Don’t do it. Don’t ever enter a bracket pool for college basketball that includes women. I won’t. It is an invitation for disaster, for being humbled. Lord knows, I don’t need to be humbled any more!
Silly me. I put together a bracket pool for the NCAA tournament and I invited the Mrs., and other ladies, to participate. Disaster struck. My wife won it all. The top three places went to the ladies. Of course-according to the men-the ladies know little to nothing about basketball. I am reminded of the words of DAVID DUCHOVNY, who said “If you’re smart you’ll always be humble. You can learn all you want, but there will always be somebody who’s never read a book who will know twice what you know.” Who would have guessed that the ladies wouldn’t have read the basketball book but would know twice as much as we did?
Wasn’t it Vince Lombardi who said, “Winning is not everything. It is the ONLY THING”? Well, the ONLY THING slipped through my fingers due to Chicago Loyola, UMBC, Kansas State, Nevada and a host of other basketball teams that foiled our brackets!
How do you reason with a person who picks a team to win because “they had the cutest cheerleaders”? Even more frustrating is to learn that one of your female opponents beat you by picking the team that had the best tattoos!
So guys, we’ve got to hang together on this. We’ve got to pledge for next year to make our office bracket pool a Man Cave thing. No women allowed! We just can’t stand the humiliation of another year of being exposed about the frailty of our basketball expertise!
As for me, I am hanging my hat on the words of Nelson Mandela: “There is nothing more dangerous than a humiliated man.” I must be dangerous because I am humiliated!
Who is the Big 12 basketball champion? Villanova has made their case! On their way to the championship the Wildcats beat the top of the Big 12 in West Virginia, Texas Tech and Kansas. Remember, just two years ago Villanova dismantled the Buddy Hield-led Oklahoma Sooners by 45 points in the national semifinals.
For those of you who climbed on the Chicago Loyola bandwagon, take heart. They may not be a one-year wonder. They return three starters, including Kansan and conference player of the year Clayton Custer for next season. They may not be done playing Cinderella.
While we were all playing basketball, the Kansas City Royals started their season the way they usually do — falling behind in the standings. After six weeks of spring training and pruning and readjusting their roster, our Boys in Blue still have the same problems: an ineffective bullpen and not much power. Hang on. It could be a bumpy ride!
For the Jayhawks, it wasn’t so much what they DIDN’T DO against Villanova as it was what Villanova DID. After that 22-4 blitz to start the game, KU played them pretty even but the damage was done. As Wildcat coach Jay Wright said, “It was just one of those nights when everything went in. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. There wasn’t much Kansas could have done about it.” Villanova shot 36 of 65 from the field and that’s tough to beat.
By the way, that Humble Pie doesn’t taste all that good!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
