Good evening, everyone. I hope it was a tremendous weekend for all. I want to start this short blog post by recognizing CBS. The selection show this year was exactly what it needed to be. This year’s edition was of course a major improvement over last season’s disaster but it also was a superior show compared to the last several as well. The bracket reveal this afternoon was quick and predictable. Greg Gumbel started with one region and read through it all before going to a commercial break. When the show returned he read completely through the next region before the next commercial break (and it went on like this two more times).
Gone was the nonsense of revealing the #1 seeds one at a time. Gone was the travesty of NBA late night guys making picks on partially revealed brackets. Gone were the excessive commercial breaks. Gone was the ridiculous shenanigan of trying to slow play the bracket so you had to wait two hours until it was completely revealed. CBS learned from last year and provided us viewers with a much better product in 2017.
With that said, something did not change from last year. Sadly, I once again only have one team I truly care about participating in the Big Dance. The basketball teams from the university I currently work at and the university I used to work at fell short in their conference tournaments. Because of this, I will be cheering hard for Gonzaga to make a very deep run as a #1 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. My Spokane hometown allegiance and my stint as a ball boy for the Zags gives me all the incentive needed to support them this March. I really hope Mark Few leads Gonzaga to a Final Four.
Enjoy the madness, everyone. Put down those stupid specialty brackets and concentrate on the 68 teams that got a ticket punched for the greatest tournament in sports. Best of luck to all the student-athletes participating. Don’t Blink.