THE MADNESS OF MARCH

Ok. Although HIGHLY unlikely (on the same level as Paula actually waiting to get drunk until after an episode of American Idol), how incomprehensibly amazing would it be if the final four were BYU vs. Utah and Duke vs. NC? Anyone else giddy with the possibilities?

Why these teams, you ask? Well BYU is my alma mater and unless you want me to sing "Rise and shout..." right now that one is self explanatory. As for the second match up… anyone from North Carolina knows you are required to stand clearly on the Blue Devil or Tar Heel side, there is no middle ground. And while living there for 3 years, I don’t remember how or why, I chose Duke. It might have had something to do with my crush on Eric Merritt in fourth grade (he wore a puffy Oilers Starter jacket, yeah I know, HOT), but that’s another story.

So again, highly unlikely. But fun to think about.

Since I had a fever and it required more cowbell I decided to read the history of the tournament on Wikipedia. Here is some fun trivia to brighten your day:

+ There are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (9.2 quintillion) possibilities for the possible winners in a 64 team NCAA bracket, making the odds of randomly picking a perfect bracket 9.2 quintillion to 1.

+ Four #15 seeds have defeated #2 seeds, but no #1 seed has ever lost in the first round to a #16 seed.

+ The #12 seed has beaten the #5 seed 33% of the time, but the #11 seed has beaten the #6 seed only 31% of the time.

+ The term “March Madness” started in Illinois in reference to state high school tournaments. Since then everyone has swapped litigation in trying to trademark the bejeezes out of it.

+ The biggest margin of victory in a championship game was in 1991 when UNLV beat Duke by 30 points. BUT in 1992 Duke ruined UNLV’s undefeated season by beating them in the semifinals and then won the championship. [I moved to NC in the summer of ‘92]

+ BYU holds the distinction of the most tournament appearances (24) without reaching the final four.

Is your bracket ready? Let the games begin!

PS - If Gonzaga ruins my bracket for the 4th straight year I’m going to send a strongly worded letter to their administration.