Inspired By Leonard's Losers

The Final Four for the Anti-National Championship is now set. Only one team can be the anti-national champion. Only one team can ultimately be the first in a chain of losses all the way to the title game.
Lots of teams (32, to be exact) lose in the round of 64. At that point all 32 still have dreams of becoming the anti-national champion. But sixteen of those teams are eliminated the opening weekend, as the team that beat them wins another game. For the other sixteen, the ones whose conquerors are immediately conquered in turn, the dream stays alive.
It's a longshot for even the worst of tournament teams. To lose to a team that then loses to a team that then loses to another, which then loses in the elite eight to a team that loses in the semi-finals to a team which loses in the national championship... well, it can only be done by one team.

But now we are down to four. And WHAT A FOUR they are. Who could have predicted that not a single 11 seed (the most likely, statistically) would remain. The 11 seeds have the easy path to reach the Anti-Final Four- all they have to do is lose to a 6, who loses to a 3, who loses to a 2, who loses to a 1. No upsets required.
But one by one, the 11's slipped up and refused to go down in flames. Marquette and Gonzaga bowed out of the anti-tournament early, winning convincingly in the first round. VCU, who was perhaps the favorite to win the anti-tournament, not only didn't lose in the first round, they also didn't lose in the next round, or the sweet sixteen. Then they even didn't lose in the regional finals.
That left Missouri alone among the 11's; they alone stood up tall to be knocked down by Cincinnati in the first round. They still looked appropriately weak as Cincy fell to UConn. But their dreams were dashed as UConn refused to fall to San Diego State, leaving the anti-tournamet wide open.

So who remains?
* Indiana State would seem, at first glance, to be the favorite. They fell handily to Syracuse, who immediately lost to that stubborn refuse-to-be-a-loser Marquette, who then finally fell flat on their face against North Carolina, who promptly lost to Kentucky.
The Sycamores have a solid shot at losing it all. However, they must hope that the suddenly red-hot Kentucky Wildcats cool off enough to lose to UConn, who most in turn lose to either Butler or the seriously under-overachieving (over-underachieving?) Virginia Commonwealth.

*The unmighty Tennessee Vols still have a legitimate shot. They seemed poised for an early exit from the anti-tournament, but their program fell into disarray at just the right time, losing to Michigan, who lost to Duke, who scored a spectacular failure against Arizona, who then fell against the UConn Huskies. But for the Vols to lose it all the path runs through Kentucky and then either Butler or VCU.

*The St. John's Red Storm failed impressively in the opening round, routed by Gonzaga. They then took advantage of their position, which was in effect the taking over of Gonzaga's original 11 seed, as the Zags lost to 3 BYU who lost to 2 Florida, who then pulled off the anti-upset by losing to 8 seed Butler, securing St. John's a place in the unvaunted anti four.
From here the Red Storm's path is bright, as all they need is a Butler loss to a hot VCU squad, and then a VCU loss to either of the top remaining seeds, UConn or Kentucky.

*Finally, we have perhaps the most unlikey contender for ultimate loser, the Louisville Cardinals. Unlikely, but convincing. The Cards scored an upset flame-out against lowly Morehead State, who then fell in a route to the Richmond Spiders, who were then destroyed by Kansas. Kansas then came through with a meltdown of massive proportions against VCU.
Now all that stands in the Cards' way is the possibility of VCU knocking off Butler, or of Butler winning two more times.
It can certainly happen, but the Ville (note: that is local vernacular for a school in the city of Louisville whose players are unaware that more than one town name ends in the letters v-i-l-l-e) is now a prohibitive favorite.

Go Cards! If they lose I think we should get Rick a trophy.

Various Unimportant Things

Last weekend Ron had us over to grill and play some cornhole.
When I arrived he and Jim were standing by the grill. Jim was munching on a bag of carrots and sharing them with Ron. I deposited my cooler and joined them, and accepted a carrot, too, when it was offered. We talked, ate carrots, talked some more... and suddenly I thought, and said aloud "Hey, didn't these carrots used to be beers? When did we grow so tame that we actually stand around a grill munching carrots?"
But they were good carrots.
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There should be a law against having to clear snow off the car in late March.
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Early this afternoon and again tonight I was cleaning up a little bit. I threw out some things, too. It started small- old magazines, a couple of boxes I decided I didn't need to hold on to. Then old phone books- turns out I had 9 old phone books. Amazing. Then an old comforter that I haven't used for a couple of years and finally decided was not quite good enough to keep. Then a very old sweatshirt, a very old pair of tennis shoes, a whole armful of ratty tee shirts and shorts. Then a couple more boxes. Then the sheets and pillow cases right off my bed, as I had decided when I put them on the bed last week that they were on their last cycle and not to be washed again.
As I tossed the sheets I noticed the dumpster had really filled up with all my waste. How had I managed to accumulate all that crap? I haven't even lived here that all that long.

