Coming to you live from four different channels. I don't know what True TV is though
Thursday
12:00 to 3:00- Even though I'm growing older and changing, I tend to keep the same traditions with me since I was a young child. One of my favorite things to keep with me is missing class on whatever day that the tournament begins. I'll admit that I missed last year's opener due to the St.Patrick's parade but I have a long streak of missing school to see the early games begin. The first game began with Murray State who lost one game this year against Colorado State. The game consisted of two mid major schools so I had no idea what I was watching. I'm usually knowledgable of teams that play in a power six conference (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, and SEC schools basically). I'm making eggs while watching both teams remind me of watching a CYO game with how sloppy they were playing. CBS has a tendency of showing the worst games early on because America wants you to buy cable and take your money! Murray State ended up winning to my delight because Colorado State flat out stunk. The other early games had Rodney McGruder realize that Kansas State has nothing more but a bunch of under achievers on their team. He realized that just before the game begun and took over scoring thirty points helping them beat Southern Miss. The local mad man that is also Kansas State coach known as Frank Martin still wasn't happy because Frank Martin is never happy! Anyway Louisville won in a dull game over Davidson. I bet a few losers picked Davidson in that game in hoping the 2nd coming of Stephen Curry was on that team. They were wrong in doubting the Big East Champions! That's not saying a lot because the Big East conference was terrible this year. I never thought I would ever say that because year after year the Big East is absolutely amazing.
3:00 to 5:00- The next batch of games had me mostly watching Marquette against BYU. Marquette was one of the few Big East schools that actually played like a great team this year. With players like Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson Odom, no way they would lose to a bunch of virgins (that's a low blow). Anyway I refuse to make anymore BYU jokes because BYU is a pretty good team and they made a few of my Iona friends cry (soon to be ex friends after they read this). Every year I usually make a "strange' upset pick with a low seed in my honest bracket. That happened to be Montana because I never like Wisconsin with their rugged style. That didn't work with Wisconsin making quick work of those losers. My upset bracket had Wisconsin so not all hope was lost. Since I change up my schedule far too often, I had to work for a few hours. That means I'd be missing a few games and would have to rely on my phone to keep track of games. I thought it wouldn't bother me too much but that didn't last long. I ended up missing a crazy 16 vs 1 seed game. I'm not sure if their ever has been a situation like that but UNC-Asheville gave Syracuse all it could handle. If that would have happened, I would have missed history. I'm literally on my phone right when I get to work while I'm jumping in the air wondering what will happen next. A few awkward calls favoring Syracuse and the unthinkable didn't happen. I sigh in relief not because I care for Syracuse, but because I want to witness the first ever 16 versus 1 seed upset . It will happen one day, believe me it will. Anyway work has begun and I officially join the club of "I'll be on ESPN.com for my entire shift, don't bother me".
Read Below, this under library rules.
1. I'd scan books as the hard working librarian that I am. Of course ESPN will be on the other side.
2. Bathroom breaks turn into ten minute trips to make sure things are going smoothly.
3. Find a corner and hide because old ladies never shut up and always want to talk to me.
4. The fake coughing tactic usually works, that leads to some more water breaks.
5. When I fill out my time sheet, I'll make sure to go in the back and search for pens even though their five in front of me.
