Selection Sunday!

Selection Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year and has been for as long as I can remember. It started when I was a little kid and no matter what was going on or what he was doing, my Dad would drop everything to get ready for the 6pm live releasing of the NCAA Tournament field. He would settle down in front of the TV with his blank bracket and a pen, ready to scribble in each selection as it was released. Remember, this was before the internet, before the instant availability of a printed bracket, and before seven different ESPN channels were breaking down every match-up. If you did not write down the selections as they were released, there was a good chance you were not going to get the bracket in its entirety until Monday morning’s newspaper.

Like every son imitating their father, I made my Dad copy me a blank bracket at his office (yes, copy machines were considered advanced technology then!) and would scribble down the selections with him as they came out. Being like four or five-years-old, I couldn’t write fast enough, however, and always had to copy the ones I missed from him after the show was over. At some point I got the great idea to make a big bracket on a large cardboard construction sheet, the kind you would always use to do a school project. I would spend the rest of the night making my large bracket with every team and seed in its proper position. I would hang the poster board in my room, updating the bracket everytime a team won. I think I paid more attention to detail in making this poster board bracket than anything I have ever done. I remember measuring out every little centimeter, but always ending up so mad when the bracket still came out crooked in the end because I have absolutely no artistic ability. I titled every bracket on top in big block letters, “COUNTDOWN TO (insert Final Four city here)”. I kept these brackets every year, probably doing this for seven or eight years before my little brother took over this duty. I think these poster board brackets are still at my parent’s house somewhere to this day, unless my Mom finally threw them away or gave them to my little sister to use for a school project. I also remember begging my Mom to stay up late to watch the late games on Thursday and Friday night, throwing temper tantrums that you wouldn’t believe. I should have known then that my love of sports, especially basketball, was a little crazy.

Selection Sunday also meant the first fantasy sports experience in my life. Long before fantasy football, fantasy baseball, hell, even fantasy nascar and golf exist today, my Dad and his friends had a fantasy league for the NCAA tournament. This is why it was essential for my Dad to have the bracket filled out during the Selection Show instead of waiting for Monday’s paper. He would spend all night Sunday, into the wee hours of the morning, giving each team a power ranking based on the number of games he expected them to play. He would then multiply this number by the number of points the guy averaged over his last ten games. (They got every team’s players and points per game average by ordering some book months in advance every year that had every possible team that could make the NCAA tournament, including all the bubble teams and even the very unlikely to make it teams to be safe). Remember, again, there were no computers or excel sheets. He wrote everything out, doing the math with a calculator and making two sheets, one organized by team and one with the players listed in order of projected total points. We’re talking over 300 players at least, you can see why this took him all night. He was then in two drafts, Tuesday night and Wednesday night, with two different groups of friends. I remember it being like Christmas to me, waking up the following morning and getting to see who he picked.

***Quick tangent on how to play the NCAA tournament fantasy game***

Let me quickly explain how the draft/game works for those that might want to try it with their own buddies. It’s a great way to have even more interest in the NCAA tournament and another reason to have a draft, the most fun part of any fantasy league. Get a group of friends together, my current league has 10 guys, and have a draft consisting of 20-25 rounds (snake-fashioned of course) depending how deep in the player pool you want to go. Players are eligible from every NCAA Tournament team and all players are active as long as their team remains in the NCAA field. The only stat that matters is points, so it is simple and everyone can understand it. When a player’s team is eliminated from the tournament, your player is eliminated and will no longer accumulate points for your team. The team with the most points in the end wins. We give out 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes. You will see as you build your league up that certain traditions and reoccurring themes start to develop. My Dad’s one league for example, started giving out $50 for the Don Redden award for the highest scoring pick after the 17th round. (Don Redden was the captain of the 1986 LSU team that reached the Final Four as a #11 seed. Redden passed away just two years later of heart disease, thus sparking the Don Redden award because he would always be mentioned as the greatest pick of the tournament draft). If anyone has any questions on how to play, feel free to drop me an email.

***Back to our regularly scheduled column***

When I was old enough to do math, I made a deal with my Dad that all he needed to do were his power rankings and I would do all of the math and all of the writing for a certain percentage of his winnings. Now it was like Christmas, Easter and my birthday morning all rolled into one when I woke up and got to see who “we” picked the night before. It gave me an even greater reason to watch every game of the tournament and root for our guys. When we got our first family computer in 1997, my freshman year of high school, I remember one of my favorite things about having a computer was being able to use it to do the NCAA players’ points projections and print everything off instead of handwriting everything. I eventually got a place in one of my Father’s leagues and then started another draft with a group of my buddies. To this day, it is probably the most fun I have rooting for a fantasy league team.

Anyhow, I enjoy every aspect of the NCAA tournament and Selection Sunday marks the beginning of the greatest three weeks in sports. To this day, I still go up my parents’ house to watch Selection Sunday with my Old Man. We spent the better part of yesterday arguing about who should be seeded where while we watched the final conference tournament championships. I thought about this a great deal last night because the first People’s Baby is on the way and I, like every soon to be first-time father, really hope to have a son. I just hope one day my son enjoys watching Selection Sunday with me as much as I have enjoyed it with my Father. And I will certainly make sure Mom allows him to stay up for the late night games!

So what do I think of the Selection Committee’s job yesterday? Glad I asked myself, because I thought they did absolutely terrible! I will not get into my picks or expectations yet as work must be done before I discuss those, but strictly looking at what the committee did yesterday leaves me amazed.

Kansas, rightfully so, was named the #1 overall seed. For their reward, they were given Ohio State, Georgetown, Maryland and Michigan State in their region. Kentucky, the #2 overall seed, was rewarded a potential match-up with Texas in the second round, as well as West Virginia, Wisconsin, Temple, New Mexico and Marquette in their region. Meanwhile, Duke and Syracuse look to have clear paths to the Elite Eight and much easier potential match-ups with the #2 seeds in their regions, Kansas State and Villanova, respectively, if all of the top seeds hold serve. Meanwhile, worthy teams such as Illinois and Virginia Tech were left out of the field while underachievers like Florida slipped in. Overall, I thought the committee did a very poor job in their efforts this year.

Locally, however, Pitt has to be extremely pleased with their draw. In danger of dropping to a #4 seed, Pitt managed to receive a #3 seed out West with a match-up against Oakland in what should be an easy win. The winner of Xavier-Minnesota will await Pittsburgh in the second round, and while both could pose some problems, neither can be seen as an extremely tough match-up. Syracuse and Kansas State are the #1 and #2 seeds out West, and while both are good teams, it sure beats the alternatives of say Kansas and Ohio St. West Virginia, while I am sure is disappointed with a #2 seed, especially one that has them matched with Kentucky, should have a clear path to the Sweet Sixteen and a potential date with Marquette or New Mexico there. While WVU’s situation is not ideal, I think their overall draw is not too bad. Robert Morris also made the field and should feel extremely proud and lucky to grab a #15 seed instead of the doomed #16. Of course Bobby Mo will be extremely overmatched against Villanova in the first round, but they much rather face a team that has struggled of late then a surging #1 or #2 seed.

It was another great day yesterday, mainly because it means the NCAA Tournament and the best three weeks in sports starts up on Thursday. We have three local teams in the field, two of whom can be reasonably expected to make a strong run in the tournament. No matter how bad I thought the Selection Committee did yesterday, Selection Sunday remains one of my favorite days of the year!