NCAA Madness – Great, Now Who Do I Root For?

I’ve heard that today is the least productive work day in America. This is the day that college basketball fans huddle around these things called “brackets” and flip coins to come up with the magical formula that puts their favorite team in the “Champion” box in the middle. It sounds like fun – kind of like judging a reality show for sports fans. The trick would be coming up with the funny catch phrases needed when booting a team from the tournament like “The Madness has Spoken…” or “Pack your balls and sashay…away.”

I recently returned from a weekend trip with Dave and met a ton of his friends from school, who are now my friends. It almost feels like I went to school with them. I got to spend some time in Lawrence and was on the University of Kansas campus during the Jayhawks final victory of the season. I got a t-shirt, but I still don’t quite understand the endearing aspects of the phrase “Rock Chalk.”

Over Lunch at Buffalo Bob’s BBQ Smokehouse I thought about my two schools – The University of Cincinnati (UC) and Temple University. I suppose if I were to root for a team, it would be Cincinnati. I enjoyed the school and often regret leaving it to go to Temple. Even the school mascot is a Bearcat, which means my being a Bearcat predated my being a Bear by about 5 years. If I recall correctly UC had a pretty decent basketball team (historically – I think they sucked while I was there).

Looking at the brackets, I see that KU is in there of course. But no UC. I don’t even know how well they play anyway, and couldn’t tell you if they are worthy. But wait, here’s Akron. I grew up next to Akron, and while I skipped going there I still had a good number of college experiences, including being part of the Gay and Lesbian alliance. I’m not really a big Akron sports fan, but the “Zips” are one of the few teams I’d know by name without taking to Google.

Temple is also in the brackets. I’m torn about this one. While I went to Temple, I also credit the school’s lack of life with my growing disinterest in college while I attended. Like I said, I regret leaving Cincinnati. When I was there, I felt like I was at school. At Temple, I just felt like I lived in Philadelphia. I loved Philadelphia, but it wasn’t school. Philadelphia taught me an independent city-living life. But it robbed me of feeling like I belonged to a university. I last felt that at Cincinnati.

It’s tough being indifferent when March Madness rolls around. I guess it doesn’t really matter. Everyone has their favorites, but I’m not really a big basketball fan. So I’m not really rooting for a team, but Akron and KU will be my picks in case I’m stranded next to a water cooler with nothing to talk about except the Daily Show/MSNBC feud or how I missed the last Bear Tea Dance because I was in Lawrence, Kansas learning the Jayhawk chant.

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