Bracket busted

Like every fan of college basketball, I have a love-hate relationship with the NCAA tournament. I love filling out the brackets on the Tuesday before it starts. I love spending four straight days watching for scores and getting bounced around by CBS from one close game to another. On the flip side, I hate adding up my totals on the first Sunday night of the tournament, once the first two rounds are done, and determining that my pool has gone up in flames. Such was the case again this year. After a fantastic first day -- 15-1, with my lone loss being Cincinnati over Iowa -- my brackets imploded on Friday thanks to Vermont. The Catamounts decided to stomp all over my pool by beating Syracuse, one of my Final Four teams. And, as if things couldn't get any worse for my pool, I got a call yesterday afternoon from my brother while folding laundry to let me know that my pick to win it all -- UConn -- had just lost to NC State. I suppose the one benefit to being out of contention this early is that now I can kick back, relax, crack a beer and enjoy some real basketball without sweating out any of the scores. So, let's go UW-Milwaukee and enjoy the rest of the tournament everyone!