From weather, to economics, to politics and beyond, there is a bleak tinge to life these days. Why should my NCAA Men’s Basketball bracket be any different?
Let us try to put a positive slant on something — my bracket. My eventual championship pick, Florida, remains alive, as we anticpate Monday night’s championship game.
It’s all downhill beyond that.
As I glance at the standings on CBSsports.com, I rank 641,517th among entrants. I can’t easily find how many total entrants there are, but I would suspect a lot more than 641,517.
The good news is, I spent no money to enter this bracket contest, losing only pride as pick after pick fell by the wayside. It was supposed to be easy this year, with zero Cinderella teams and not a lot of surprises between the big guys.
Yes, I incorrectly I picked a lot of early upsets.
My bracket did better as we moved along. I had Florida and Auburn tabbed to meet in one Final Four game, with Florida winning. That happened.
The other half of my bracket had Duke beating Tennessee, the team Houston had beaten a couple of rounds back.
Imagine my surprise when Duke managed to squander a 14-point second-half lead to come from ahead to lose to Houston in their semifinal Saturday.
Understand that despite the hype, I had not been sold totally on Duke this year. The guard play was suspect, especially at crunch time. The team had not faced a lot of close contests along the way.
And wunderkind Cooper Flagg seems to have a habit of coming up short in the clutch. I recall times this season watching him stumble and fall while trying to get a late shot. In the Houston loss, he left his mid-range jumper way short when it mattered at the end.
I just had thought Houston, with its ugly, rock-throwing-and-rebounding-the-misses style, would not prevail.
Also, I am not a fan of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, who commited NCAA violations that got Oklahoma and Indiana in trouble previously in his coaching career. His backers note what were then violations now are legal.
That doesn’t matter to me. College sports have become ridiculous in being a playground of millionaire players now due to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) payments. But, when Sampson and his staffs did what they did, it was against the rules.
It didn’t help that Sampson came out with some in-your-face comments to Houston doubters after Duke donated that win to the Cougars. He should have been grateful instead of belligerent.
Here’s hoping Florida wipes out Houston Monday. The good news for the Gators, the reason I picked them to win it all, is that they do have a great bunch of guards, led by Walter Clayton Jr., a transfer from tiny Iona.
In a departure from the spirit of these NIL times, Clayton’s total income is not reported, but he did recently announce signing a deal with Turbo Tax, so I am confident he is not hurting for pizza (or tax) money.
Florida also has an abundance of talented big guys.
If the Gators can get it done one more time, I have the solace of at least getting the eventual national champion correct on my bracket. That and about $7 will buy you a designer coffee, if I drank such.
Sam Ross Jr's site 