BRACKETOLOGY

Since this blog is a personal revelation of sorts, I have to divulge my love of college basketball.  I'm not really sure exactly when it began, but it was somewhere around the time that Jace started getting interested in the sport in 3rd or 4th grade.  As it so happens, that coincided nicely with the rise to prominence of our local team here in Spokane, the Gonzaga Bulldogs.  For the past 10-12 years, they have evolved into a nationally recognized Division I program. 

ANYWAY, today is the first day of the NCAA tournament, every basketball junkies favorite day!  I watch college basketball throughout the winter, and of course follow my favorite teams.  This year has been great as BYU is doing fabulous (30-4), and Jimmermania has captured the attention of the country.  Once again, Gonzaga made the field, quite an accomplishment for them this year as their team is on the young side and they had to come on strong down the stretch (24-9).   Ironically, however, BYU and GU could meet up in the 2nd Round if they both win their first game!  Oh no!  The only two teams I really care about may cross paths on Saturday.  This year, however, my heart belongs to BYU.  It would be so great if they could make a deep run in the tournament.  Sorry if all this lingo doesn't make sense to you.  Hey, join the party and become a basketball junkie with me.  Even my Mom likes to watch basketball. . . she's a Jazz fan!

Since Jace is "unavailable" at the moment (SIDENOTE:  He's kind of busy over their in Japan currently, but doing fine.  Kobe is about 400 miles south of Sendai, which is good.  Their mission will be incorporating 42 missionaries from Tokyo because of concerns over the nuclear plants.  The church website has a news release on this) I enlisted Brent to fill out a bracket with me, and also vicariously filled out a bracket in Jace's behalf.  Of course I tried to make informed picks since I do know a bit with all the sports radio and ESPN I watch.  Brent on the other hand was clueless!  When I handed him the paper, he said, "You're kidding!  I have to fill in this whole thing!  This is worse than filling out papers at the doctor's office.  It's worse than signing a check!"  This is true--he HATES having to write anything--it's a chore simply signing his name.  You can't tell by the picture, but I swear he made his picks by which school had the shortest name or abbreviation he had to write down.  To mix it up a bit, on Jace's bracket I just rolled the dice!  I used two die--if it was 7 or above, I had the higher seed winning; if it was 6 or below, the lower seed wins.  Jace did request in his last letter, however, that I put BYU all the way to the Final Four.  So we'll see who wins bracketology in the family--it will probably be Jace, even after all my careful considerations.  I doubt Brent's bracket will make it--he has some pretty improbable upsets picked.  Interestingly enough, however, each of us did end up with a #1 or #2 seed winning the whole thing.  It's March Madness--let the games begin!!