I’ve been committed to March Madness for almost 40 years now. In fact, in the past 20, it’s gotten even worse. I now fill out three brackets. It’s true madness…
The Final Four this year was:
Michigan State University (MSU)
Texas Tech University
Auburn University
The University of Virginia (UVA)
Michigan State was ranked number two in the East region; UVA was ranked number one in the South region; Auburn was ranked number five in the Midwest region and Texas Tech was ranked number three in the West…
Independent of the fact that Michigan State was the only team expected to be in the Final Four, the expectation was also that they would win the championship…
Didn’t happen…
They lost to the fairly unknown Texas Tech and Auburn lost to UVA. The championship game ended up being Texas Tech vs. UVA. UVA ended up winning in overtime…
This reminds me of when I worked in Baltimore. It was the year they won the Super Bowl. I’m from Cleveland for those of you who know what that means. It was torture…
And now, for those of us who frequent Virginia, we get to hear about this for at least a year… Deja Vu… Torture…
Now here’s where we are…
If you’re into March Madness, nothing about the bracket experience is comfortable. There’s always a cinderella team who comes out of nowhere – Texas Tech – and there’s always the one team you want to win and choose year after year after year after year – Gonzaga – and they lose year after year after year after year!
We get used to busted brackets and this year is no exception.
But the fact that the championship game was two teams that had never won a championship in school history and the game went into overtime means it was just a good game period.
Whether you’re a fan of either team or not, the match up was divine. Don’t remember the last time I watched a championship game that was so even THE ENTIRE GAME. They stuck with each other the whole way…
So congratulations to both teams for bringing their A game to the court.
And next year, please remind me not to choose Gonzaga… please…
