by Kevin Burton
I can’t imagine a scenario where I am completely immune to the madness.
While you and your office mates filled out brackets last week, that was only a fleeting thought for me. Didn’t come close to working up the enthusiasm. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be found on the fringes of the current hoops hysteria.
March Madness is easy when your team is on fire. But that doesn’t always happen, does it?
I’ve already written on Page 7, first that my Wichita State Shockers would not get a postseason bid, then that they did get a surprise NIT bid because so many Power 5 schools declined bids. Just in case you missed it, The Shockers lost to Oklahoma State 89-79 March 18 in the first round of the NIT.
That left me rooting with lowered enthusiasm for the other Ohio and Kansas schools that made it to the post-season.
Via the Alexa device I tuned in to the NIT game, Dayton vs. Florida Atlantic on WHIO radio Wednesday. Sometimes live sports are blocked and I can’t get them on Alexa. But I heard every word from longtime Flyers announcer Larry Hansgen.
When I lived in Ohio, Dayton was the mid-major I lived and died with. Dayton never sent me into any long periods of obsession with any Final Four runs though, the way Wichita State did.
Florida Atlantic is one of the schools that finished above Wichita State in the American Athletic Conference this year, but Dayton handled them 86-79.
So here’s an example of my lowered enthusiasm. I found out that Dayton had a wacky tip time for their second-round game against Tennessee Chattanooga, like 10:30 a.m. or some such silliness. But when that time rolled around yesterday I was too busy seizing the day and forgot all about them. That means I didn’t sweat through their 87-72 loss.
Kent State, the only other team I am following in the NIT, won its first game 75-56 over St. Bonaventure. They play Stanford tonight at 8 Central in the second round. Maybe I’ll find out if I can get their broadcast, maybe I won’t. But the Golden Flashes are my last hope in the NIT.
As for the big dance, I was mostly riding the sports hate bandwagon there. Sports hate is a thing, and you are going to take some comfort there when your favorite teams flame out.
Memphis is a no-class outfit that won the AAC. Every conference seems to have a team others love to hate. Memphis is it in the AAC. They are so mouthy and they stole the Shockers’ top scorer from last year’s roster, Colby Rogers.
Well Rogers never plays any defense, so I wasn’t so heartbroken about that.
The 5 seed Memphis got on Selection Sunday was a pure joke. They were an 8 seed at best. Hey, Wichita State even beat them once this year.
For their first-round game against Colorado State, I wore my “I hate Memphis” uniform, which consisted of a scowl, and a Colorado State Rams t-shirt I just happened to have because I went to a wedding in Ft. Collins years ago.
Had I filled out brackets I would have gotten at least one game right, Memphis losing, as they did 78-70. Go Rams go! Feel free to beat Maryland today!
My other sports hate will be much tougher to see go down, Duke.
I can’t stand Duke and CBS seems to force-feed them to the whole country every year in the tournament.
CBs always has one window where there is only one game being shown, and it’s Duke playing some completely overmatched directional school – like Central Nebraska A&W from the prestigious Root Beer Conference.
Anybody who beats Duke, I’m with you, with the possible exception of Memphis. Actually I think I’d like to see Duke give Memphis a good 25-point thrashing some year in the tournament, then lose their next game.
Sports hate gets the blood pumping too baby!
What didn’t get my blood pumping was this year’s Kansas team. My wheat state hierarchy goes Wichita State, Kansas State, then Kansas. But often Kansas is the only team around when we get deep into the NCAAs.
Well Kansas didn’t get deep into anything this time, losing its first game 79-72 to Arkansas.
Ohio Schools in the big dancer? Xavier beat Texas in a play-in game 86-60, as I listened via Alexa. But they bowed out meekly in the next game, losing to Illinois 86-73.
Arizona had its way with Akron 93-65 in a first-round game.
So not much for me to get excited about this year. Once you get past my Kansas-and-Ohio thing, and the sports hate, I start looking for former Wichita State assistant coaches who moved on to be head coaches elsewhere.
Based on that I got some good vibrations from seeing New Mexico’s name show up on Selection Sunday. This as I temporarily forgot that former Shocker assistant Chris Jans had moved from New Mexico to Mississippi State – hello – three years ago!
Well, Mississippi State got in too….and lost.
Looks as if I need to just enjoy the moment this year. Good games, good players, good times.
And hey, baseball is just around the corner.
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