March Sadness

It's that magical time of the year when I wish, on some level, that I gave a damn about amateur hoop played by people who aren't physically mature enough to be at their best at it, but who are good enough to be fiscally exploited by rapacious institutions in a cruel manipulation of the marketplace and the general public's dislike of a majority African-American enterprise. (Whoops, blew the game already.)

Between the bracketology, the nonstop games that all mean something, and the fact that the first two days of the tournament are an unofficial holiday of sport and tremendous excuse to blow off work, it just seems like the time that you should care about such things, or at least, pretend to. Despite all of the exploitation and unseemliness.

But I just can't do it; I didn't grow up with it, and as soon as I got out of school, the transplant failed. Even when my alma mater (Syracuse) finally broke through and won it all with Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick taking out Kansas, it was more along the lines of "Oh, that's nice" than a grand celebration. I enjoy watching Duke lose as much as the next red-blooded American and biped, but beyond that, there aren't even teams that I root against, really. Had I the choice of finding $20 on the ground or seeing the Orange cut another net, I'd take the $20. And maybe $10.

I know that, on some level as a raging NBA lover, I should be caring more about the tournament. It is, after all, the proving ground for the majority of future NBA players. But the level of play is just so scatershot, the media mouth jobbing of coaches so total, and the sense that you really need to be gambling -- and doing so with a lot more on the ball than I've got -- to be enjoying it.. well, the feeling that I'm missing out on something passes almost as quickly as my brackets used to, back in the day. And since the tournament usually loses a great mass of steam as soon as 95% of the brackets are garbage, and the games start happening outside of work hours and/or aren't doubbled and quadrupled up so that you've got buzzer beaters all over the place...

Well, if you're into the tournament, more power to you. I'm pleased and a little surprised to see my Orangemen still got a #1 seed in the West after losing their last two games of the year.

But if and when they go out, I probably won't care much more about it than I do now. The blog is mostly for MLB, NBA and NFL, and I just don't have the time and patience to add more things to that mix. Moving on.