As most of you know, here in these pages I do my best to stay out of the culture wars. Likewise, when March Madness rolls around, I do my best not to take sides in family disputes. That’s no easy task this year when UNC plays Duke in what could be Coach K’s last game. And when your cousin and your niece are both Tarheel alums, while beloved Deacon Sally was the world’s most rabid Blue Devil fan. (You can read that post, here.) And your old basketball mentor thinks ‘Nova coach Jay Wright walks on water… Well, any way you slice it, it’s gonna be a match-up of blue bloods in blue jerseys. And somebody’s gonna go home disappointed.
I will admit that I – along with my good buddy Jeff – picked Kansas to win it all this year. So the tiebreaker in our head-to-head bracket competition comes down to the final score of the championship game on Monday night. Jeff: 78-75. Me: 84-79. (Go Jayhawks!) For an intriguing summary of the teams, the coaches, the players, and the match-ups, see Mike Lopresti’s fine ncaa.com piece, here. And just in case you were wondering about his bona fides, they are hilariously listed at the end of the article as follows:
Mike Lopresti is a member of the US Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Ball State journalism Hall of Fame, and the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame. He has covered college basketball for 43 years, including 39 Final Fours. He is so old he covered Bob Knight when he had dark hair, and basketball shorts were actually short.
May the best team with blue jerseys win.
(Go Jayhawks!)
Like you, I need Duke to lose and Kansas to win in order to eat for free from one of my co-workers. Gooo Jayhawks.