underdog.

I know that I already wrote my token March Madness entry, but I can't think of anything else to write about, so screw it.

My bracket got all shot to crap this weekend. I had 10 of the Sweet Sixteen teams, and I have 0 Final Four teams. I was in second place last Thursday, and though I'm still not far down in the points, I'm in the uncomfortable position of having picked teams to win games in which they are not even participating. That would be some kind of NCAA miracle. No office pool money will be coming my way, and now I have only one consolation: with my own personal interests out of the way, I can root for anyone I please.

I am a rotten gambler. Not just because I am mostly uninformed about what I'm betting on, not even because I find it difficult to not pick teams that happen to live within a couple of hours from here. I am a rotten gambler because when it comes to the games, I still want to pull for the underdog. It's the worst during the first couple of rounds. There are always the big upsets, the thirteen seed over the four, the twelve over the five, etc. I look down at my bracket and I see that I have that number four team going to the Final Four. I know that if they lose now, I might as well count my $5 for lost. But man, look at those poor thirteen-seeders, the college players with no chance of ever seeing NBA action on teams which may be making their second or third or even first tournament appearance in tournament history. How can you not root for them? They've got the audacity to show up and give this nationally ranked team a good run for our entertainment and their own advancement, the least we can do is cheer as they try to make the unthinkable come true. These are not the hot shots who have spent the season making the play of the day, having every single one of their games televised across the nation. These are the little guys who seemed to come from nowhere because no one is really sure where exactly their little college is located.

Underdogs are inspiration all in themselves, and I think their seeming obliviousness to the futility of their goal is something that appeals to all of us. I can think of maybe two times in my athletic history where I was not the underdog, and more often than not, I was more like the six-feet-underdog. All of us can imagine being the champion, the big shot, but all of us can relate to being the nobody.

It got to the point this year where I considered not participating in the office pool next year. The conflict of interest was too much for me. I like this little team and I want to root for them, but I also like my five dollars and the opportunity of increasing it ten-fold. I'm just not sure that mere mortals are cut out for this kind of internal distress. I understand that betting in a pool is just supposed to be fun and that you're really more paying for the entertainment value. But honestly? I was already pretty entertained.

So as I wave goodbye to my money and wonder whether I got five dollars worth of entertainment filling in a bracket and then later delightedly highlighting the games I'd picked right, I look at the current standings and wonder who in the world would have ever picked an eleven seed to be in the Final Four. Probably nobody except the players' mothers. I picked them to go down in the very first round and I was noticeably quiet as I watched them upset UNC in a house full of jubilant NC State kids. I didn't bet on them before, but I'm pulling for them now.