But tonight I'm sleeping on brand new sheets. Always a good feeling. Like being in a nice hotel, except without all the disgusting invisible stuff.
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A basketball officiating call I've never understood: Why is a foul on an alley-oop dunk attempt called a shooting foul? Why is it two shots? If the offensive player is fouled before he's even got the ball in his hands, how can he possibly be 'in the act of shooting?'
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Early in the basketball season I really liked Kentucky's team. They were fun to watch and seemed like they'd become pretty good. Then from November to February they didn't seem to improve at all. They were hard to watch. I often turned off the television (or computer) and turned on the radio, since I wanted to follow the games but they were so ugly I couldn't bare to see them.
Then suddenly they got quite a bit better for about 4 or 5 games. Then suddenly they got a lot better than that. Baffling. But I love it. The whole team's playing great defense and they're taking turns being The Man on offense.
And Josh Harrellson has become my favorite UK player ever. He was already close, but now he's tops. It must be an every 15 year thing, because Kyle Macy was my favorite from the late 70's until Tony Delk arrived mid-90's, now Jorts has passed him up on my list.

Just watched the end of Georgetown's 1984 Final Four win over Kentucky. Much like recently when Brian said he worried about Travis Ford's hamstring injury of 15 years ago, I found myself quickly invested in the game.
In my case I was wishing Master or Blackmon or Harden would hit a 3-pointer and get a comeback started. Then I realized there were no 3-pointers for three more years.
Billy Packer was intolerable, I thought. But I watched him broadcast games for another 25 years, so I guess I could tolerate him. Barely.

If I was a whatever kind of scientist/psychologist/something technical that studies brains, I believe this type of thing would be interesting to study. Why do sports fans get anxious watching a rerun of a game when they already know the outcome? Why do the suspenseful aspects of some movies or books still work even if I've seen them before and know how they end?
And yet some movies are incredibly suspenseful the first time but don't work for repeated viewings. The Exorcist is still scary to me, though I know what's going to happen. However, I find a second viewing of The Sixth Sense to be very pedestrian. It worked great the first time, but not the second.
What's the difference? Somebody needs to get a federal grant, spend a few hundred thousand dollars hooking electrodes up to college students, and make them watch old playoff games and thriller movies, and then explain it to me. Maybe they can tell me why I get anxious about whether the Allies can halt the German advance during the Battle of the Bulge.

At least now that VCRs are out-dated I no longer have to worry about the weather warnings. Now that I don't watch those old tapes I no longer fall for the two-year old tornado warnings or blizzards.

I'm not 40. I'm close.
But one of my best friends turned 40 today. Happy birthday, Jim.
I went out for a few hours with a fun group of friends to celebrate, then I bailed out early enough to get to work by seven tomorrow morning. The others, less fortunate than myself, have 4 or 5 hours of 'fun' ahead of them.

Again, not my 40th. But one of my best friends since kindergarten is 40. My ex-wife is 40. Good time to reflect on how (or whether) I've changed over the years. So here goes.

(added after the post was written: 40 is young. Not 20-something young, but young, nevertheless. A reflection on aging seems sort of silly coming from a 39 year old, but still, 40 is a milestone age at which people traditionally start to feel 'old.' I joke about it some myself, but I have to admit from the start that I don't really feel old in any way. My body certainly feels like it is aging, but I don't really in any way feel old. But the 40th birthday of a friend with whom I've been friends for 35 years still seems like a good time think about it.)

For starters, I'm home watching basketball rather than out drinking more beer. So I've changed in that way. It's easier to leave a party than it used to be. I was having loads of fun, but I had no problem remembering what tomorrow will feel like if I stayed. I'll count that as growth.

What else has changed?

I'm more mellow than I used to be. I'm every bit as opinionated as ever. Politics, religion, sports, the economy...my knee-jerk reaction is still that I am right and, if you disagree, you are wrong. But I'm generally more willing to keep my opinion to myself. Not always- maybe not even often- but more often than in the past.

I'm just generally more likely to recognize consequences that aren't worth it. Sometimes not as soon as I should, but at least sooner than I used to. For instance, I still post highly opinionated and probably inflammatory comments on this blog, but I often delete those posts within an hour or a day, when just a year or two ago I would have left them.

So the past twenty-plus years have seen my disagreements gradually move from fights to arguments to angry blog posts to polite dissent, which I feel is progress.

