Sportsmeat

I thought this trophy was as good as anything I'd be able to mock up in Photoshop, plus it's got a nice Chucky-ish vibe that I'd imagine could scare the bejeezus out of the poor eight-year-old who wins it if the moonlight catches it just right in the middle of the night. Or not. Maybe that's just me.

At the risk of being a party-pooper, I've got so say the people who call the NCAAs America's best sporting event are crazy. If you're going to consider a multi-week tournament an "event," then you've got to classify the NFL playoffs as an event, too. The NFL playoffs, from any objective measure (TV ratings, attendance, wagering), are a bigger deal than the big dance.

That said, this is one of my favorite weeks of the year. When I was a kid, I parlayed head colds into days off from school just to watch the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament, in hopes of catching a glimpse of all 64 teams. And today, when I was white-knuckling my way home through the sleet and snow, I got that same giddy feeling as the clock ticked down in the Winthrop game. I remember lots of great games -- Lehigh vs. Temple (OK, only great because the Lehigh guys were my basketball camp counselors), Princeton vs. UCLA, Hampton vs. Iowa State (I'll never pick the Cyclones to win it all again), Bucknell vs. Kansas, Bucknell vs. Arkansas, Valpo versus who-cares-who-it-was-do-you-remember-that-shot?! ... If you had asked me two weeks ago if Texas A&M had a satellite campus in Corpus Cristi, I'd have shrugged and directed you to Wikipedia. But if they'd won today, I would probably be an Islander fan for life. So it goes.

There's only one thing missing from my scrapbook of NCAA Tournament memories. In each of the last, oh, probably 18 years, I've laid down five, or ten, or in one case two dollars in a tournament pool. And each time, I've lost. (Ricky Bobby's right in this case -- it you're not first...) This year, I'm feeling a winner. Why, you ask? Because I've studied hard? Because I've perfected my methods? Because I've resorted to flipping coins? NO! This year, I will win the Sportsmeat pool because there is only pride on the line (and only four people to beat). I'll win. I'm almost sure of it. And I'll have this lovely, creepy virtual trophy for my virtual mantel. Yipee.

Enjoy the games. Hoya saxa.