This season is no different than the others, I fill out numerous brackets, try to pick the upsets, get in debates with those around me about teams, players, and coaches, but more importantly show up some people with my mad skills.
I entered the pool at work (remember I work with 39 guys) and my officemate and I even made a giant bracket on our office dry erase board, promise we are still productive. After the first round was the only one that only got one wrong on their bracket...they were shocked, everyone else in my life not so much. However, after this weekend I am not so sure how my bracket will look, but I know everyone else will be in the same boat as me.
An overal number one seed lost to a nine, and way to many games have come down to a last second basket nail bitter.
As for my teams....
K-State
They were an overall 5 seed in the Southeast side of the bracket. This meant their first two rounds were played in my hometown of Tucson, Ariz. I was so sad I had to work and did not have an excuse to go home to watch. My mom on the other hand got to go watch the Cats play their first round game against (12) Utah State. I had to push her into going, but after the game she told me she was so happy I did and had a great time.
I would have had a great time two sitting half court, first row, next to Frank Martins, and the rest of the K-State coaches families. As you can guess, or saw, K-State won that one and moved on to round two.
Unfortunately, the Wildcats were not able to beat the (4) Wisconsin Badgers. It, like many other games, was close at the end but we just couldn't pull it out. My heart also broke when they showed Jacob Pullen at the end of the game, crying in the arms of his teammates.
He is an amazing player, he became K-State all time leading scorer (ever) and even became the NCAA Tournament all time leading game scoring player with 38 points. It's hard to think back to his freshman year when I covered the men's team for the yearbook, he was goofy, wide eyed, eating pizza and fried chicken, and trying to figure out how the iPod was recording his press interview with help from Clint Stewart and Beasly. Those were the days...sigh.
Now he will go onto the draft with our other senior Curtis Kelly, but Pullen will always be loved and respected on the court, will always bleed purple, and will always make people "Fear the Beard."Now from my alma mater playing in my hometown, to my hometown Wildcats.
Arizona
They too were a 5 seed, but in the hardest side of the bracket, the West. I would also like to say that I am not just saying that and if you don't believe me I, along with numerous ESPN analyst, general basketball fans, and any of the guys I work with would help defend that statement.
To start the tourney they played their first two round in Tulsa, Okla., only four hours away from me, but again had to work. They took on (12) Memphis, and just like their Pac 10 championship game against the Washington Husky's, was a tough fight and down to the final seconds. Lucky for us we won and went on to play the winner of the Texas/Oakland game — (4) Texas.
That game got over about 30 min ago, and once again the U of A gave all of us a heart attack (I really wish they would stop doing that, I can't take much more of it). But the end of the game was amazing and very intense, I am sure you can find it on highlights and ESPN will be talking about it until the next round of games because there is much to debate including a 5 sec. violation with a timeout and two maybe foul calls at the end. Not to mention what Williams (Wildcat) pulled out at the end, a layup and one call with 9 sec. left.
Now we are off to Anaheim, Calf. to play (1) Duke...let's just say as much as I would love to win that game, my bracket does not reflect a Wildcat victory.Told you I go into it. Now I have to go into work tomorrow, update the white board with the winners and the losers from the weekend and try to wait patiently for the Sweet Sixteen to start at the end of the week.
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