Bracketology 101 - the first weekend.

Okay, last year I said it...I didn't like Duke. Coach K and and boys wear their confidence like a smug sport jacket, in Duke blue no less, and that along with the unbridled smugness of their fans make watching them go out all the more sweet. I'm almost certain most of the country, no, most of the basketball playing world, feels that same way.

Unless you picked them into the Sweet 16.

Okay, first they get worn out by Belmont, who showed up like a team who didn't read the program and thought they were playing the West Washington High Blue Devils. Duke is supposed to be stocked, and I mean stocked with McDonald's (argh!) All-Americans and they got run up and down the court. But I wasn't worried. This was a first round scare, they get their legs back, talk it over and Coach K will have them back in form on Sunday. Then they played West Virginia...who played them like the West Washington High Blue Devils Junior Squad. One has to believe that whoever ranks these teams sleeps in Duke PJs with footies. And there they go...again.

Then low and behold, out of nowhere Davidson beats Georgetown. Who saw this coming? Each year the ESPN tourney brackets boasts some fool who accidentally picked what happens to 99% accuracy or better. I have a bracket there (which has got to be the hardest damn thing to find on the screen, I mean jeez!) and let me tell you, I'm not even close. Not even. Who picks two 12 seeds, a 10 seeds and 7? Who? Come on! Not even someone who had chosen the winners based on how they might have liked the unis wouldn't have come up with this combination.

At least Kansas, UCLA and Tennessee are still hanging on, the last one by it's teeth. When did college basketball get parity? So I got a wobbly bracket, but no busts.

While all this was going on Easter happened. Normally, I spend that gift-less holiday with family - my brother - but this year I got a call from Shade who'd popped into town (outta nowhere) and kicked off a round robin of events that started with me explaining to her the pretty mirror theory and ended up us playing Midwest rules double chicken Uno somewhere off Cascade. Suffice it to say that meant I was unable to focus on the games.

Oh well, more there is to life say but me and God.

Barkeep...Sparkling Grape Juice with a slice of Orange.

The champ is groggy...the champ is down!

Yesterday marked the start of the annual sports frenzy that is the NCAA March Madness. (which in case you didn't know is trademarked and I could get in trouble for saying that). Every year, offices around the country slowdown as mysterious colds arise on Thursday morning and personal time gets exercised to it's fullest. I cannot tell you how many empty parking spaces there were at my job.

But I dutifully turned in my brackets to the office pool (they say I left Texas A&M empty) and didn't bother to check any scores until after 6pm. All day I heard groans and the phrase "last I heard they were up by six" time and time again as people surrpitiously checked scores all day long. Which if you must know is a bitch at my workplace as the they only alot you and hour of "quota time" a day for no approved websites, under which falls anything carrying sports information. Bastiches.

So one of my picks, one that chose with relish, was Duke losing to VCU in the first round.

Usually the much hated Blue Devils (Bill Simmons of ESPN shouldn't have had to apologize, we all hate Duke) are a one or two seed, and a pick against them is spitting into the wind. But this year they had lost three going in and were a six seed. A SIX, do you hear me? Sixes lose to thirteens all the time, don't they?

So I inked it up, put in my money and went back to work.

After work and somebody's "I gotta better job" leaving party, I crawled into the house and checked my brackets. I'd gone fairly conservative this year(although I did have Gonzanga and Texas Tech), lo and behold, it had happened. The champ was in trouble, the champ was groggy, and with lead that lasted maybe two minutes the champ...was down.

I don't know why I don't like Duke. Maybe it's the perceived arrogance of the program, or the smug fans or that they're always there, in the thick of it every season.

I just know I don't like them. And now they're gone.

Ha ha.

Bartender. Let me get some of that Old Crow.