Enough is enough

I am officially retiring from NCAA pools (not really), but boy are my panties in a bunch.

It happens every year, guaranteed. I was in two pools this year. Each of which ended with the winners and second place finisher either being girls or someone completely random making picks with their eyes closed. This year, the winner of my big pool was someones sister, and second place went to another girl who I went to high school with. Even the third place finisher had the last name Swan, gimme a break. In my office pool, the first place finisher was someone named Qbert (old Nintendo video game which I loved, but if you are labeling your NCAA pools that now, you work in IT, get laid once a year, and certainly don't know jack about college bball) and second place was yet another girl.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining that I'm not winning, I'm used to losing, it happens all the time, it's one of the things I'm best at. However, I am complaining about the fact that the winners are the ones who pick their games like so, "Oh, I like their colors", "My friend went to school there!", "Their mascot is so funny, they will go far" or, if you read my last post, "Yeah, their power forward banged the shit out of me, he can definitely lead them to the final four". It's like playing the lottery, there is obviously no skill involved.

I can hear some of my critics saying, Katzo, this year's tournament was one of the easiest one's to pick in the past 15 years. You can expect people who don't follow college basketball regularly to do well because they don't think about potential upsets and will just pick the best/most popular teams.

Fair point. However, when you take into consideration last years tourney which was upset city. Had Florida winning the whole thing (as a #3 I believe) and one of the final four slots was represented by George Mason. GEORGE MASON!?! (Yes I'm still bitter). Yet, the first place finisher in my pool last year, girl. Second place finisher, girl. Explain that to me.

Again, I don't mind that I'm not winning. I do mind that the winner comes in the form of non-fans who get lucky. Yes, obviously there is a lot luck involved in any sort of gambling pool, especially when there are 65 teams involved. But one would think there would be an advantage for someone who follows college basketball all season. There is not.

Quick hitters:

• Florida is probably a pretty fun school to be a part of right now. My sister is probably pulling her hair out as we speak (current FSU student). Jeremy Foley (UF's athletic director) deserves a raise, a statue, and probably a sacrificial lamb ceremony. This guy has done such a tremendous job with the athletic program at this school. Not only did he steal Urban Meyer right under Notre Dame's nose, I have a feeling Billy Donovan is not going anywhere (Sorry Kentucky) and will end up as one of the all-time coaching greats, probably already is. Repeat NCAA D-I Basketball National Champs and NCAA D-I Football Champs. Congratulations Gators.

• Before the tourney started, you could have easily made a case for Kevin Durant going #1 overall in the upcoming NBA draft. After the show Greg Oden put on in the Final Four, I find it impossible to pass this guy up. Wow. As impressive a college player I've seen. Side note, I would not be at all surprised to see Durant stay at UT, ESPECIALLY after Oden's domination over the past couple of days. I'm not saying I agree with it, but apparently the kid's got a 3.5 GPA and absolutely loves college. Plus, if Oden leaves and he stays healthy, he is the guaranteed #1 overall pick next year.

• I will, for the rest of my life, be skeptical of people who come from Albany...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2816356

• ...unless they invented this:

http://www.jsonline.com/site/photographerphotos/slideshow.aspx?PhotoID=6209&fileType=JPG&Source=Thumbnail&catid=500&PageNumber=0

• Braves (1-0): Nice come-from-behind win on the road against a division rival. New bullpen looked great. People need to stop hating on Edgar Renteria (game-tying solo HR in the top of the 8th, game-winning two run blast in the top of the 10th). He is still one of the league's top shortstops as long as he is out of the spotlight and not in a big city.

One last thing, I know a lot of you enjoyed my post last week regarding ugly athletes and their constant anonymous, unprotected, sexual adventures. I'd just like to give a shout out to T-Bone aka Rogor aka Prehistoric Retard for helping me come up with the idea.