Sweet Sixteen stuff...

I don't mean to keep writing about this, but in this case I feel it is too important not to at least mention.

Today is day 2 of the NCAA Tournament games, and I am almost as excited as possible. Not that I'll be able to watch the games, since it's Sara's birthday and I'm going to devote all my time to her and all and that's all right by me... but the games today have extra importance to me.

This year--in my coin-flipped bracket--I had UNC and Virginia-Commonwealth in the National Championship game, with Virginia-Commonwealth winning it all (although technically, I had both USC and Virginia-Commonwealth winning since I didn't want to distinguish between the two because play-in games are stupid). Every year when I do the coin-flip brackets, I do it just to see if I somehow beat other people's brackets (and my own "actually trying to do a good job" bracket), and every year the teams I have going far inevitably lose in the 1st and 2nd rounds. This is the first time that two of my Final Four teams have made it this far.

Of course, there's not a huge chance that VCU is *actually* going to win it all. BUT... there's a reasonable chance they can at least make it to the Final Four. They're going up against Florida St.--a 10 seed that has played well the first two games, but on paper they're not any better than the teams that VCU defeated. Then they'll either play 1 Kansas or 12 Richmond--and that looks to be an easy Kansas victory, but VCU is located in Richmond, VA--so the possibility of that town inexplicably having two teams face each other for a Final Four spot is so awesome that the basketball gods will let them win. Coincidentally, I had Richmond facing VCU in the Elite Eight.

So, decent chance, right? And what if-- what if they actually win the damn tournament? Again, there's little chance of that actually occurring, but STILL. If they did win the tournament... would this rank as the greatest accomplishment in my life? I mean, I didn't really decide the bracket--but I'd say yes. Yes it would be.

...

I think my only regret right now is that I didn't join any smaller bracket pools so that I could possibly rub it in to anyone's faces that had Duke and Pitt squaring off for it all. But as it stands right now, in the overall ESPN standings I'm in the 1.3 percentile--which pales in comparison to Sar'a bracket, which is in the 5.2 percentile... and my other "filled it out right after they announced the bracket and couldn't really tell you who's beating who" bracket, which is in the 75.2 percentile--so really, I shouldn't be bragging just yet. But if everything goes according to plan--according to the scoring system on ESPN, I'd completely eclipse my own bracket and most likely the large majority of everyone's as well.

Which would be so amazing that it *has* to happen. I can't even bear the thought of VCU losing tonight. It's just not going to take place. They have to win.

This is just how it has to be.