The Big Dance: Round 2

I don't know about anyone else, but after Round 2, I feel like the Prom Queen who tripped over her dress and fell flat on her face. I've picked myself up, but my dress is torn and tattered, my glamorous up-do is straggling down around my face, and my corsage? My corsage is beyond repair, yet I can still smell the fragrance from the flowers....a faint reminder of the promise and potential the dance had to offer. I imagine that scenario is somewhat similar to how Kansas must have felt at the end of their game against Northern Iowa. :(

Personally, I think all of the prognosticators and “talking heads” do a disservice to all of the other teams when everyone singles out one team to win it all. Yes, I'm disappointed that Kansas lost...but only because it totally screwed up my ONE bracket. Other than that, I didn't have a personal interest in any of these games. I found myself pulling for the underdog, St. Mary's Gaels, rather than Villanova, even though I had picked Villanova on my bracket. Typical female I suppose, since we girls just ♥love♥ Cinderella stories...we're brainwashed with it from the time we're little, and that's just how we roll. It's a fact of life. It was the same with Missouri and West Virginia. On my bracket I picked WVa over Missouri. I had been told, repeatedly, that West Virginia has a really good team, but.....I’ve been told that before.

One autumn day in particular stands out in my memory. On September 19, 2009, I stood in the Deluge of the Century at Jordan-Hare stadium and watched the underdog Auburn Tigers womp the WVa Mountaineers 41-30...so maybe, just maybe, that’s why I found myself pulling for the Mizzou Tigers! Random thought about that rainy game at Jordan-Hare: I noticed a West Virginia fan all decked out in his yellow and blue Argyle pants (I lie not), standing in the rain with a lovely orange poncho emblazoned with a huge, blue AU on the front and back, and I thought to myself, “I bet that sux!”

The loss by Kansas really ruined my ONE bracket! I have 32 of 64 games, if I have it figured correctly. I have 40 of 64 pts on the Rivals/Yahoo bracket, with a group total of 31 of 48 pts. On my ESPN bracket I have 430 points for a 92.9% simply because I eliminated Kansas earlier in the bracket. In the College Hoops Pick’em, I missed day one because I didn’t click “submit” after making the picks, so I had a whopping total of zero on day one....I’m new at this, so geez, it takes me awhile to navigate these sports pages. Since then I have accumulated a grand total of 22 points, which is 56.7% and is one more than the average of 21, or 50%,...so at least I’m “above average!” :) It remains to be seen whether any of the remaining teams I picked will end up in the Elite Eight. It's looking good for Kentucky and Tennessee *cross fingers* and yes, I'll admit, I'm pulling for my SEC teams like no other! I'll keep you posted!

Laterz,
~Starr

The Big Dance: Round 1

The first song of The Big Dance has ended, and Round 1 has come to a close. One thing I can say for sure is that polls and opinions don't mean anything when it comes to a team with an unquenchable desire to win and a heart that just won't give up. Murray State? Wow! Can I admit to squealing with delight and jumping up and down when they won? I was just amazed that, for one....yeah, I had picked them, but even more so....that they actually won!!! And in such dramatic fashion too! Any girl would be proud of that drama-inducing game! Murray State forward Danero Thomas scored the game-winning shot over Vanderbilt guard Lance Goulbourne (#5) as the buzzer sounded! Murray State defeated Vanderbilt 66-65.

I also picked BYU. "Why?," you may ask? I'd like to say that I picked them because of "Jimmer time," but that'd be a little too ditzy even for me, considering that I looked at their team stats and compared PPG, FG%, FT%, rebound margins, TO's, foul %, to the team they were playing. Honestly, until yesterday I'd never heard of "Jimmer time!" :) The big upsets to MY bracket were the losses of: Georgetown, Temple, Marquette, and Richmond. Bummer! :(

As for my bracket after round one: in Rivals I'm 22 of 32, and in the ONE pool I'm 23 of 32...weird, but I've looked this bracket over with a fine-tooth comb and that's what I come up with every time. On my ESPN pool I have 250 pts of 320 for the 1st round...whatever that means...96.6%. :~ Not too bad, considering my general lack of knowledge about this sport, the teams involved, and which conference is the strongest, which translates into "who has the toughest schedule" sort of thing, in what I call "man-speak" anyway.