6. My mom is calling me and she is more important than work. They somehow believe that!
7. I go in the mystery section and pretend to read a book, but in reality I'm seeing if Long Beach can score the upset.
5:00 to 10:00 - Speaking of Long Beach, that was my classic "upset underdog story" pick in my upset bracket. Sadly they didn't know how to hit threes and were beaten by New Mexico. I hate you Sports Illustrated for giving them a four page article and basically begging me to believe that this team will make some sort of run. The big game going on at work was known as the genius battle between Harvard and Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt was my pick to make the elite eight despite being only a fifth seed. With a weak Syracuse team as the first seed, I thought they were bound to make a huge run regardless if they haven't won a game in the tournament in 2008. The game had me worry a bit but Vanderbilt got the job done with shooting specialists like John Jenkins and Jeremy Taylor. Harvard was a hot upset pick here because Vanderbilt always chokes and people believing the team had the 2nd coming of Jeremy Lin (fools!). I finally get home from work to see Kentucky and Gonzaga dominating. I'm happy to see that because people were all over West Virginia for being a "Big East team". Gonzaga had the same team from last year that dominated a great St.John's team (I miss that team) and shouldn't have trouble against the West Virginia Kevin Jones & other guys team. The big problem game was Wichita State against VCU which was on CBS because CBS likes to keep me worrying. Wichita State was my sweet sixteen pick because I'm an idiot that didn't believe in Indiana. They didn't even last long thanks to poor shooting and horrible rotating defense. I don't know much about Carl Hall other than the fact that he's a clueless player that doesn't know a damn thing about rotating defense. After seeing VCU hit an effortless three to take the lead with a minute left, it was the first tirade alone in my room. I watched all the games at my house alone because my friends and I didn't co-exist well when it came to plans that night (lame excuse, tell me about it). VCU ended up winning and I was on my chair shaking my head in disgust. The classic 12 versus 5 seed matchup went to the 12 seed which seems to happen every day. I'm too stupid to realize that of course because I don't know mid major schools and I'm not lucky. Baylor was having some problems with South Dakota State but they weren't in any danger of losing with top ten draft talent like Perry Jones III. The game was hindered by Marv Albert making R3 references because Robert Griffin III came from Baylor just like Perry Jones III. That was just one of fifty reasons why the game was hindered because Marv Albert is horrible.
10:00 to 12:30- The last batch of games went down with me annoyed with Wichita State because I hate losing games that should have been won. My brackets are doing well but with a lack of upsets early on, everyone should have a good bracket. The main game I was watching was Iowa State vs UConn because once again the logic of "pick the Big East team" proved to be wrong for people. UConn was so overrated this year with inconsistent play all around. Usually when a team has problems all season around with major issues, they won't last in the tournament. Iowa State isn't a great team, but they are disciplined and really controlled the game. My logic continues to work although my logic of picking mid major schools continued to fail. After Charles Barkley rambled on how UNLV is going to make a huge splash in the tournament, I thought they would win one game. That didn't happen and Colorado beat them with mostly ease, although UNLV made a run at the end. I was pretty annoyed with my bracket because I knew people were doing better than me. Ohio State and Indiana won with ease as I barley paid attention to those games. I mostly worry about the games that have close seeds in the first round, not the lopsided games. It was well past midnight and it was time to go to bed in a sad mood. Who would have thought the next day would get even more worse.
Friday
1:30 to 4:30- Sadly I can't miss class two days in a row. With games starting early, it led to missing some early games. I got to watch some of the almost Cincinnati collapse against Texas. I was literally cursing to myself when I was coming home from school. Cincinnati nearly lost a twenty two point lead to a very weak Texas team that was on a UConn level of inconsistency and problems through out the season. They pulled through though which led to me breathing easier while grabbing a pepperoni slice for lunch. The pizzeria is full of old Italians that know nothing about basketball so of course they rather have Judge Joe Brown on rather than the tournament. I'm happily seeing an upset win pulled out by N.C State who was a team that I believed that could make some noise. The N.C State upset pick was based on seeing how hard they played against North Carolina in the ACC tournament and how awesome Shane Helms rants were about how underrated N.C State was (thanks Shane). The close seeds were pulling through for me early on with Creighton squeaking by Alabama that had me going crazy. I'm going crazy for a 9 versus 8 seed game because I'm not mentally stable when the tournament starts. With the every game counts mindset, my house isn't healthy to be in when I'm around. My mom was relieved that I was leaving for the gym in a few hours and then heading to a house to watch the night games with a few gym friends. Florida dominated Virginia in a game where I literally watched for about a minute. The same goes for Georgetown against Belmont because I hate Georgetown and didn't pick them far. The big game going on was St.Bonaventure against Florida State in a shocking competitive game. Florida State was a hot pick following winning the ACC tournament which meant they beat Duke and North Carolina. They were the hot pick to make the final four, but I wasn't on the bandwagon. I had them losing to Ohio State mainly because Florida State doesn't have much star power and they go through far too many stretches when they just can't score. That seemed to be the case in this game but they pulled out a three point victory. Everyone on twitter was freaking out about the game but they all got to breathe easy. With Missouri and North Carolina playing against push over teams coming up, it was the perfect time to get a work out in before the night games. Did I say push over teams? That didn't seem to be the case right Missouri?
