I love College Basketball. I love the NCAA tournament (not the kind of love I wrote about in this post, it's more like a strong like than real love). I am a big college hoops fan, period. The pace of the game is awesome. The heart and effort these players put into playing, awesome. In my opinion it is sport in it's purest form. Granted these guys are all trying to make it into the NBA and make millions, so that is a factor in how they play. That being said, it's hard to find a more pure form of major college or professional sport than college basketball. I really do enjoy filling out my bracket and the surprise upsets that happen every year.
I always wonder how and why certain teams get certain seeding. A good example of a weird seeding would be Kentucky in this years tournament. They were ranked 16th in the county going into the SEC tournament. Florida was ranked 12th going into the same tournament. Kentucky ran through everyone and won the whole thing. They physically beat the snot out of Florida in the SEC title game. I figured this would push the Cats up to a 3 or even 2 seed in the NCAA Tourney. In turn I also thought the Gators had sealed a 3 seed at most. When the brackets came out Kentucky was given a 4 seed and placed in the same bracket as OSU and UNC. Once I saw this I figured Florida must have gotten a 4 seed as well, all things considered. Shortly after I found that Florida had been given a 2 seed in arguably the weakest division of the bracket. This honestly shocked me. I didn't think for a second that there would be so much difference between the two. I don't get how they came up with this seeding and don't understand the logic in it.
THE UNDERDOG
In my life I have almost always rooted for the underdog. I live in Cincinnati, so it's not like I have ever had much of a choice either. The last dominate team to roll out of the tri-state area would have been the Kentucky teams of 1995-1997. These teams just had players that could dominate a game. Now for those of you who don't think a Kentucky team counts, then the next closest thing would be the 1999-2000 UC Bearcats Basketball Team. Two words; Kenyon Martin. Had he not gotten injured in the Conference USA Tournament UC would have most likely won it all. They had one star and some great roll players on that team. They would just dominate opponents. They went undefeated in conference play (16-0) and were destroying teams every single week. If you want something more than that you have to go back to before I was born. Arguably the greatest team ever put together in the history of Professional baseball. The Reds of the 70's were loaded. The entire team should be in the hall of fame. Each player on the field defined that position for the era. They won or came in 2nd in the NL West every year except for 1971. They went to the World Series 4 times, winning 2 times. I could go into individual player accomplishments, but that would be a couple pages worth of stats. I was born in 1981, so I never got to see this amazing team play. I just get the stories from my Dad and Grandpa. I just hope that in my life time I do get the chance to see a dominate team in the area. The Reds look good and are coming around, so maybe it's closer than I think it is.
I have come to realize that I really do love competition. I love that God gave me a heart that desires a challenge and that wants to be the best I can be. I am so blessed to have healthy competition each week, playing with guys whom I really enjoy spending time with. I am blessed to have a wife who challenges me when I am full of crap and who loves me the same despite my crap. I say all this to say, just remember that when you bracket goes to crap, it's okay. The Madness of March is for fun, not for stress and anxiety. Have fun and enjoy yourself in the process. And make sure to root for the underdog (GO BUTLER!).
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