Spring break is around the corner, and
college students all over the country are eager to start their time off with beaches, bikinis and booze.
For students like me who don’t have plans and get to spend their break in fantastic
Eugene, there is one event that will make spending the time here bearable.
March Madness.
My television will be dialed-in to CBS and the men’s NCAA Tournament for the next couple of weeks as I watch hour upon hour
of college basketball with the pizza delivery person as my only contact with the
outside world.
Liter upon liter of Mountain Dew (feel free to send me a free promotion for the advertisement) will be drank as I watch to see if Washington can live up to the No. 1 seed it received and can represent the Pacific-10 Conference in a positive way.
There will be hours upon hours of research put into tournament teams like Delaware State, Bucknell and Vermont (when I should be studying).
During the few hours of sleep I will get
between games, I’ll be dreaming of Billy
Packer and Greg Gumbel breaking down
the tournament.
But now I have the daunting task in front
of me that millions of people must face in
the next few days: Filling out the
tournament bracket.
In the past I always did some research
before putting my final bracket in stone.
And in every bracket pool I played in, I always got burned by a top-team choke (i.e. Arizona), and my chances of winning went right down the drain.
Last year, I didn’t have time to do the kind of research I generally do, and — of course — I almost won my pool.
While I still haven’t devised a strategy
for how to attack this year’s bracket, I know one thing for sure … don’t depend on a
Pac-10 team.
So, sorry Washington, Arizona, UCLA and Stanford … I don’t plan on putting you guys going past the round of 16.
Another breed of team I’ve been burned by in the past is one that has an unbelievable season — like Stanford and Saint Joseph’s last season — then proceeds to take a total dive in the postseason.
Obviously that means I’m not taking
Illinois and its 32-1 season. While I do think they have a chance of making it to the Final Four, they won’t win it all.
My pick to win the championship this season may seem a bit conservative, but North Carolina will be the team to beat (yeah, I know, a big stretch).
So while my Spring Break won’t bring
me to the beach or any other exotic location,
I do get to relax and take in some
March Madness.
Taking time for the team: My March Madness role
Daily Emerald
March 13, 2005
My March Madness role
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