2013 March Madness Begins

Remember back to when you were a kid. It's a bright sunny day at the end of June. The weather is warming up, it's the first week out of school for summer holidays. You've just finished grade two and you're mom told you that you can go out and play. As you're on your front step lacing up your kangaroo sneakers, you see the kids gathering at the swing set across the street at the park.  They all seem so big. And even though you're intimidated and a little scared of them you cross the street and join in.  You don't know the rules of the game, but that doesn't matter. You'll figure it out. You muddle your way through that first summer, making friends (and a few enemys), figuring out how the game is played.

A couple summers later, you're lacing up your shoes on the stoop.  Your mom doesn't need to give you permission to go play, it's just a given. You're the big kid. This is your time to play. This is your game.

I think the Tournament is a lot like that. It's 1999 and a little school out of Spokane, Washington has been invited to join the game.  People are surprised to see them there. They aren't supposed to do anything as a #10 seed. Play your  game and head home. Bask in the glow of even being invited.  But they played really well. They won three games, beating Minnisota, Stanford and Florida before losing out to the eventual tournament champions, UConn.

It's been 14 years since then and Gonzaga has been playing with the big kids ever since. They belong.

I wonder if we will see the emergence of another school this year.  A team that will step up and play the game.

Maybe it will be Harvard. I hope it's Harvard. If ten years from now we can look back and say that we remember when Harvard came in and upset #3 New Mexico, it might make up for how bad I feel now because Harvard distroyed my bracket!

...

We have the biggest field yet for the GEMBC.  17 participants in total.and through the first day of competition the group is still faily bunched within a couple of games of each other.

Besides Harvard, there have been several other upsets, including Oregon taking out OK State,  and Califonia taking down UNLV. If we have another day like Thursday we'll start to see some seperation and maybe get a glimpse of who the real contenders to the GEMBC title are this year and who's just here for the pizza.