The Madness of King George (Mason or town)

What a weekend. I'm sure I say this every year, but this is the best NCAA tournament in recent memory. I got to see all of the games here in Dayton, which included George Mason taking out half of last year's Final Four and Georgetown beating Ohio State into a coma. Nothing was quite as sweet as watching OSU fans pile out of the arena with 8 minutes to go and their team down by only 9 points, proving that OSU fans are, for the most part, giant pieces of fair-weather dung. Apparently teams from the Washington, DC area that start with "George" really like playing at UD Arena. If they had tossed George Washington into the mix, the world would have ceased to exist as we know it.

In addition to my bracket-busting games, here are some other highlights from the greatest weekend in sports:
-14-seeded Northwestern State drops a last-second bomb on Iowa (aka a sham team that didn't deserve a 3 seed whose coach was a fantastic player, but better not be coming to coach my alma mater next year).
-Some guy on Tennessee hits a last-second shot to beat 15-seed Winthrop, thus postponing the Vols' inevitable demise for one more game. I knew they were a fraud, yet I somehow picked them to get to the Sweet 16 in nearly every one of my brackets, even though they had never been to a Sweet 16 in school history. Damn you Bruce Pearl and your fancy suspenders.
-I had about 14 mini heart attacks while watching IU's first-round victory over San Diego State. Robert Vaden's 3 with 3.3 seconds left gave the Hoosiers the victory, allowing us to go up against the ugliest team in college basketball in the second round.
-Bradley showing why it was chosen over the likes of Cincinnati and Michigan by beating Kansas and Pitt to get to its first Sweet 16 since 1955.
-Either Wichita State or George Mason will be given the opportunity to be murdered by UConn on the Huskies' way to the Final Four.
-Another year, another 1st round loss for Syracuse and Kansas. Remember that one year when they both made it to the championship game? It seems like it was light years ago.
-The following were exposed as complete frauds: the Big Ten conference (most notably Ohio State and Iowa), Tennessee, North Carolina, Kansas, Syracuse, Nevada, Oklahoma, that bug-eyed, traveling SOB Tyler Hansbrough.

Of my 18 brackets, I still have 7 with all four of my Final Four. My GMYH predictions would have been a pretty good bracket, with 6 of 8 Elite 8 teams and all 4 Final Four teams still playing. Of course I didn't actually use that bracket in any of my pools.

I'm actually leading in one of my pools (which is unheard of), and of course that bracket has Duke going to the title game. Rooting for Duke is kind of like being given the opportunity to hook up with a really hot girl who you know has herpes. As tempting as it may be, no matter how drunk you get, that one night of pleasure just isn't worth the guilt, regret, and awkward explanations you have to live with for the rest of your life. If you do everything in your power to avoid the situation, then you'll come away clean, proud, and still able to laugh at Valtrex commercials.

Since everyone in the world has Duke and UConn in the final game, I have to rely on the several brackets I have with Washington winning it all. It's not a position I'd like to be in, given that there have been only 3 teams from the state of Washington that have played in a Final Four, the most recent of which was during the Eisenhower Administration (the mighty 1958 Seattle University Chieftans, led by none other than Elgin Baylor, who lost to Kentucky in the title game). Nonetheless, I'll be rooting for the Huskies over the Huskies.

My favorite bracket, you ask? That would be the one where I had Tennessee over Kansas in the final game. After I filled it out, I looked at it and thought that it might be the worst bracket I've ever filled out. Sometimes it hurts to be so damn right.