Sudden Death

Belmont learns they play the Badgers.

I love this time of year, tournament games and a lot of passion. The Iowa Boys’ and Girls’ basketball state tournament in back to back weeks, the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Tournaments, this includes D-1 to D-3 and Junior College Basketball. True Competitors come out during this time, and I doubt other then the World Cup, in nothing else are more people taken in by the competitive spirit and what is known as “Bracketology’.

I am pretty good at picking winners in the Iowa Girls’ tournament; I know programs, coaches, and players. The Boys tournament I am alright, but I do not pay close enough attention to be real good. The Women’s NCAA Tournament does not get the press and I do not follow close enough to pick the bracket very well either. The Men’s tournament I am bad. I pick with my heart and not my head. And rarely any more do I watch an entire college game on TV.

I have talked to friends about why I do not, and they claim the same thing. The weird thing is on an average night there are at least five college games on cable TV, and if you have dish you can get 10-50 games on a given day. I would rather watch a high school game in person. You are surrounded by the passion of the players, coaches, fans, cheerleaders, and the band.

But I think what spoiled me from college basketball was when I was in high school, I would change my schedule so I could watch Lute Olson’s Iowa men’s Basketball Team. There were only three networks and Iowa would stop for those two hours. It was a state passion, it was a war to get a ticket, sell-outs were the norm, and they had a guy ‘Magic’ Johnson called the greatest player he ever saw, Ronnie Lester. He was incredible, shoot it, pass, drive the lane and defend, and he had a passion that you rarely see.

Needless to say no longer do I want to watch a game on TV all the way through any more until it gets to this time of year. I love the sudden death of it, you are playing to play again, but I can’t pick’em. Yet, this year I am jumping on board the band wagon of a mid-major, the Belmont Bruins. They are located in Nashville, Tennessee and for a goat-roaper like me that is the first draw. Yet, it just isn’t that, they are 30-4 and won both the Atlantic Sun regular season championship and the conference tournament. Their only four losses came to Tennessee twice, Vanderbilt once, and Lipscomb.

Belmont is the 13 seed in the Southeast region, and they face the four seed Wisconsin coached by a man I consider one of the better coaches in the country Bo Ryan. Belmont is 30 and 4, and Wisconsin is 23-8. I know the Big Ten and the Atlantic Sun are two completely different conferences, and the records mean nothing in this case, but the thing that draws me is that Belmont plays 11 guys, ten minutes or more every night. They are my system team in the NCAA tournament. They press and they run and they sub in lines, it should be a different style for Wisconsin who likes to play ball control. Do not confuse them with a Grinnell, they do not shoot that many times a game, or that many three’s a game, but I like their style and I am adopting the Bruins now before everyone else jumps on board.

“Warning the Surgeon General has found that Jim Gillespie is bad at Bracketology.” Before you jump aboard my ship, I am choosing them for their style of play. Good luck to all of you in your own choices and enjoy the next three weeks.