Miles's blog

I am not much of a basketball fan.  Well, actually I am not a basketball fan at all.  So I generally don’t participate in the annual national gambling event called March Madness.  I used to take part, but my chance of picking the winners in the tournament was no better than my chance of winning the lottery so I have in recent years stuck to buying Poweball tickets.  However, this year I think I will enter some contests.

Mostly this is because I have so much time on my hands.  I am going to have time to really research this.  I heard an expert on Mike and Mike this morning tout Marquette.  I don’t know a damn thing about Marquette, except they are a Jesuit school in Wisconsin and that Al McGuire once coached them to a national championship (in 1977 which was about when I stopped watching basketball).  But now I can research whether their tough defense will be enough to propel them past the winner of the BYU/Iona play-in game and then the winner of Colorado State and Murray State into the Sweet Sixteen.  I will be able to figure out if this past weekend’s losses by Kentucky, Syracuse and North Carolina were signs of declining performance or just speed bumps on the way to a national title.

The key to winning any contest of this kind is to discern the surprising upsets.   Will a number 12 seed like Harvard be able to spring a surprise on Vanderbilt?  How about something even more shocking, maybe number 13 Montana taking out Wisconsin, or even number 14 San Diego State beating Baylor?  Maybe even a startling prediction like number 15 Norfolk State beating second-seeded Missouri.  (I won’t pick a number 16 to beat a top seed since that has never happened.)

It is always the small and unknown schools which pull off these kinds of surprises.   Perhaps number 14 Belmont can win.  Belmont is the largest Christian University in Tennessee according to Wikipedia and is located in Nashville.  Apparently, the Bruins have won 14 straight games, triumphing over Florida Gulf Coast in the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament final.  They also whipped up on East Tennessee State and Jacksonville, so perhaps they are ready to wipe Georgetown out of the tournament.

Noel texted me to tell me that his two schools, Colorado and Vermont are both in the tournament.  He should enjoy this while it lasts.  Vermont has to beat Lamar for the right to be a number 16 seed and a chance to lose by 30 against North Carolina.  CU, on the other hand, arrives as the winner of the Pacific 10 Conference, a league so bad one ESPN commentator said it does not deserve its status as a major conference.

At any rate, I have found lots of contests online which are free.  Most of the networks have one, as does ESPN.  Yahoo Sports is offering $5 million for a perfect bracket. I plan to enter all of them. 

One of the nice things about retirement is all the time I have to waste of fruitless pursuits.  I think there is even free wifi at St. Augustine beach, so I can do all the necessary research while watching the waves and enjoying today’s 79 degree heat.  Please do not send me texts or e-mails telling me how jealous you are. I already know.