6:00 to 9:45- I'm finished working out then after showering and picking up some Subway, we get to Chris house to go crazy for the next six hours. When we put on the TV, we all see Missouri being a bunch of dopes and playing horrible. They aren't driving to the hope or rotating to the open man. This isn't the "forty minutes of hell" team that I saw all season. With everyone screaming since most of us had Missouri going to Final Four except Julian because he has a fetish for Tom Izzo coached teams. Missouri ended up getting pounded on the boards and missing too many three pointers to lose by three when it was over. The 15th seed won and brackets were getting destroyed world wide. Missouri will forever be a place that I'll hate even though I loved him for all these years because of their crazy style. The only good thing out of Missouri these days is Sean Weatherspoon (Falcons rising star outside linebacker representing!). With Missouri losing, everyone is already in a foul mood and I'm all sad to begin with. I'm a huge fan of Subway and I'm always eating the Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich, but for the first time ever I didn't enjoy it. We head to the night games with my momentum being squashed after going undefeated all day. The downfall continued with Memphis getting out played by St.Louis which leads to me realizing that Seth Davis needs to go away. He was going on a bit of a rant after the brackets were announced on how Memphis should have been a 6th or 7th seed. They sure showed it shooting at a poor rate and not showing much urgency, thanks Seth. Saint Mary's couldn't beat a mostly one man team in Purdue with Purdue getting contributions not only from Robbie Hummel. That was another loss for me along with Michigan getting upset by Ohio. My bracket is starting to rack up losses but the biggest one had to be Duke. Another 2nd seed went down with Duke losing to Leigh in dramatic fashion. With all the NBA future prospects on Duke, they couldn't get the job done. It was a case of rushing shots and simply not executing properly. Austin Rivers looked fed up while Seth Curry was a non factor. Duke was going to be a possible final four team for me but once they were paired with Kentucky, it wasn't going to happen. In my upset bracket, I even had Baylor beating them because I'm high on them. That ended up being smart so I wasn't too mad about Duke. It was just really shocking seeing two 15th seeds beat the top dogs. Duke has a large fan base, but I'm not really friends with any Duke fans. Nobody seemed to be upset but it was just shocking.
Stand up for Leigh!
9:45 to 12:30- The late games were finally going on and we were all forced to watch Notre Dame. Julian is a huge Notre Dame fan but since St.Patrick's Day was tomorrow, he didn't want to go to the bar (thank you Jesus). With Michigan State and Kansas playing weak teams, I didn't mind. With all the second seeds losing today, we were a bit concerned with Kansas but they handled their business. The other game I kept track of was Temple versus South Florida which was a game that I felt bad for people who were watching it. Despite all the praise I heard from my buddy Chris Choe who goes to Temple, they were shooting horrible against a weak South Florida team. I had Temple going to the Sweet Sixteen so I was a bit concerned with the ugly first half. Meanwhile the Notre Dame and Xavier game was going back and forth which was fun. Eventually when 2nd half started, Temple started to implode and I really got heated. After going 0-4 in the early night games, the last thing I needed was another sweet sixteen team losing. That was the case with Temple imploding against a South Florida team that needed a play in game to get in and had nobody average more than ten points a game this season. It was absolutely ridiculous and it got me heated despite my favorite holiday being tomorrow. Things got even more worse with Notre Dame letting go of a late lead thanks to Tru Holloway going insane. He was scoring at will with Notre Dame having no answer which led to a first round exit for the Fighting Irish and Julian immediately drinking (He doesn't give a damn about the consequences!). He knew they weren't going far, but all he wanted was one win. I had the game split with two different winners in my bracket so I wasn't upset. Still it was a rough night overall after having so much hope from an undefeated afternoon. I went to bed immediately and just wanted to wake up with a Guinness in my hand.
