1. I haven’t been a bandwagon kind of girl since rocking my scrunchie collection in middle school. In my old(er) age I took an almost perverse pleasure in telling folks around here, “No, I actually don’t care about basketball. It’s true. Really, not even Duke and Carolina. Just don’t care.” It raised more than a few eyebrows.
2. But it seems basketball falls under the slow burn category. Like broccoli, steamed carrots, and tofu – three things I never would have touched in my younger years – it seems this sport has burrowed it’s way into my heart. Maybe BrightSide’s relentless enthusiasm finally rubbed off on me or maybe he’s been playing subliminal tapes while I sleep, I don’t know. What I do know is that suddenly I care A GREAT DEAL about these games going on right now. It made me realize a few things.
3. For years I walked around perplexed by their intensity but there’s no denying I’m one of those obnoxious March Madness people now. I have to own that.
4. This isn’t really great for your blood pressure. I wonder what the stats are on heart attacks in March/first of April.
5. In the span of five days both my husband and daughter mocked my bracket. Bear just laughed, not really bothering to explain what was so ridiculous but making it abundantly clear I had no idea what I was doing. BrightSide brushed off my results because – get this – I based it on stats and didn’t pick upsets. You know, because I haven’t watched enough basketball to know this team turns it on in the tournament and that team plays defense like Fort Knox.
6. But six of my eight picks made it to the Elite Eight. Just sayin.
7. Of course now that Gonzaga, UNC, and Duke are knocked out the rest of my bracket is a mess. But I’m pretty sure I’ve got a lot of company.
8. When Virginia made a last minute shot in regulation play on Saturday night I actually screamed when that ball dropped in. Screamed. Phoebe whipped her head around so fast I thought she channeled her inner owl. GO HOOS!
9. Gracie sometimes gets so tired she just goes ahead and puts herself to bed in a nice quiet room where nobody’s yelling at the tv.
10. So is this entire craze peculiar to Americans? If so then I extend deepest apologies to my non-U.S. readers for what was most likely a painfully boring post. Tomorrow should be better since I have no plans to become a sports blogger. But, just for good measure – WAHOOWA!!
1) I live in Indiana, which is basically corn, basketball, and racin. 2) Purdue broke my brackets. 3) There is an increase in heart attacks in the days following spring forward time change.
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See, the old me would have said racing? No way. Can’t get on board with that one. But if this 20 year warm up to basketball has taught me anything it’s never say never — which I guess means you’ll find my 60-something fanny parked in front of NASCAR. 😆
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Mmhm. It can get in yer blood
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I suspect your not talking cricket or Football. Great post made me smile.
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Cricket is a mystery to me. I’m a fan of football (or soccer, as we call it) but don’t know if I’d meet international expectations for being a fan of that sport. Football matches can get a bit intense.
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Just have your overseas readers substitute soccer or Formula-1 racing form basketball. My eyebrow-raising sin is not being a supporter of the UConn Women. I think that might be a capital crime in CT, but my roots in this state don’t go that deep.
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Whaaaaattt? I thought you got evicted for that one. Even I knew about the UConn women’s team. 😳
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I’m sure my neighbor would like to evict me. I graduated from WVU & Pitt. I haven’t gotten over the Big East days. I just can’t root for UConn 🙁
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Stand strong, Dan. Every neighborhood’s gotta have that one guy… 😆
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I would talk to you about your brackets if I knew what the heck they are.
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EXACTLY. I spent years trying to figure out what the hubbub was all about. Last year one of the teachers I volunteer for finally got me with his math lesson — all of his students complete a bracket using season stats for 3-4 categories (and I REALLY won’t bore you with those) and then he tracks class ranking based on how the teams do. Anyway, my competitive streak kicked in once I had something riding on the game…
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