And What Did We Learn...?

I woke up this morning feeling a little better about what happened last night. I still think Michigan got forcibly boned in the ass by the officials and I still think the CBS hum-job of the Griffin family was a bit much. But when I look back on it, if you tell me this time last year that Michigan would win a first round NCAA tournament game and then be an 8 on 5 powerplay away from going to the Sweet Sixteen, I probably would have laughed in your face. No matter what, this was a season of great success for Michigan basketball and I look forward to the years to come.

I have spent most of my waking hours in front of Mom and Pop's new flat screen and engulfed myself in HD coverage of the Big Dance since I got home around 4:30 on Thursday. With my brackets and a bottle of tobacco spit by my side, I watched every game CBS would allow me to watch. Needless to say, over this amount of time, I have learned a few things...

- Big East teams are entirely too good. UConn, L'ville, Pitt, 'Nova, Syracuse, are just peckerslapping teams on the way to the Sweet 16. West Virgina on the other hand decided to lose to Dayton but that's ok they were going to lose to Kansas anyway.

- When picking a bracket, you have to pick at least 4 upset games. Hamilton picked Cleveland State to beat Wake Forest. I picked WKU, Michigan, Maryland, and Utah State. 3 outta 4 ain't bad.

- The 8/9 matchups kill your brackets. I lost 3 of 4 only picking Siena correctly. Yeah, that's right. Screw you state of Ohio.

- The Axe Anti-Perspirant commercial was funny the first 8 times I saw it. Now it's just kinda gross and repetitive. Although the end of the commerical when the chick duck and covers away from the dude's armpit as they're walking on the beach still cracks me up.

- After watching all these games, there are plenty of good seats still available at every arena. Just a sign of the times I guess. I can't wait to see how many people don't go to the Final Four in Detroit. Then I can't wait to read the articles and the news stories about how people can't afford to go to games anymore.

- 15 of my Sweet 16 are still intact which leads me to believe that I am a great guesser!!

- Watching Michigan anything with my Dad is an experience unlike any other. Very creative guy.

- If you're so unathletic that you have to use a "Man Step" to get into the bed of your truck, you probably should just buy a Prius and call it good. All trucks are already equipped with "man steps" they're called tires.

- An Erin Andrews-less big time college broadcast, is a lesser big time college broadcast.

- Basketball officials have entirely too much impact on the outcome of a game. This is why that NBA ref gambled on games he was officiating, because he could steer the outcome that way with the occasional bullshit call. If a ref doesn't like a player or team, he can bone said player or team as much as he wants. It's un-fair but at the same time, that's what makes basketball what it is.

- Little brother Aaron picked the Sparties to win the title in the Tobacco Juice Pants Party pool...I can't wait to not have him win a free t-shirt.

- "Cocksucker," "Douchebag," and "Fuck," are the most common words in the English language for the first week of March Madness.

- I have grown to absolutely hate everything about Subway and their goddamned $5 footlongs.

- It's amazing how fast 30 cans of Busch Light can disappear when there's a good game on.

As of right now, Syracuse is beating up Arizona State which is good for me. The following teams will win today: Sparty, Cardinals, Jayhawks, Tigers, Panthers, Orange, Wildcats, and Musketeers.