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| Cup promoting the Southwestern College Eagles Basketball team from the mid-'80's |
Note - I am writing this before the '23 men's championship game started, so my blog will be written without knowing the victor.
When I got to the Final Four in filling out my 2023 men's tournament bracket, I had a dilemma. I would have loved to put both Arizona - representing where I grew up - and Purdue - in my home state for the past 27 years - in the Championship game. Alas, they both were slated to play each other in one of the semi-finals. I did pick Arizona to beat Purdue and then win the Championship game (over UConn).
Was that selection based on sentimental value? Some. But not all. After all, Purdue was a #1 seed, and Arizona a #2.
One of the exciting things about the men's tournament is the parity and the upsets that take place. The first night this year, a 15 seed sent a #2 packing, and the next night a 16 seed ousted a number one - only the second time that ever happened, I believe.
Yep, the defeated 2 and 1 seeds were Arizona and Purdue. Second round hadn't begun, and half my final four took the role of spectators.
Now, let's move to the women's seed. There was a time in the not too distant past that the women's Sweet Sixteen might have a 5 seed sneak in by defeating the 4 seed, but upsets were much rarer. They're getting less rare. Indiana was a one seed. In the second round, they were ousted by the nine seed.
Going into Friday night's final fours, I had two of my picks in the women's lobby, and one for the men. On paper in both cases, I had UConn making it to the finals but losing in the final. For the women's, that was a safe bet, because the Huskies are a dominant team. They didn't make it to the final four. The men did, and they're in the Championship game.
So I was in shock when I looked at the standings of the men's lobby for my company's regional pool (including several states) this morning and found I was in 6th place! I mean, by the end of the second round I had only 8 picks intact in the Sweet 16, half of the elite eight gone, and as I said earlier only two of my final four surviving the first round. But I'm in 6th place, with 67 points (160 would be perfection at this point).
Women's pool? Well, I had more points (83), but I was in 18th place in that competition. I correctly had defending champions South Carolina facing Iowa in the Semi-Final. Like a lot of others in the pool, I had the Gamecocks winning it all. Not to be - Iowa knocked them out, before losing to LSU.
Now, you might remember my note - the championship game is probably going on, so how can I say with certainty that I'm in 6th place? Good question, and I've got the answer. While UConn is in it, I picked them to lose, so I know I won't be gaining any points, so I won't move up, and if I had picked the Huskies to win, so did three of the five ahead of me, so I only could have gotten up to fourth. Those were the only ones to pick UConn in the pool, and NOBODY picked San Diego State. Thus, no one will be overtaking me.
How did your favorite teams do? What were your thoughts on the tournament?
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