And So It Begins!

Soooooo..... here we are. 415 entrants. We (KUBE Management) are humbled. I a watching the Wichita Shocker who I might (or might not) have winning the whole thing sturggle mightily against VCU and wishing really horrible things on their team. This day alway reminds me how petty a person that I am. It has been a great day. Syracuse, scared by UNC Asheville. I am finding it hard to ype at Wishita seems to be playing so poorly. It has been a great opening day and unfortunately I was forced to work through much of it and missed a lot of early action.

My compatriot and I have been doing this a lot of years but this year we turned over a lot of the mechanics to my son and I cannot tell you how happy I am to have forwarded all of your idiot inquiries to him. He questioned whether or not our participants are...”inkompetent”. I have to tell him that... yes, you are.

This was our favorite:

Subject: confirmation of my two entries and paypal payment









yo...bud's with adam reed....solid setup here...virgin to your kube, so wanted to make sure you got me picks and paypal of 20 beans...thx in advance bud

grahm

That is great stuff and some evidence of how stupid this group really is!

This was received from The Voice from the Caverns. His father has always been a weak link in the brilliance of the KUBE but I do believe that next year, between Jon Becker, and Dan Kukla...you might need to hear from the old people at all. His father, who is on his way to spend your entry fees in Arizona is useless
:
By Dan Kukla
My job is better than yours.
I didn’t call in sick. Didn’t use a vacation day, personal day or make your own holiday day. While the first day of March Madness is certainly a worthy cause for all of the above (if you’re the sort of person who calls in sick because missing the best sporting event of the year would be detrimental to your “mental and emotional” health), I didn’t need to do any of that because I only go to work when I want to. Well, sort of. The details of that aren’t too important on a day like today.
The important thing to know is that it is 10:40 a.m. and I am sitting at home on my couch watching basketball.
Also of note: my wife is better than yours – at least when it comes to March Madness. I’d also argue that she’s better in plenty of other respects but that’s another conversation for another time and place (but if you need proof, go to www.meg4christ33.blogspot.com).

Yesterday she set our QuickTune on Direct TV (I know what you’re thinking but no, this column is unfortunately not corporate sponsored) to allow us to switch between CBS, TNT, tru TV and TBS as efficiently as possible. Last night she set our alarm for 9:45 (did I mention my job is better than yours?) so we could get up for the games. This morning she cooked me waffles. Oh, and she picked Mizzou as her national champion with UNC in the finals – my two favorite teams in this year’s field. As a bonus she even had Xavier knocking off the evil (blue) Devils in the second round (I refuse to call it the third round; the first four games do not constitute a round or even exist at all).

So yes, I write this in a considerably good mood. Enjoy it because if this year is like any other my brackets will be busted by the end of the weekend and my mood may go as well.

It seems like everyone is picking North Carolina to go far this season. Even my wife, who is from a family of Duke fans, and now my coin. Ever since my dad, “The Donald,” won this pool with a coin toss bracket I have done my own annual coin toss bracket (I’ve just never had the guts or money to enter it). The coin enjoyed its most successful year in 2010 when it took Butler as its champion and then watched the No. 5 seeded mid major advance to the finals where Puke (not a typo) ruined everything (told you the devil is evil).

Never in the history of the coin flip bracket has my coin picked a No. 1 seed all the way. Not until this morning.
The whole point of a coin flip bracket is to produce a set of picks completely different than anything I would create in my own wisdom (relative term). But even my coin is on the bandwagon this year, picking the Tar Heels to beat Xavier in the finals. Louisville and Gonzaga round out the Final Four. So now three of the five brackets I made this March have UNC on the final line.
Funny how I killed Syracuse after suspending a key player but Henson’s health (or lack thereof) didn’t affect my view of the Tar Heels whatsoever.

I’m not even sure why I like North Carolina. I think it started in middle school when all my friends were (Fl)uke fans. I just have a way of endearing myself to others like that. Unlike my irresponsible childhood love of the Miami Dolphins, however, this one stuck.

So with the Tar Heels and Mizzou both highly seeded in this year’s field and with SLU and two New Mexico teams making the draw as well, I was inspired to enter what I am calling a “Homer Derby” bracket: Carolina over Mizzou in the finals; New Mexico in the Elite 8; SLU and NMSU in the Sweet 16. I also gave a first-round nod to Robby Lothman and Harvard (one of my best friend’s little brothers who plays volleyball for the Miami University of the Ivy League… oh wait, volleyball… as in not basketball… oops) while giving early exits to my Axis of Evil teams such as Kansas, Kansas State, UConn, Ohio State, Cincinnati and Ohio (hey, if my Red Hawks can’t make the field then no other Ohio teams are allowed to advance). Unfortunately it’s not a completely pure “Homer Derby” as those pesky Pukies snuck into my Elite 8, balancing out a different bracket that has Baylor beating those overachieving white boys.

I initially went forward with the idea because I figured making picks by that aforementioned wisdom never works out so I might as well make a bracket I can root for. But I am now realizing that this will only exponentially increase my annual agony of defeat when this bracket busts just like all the others.

So in the words of some oversized magical bus driver, “buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.” Now that I’ve started writing these Komments I don’t intend to stop until One Shining Moment and as promised my demeanor will go as my picks and teams go. This year those are one in the same so the mood swings will be all the more volatile and destructive.
Because if there is one thing we all know for sure, it’s that my brackets are most definitely not better than yours.

***
Take that KUBE Nation! Thanks for participating. We will see how quickly we can get stats posted.