Absolutely Maddening!

March Madness may indeed be the greatest sporting event in the country. It is estimated that over 3.8 Billion dollars worth of productivity will be lost due to Americans watching tournament games at work, and I think that’s awesome. In any other country in the world life would be completely put on hold for a sporting event of this magnitude, and I have to say, I love it as much as anyone, except for the one thing that seems to get everyone else so aroused: The upsets. I hate upsets. An upset is a situation where a lower seeded team beats a team seeded at least three spots higher than they are. I think that upsets ruin tournaments. Admittedly there are exceptions to every rule, (seeing UConn lose for example wasn’t that bad because they have been a bunch of heartless hacks just going through the motions for 30 minutes a game until it mattered all season long, so it was nice that they finally got their comeuppance.) but for the most part I don’t see the entertainment value when the best players get knocked out too soon and the best teams choke. Stories that unfold and players that emerge like Tyrus Thomas of LSU, Joakim Noah of Florida, or Patrick O’Brien of Bradley are neat to see, not to mention they help the NBA scouts (the worst in pro sports) by doing their jobs for them, but I want to see top players who have been great for their whole careers matched up against each other in the post season rather than a bunch of Cinderellas who never showed up until tourney time. Two months ago, who would have given a rat’s ass about Glen Davis vs Jai Lewis? Are you telling me that’s better than Reddick v McNamera or Morrison or Paul Davis v Tyler Hansbrough? I didn’t spend all season following these guys to wave goodbye after the first weekend of the tournament. At any rate, at least it’s not the BCS.