Stoppage time

In the pool, off the deep end

So, our PURELY RECREATIONAL office pool standings came out today. I have to say, I'm reflecting the characteristics of most of my favorite sports teams so far: slightly below average, yet with just enough hope to hang on instead of building for next season. I have Wisconsin, UNC and UCLA (my champs) left in my final four, but im sure a lot of other people do too.

Still, it's exciting to see teams like Davidson and WKU into the round of 16. And as we saw two years ago, who says it will end there.

But it got me to thinking about how we watch the tournament in the era when even the least informed have something riding on the games ... for PURELY RECREATIONAL purposes. Not to mention government officials (see above).

2006 was fantastic, especially being a college kid in DC as Mason ran out to the Final Four. But since, Mason's run — one that included the greatest upset in the history of the tournament against top-seeded UConn — has been trivialized. All you need to do is look at the pre-tourney hype, that for the past two years has included the question "who will be this year's George Mason?"

Maybe I'm grasping at straws here, but the Legacy of those patriots is not beauty of a team that played before staggeringly-low crowds garnering national attention, or of coach Jim Larranaga — who is as much basketball sensei as basketball tactitian — reaping the rewards of staying at a mid-major instead of jumping to the bigger institutions. Instead, we remember how less than a handful of people in the entire country correctly predicted the final four ... and try to figure out how to highlight another team that could do the same, for our own personal gain. It's The best thing about the tournament is directly in conflict with what is the most popular.

If you griped about your bracket last year in one of the worst and most predictable tourneys in recent memory, I feel your pain. But if you do it this year, I can't. There isn't any other event in American Sports — or American Culture — where the little guy gets his best shot at the big bully. Where the two go head to head on a neutral floor, without homecooking in zebra stripes, locker room accomodations, travel, or even money from TV rights. Where all the talent and depth in the world can't — on a given night — defend a pull-up, 25-foot, go-ahead 3-pointer. Where a team from the second-most-famous town in American named Bowling Green (after Bowling Green, Ohio) can outlast its far more prestigious and privileged neighbors to the north — you know, the same ones who refused to recruit blacks under Adolf Rupp and were beaten by Texas Western, who fielded an All-African-American starting five.

In the land of opportunity, I'd hope we want a great story over a quick buck.

So I guess what I'm saying is, I've come to grip with losing another 2 dollars this year, even if I am mathematically still alive in our PURELY RECREATIONAL office pool. And I also realize that it may be many years before we see another run of the scope and significance of George Mason's. But I'm OK with that. I just hope others are taking a few minutes away from analyzing their chances to sit back and enjoy watching Stephen Curry play one more day ... not to mention the camera shots of his delicious mother Sonya ...

•Washington University of St. Louis won the Division III men's crowns in one of the strangest runs to a championship I've ever seen (bracket pdf linked above). They won two overtime games early after they escaped a first-round loss to Wooster by four points, then went on and rolled through the Elite 8 to the title, winning by 11, 15 and 22 in the championship against Amherst (which is in the same town as UMass). In case you're curious, MAC Freedom representatives King's lost in the second round, 83-77 to Plattsburgh state in overtime, Scranton lost by 18 in the first round, and MAC Commonwealth champs Widener lost to St. Mary's (Md.) after beating Averett in its opener.

•Apparently, as i referenced above, office pools are still illegal in most places around the country. Makes me look forward to my impending trip to england more and more, where you can bet on things like the first goal-scorer from facilities inside the stadium concourses, and no one thinks it's a big deal. Gotta love the first quote in the linked story from the Wisconsin representative.

•If anyone knows where to find a picture of Sonya Curry, please, please let me know. Go Wildcats!