Skip to main content

Conversations: Final Four Picks

AP Photo/Al Behrman -- Caption: It's like a rematch of the 1994 championship game on Friday: Arkansas versus Duke. Well, sort of.

(Written Wednesday night:) The NCAA Tournament is absolutely one of my favorite events of the year. When else can you wake up and watch basketball practically nonstop from Thursday to Sunday? In fact, I may skip class and work for the rest of the week and do nothing else but watch games in the student center. A fellow co-worker of mine used to save up his vacation to do this very thing (well, at his house)--hint: he works at the Jonesboro Sun now.

Anyway, I promised chats on Thursdays, and a chat I will deliver. Of course, this week I am going to do things a little differently. I will be talking to multiple people and the theme will be NCAA brackets. I know, I know: I said last week was my last basketball post, but I meant about Razorback basketball. This will be my last basketball post--unless something crazy happens like UAPB beating Duke.

(Skip to Thursday afternoon:) A lot has happened since I planned on posting all my friends' Final Four picks. First, I had to be at work at 8, which didn't work out too well because I didn't wake up until 7:45; next, I was stuck in class the rest of the morning, missing the start of the Tournament; last, my parents made a suprise visit, so I skipped my last class and hung out with them for a few hours. However, I'm back at work and back in black. Or something.

I'm going to skip all the comedy and wit (if there ever is any) and jump right to the picks. I sent a message to all my cousins and a few of my friends on Facebook asking for their picks -- needless to say, they are a bunch of non-participators. I ended up having to text almost everyone individually, so these replies aren't very in-depth. Oh well. I'm giving it to you just like they gave it to me.

Kasa: "KU, KState, Kentucky, and 'Nova." She bleeds blue. Don't ask me why. She has no connection to Kansas, but she loves her Jayhawks. I'm sure I'll get to see that bright blue KU shirt before the tournament is over.

Colby: "My Final Four picks are Kentucky, Villanova, Kansas, and Butler. Kentucky to win it all." -- I love the Butler pick; Colby always goes out on a limb, like only drafting one solid QB in a two-QB fantasy football league.

Tom: "Don't really remember which combo I did in our league, but Kansas, Syracuse, Villanova, and either West Virginia or Kentucky. Basically a lot of Big East. Final game I have Syracuse in both and winning in both my brackets--one against WVU and another against Kentucky." Oh, the multiple bracket guy. One day I am going to fill out a bracket that has every possible combination of games, which I am sure would be millions of brackets. However, I like to try to pick one bracket and stick to it, even though I did fill out two this year.

John: "Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Duke. Kansas wins because they are a predatory bird, Otto the Orange is junk, I hate cats, and I don't like the devil. That sufficient?" He didn't want to pick because he doesn't really watch college basketball. Can you tell?

Justin: "I got Kansas, Kansas St., Kentucky, and Villanova. Kansas and Kentucky (in the finals), and Kansas wins." I've never been a 'Nova fan and there's no way they will make it to the Final Four--they proved that in the first round.

David: "Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, and Syracuse. Lol, yeah, it happens every year; I can't help it." I think he is referring to his uncanny ability to put all four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four. Or maybe he is saying that his bracket always stinks. Just kidding.

Me: Umm, I don't even really remember my Final Four. I have Kansas, Kansas St., Kentucky, and Duke, I think (pretty vanilla, I know). I picked Vandy to make it to the Elite Eight--that didn't work out. Anyway, I usually hate Duke, but I really think they have what it takes to make a deep run this year. I won't be too upset if they don't, though.

Short and sweet, like I said. Enjoy the basketball--skip work if you must. Pick an underdog, cheer, be merry. Just avoid writing crappy paragraphs like this one.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's Just a Little Puppy

There are a lot of things I said I  wouldn't  do in my life that  I've  done. I said that I  wouldn't  quit exercising regularly after I stopped playing sports, that I  wouldn't  be a hack writer all of my life, and that I  wouldn't  be working a part-time job at 27 with two useless college degrees. Luckily these are things I can still change. This weekend I will do something that I can’t undo. When my wife and I go home for Christmas, we will choose one of these four puppies: Having a dog  isn't  that big of a deal. Having a dog live IN my house is a big deal for me. You see, I like a neat and clean house. Being married and cleaning up after two people has required enough adjusting. A puppy living inside will challenge the very core of inner neat freak. I’m also allergic to a plethora of things. Dogs? I have no idea—I will find out shortly. With that in mind, here’s a list of things concerning my dog that ...

A Quarter-Life Crisis

I’m having a quarter-life crisis. It’s a real thing ( I think), and it’s becoming increasingly more relevant in our society as the stages of development continue to evolve—the stage of life between 18 and 25ish is now being called “arrested adulthood” or “emerging adulthood,” just to name a couple of theories. Children no longer leave home at 18 to find a job and start a family. Instead, after graduating high school, “pre-adults” (which is a stage that actually lasts longer, until 30 or so, according Kay Hymowitx) struggle with extended periods of schooling, relationships that have become convoluted because of technology, and an economy that makes it difficult to get started and find a path out of debt. Now we start our adult lives in our mid-to-late twenties, already cynical and disillusioned with the process. By the time we find a partner and a job, we immediately begin questioning if we’ve made the right choices. We ask ourselves if we wasted the last four (or seven or more) year...

Value Place: An Extended Stay Horror Story

(This is a story I should have shared long before now. Make sure you have some time to spare—this one is lengthy.) Two years ago my wife was accepted into a summer internship program at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. We were still living in Arkadelphia at the time, but my wife didn't want to spend the summer making the hour drive, fighting traffic to and from Little Rock. So we decided to live in Little Rock for the summer. However, in case you don’t know, it’s difficult finding a place to live for two months. Most rentals don’t have two-month leases. If they do, the price is either ridiculous or it’s a place you do not want to live. After looking for a couple of weeks, my wife found an extended stay hotel—Value Place—advertising for like $500 a month on Craigslist. A number of things. I didn't know anything about extended stay hotels—oh how I want to be naive about extended stays again, but more on this topic shortly. All I knew was that a...