Saturday
8:00 to 4:30- This is an experience, not just calling all the March Madness action. The experience includes my favorite holiday and the celebration. St.Patrick's Day starts early with me which includes a load of Guinness, Heineken, and Molson. With a group of friends, we all drink by our local friendly bar then head to the parade. Sadly I'm not feeling much of a buzz so for the most part, I'm sober for an odd season. I had six beers then a twenty-four can of Steel Reserve (which always destroys my mental state). Next time I'm not eating eggs for breakfast because that might have fought off everything. Anyway the parade certainly wasn't as fun as last year because the city seemed less crowded. I'm not sure what was going on but things just weren't that hectic and wild. I'll recap last year's St.Patrick's Day sometime this month to give you a clearer picture, but basically things were too calm. As usual we all got split up, with Paul and I finding some women. The women were actually our good friend Antoinette along with a few of her Greek friends. Her Greek friends wanted nothing to do with us because they were all high classy and absolutely lame (hate super high classy women). If you read my autobiography, you could be wondering how the three of us somehow get along? I'm not going to get all personal but basically were all friends now and happy. Antoinette is still amazingly attractive while Paul and I are the same rude, snarky, awesome duo. We had our fun with her and running into some old friends (John K deserves a mention, he's one of my favorite Greeks ever). Anyway we finally decide to head home at 3 and I finally have time to check my phone. Paul falls asleep on the subway for no apparent reason while I'm checking scores. Syracuse somehow dominated Kansas State after barley beating UNC-Asheville. Frank Martin must have kicked three garbage pails before, during, and after the game. Ohio State versus Gonzaga was going on which was an intriguing matchup. I wish the game was later so I could watch it because both teams are fun to watch. Gonzaga gave Ohio State some problems which included to me cursing at my phone several times with Asians staring at me. Ohio State eventually won because they are the more complete team and didn't need a huge performance out of Jared Sullinger. Aaron Craft was the star in that game from what I saw in highlights. I finally get home around 4:30 thanks to our good friend Irene. She is a sober girl and was a sweet heart for taking us home.
Happy holidays
5:00 to 8:30- Murray State vs Marquette was next in another intriguing matchup. The Round of 32 is pretty awesome considering these possible upset match ups. I'm alone in my room eating my dinner trying to get a meal in before heading out for Round Two of drinking tonight. The game was pretty tight for the most part although I was somewhat drifting out of the game. With Wisconsin playing Vanderbilt in a huge game for me, it was tough to fully grasp the game. Vanderbilt was an Elite 8 pick for me so this game meant much more. Marquette pulled out the win against Murray State thanks to big time defense to fluster Murray State and Jae Crowder being a beast. Crowder could be a bit wild at times and could improve on his jump shot, but Crowder is an excellent player with a bright future. Wisconsin versus Vanderbilt started to get me heated with Wisconsin really controlling the game for the most part. They weren't shooting a high percentage but they seemed to be in command. It got me really worried plus the adrenaline started to kick in where I couldn't sit. Usually when games start to get close in any sport, I'll start standing or even worse lay on the floor. It depends where I'm at of course, you'll never see me lay on a floor at the bar. Anyway the game started to get really tight with Vanderbilt going on a huge run. They weren't shooting that great thanks to a horrible shooting performance from John Jenkins and Jeffery Taylor. Eventually the game was nearing the end where a few missed free throws then a missed Jenkins three ended the game. I'm enraged and can't believe they let me down against a decent Wisconsin team. After beating almighty Kentucky to win the SEC tournament, Vanderbilt should have done much better. That was a huge blow to my bracket and really got me upset. At this point, I didn't really want to pay attention to college basket ball for the rest of the night. If it was on the bar, I'll watch it because it will be there. But for some reason, I wasn't going out of my way to track games on my phone.
