Day 360: My March Madness Bracket Blows Up.

There was a time when I felt pretty good about my March Madness bracket. Even though I didn't have any money involved, it was nice to see some of my picks turning out as well as they did—at one point I had 27 wins and only 7 losses... not bad, right? I managed to pick a few upsets correctly which helped, but then we got to the Sweet Sixteen, shit just fell apart.

If you remember correctly from my last March Madness post, my final four consisted of Michigan State, Syracuse, Wichita State and Creighton... yeah, now you know what happened. I basically have one team left in my final four—Michigan State—and I definitely didn't have them in the final, let alone winning it all.

I knew I was in trouble when Syracuse lost to Dayton. There's always that team that goes a little further into the tournament than they're supposed to and this year, it's Dayton. The #11 seed upset #6 Ohio State in the first round, then they sent #3 Syracuse packing in the next round, thereby killing one half of my final two. So now #11 Dayton will play #10 Stanford for a trip to the Elite Eight. But I love an upset so much that I don't even care if it blows up my bracket.

And then there's Wichita State. The #1 seed had quite a season and entered their game against #8 Kentucky at an impressive 35-0. But this tournament isn't called March Madness for nothing. Kentucky beat Wichita State 78-76 to shock the Shockers and force them to realize they're not in Kansas anymore. I will say that the Wichita State pick to win it all was a bold one, but it had to be done. There's no place like home.

Since my final two matchup was Syracuse and Wichita State, my bracket is officially nothing more than a shit catcher in a bird cage. Once I heard the Shockers lost, I immediately stopped watching. Although I'm sure once the basketball comes back on this week, I'll get sucked in again. I'll continue to root for the underdogs but in the end, I just want a great game—one that preferably comes down to the final fraction of a second.

Three of the four #1 seeds are still left in the tournament... I just happened to pick the one that couldn't pull out the win! *sigh*

Day 355: They Don't Call it March Madness for Nothing.

Every year I claim that I won't give two minutes to March Madness. I don't like basketball and I don't care about this tournament. I say I won't fill out a bracket or enter a pool. Come mid, March, I plan to shun all things college hoops. I don't watch it during the regular season and I know nothing about any of the teams, so why would I watch now?

But I was just fooling myself.

Like several millions of other crazies, I got sucked into that stupid Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge on Yahoo. I foolishly thought I had a chance of winning Warren Buffett's $1 billion prize. (Ok... I didn't really, but a girl can dream, right?) I'm not going to lie, I didn't spend more than two or three minutes filling out the bracket—since I have no idea about any of the teams, it was all a great big crapshoot. But obviously, that first loss stung... my dreams of being a billionaire were dashed by Ohio State. Jerks.

So now... I'm obsessed. But I'm obsessed with watching just the last two minutes of the games. Since I'm not really a fan of the game of basketball, the thought of watching a game early in the first half when the score still sits in the single digits, makes me sort of want to kill myself. I'm happy if I can turn it on with two minutes or less in the game—and it's even better if the game is close. At this moment, the Cal Poly vs. Wichita State game is on and boy is it booooo-ring. It's not even a wee bit close. Guess I'll switch over to North Carolina vs. Providence match up...

I've had some moments that have been lucky guesses, perhaps. I did pick Harvard to beat Cincinnati and Stanford over New Mexico. That Mercer win over Duke this afternoon was awesome—even though I didn't pick them. Duke is annoying. And with Tennessee's commanding win over UMass, well, that bracket is pretty much blown and can only be rescued by Michigan.

My final four: Syracuse vs. Michigan State AND Wichita State vs. Creighton

My final two: Syracuse vs. Wichita State

My National Champion: Wichita State

Let's see how this all shakes out. I have absolutely no chance at winning any money and usually, the only way you can get me to watch basketball is to dangle cash in front of my face, so I'm not sure what's wrong with me! It's MAD I tell you!