Let the Games Begin

After hours of studying all the various Brackologists recommendations (not really), I've dived into the bracket pool with my picks. I'm not in any office betting pool only because no one has stepped forward to organize one. In the past it was handled by what I call the old guys. They were into the betting thing. They are all gone now and I am now one of the old guys. Anyway I leave it up to the kids to organize things. The kids don't seem interested. It could be that over the years our office make-up has gone from 90% guys and 10% women, to 70% women and 30% guys. I'll make a crass generalization and say women aren't as interested in basketball pools. Guess the sex of the baby pools, yes. Basketball and sports in general, not so much. My history in the NCAA Men's basketball pool is not stellar. For certain teams I tend to pick more from my heart than my brain or as The Son points out "You always pick against teams/schools you hate. That's dumb". Out of the mouths of babes. That being said, lets look at my predicted upsets for Round 1. I have Old Dominion beating Butler. Hey I live in Virginia, what did you expect? My former neighbor's kid graduated from ODU. So there you go. Winthrop over Notre Dame. Everyone is picking this as their upset, which probably means it won't happen. Winthrop is the Big South Conference winner. The Son is a graduate of Radford University, a Big South member. They broke my heart last year losing on a last second 3 point basket by Tennessee. I hate Tennessee. I graduated from Auburn so enough said there. Plus I don't care much (an understatement) for Notre Dame. When I was but I wee lad and there was no such thing as cable or satellite TV and was growing up quite happily in NJ, every Sunday morning they would have a one hour recap of the Notre Dame football game with Lindsey Nelson. Ruined me forever for Notre Dame. Lord you would have though they were gods. I made sure to watch the times they lost, which back in those days wasn't often. Ok where was I? Oh yeah basketball. I also have Ga Tech over UNLV, which is an upset, but not in my book. I also picked Villanova to beat Kentucky. I don't think Kentucky scares anyone this year. I also have Virginia Commonwealth beating Duke. Duke stinks this year so why not kick them while they are down? VCU is the Colonial Athletic Association winner. They really should have lost to George Mason in the CAA tournament - down by 5 with 2:00 minutes left and Mason has the ball? Maybe its their year to make some sort of run. I also have Gonzaga over Indiana. I really can't say why other than I like Gonzaga and I really don't like Indiana harking back to their Bobby Knight era. On the other side of the bracket, I have Michigan State over Marquette. Marquette just hasn't been playing well lately. Next is George Washington over Vanderbilt. I'm also an alumnus of GWU for my graduate degree so there is that plus they're on a bit of a roll. Next up is Long Beach State over Tennessee. I think Tennessee is overrated (always). I know they beat Florida, but they're not going to be playing in Nashville and Tennessee is mediocre away from home. Plus Pat Summit won't be there with her cheerleader uniform on. Plus its Tennessee. I can't pick Tennessee. My last upset pick is Creighton over Nevada. A lot of relatives from my wife's side of the family went to Creighton. Plus they seem to go every year. They have tournament experience for what that's worth. We'll see how these and the rest of my picks (the non-upsets) work out. Stay tuned for Round 2.

Daughter #1 has let me know that I don't talk about her enough on here. I think she just likes to hear about herself, which is ok. She did want me to write that she isn't single as I described her in my very first post. As she told me: I have a boyfriend. Hmm....ok. I stand corrected. Anyway, Daughter #1 or as she suggested I refer to her as my High Maintenance Daughter (as opposed to my semi-hippie granola crunching almost vegan frugal Daughter #2 - Daughter #1's words (she was being funny, I think)) spent the weekend with said boyfriend in Florida watching the Mets play and eating great tasting seafood. What is wrong with this picture? I'm at home paying bills and my always poor daughter is jetting around watching spring training. The world is not fair.

On the rowing front, I finally got out on the water for my first row of the season on Saturday. I rowed bow in a Quad. The weather was nice, but still a bit windy for my taste, but overall it was nice getting back out. We did a 5 1/2 mile row. We were accompanied by a double and a single and a good time was had by all. This weekend looks like a bust for rowing as our 78 degree weather is going down the tubes with cold weather and possibly even some snow in the forecast. March is not playing nice.