Blogging The Opening Round

Today is my favorite day of the whole year, the opening round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.  I am chilling at home and plan to blog as much of the day as possible.  I’ll keep updating this post as the day goes on.  Here’s a quick recap of what’s transpired so far….

11:15 AM: Left work and went to Food Lion.  Items purchased: 12-pack NewCastle, 18 Bagel Bites, TGI Friday’s queso dip, TGI Friday’s potato skins, ranch dressing, and some Sour Cream and Onion Pringles.

12:15 PM: Sitting here now in front of the TV.  Time Warner HD is showing all of the feeds.  Werd.  Right now I’m hating my brackets, but it’s too late to change it.

12:21 PM: First game just tipped.  Overrated Kentucky vs. E. Kentucky.  I have a platter of 18 Bagel Bites (9 3-cheese & 9 pepperoni) and a NewCastle on one TV tray.  The laptop on another.  This is going to be a good day.

12:33 PM: The second game is underway.  UW-Miluakee is taking it to Alabama in the early going….at least I think that’s what is happening.  This signal splitting thing Time Warner is doing is a bit rough right now.  I feel like I’m watching this game on the Internet…and using the crappy-ass Real Player to boot.  The screen keeps pixelating at times.  Hopefully this will pass.  I can’t tell if I’m watching the game or that thing with the cat spinning around on the ceiling fan.

1:08 PM: I’m already starting to hate myself for some of my bracket picks.  I tweaked it last night and I stepped away from some of my earlier hunches.  My Final Four is UNC, Duke, Ok. State, and Louisville.  I have UNC beating Dook, then Ok State in the finals.  We’ll see how that works out.  Here are the upsets that I initially picked that I sold out last night: Pacific, Penn, Nevada, St. Mary’s, New Mexico, Old. Dominion, and Niagara.  I initially had all of these teams winning and I reversed course on all of them last night, making my bracket much chalkier.  We’ll see if this comes back to bite me.

1:13 PM: It turns out that my Gummi Threshold for Bagel Bites is 14.  For those not in the know, the Gummi Threshold is the amount of something you can eat before eating the next one becomes the worst idea you’ve ever had, so named for Gummi Bears where the GT is a common phenomenon.

2:56 PM: Ugh.  Well, the first team I sold out has bitten me.  Pacific just rolled up Pitt.  I suck.  I had ‘Bama in the Sweet 16 too, and they lost.  Stupid football school.

3:21 PM: We had a brief emergency a bit ago when Tivo switched the channel so it could tape “General Hospital” for Ashley at 3.  Thanks to some quick thinking on my part (and a handy VCR), disaster was avoided.  The TV commercials have been a bit disappointing so far.  CBS hasn’t been trotting out many “Craptastic Mid-Season Replacements We’re Going To Cram Down Your Throat For 3 Weeks” commercials yet, which is a mixed blessing.  On the one hand, it’s nice to not have “Baby Bob” staring me in the face every 8 minutes.  On the other hand, I could do with much less of that Dook Recruiting Ad…..ERRRRR, American Express Commercial.

4:05 PM: Okay, so I did forget about one CBS commercial.  This isn’t new for the tournament, but have you seen the spots for this horrible “Spring Break Shark Attack” TV Movie?  These kids are at the beach being naughty and like 70 killer sharks show up.  Classic TV “when nature attacks” movie.  Good times.  You know that it’s going to be awesome when they hype it with “Starring that Chick Who Was On ‘The OC’ For A Little Bit This Season”

4:50 PM: The tournament is over.  Sports Illustrated has just jinxed the entire field by putting them all on this week’s cover.  Be sure to tune in to the games this weekend as the arenas in which the games are played collapse on themselves and each school is no longer able to field a team.

7:59 PM: I’m back for the evening session after a hearty helping of lasagna.  Werd.  I escaped the morning session with only 2 dings.  As mentioned earlier, I missed on Pitt and Alabma.  I picked 6 of the opening 8 correct, and lost a Sweet 16 team in Alabama, but overall I’m not too bad.  I’m still mad at myself for selling out Pacific.  Sorry, dudes.

8:12 PM: It’s decided.  CBS needs to find a way to incorporate the song “You’re The Best” from “The Karate Kid” into its tourney broadcasts.  You know what I’m talking about.  It’s the song they play during that montage when Danny gets to the tournament at the end of the movie, and they show all the Cobra Kai guys kicking everyone’s ass.  Is there a better sports montage movie in cinema?  Just listen to some of these dope lyrics….

History repeats itself
Try and you’ll succeed

Never doubt that you’re the one
And you can have your dreams!

You’re the best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you dow-ow-ow-ow-own

Now imagine that playing over a montage of these little schools taking down the big Goliath.  That’s restaurant quality sports drama right there, folks.  This must happen.  C’mon, who’s with me in petitioning for this?

9:46 PM: 12 games down.  I’ve picked 8 right.  I’ve lost 2 Sweet Sixteen teams.  If I had stuck to my guns last night, I would be 11/12 with only ‘Bama out of the Sweet 16.  What’s worse?  I’ve picked Creighton to upset WVU and UAB to nip LSU.  I’m so dead.  Methinks that all of the upsets have already happened today.  I guess we’ll see.

11:04 PM: So I’m on this medicine where I’m supposed to eat something and then take it before bed.  It occurs to me now that TGI Friday’s queso dip was not such a good plan for the “eat something before you go to bed” thing.  As if my picks today didn’t make me sick enough.  I think I’m going to call it a night and cut my losses.