8:30 to 1:30- The night kept on getting worse with bars checking for id's everywhere. In case you haven't realized, I'm a eight teen year old boy that gets plenty of advantages when it comes to things. Tonight wasn't the case since I was with an army worth of friends. The night kept on getting depressing with me venting to a few other friends. It turned out to be an awful night just bar hopping with no success. I didn't really catch any game so consider this the night that I let you down. I was traveling in cars all night with no interest to track games on my phone. Kentucky and Baylor took care of business with blowout wins. Louisville continued to fight for wins with a squeaky win over New Mexico. Indiana continued to prove me wrong with a tight win over VCU. Indiana really impressed me based on highlights and it really made me regret not picking them. They would have destroyed Wichita State. After seeing girls puke in cars, people complaining, and talking to some friends on how things stink, it was time to go home. A fun day quickly turned into a dull night, its time like this that I wish I had a girlfriend.
Sunday
1:30 to 5:00- Due to waiting lines for paying phone bills and running errands, I missed some of the action early on. It was another day of watching games at home but I had open crib! With people hung over, I didn't expect anyone to come visit me. That wasn't a problem though because I didn't mind watching games alone. With my crabby mood, I'm not sure if you wanted to watch a game with me. I managed to watch the 2nd half of the N.C State upset over Georgetown in a pretty epic game. They were my upset pick to make it to the sweet sixteen and I nailed it. Georgetown suffered through shooting problems along with foul trouble. Harry Sims was going through serious foul trouble and communication problems in the offense. That hurt the team big time with Georgetown basically becoming a one man team led by Hollis Thompson. N.C State was a far more complete team despite their foul shooting woes. They held on to a three point win which had me really happy and proud of myself (Shane Helms strikes again!). I was drifting in and out of the Michigan State game. They were playing St.Louis in a really dull game because that's what Michigan State is about. They don't win in flashy ways but they play strong defense and let Draymond Green be the guy to carry the team. Green is a terrific player and had an incredible season for the Spartans. Brandon Wood stepped up, but Green was the major reason why they beat St.Louis. I was drifting in and out of the game just worn out from yesterday and everything else. I took a break from college basketball for a bit to go exercise to get my mind off things.
6:00 to 9:30- Many games are going during the frame of time. It was nice to see North Carolina finally play in the tournament because for some reason, they seemed lost in the shuffle. They were my pick to win it all in one bracket then lose to Kentucky in the finals in the other. With John Henson back, they looked dominant against Creighton. Despite the huge win, the news of Kendall Marshall dislocating his wrist was huge. Marshall was a huge factor in North Carolina's success and it immediately had me concerned. Thankfully North Carolina was playing easy competition in the next round thanks to Ohio upsetting South Florida. I didn't catch any of the game because it had no appeal but a huge 2nd half helped them. South Florida's scoring troubles were going to hurt eventually especially with Ohio having loads of scoring options. I was really interested in watching the 15th seeds play because they destroyed brackets world wide. I love the upset story but it didn't last long. Norfolk State was no contest against Florida which disappointed me. I caught the first half and Florida's speed really set the tone. You knew Florida could score, but the way they played defensively was impressive. It was a complete team effort but Bradley Beal stood out to be the guy that set the tone. The other 15th seed playing was Leigh and they made things interesting against Xavier. Despite Xavier winning by twelve, Leigh really kept things tight but simply couldn't score enough to win. They couldn't get out of transition and got caught up in the slow paced game that Xavier loves to play. In case you're wondering, I'm not showing much emotion in these games because my bracket was busted. The Xavier vs Leigh game was enjoyable based on seeing how would Leigh last. The madness began once Purdue faced Kansas in a physical game. These were two teams that loved to play physical and wasn't shy from fouling you hard. Purdue really took it to Kansas early with stifling defense and capitalizing on mistakes. Robbie Hummel was on throughout the game which didn't surprise anyone. After two seasons of torn ACL's, he wasn't going to go down without a fight. Kansas eventually fought back by simply challenging Purdue to use their other players. Lewis Jackson stepped up a bit, but Purdue simply was lacking other scoring weapons. I started heavily getting concerned though because Kansas wasn't scoring and it had me pounding my desk in frustration. Tayshawn Taylor couldn't hit a shot to save his life while Thomas Robinson was getting frustrated. Eventually Kansas started to swarm Purdue and they took the lead off the heroics of Elijah Johnson. Ironically I was on the phone with my Croatian buddies Ante and Denis from Croatian Sports. com while watching the game. Ante is a die hard Kansas fan, so he was going crazy over the team. Kansas pulled out the win after clamping down for the last minutes on Purdue. Kansas prevailed in a thrilling win which led to Twitter not exploding again.
