Worst. March. Ever.

High school basketball ended way too soon. High school baseball and softball have barely gotten off the ground. If it’s not raining, the ground’s too wet from the previous day’s rain. And to top things off, the U of I basketball team set a school record for losses. Any other year, I’d be in front of the television watching the NCAA tournament all day today. Not this year. Shortly after the Illini lost in the NCAA tournament last season, I canceled my cable TV and haven’t had it since. I get three-and-a-half channels, and none of them is CBS.

I haven’t missed it, really. I’m gone most nights. The only college football game I was able to watch start to finish on television in the past year was the Rose Bowl. When I had cable, I used to tape the games, but somehow I’d never get around to watching them. It’s not much fun to sit there for three hours if you already know who won.

I don’t think I saw a single Illinois basketball game this year. I did see part of the Hawaii game on a live feed over the Internet. But by not watching, I saved myself a lot of aggravation this season.

And brackets? I never participate in office pools. I did one year, several years ago, and it was impossible to enjoy the games when I knew I had money riding on the outcomes. You can’t pick the winners in the first two rounds anyway. Not anymore. Not like you used to be able to. I never could pick against Illinois anyway. I just don’t bet.

Who do I like? I can’t pick Kansas or North Carolina or Duke or Memphis or Indiana or Notre Dame. I want all those teams to lose in the first round. I don’t have anything against UCLA — not really — so it wouldn’t bother me if the Bruins won. But my team is already out. So, I won’t be watching.

It better get sunny real soon.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.