WRAV!NGS 2010 Spring POSSE
1
WRAY VINGS 82 | Spring 2010 BY KYLE WRAY You’ve got one, I’ve got one, and your next door-neighbor has one. They’re like personalities. Everybody owns one, and many are, well, messed up. NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets are on everyone’s minds this time of year. The tournament has changed over the years (television coverage, play-in games and too short shorts, just for starters). With the discussion surrounding upgrading the field from 64 to 96 and the dismantling of the NIT, it sounds as if there are more changes on the way. The one constant has been the tradition of painstakingly filling out the bracket. That beautiful collection of lines that articulately move our teams and egos through painful progression until we are forced to acknowledge the inevitable: we don’t know what in the heck we are doing. If you really believe a person has to be an expert on college basketball to accurately predict the winner of the tournament, just take a gander at the prophetic individual who won your office competition last year. Chances are it’s someone who can’t dribble and chew gum at the same time. And if that person is you, come on; admit you borrowed from the wisdom of OSU alum and ESPN analyst, Doug Gottlieb for the majority of your “expertise.” There are only a few strategies one can employ when choosing a champion. After all the discussion surrounding the upsets and the difficulty of the 8 versus 9 seeds, it comes down to two choices: Will you pick all the number one seeds to advance to the Final Four and subsequently try to predict a few unexpected setbacks for some of the higher seeded teams, or will you try to accurately foretell a few major upsets and create your own “Frankenstein” version of a bracket in need of a bolt from the blue to bring it to life? Either way, many of us find ourselves in the same boat after the first week of the tournament, our “upset specials” fall short and our “ace-in-the-hole” sure-fired lock to get to the finals gets torched. In fact, by the second week of action, many of us limp into the finals with one team still alive, hoping to catch lightening in a bottle and win despite how much damage all the losses dealt you. For those of you placing money where your pencil is, one word of caution: Beware the Ides of March … or at least the 18th through the 21st. By the time you read this article, most of the pain will be over with anyway. There is one more consistent issue relevant to the Final Four – one continuous and glorious color that will never change. The basketball is always orange! Go Pokes! MARCH BADNESS
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Transcript of WRAV!NGS 2010 Spring POSSE
WRAYVINGS
82 | Spring 2010The Official Magazine of OSU Athletics
| 82
BY KYLE WRAY
You’ve got one, I’ve got one, and your next door-neighbor has one. They’re like personalities. Everybody owns one, and many are, well, messed up.
NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets are on everyone’s minds this time of year. The tournament has changed over the years (television coverage, play-in games and too short shorts, just for starters). With the discussion surrounding upgrading the field from 64 to 96 and the dismantling of the NIT, it sounds as if there are more changes on the way.
The one constant has been the tradition of painstakingly filling out the bracket. That beautiful collection of lines that articulately move our teams and egos through painful progression until we are forced to acknowledge the inevitable: we don’t know what in the heck we are doing.
If you really believe a person has to be an expert on college basketball to accurately predict the winner of the tournament, just take a gander at the prophetic individual who won your office competition last year. Chances are it’s someone who can’t dribble and chew gum at the same time. And if that person is you, come on; admit you borrowed from the wisdom of OSU alum and ESPN analyst, Doug Gottlieb for the majority of your “expertise.”
There are only a few strategies one can employ when choosing a champion. After all the discussion surrounding the upsets and the difficulty of the 8 versus 9 seeds, it comes down to two choices: Will you pick all the number one seeds to advance to the Final Four and subsequently try to predict a few unexpected setbacks for some of the higher seeded teams, or will you try to accurately foretell a few major upsets and create your
own “Frankenstein” version of a bracket in need of a bolt from the blue to bring it to life?
Either way, many of us find ourselves in the same boat after the first week of the tournament, our “upset specials” fall short and our “ace-in-the-hole” sure-fired lock to get to the finals gets torched. In fact, by the second week of action, many of us limp into the finals with one team still alive, hoping to catch lightening in a bottle and win despite how much damage all the losses dealt you.
For those of you placing money where your pencil is, one word of caution: Beware the Ides of March … or at least the 18th through the 21st. By the time you read this article, most of the pain will be over with anyway.
There is one more consistent issue relevant to the Final Four – one continuous and glorious color that will never change. The basketball is always orange!
Go Pokes!
MARCH BADNESS
