All In Fun

This year, I’d take my NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket seriously.

 

No longer would I make my picks based on uniform colors or mascot names. No longer would I go with sentimental favorites. No longer would the printout of my selections have more red X’s than check marks, like pretty much every math test I ever took.

 

So what did I do this time around?  I enlisted Savannah, my very sweet, happy, just-turned 3-year-old granddaughter who’s well attuned to hoops – her parents and big brother are huge VCU fans – to help me out.

 

This was the plan: I’d read each first-round matchup to her, she’d make the call, and I’d type it on the line. Simple as that. Once finished, we’d proceed to the Round of 32, then the Sweet 16, the Elite 8, the Final Four, and, of course, the National Champion.

 

Unless you do the analytics or follow college hoops much more closely than I do, it’s guesswork anyway. In this one-and-done environment, you see, drama reigns, upsets are part of the landscape, and compelling stories are the order of the day. This is March Madness, after all.

 

I’d be no worse off, I figured, if Savannah offered her advice, and she was more than willing to help.

 

So here we were, seated side-by-side on the couch in her parents’ living room, looking over the matchups.

 

Her prescience was amazing.  She picked No. 12 New Mexico State to beat No. 5 UConn and No. 11 Notre Dame to defeat No. 6 Alabama. She picked No. 10 Miami over No. 7 USC and No. 12 Richmond to defeat No. 5 Iowa, which, if she hadn’t, I’d have selected anyway (making an exception to my no-sentimental-favorites rule).

 

The first day was great. We (actually she) nailed 15 of 16, the lone miss being David (No. 15 St. Peter’s) taking down Goliath (No. 2 Kentucky).

 

We had it made. We were on our way. That’s what I thought, anyway. From our 94 percent first-round performance, there was just one way to go, and that’s the direction we went.

 

We had Virginia Tech reaching the Elite 8, but Texas dispatched the Hokies in the opening round. We had Richmond, my alma mater, reaching the Sweet 16, but Providence ended the Spiders’ thrilling late-season run two days after they bumped off the Big Ten champion.

 

We had Baylor, the defending champ, knocking off North Carolina, but the Tar Heels have reached the Final Four this weekend in New Orleans. We had Gonzaga eliminating Duke in the Elite 8, but the top seeded Zags fell victim to Arkansas, which subsequently fell to the Blue Devils.

 

We had the Zags playing Tennessee for the title, but, alas, the next champ will be the winner of Carolina-Duke and Kansas-Villanova. The Jayhawks are our only Final Four pick still standing.

        

Such is life, so with my (our) bracket taking the fast train south, I shifted my focus to the feel-good stories. As is typical this time of year, there were many.

 

There was Richmond’s inspired performance, beginning with four wins in four days in the Atlantic 10 tournament and then their first-round against-all-odds NCAA tournament victory when most pundits had written the Spiders off.

They were a seasoned group, for sure. Many players had returned for their fifth (even sixth) year, showing that their shared experience and trust in and respect for Coach Chris Mooney and his staff were real and meaningful.

And there was their manager, 2019 Collegiate graduate Jordan Leibowitz, proudly displaying the symbolic ticket to the Big Dance that the Spiders punched as he stood amidst the confetti at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, following the A-10 finals.

 

There was UNC’s run from No. 8 seed to the Final Four, sparked by the play of former Trinity Episcopal star Armando Bacot, who has emerged as one of the top players in the nation. There was retired coach Roy Williams, cheering his successor Hubert Davis and the team his former assistant and protégé inherited and improved. And there was 2019 Collegiate alumnus and living-his-dream walk-on Jackson Watkins holding the East Regional championship trophy and savoring the moment with his Tar Heel teammates.

 

There was the inspired play of Duke, whose motivation is to win one more national championship for Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who’s retiring following the Blue Devils’ final game.

 

There was the spirited, fearless play of St. Peter’s, the Peacocks from Jersey City, who showed that they belonged amongst the big guys. There was Michigan coach Juwan Howard, consoling Tennessee’s Kennedy Chandler moments after the Wolverines ended the Volunteers’ dream season.

 

That’s not all, of course. There were many other moments of excellence, sportsmanship, competitive spirit, and joy, all shining moments in their own way, and there’ll no doubt be more.

 

So my bracket didn’t pan out. Rarely does. Doesn’t matter, though. Not to me, anyway. It was time well spent with Savannah. All in fun, too, as life, at its best, should be.

~ Weldon Bradshaw