9:45 to 12:30- The last game of the night was Cincinnati versus Florida State. The issue going into this game was that I had a fantasy baseball draft at 10 pm. I'm not much of a baseball fan and I wasn't really picking players, but I do know players and I had my friend Anthony in my league so were co managers. Still people want to talk to me so it was difficult talking to people and watching the game. The game was a slugfest like I expected because both teams don't have many star players. They were both defensive minded teams that don't like to score that much. If Florida State lost, I knew people would be so upset because they were a hot pick for the final four. It was too close to call through out the game, as I wonder who in the world are Jemile Weeks and Matt Joyce? I miss the days in baseball where Jim Thome and Josh Beckett were considered awesome picks. People were heckling me for not knowing much but some knowledge and history lessons about being a Mets fan does the trick. When the topic comes up about old Met players, I can go all day for some reason. I'll admit that if the Mets were good, I'd start caring more because unlike the Yankees, they aren't full of money. Anyway the baseball draft was fun and even more entertaining than a brutal game on TV. Both teams were missing shots and turning the ball over consistently. The difference was that Cincinnati was making the most out of their opportunities when they got the ball. They got to the free throw line consistently and hit some shots down the stretch led by Sean Kilpatrick. He's a streaky shooter that can't be guarded when he gets going. Florida State had no answer with the team shooting poorly all around. The night with another upset but I wasn't too upset by it. That ended a strange day where it wasn't too bad but nothing crazy happened except funny Florida State jokes.
You know the deal.
That's the end of the first part of the experience. I'll admit that it was a bit dull in the end and I didn't go to many different places. Part Two will pick up which takes place from last Thursday to last Sunday. I'll be covering Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight with the different places that I watched it. My bracket wasn't looking too pretty after the weekend, but their was still optimism. I still had faith and still ready to go wild, which happened on more than one occasion. I'll be posting this on Monday because I got loads of tests on Friday. I'll recap of the last part which will consist of the final four and the national title game. That will be up on Tuesday which will be on my birthday. A few other things I'll note in those up and coming in small articles about my experience going to the Nets-Pacers game. I'll be sitting in Row F tomorrow so I'm excited to see an average basketball game. The reason I'm going is my good Croatian buddy is in New York and he wants to go to a game. With Knick tickets being way too expensive, we settled for the Nets. Indiana will be in the playoffs so I'm excited to see how they look. I know they dominated my beloved Heat on Monday so they must be good. Also I'll do a mini Wrestlemania review since I'll be watching. I'm not doing a full review though mainly because I got other things that I rather cover and their better sites to catch full recaps are. If you want to check out the best site, type in TheJohnReport.Net and you will be in hand. Monday I'll do the mini Wrestlemania review while it's still fresh because it's arguably the biggest Mania in a very long time. The Nets Pacers experience will be for Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed this read and below are the links, where you can reach me.
Plugs
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/allenstreck
Twitter: @AllenOutraged
Gmail: AStrk19@gmail.com
Old Blog: http://allen-strk.blogspot.com/
Feel free to leave a comment below or contact me on any of those links above.
