Friday, March 21, 2008

As Rich Rod would say: "You pat your bracket on the butt after day 1 and on day 2 you end up with crap in your hand!"

So yesterday was a great opening day to March Madness for my bracket with the only game I missed being Purdue over Baylor. I only had Baylor into the second round anyway so I was happy.

I should have heeded Rich Rodriguez's advice from the press conference yesterday to not pat my bracket on the butt.

After only the first set of games today, I now find crap in my hands.

Thank you Gonzaga and Drake.

Gonzaga, first of all, was pathetic losing to one skinny twelve year old in Stephen Curry who dropped 40. Don't get me wrong, this was one of the toughest first round games for me to pick because of that aformentioned skinny twelve year old who is a phenom. But, I decided that he alone could not beat Gonzaga. For a majority of the game I was right, until that is Mark Few's terrible coaching. With Gonzaga still in control midway through the second half, Davidson started to go on a run. I was thinking "timeout" for FOUR STRAIGHT possessions, but Mark Few refused to call one resulting in Davidson's first lead of the half. Way to go coach.
And by the way, I had Gonzaga all the way in the elite eight. A stretch, maybe, but I think Georgetown is extremely overrated and thought Gonzaga would beat them. Now Davidson will have that opportunity and I think they have a good shot. They push the ball up the floor extremely quick offensively and with Stephen Curry, even though he looks like a 12 year old, Davidson will always have a shot.

Then, to continue the crapping on my hand, Drake decided to struggle for a majority of their game. But, as the second half clock was nearing under 6 minutes, they orchestrated one of the smartest comebacks I have ever seen. The defense was unable to stop Brazelton and WKU's quick offense, so even with 5-6 minutes left in the game, they started to press and foul WKU. This finally got their offense out of rhythm and allowed Drake to creep all the way back. Most of the time when you think comeback, you think of a team going on a quick run. Not this one. There was no 2 minute scoring run. This was a carefully orchestrated comeback getting the opposing offense out of rhythm and allowing their own offense to come along slowly. Hats off to the Keno Davis and the coaching staff for the comeback and to the players for executing the plan perfectly. Then I had to leave when overtime started for a meeting and I was feeling pretty good that my Sweet 16 pick Drake would pull it out. I just got back to my computer to see a game-winning three pointer with time expiring by WKU nullified the great Bulldog comeback. This was the big crap in my hands as another Sweet 16 team was knocked out AND I did not even get to see the game-winning three with time expiring.

I guess we all learn our lessons. Lesson here, "In Rod we trust." I was stupid enough to pat my bracket on the butt after yesterday even after going to Rod's presser and hearing his quote. Well now I have experienced getting crap on your hand and I have learned my lesson.

I hope you all learn your lesson too. Never be proud of your bracket. You WILL regret it.

1 comment:

Matt Boyer said...

You shoulda known better... a 5/12 match-up of two mid majors? c'mon.

And don't sleep on Stephen Curry