I think as people age they move in a consistent direction regarding 'social issues.' They either become more accepting of differing views and of things they disagree with, or less. I'm definitely moving toward the More Accepting end of the spectrum. Not that I don't often think views which are opposite of mine are a load of b.s. I do. But it bothers me less and less and even when I get angry about it the anger doesn't last as long.

I'm about half-way to my average life expectancy, I move even slower than I used to, and I have aches and pains that I didn't used to have, but I still feel very young. So overall, this reflection on aging makes me quite happy. To still feel young and to also recognize with confidence that I am generally a decent, moral person who is gradually becoming (slowly) more decent is sort of reassuring.
I might not ever get to where I'd like to be, but as long as I'm making progress it won't bother me much.

Bracket Man Is Here To Lead You To Fame And Fortune

After my glorious victory in 2010 (1 nice jackpot win out of 3 entered, raising my career total to 1 nice jackpot win out of about 100 entered), it's only fair that I point my loyal readers in the right direction.

I certainly haven't filled out my brackets yet. No matter, as I wasn't going to spoon-feed you the correct answers anyway. I'm just going to provide some brilliant insight. Do with it what you will.

I'm following roughly the same strategy I followed last year, as it was a new one for me and it worked. That strategy is: ignore all basketball which I have watched this season, and go strictly by the numbers.

First up, the local teams.
My Kentucky Wildcats stack up a lot better than I thought. In fact, according to the numbers I use (secret stats available only to myself and the select few others with access to ESPN.com or CBSsports.com or NCAA.com or a USA Today, or presumably USAtoday.com), Kentucky looks fantastic. Like a borderline #1 or #2 seed. But noooo, apparently the NCAA selection committee uses silly things like wins and losses to determine seeding. Be that as it may, Kentucky looks good. I don't expect them to fall the first weekend, and I can't say I believed that most of the year. I can't predict they'll get past Ohio State, but I haven't ruled it out yet.
Louisville, too, looks good to make the 2nd weekend. I actually think they got a lousy draw with Morehead State in the first round, but they'll squeak by. And Vandy is a good 5 seed match up for the Cards. Then Kansas.

Three potential Cinderellas
Utah State
Washington
Florida State


Five likely to bow out earlier than seeding indicates:
Notre Dame
BYU
Wisconsin
San Diego State
Cincinnati

Four good first round games:
7 Texas A&M vs 10 Florida State
6 St. John's vs 11 Gonzaga
6 Cincinnati vs 11 Missouri
5 Kansas State vs 12 Utah State


Conference most likely to disappoint: Easy, it's the Big East. I say they'll have 4 or 5 of the Sweet 16. Not bad at all, but when you start with 11 teams, and 10 of the top 36 seeds, and you are supposedly the best conference in the history of anywhere ever in the known galaxy, you should probably do better.

There. That was long-winded and fun (for me, if not for you).

After work this evening I detoured through the park hoping to view some interesting flooding. I more than half-expected I would need to turn around without getting very far- most likely no farther than near the 8th tee of Seneca GC.
But though the waters were high and rapid, Beargrass Creek was still within its banks as of 5:00, to the dismay (I assume) of the Wave 3 reporter stationed in the Big Rock parking lot.

I finished reading Philip Roth's The Plot Against America. Quite a good book. It's the first Philip Roth work I've read, and as he's quite prolific I am excited to have a new source of reading material.
It is an alternate history narrative, told from the point of view of a nine year old Jewish boy in Newark, New Jersey. The premise is Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR in the 1940 election and then makes a pact with Nazi Germany that keeps the U.S. out of WWII. Lots of not very fun hijinks ensue.
Throughout my reading I turned constantly to the internet to read up on real national figures woven into the story. There were lots of them, so I'm now better informed about Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Burton Wheeler, Father Coughlin, Fiorello LaGaurdia, and a few more.
Since many of the principal antagonists were real historical figures, and since most of these people weren't so clearly or completely evil in real life, I was at times uncomfortable with the story. At other times, though, I was uncomfortable with how easily it could all have been true.
Also, Louisville and Kentucky featured prominently and not very glowingly, which I didn't like. However, I think this was more for plot convenience than anything else. The boy's father praised Louis Brandeis and his Louisville roots early in the story, and thus Louisville was effective as a principal scene for negative stuff later. Plus Louisville is just a good representative for middle America.

This is my first post using my new little notebook computer. I'm not adept with the smaller keyboard yet. How does everybody manage with the tiny little keys on their smart phones? I can't even handle this relatively larger keyboard. If I don't improve I suspect I'll go back to using my man-sized computer for future posts.
Life in Lilliput sure is hard.

Some brilliant Kentucky fan updated the Wikipedia entry for jean shorts in honor of Josh Harrellson's Senior Day.