Photo Credit: Jess Cleveland
March Madness Bracket
Ms. Kamilah Lawson
March 25, 2010
Filed under Sports
I keep telling my students that this is the most wonderful time of the year for me. As they stared at me with puzzled faces, I explain that March Madness is upon us and I can’t hide my excitement! They seemed even more puzzled when I told them that I haven’t missed an opening game on Thursday at noon since I was twelve years old. It’s also a wonderful time of year because the weather is always perfect on this day. Every year we have blue skies and a light warm breeze. That’s my signal for springtime!
This year I’ve joined three pools but because of the economy, only one of them did I have to pay for, and I asked permission to pay late. The following is my diary on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Thursday, Noon I’m ending my lesson for the day on Sports writing with my Journalism class and am preparing my 32-inch, 300-pound classroom Toshiba television for the first game. My students and I are excited for the beginning of yet another tournament. Disappointment quickly ensues because the channel allotted for the games has an audio problem. Once this problem is fixed, we begin watching Notre Dame and Old Dominion. The Fighting Irish don’t look good early on and I’ve picked them to win…
Thursday, 2pm I’m now watching Florida and BYU. I’m almost sure Florida will win and of course, I’ve picked them too. They lose. Strike two for my brackets because Notre Dame misses a last second chance to win…
Thursday, 9:18pm I’m finally home and eagerly anticipating watching Georgetown versus Ohio. To my surprise the Ohio University Bobcats are jumping on the Hoyas early. At the moment the Hoyas are down by thirteen points. I’m starting to realize that there is no way I can win any of my pools. It’s funny because I do research every year and know things like the 11th seeded team more often than not beats the 6th seeded team. These are just things a sports fanatic knows. Well this year I guess I picked the wrong regions…
Friday, 12:25pm The second set of games are about to kickoff on day 2. The first game of the day is West Virginia versus Morgan State. A few students hadn’t heard of Morgan State University and I explained that it’s a small school in Baltimore, Maryland. Another student asks is there a chance that the Morgan State Bears can beat the Mountaineers of West Virginia? My diplomatic answer is, “Of course…on any given day a team can lose.” I go even further, as if to give them hope, and say that their coach is the former coach of Cal-Berkeley, where former NBA star Jason Kidd played in college. Then I crack up laughing and say, but I didn’t pick them on my bracket. Then, to my surprise, Morgan State jumps out in front of West Virginia, so much so that I run to Mr. Valasko’s room, (he’s a West Virginia alumnus) and interrupt him to give him the score. (The Bears were up by 10-15 points.) I was definitely poking fun, but only in the moment because like I knew…and Mr. Valasko knew as well, the Mountaineers would “mount” a decisive comeback…
Friday, nighttime I check my brackets just to reassure myself that I wasn’t in last place and knowing that there is still a chance I can move up in the standings. I’m in second to last place…
Saturday, 1pm I’m getting ready for a wedding and watching St. Mary’s systematically dismantle Villanova. I’m a little shocked, since I’ve been following Scottie Reynolds since high school (Herndon HS, VA), that he’s having such a tough tournament. I’m guessing he was still mentally bothered by whatever got him benched for the start of game one? I’m trying to get ready, but this Australian assassin is literally killing the Wildcats on the boards and he cannot miss! His name is Omar Samhan and he for lack of a better term is a “beast.” He’s cocky, he’s got major attitude, he’s got court awareness, he’s talking smack…this kid is after my heart! I love it when a star emerges and he’s not afraid of anybody! St. Mary’s defeats Villanova in a close game, and my bracket continues to burn…
Saturday, 3pm My beloved Syracuse Orangemen are on now. They are cruising past Gonzaga and looking worthy of their number 1 seed. No problemas anywhere in this game and I’m feeling like I’m on the winning track, finally. Well not really, I was just imagining that I was. Off to the wedding, and I’m late as usual, but that’s another story.
Saturday, 9pm I receive an urgent text from my brother that read: KANSAS GOT UPSET! So I panic because I’ve picked them to go to the Final Four. Then I’m stuck there thinking, well who did Kansas play? When I realize it was Northern Iowa, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Wow, Kansas…seriously? Northern Iowa? I felt like screaming, “You sank my battleship!”, and running off crying…
Monday morning…early I check my pool and find out that I’m in last place. Never have I been in last place in a basketball pool. My ego is a bit damaged and I still haven’t paid my money. I’m wondering if I can keep my money on the new rule: “Since you have no chance at winning, you get the sympathy vote and can keep your five dollars!” Oh yeah, that’s wishful thinking to. The only bright spot is that this is what makes the tournament so exciting. No one really knows who will win and since the Jayhawks checked out to Northern I-O-W-A, more than half of my pool mates had picked them to win. My Final Four looks like this: Syracuse, Baylor, Kentucky, and Kansas. So, I guess I have some solace in knowing, I still might have picked the champion. Let’s go Kentucky!
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