THE MADNESS OF MARCH MADNESS

Everybody bets and everybody loses. Why? It's mainly because all teams build their reputations and records playing against teams and players they know. Many individual players have played with or against each other since grade school. They know the moves, the fakes, the guy who can't hit a 25 footer to save his life but can shoot the lights out at 23 feet. But when they play teams and players they don't know at all many teams and players simply cannot adjust. Same might be said for their coaches. That is why a pretty good UCLA team lost to fucking Princeton a few years back. Princeton? And Weber State beating North Carolina---are you kidding me? Those Princeton guys couldn't win a game in most conferences other than the Ivy but when they ran a "back screen" offense against a team that has never seen it or prepared for it we have "upset." When we see Big East "tournaments" we see nothing but players who know each other getting hot or not getting hot. When Connecticut has to play Texas we can't know what will happen and we just guess. I have never called more than two final four teams and most years I'm KOd by the Sweet Sixteen. This is a great time of year for sports fans because we just don't KNOW the various strengths. Have fun everyone and beware UCLA which looks very tough against their friends and Memphis ditto. Oh, and Nevada (Nevada???) is very good and nobody is looking at them.