The Craziness of March Madness

I confess that I know nothing about the whole “March Madness” thing. I don’t follow college basketball all season long. Once in a great while I might accidentally hear if the Buckeyes are having a good season or not. And I tune out discussions about which players are having a good year and which teams may ‘go all the way.’ I’d rather talk about shoe shopping. Hey, I’m a girl; that’s how I roll.

But a few years ago I was asked to join a pick ‘em pool, which is completely random. No studying the stats in order to make educated choices while filling out a bracket. So I agreed to donate a few bucks to join in on the fun.

How it works is 16 people get together for a pick ‘em pool party where we drink beer, eat pizza and randomly draw teams in the north, south, east and west divisions. You get who you get and hope that you have at least one or two teams that are ranked somewhere higher up than, well, last place. It’s all pure luck of the draw.

And I’ve gotta tell you – I did not have good luck this year!

We had our pick ‘em pool party last night. It’s so random that even the sixteen participants’ names are randomly selected for picking order each round.

It’s a bit of a blur now…but all I know for sure is that I ended up with not one – but TWO – 16th ranked teams! That’s last place, folks. You think I have a chance of coming out in the winner’s circle? Yeah, I’m not holding out much hope either.

People started joking about the odds of my picking all last place teams. That might have been statistically interesting and worth a laugh or two, so I’d have been okay with that, but naturally I didn’t pick all LAST place teams.

The third round started and my name was down at the bottom of the pack for picking. I figured it might work out better for me. You know – taking the team that was left. Well, what was left was a 9th place team, which was a big improvement. So I thought I might be on the upswing and get a higher ranked team on my fourth and last pick.

Wrong. My last pick was a 14th place team! All I could do at that point was smile wryly and shake my head. What are the lyrics to that one song – If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all?! Yep, that’s me!!

Oh, but there was a funny/horrifying moment in there. There were a couple participants who weren’t able to attend, so someone else would pick a team from the bowl for them. I hadn’t yet chosen my team, so the bowl was held high over my head so I could blindly choose for the absentee picker. Everyone was laughing and making comments about which team I’d pick. And, yes, for someone else I picked the #1 ranked team! I seriously couldn’t believe it.

Good thing I don’t play Bingo. Or the lottery. Nor do I have a trip to Vegas planned anytime soon. That’s some good luck right there!

The good news is that I spent an enjoyable evening with my friends. We shared some laughs and ate some snacks and had a good time together. And that’s what truly matters, after all. So if luck has anything to do with being blessed with lots of good friends, then I’m one of the luckiest people out there. And I’ll take that sort of luck any day!

And you know what they say – better luck next time!