My Love/Hate (Bracket) Relationship

March Madness always stirs up in me mixed feelings. So, today I will list the things that I simultaneously love and loathe about this time of year.

LOVE
Teams I rarely get to see during the regular season, getting a shot at the Big Kids


LOATHE
The fact that if one of these teams wins, it's somehow a miracle. These guys know how to play ball just like the guys on the other side. They may not have as many scholarships, but on any given day, unless you have some freak of nature on your team, I think any team could have a shot to beat any other.

LOVE
Seeing the local teams make the Big Dance. I feel like it reflects well on the area. And we sure could use some good PR after what the boys in Clifton and the boys on Victory Parkway did to each other earlier this season.

LOATHE
Having to pick against said local teams when it comes to my bracket. When I fill out my bracket, I always want them to win it all. But then I have to let my head take over and be realistic.

LOVE
The idea of giving more teams a shot to make the tournament with the First Four games.

LOATHE
That all four games aren't games to make it in at 16. So USF and Cal are both considered to be a 12, yet one of them will not get to play in the tournament? One of them could have been a 13.

BONUS LOATHE
That they're called the First Four. Call them what they are. Play-in games. 


LOVE
How quickly people get behind their team. The tournament gives people from non-front-running schools a reason to dig their gear out.

LOATHE
How so few tickets are actually available to students and alumni for these games. Aren't they playing in college arenas? UC had 50 student tickets available for the game. Of course, all the big money donors were taken care of first. (Rant for a different day)

LOVE
Buzzer-beaters. Is there anything more exciting in sports than a 10-seed being down 1 or 2 against a 2-seed with 10 seconds left and seeing them run the perfect play to drain the winning shot? Or even better, see them drain the most imperfect, improbable shot ever to win the game.

LOATHE
Bad officiating at the end of a game that directly affects the outcome. Now, I know, someone's bad officiating is someone else's good officiating. And if there wasn't bad officiating earlier in the game, then we wouldn't be in this situation. But people remember the end of the game. And if officiating at the end affected the game-play, people go crazy. I just hope its mostly clean this year.

LOVE
That for the next few weeks, my job will be to watch these games. While other companies (according to the studies) are losing time, productivity, and money, I'm actually doing my job while watching them.

LOATHE
Having to get pulled away to do actual work while the games are on. **Fist shakes** Not really, cause there's pretty much a TV in every room at the station. So I'll hardly ever miss any action.


Today's Twitter bio profile is: @theworldofdale

Dale was on my list of people to meet at the ballpark a few days ago. So, as you may guess, we've never met. But that's the beauty of Twitter. We live in the same city and have never met, yet converse often. She runs a blog on the Enquirer's website with two other ladies called Dames on Games. She controls that twitter handle as well. It's @damesongames. As you might assume, this blog is dedicated to the female view of sports.

Dale is an interesting follow. Sometimes she's very insightful. Sometimes she's off-the-wall. And sometimes...well sometimes she gets into fights with Alec Baldwin. Dale is not originally from Cincinnati, but we don't fault her for that because she has embraced Cincinnati sports. However, she does still have an allegiance to the Tigers and Knicks. (She really liked my idea that the next Lin/Tebow player would come from the Tigers, owing to their uniform colors). So if you think you'd like to follow a woman who can talk whether not to continue the Crosstown Shootout after this year's ugliness and how she thinks Mat Latos will pitch in GABP, but also thinks the dark circles under Devin Mesoraco's eyes are cute, this might be a good follow for you. Also, she'll make an occasional poop joke or try to get Arian Foster to say something to her.