Sweet (Sixteen)

Okay, now that the dog drama at our house has died down, I have time to talk/type about something else that has occupied quite a bit of my time for the last couple of weeks--basketball, basketball, basketball!!! Have I mentioned that I love March Madness?? As you might have noticed, last week there were several nights in a row that I didn't blog at all because the NCAA Tournament took up every minute of my free time. My favorite games of the tournament so far have obviously been the first and second round wins by our Jayhawks by which they advanced into the Sweet Sixteen. Our first round game against Portland State was fun for Jayhawk fans because we completely dominated the Vikings, but it probably wasn't much fun for other basketball fans looking for close, exciting games. From an objective non-Jayhawk point of view, it probably wasn't much of a game at all!

Last Saturday night's game against UNLV was definitely more exciting, since KU didn't play nearly as well and UNLV was a much better team than our first opponent. It was actually a pretty close game until the middle of the second half. Although KU pulled away and ended up winning by almost 20 points, I never really felt completely confident about the win until those last few minutes ticked off the clock. There have been some crazy comebacks and upsets so far in the tourney (as usual), and I just didn't want us to be the victim of one of those crazy comeback upsets! Thankfully, we're onto Detroit this weekend and will be taking on the Villanova Willdcats tonight! Hopefully I'll still feel like talking about college basketball tomorrow!

Speaking of amazing upsets and crazy comebacks, one of the most amazing game endings of the tourney had to be the Western Kentucky last second 3-pointer against Drake. This shot gave me goosebumps and brought a tear to my eye when I watched it live (thanks to March Madness on Demand on CBS) and it still does today. It's freakin' incredible. If you didn't see it when it happened or all over the news after the game, you should totally check it out now.



While I obviously love watching basketball, one of the best parts of March is the friendly competition of all the tournament bracket pools. As I mentioned last week, I love bracketology. I love trying to figure out the upsets and then cheering on the underdogs. I love highlighting my paper brackets and checking my online pools to see where I stand. I love it all! I especially love it when I'm doing well in my office pool, like I happen to be today. After picking all four games last night correctly, both of my brackets (yes, I ended up entering a dream bracket and a reality bracket again this year) are in 4th place (yes, Emily, I know I'm still behind you!) out of like 52 entries. It's like a roller coaster of emotions though, because before last night's games I was in like 34th place because I picked so many games wrong in the 2nd round. Before that I was tied for 2nd after picking so many games right in the first round. I'm sitting pretty comfortably right now though, so maybe all my research is actually going to pay off this year! Then again, maybe it won't. Anything can happen, and that's the beauty of the NCAA tourney!

The funny thing is, before the tourney started last Thursday I stayed up way too late Wednesday night finishing my research before finalizing my brackets. Then I woke up way too early because I was so excited for the first games to start. I was like a little kid who can't sleep the night before going on vacation. As a result, I fell asleep Thursday night on the living room floor at about 9:00, right about the time the last group of games were starting. All that excitement and I didn't even get to see some of those games I was so darn excited about! :)