I'll update again after Round Two. Wish me luck! :)

Later dayz,

~Starr

Every Girl Loves To Dance

The Big Dance

When my significant other, Jimmy, called me and suggested I complete a bracket and submit it to a pool he was in, I experienced a rare sense of deja vu, since we'd had this same conversation a couple of years ago when I had my first taste of March Madness.

To my credit, in the 4 years since that first bracket, I have actually attended a basketball game. I didn't even attend a basketball game in high school. Yeah, weird, but true. My first ever college basketball game was the last game the Auburn Tigers played at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum on March 3, 2010. I probably would not have gone to that game had it not been for my uncle, Wallace Tinker. You see, my uncle, was on the Auburn Tigers team that played the first game at BEMC on January 11, 1969, when Auburn defeated LSU and Pistol Pete Maravich, 90-71. Uncle Wallace (#33) was the first to score points at BEMC, a 7-ft jumper from the right baseline. March 3rd being the last game the Tigers would ever play at BEMC, my uncle was there, with many of his original team mates, to score the final points at BEMC. It was a family thing. My uncle Wallace is my mother's baby brother. I had to go.

To my honest surprise, I enjoyed my first roundball game. True, I didn't know a lot about how the game was played, what was happening, or why the last minute of the game was equivalent to 15 minutes in real life. I enjoyed the "up close and personal" aspect of the game...seeing the players faces...Aubie waving his fingers in front of my face. In a wonderful end to an awesome era in Auburn history, Auburn won the last game at Beard-Eaves over Mississippi State 89-80! Following the game, as my uncle stepped onto the court, I found myself thinking "this is a walk to remember!" As Uncle Wallace stepped up to the exact spot where he'd scored the first points 42 years ago, I had goosebumps up and down my arms and tears in my eyes. I was so proud when Uncle Wallace nailed it, scoring the final points, on the first shot! Amazing!

So, when asked this year to complete a bracket, I didn't have much time to research the teams, etc. I think I spent about 6 hours poring over stats, W-L records, FT %, rebound margins, speed vs size...until about midnight. Seriously! I didn't want to be the ditzy brunette. I had to fax my bracket to Sean, Jimmy's brofriend, the next morning so it was a last minute cram session reminiscent of final exams in college. ;-/

Every girl loves to dance. I suppose I'm no exception to the rule, and now I find myself enjoying "the Big Dance" and, yes, I'll even admit it.....I'm afflicted with March Madness. What else could make me watch basketball? I guess it's a good thing that this week has been Spring Break. To be honest, for Spring Break it's been a sucky one here...drizzly, rainy, cloudy....you get the picture? If it were otherwise I doubt I'd have succumbed to this yearly insanity that so many are afflicted with. I never understood it until now.

How am I doing in my bracket? I filled out several on ESPN, one on the Rivals Yahoo page, and the ONE that I faxed to join the pool Jimmy invited me to join. At the time of this blog, in the ONE pool I've correctly picked 11 of 16 games, which I guess is ok; I'm still not exactly sure how these pools work...point wise. No problem. I did this, #1 because Jimmy asked me to, #2 it's challenging me to learn about something new, and #3 just for the fun of it! It's gratifying that I picked Old Dominion and Murray State, both upsets.....but it's just as disappointing that I also picked Georgetown and Marquette, which both lost. :(

I'll update this after each Round is completed. Maybe some of you basketball know-it-alls can give me tips for next year! X-D

Gotta go watch the rest of the games.

Later dayz,

~Starr