LOSE money ... Wally and Zags
messing up the bracketsKnow what?
I don't care.
Office pool brackets be damned. This NCAA men's basketball tournament has been great.
Five double-digit seeds are in the Sweet 16, including No. 13 seed Oklahoma, the last at-large team to get a bid. What fun.
How can you not love Miami of Ohio's Wally Szczerbiak? What a player. Forty-three points against Washington Friday and 24 yesterday against Utah.
So what if his dad scored 65 in a European League game? Wally's World is now global.
Hope Rick Majerus has another sweater because the one he wore yesterday is surely unraveled by now. Just like his Utes unraveled against the RedHawks. Too bad.
I was on the verge of not caring about the outcome of the tournament. Not after the Bruins got ousted in the first round from what used to be known as the UCLA Invitational.
But the game is still magic, even at 7 a.m. in the morning. (Thank you, KGMB for going live with the games).
Someone asked the other day what the best part of being a sportswriter is. Being able to stay home and watch basketball all morning while others are at their "real" jobs ranks right up there.
Breakfast and basketball. Lots of basketball.
It doesn't get any better than that.
GONZAGA guard Matt Santangelo won my All-American vote with his performance in the West Coast Conference tournament final two weeks ago against Santa Clara. He was the reason I had the Bulldogs knocking off Stanford on my bracket.
Honest.
You remember Gonzaga last year, the team that was ignored by the NCAA Selection Committee, much like Hawaii? The Bulldogs felt they got slammed twice, first by being sent to Hawaii a day after playing at Wyoming, then when they were beaten up by the Rainbows.
The Zags became the Jet-Lags last year. But not this season. They're flying to Phoenix for a date with No. 23 Florida Thursday. Who would have thought the WCC would be the only league with a perfect record in the tournament (2-0)?
The Bulldog faithful hasn't had this much to croon about since Bing Crosby left the Spokane campus. There was this national boxing championship back in 1950 and John Stockton is an alumnus.
But this is big. And this is the beauty of the NCAA Tournament. The underdogs meet -- and beat -- the big dogs.
As Southwest Missouri State coach Steve Alford said after his Bears upset Tennessee yesterday: "I don't think there were many brackets that had SMS going to New Jersey. We're going to have a lot of fun going back on the plane tonight, knowing we messed up a lot of brackets."
IOWA certainly has been a spoiler. It's nice to see Dr. Tom Davis' farewell tour has been extended a few more days.
I wonder if Davis slept with the basketball he was holding onto so tightly after Saturday's win over Arkansas. Doubtful that the Hawkeyes will get past UConn, but who knows?
And it's nice to see Purdue's Gene Keady get some respect after the Boilermakers' upset of Miami yesterday.
Purdue is the only team to have won three consecutive Big Ten regular-season championships in either the '80s or '90s. Purdue has won or shared the most league titles (21).
Gonzaga may have had Bing Crosby but Purdue has John Wooden. Enough said.
So what if I'm only batting .500, with just eight of my Sweet 16 left? Just two of my Final Four?
It would be nice to see a new champion crowned. A Gonzaga, a Southwest Missouri State, a Miami of Ohio.
My money says Duke.
My heart says Cinderella.
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.