Monday, March 20, 2017

In which Cinderella's glass shoe breaks...


My bracket after 2 full rounds. Click to make larger.
Last year, I won my March Madness bracket for the first time, after playing for more than ten years.

This year, my winner got busted in the second round.

Yes, I picked Villanova to go back to back as winners.  Because I am an idiot. Because I believed in Cinderella.  And because I cast myself as the Cinderella.  Even though I am last year's reigning champion.

In my defense, there have been 48 games so far, and I picked 39 of them correctly.  Last year I picked 46 games correctly, and there are still 16 more games to go (so I could theoretically beat my # of picks from last year, and still finish in the bottom.)

And I'm still currently in 2nd place.  But obviously, that won't continue.

This may be the earliest I've ever lost my champion in the 10 years of playing.

As I said last year, I don't pretend to be a college basketball guru.  I'm usually picking teams that were hot 20 years ago.  But I usually manage to do okay. Somehow,  I'm still disappointed that I didn't pull out a miracle out of my... let's just say, for politeness sake, out of thin air.

It's unrealistic, but it's still what makes March Madness so interesting-- all the Cinderella stories.

The possibilities that an under-talented team could somehow gut it out on sheer will and beat much more talented teams 5 times in a row to become a national champion.

This dream is what fuels lottery sales, and television shows, and even American political elections.  I think American's love the story of the underdog.

 Last year I was a Cinderella story, but this year, I'm more like a bad episode of People's Court.

I'm still watching March Madness, but I have much less interest in what's going on now.

How are you doing in your bracket?  Are you living Cinderella's dream?



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