because I wanted them to lose to Wake Forest. And hurrah that they did! (However, I could just as easily have picked them because Rick Barnes is not a good coach, because he is not a good coach.)

Pick I wish I had made based on spite
I don't like Notre Dame, so I wish I had followed my antipathy and predicted Old Dominion's win today. I cherish the hope that Old Dominion will continue to carry my spite torch and beat Baylor when they meet on Saturday.

My most cherished hope for tomorrow
is that the A&M/Utah State game (hot Aggie on Aggie action!) will be a very dull non-upset. I am so scared about being the 5 in a 5-12 matchup, I cannot even tell you.

My next-most cherished hopes for tomorrow, in descending order
Siena over Purdue (so that A&M, if they win--knock on wood, can play Siena instead of Purdue)
Cornell over Temple (because I also picked that as a 5-12 upset for good measure)
Vermont over Syracuse (because a 16-1 upset is the Holy Grail of Upsets)

The one basketball conversation I attempted to have at work today
Me: "So, do any of you follow the college basketball tournament?"
Everyone else: [silence]
Me: "Oh."
Me, airing what was on my mind anydangways: "They play this terrible song at the end of it every year, and it's already stuck in my head."
Co-worker: "I don't want to ask, do I?"
Me: "Well, even if I sang it, you wouldn't get the full effect of the cheesy 80s music."
Another co-worker: "Is it a different terrible song every year, or the same one?"
Me: "Oh, they've been using the same one for years. That's why it's terrible and from the 80s."

Morals of the story: 1) Libraries are staffed mostly by ladies, and ladies often do not care about sports (to the extent that they're blissfully unaware of "One Shining Moment") and 2) having "One Shining Moment" repeatedly stuck in my head is my comeuppance for "One Shining Bracket", and I don't know how I'm going to make it through the month, songs-stuck-in-my-head-wise.