B-R-A-C-K....

Uhg. I can't even find the strength to type it. The B-word. The only thing that the 18-25 year-old guy is thinking about right now. As for the rest of the demo, 25-54? They're probably thinking about it as well. But, we're jaded now. We know that our b-b-b-brackets for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament will be kindling for a fire after the first weekend of games. Even sadder, it's getting too warm for even a fire around here.

Honestly, the whole phenomenon of filling out a bracket has become one giant power-down for me. For those that don't know what this means, imagine, if you will, the scene from Star Wars, when the engineer at the control panel of the Death Star "powers down" the force field by lowering that little lever. And, it makes that noise of whining down. That's the way I feel during this time of year. I just have very little energy for it. All the punditry and time-wasting of conjecture. If I could go back in time and find the guy from ESPN (I'm sure) who would coin the term "Bracketology" and lock him in a dungeon for the rest of life, and save us all from that sparest-of-spare terms that gives meaning to the meaningless, it would be awesome.

It's like a yearly lottery where no one ever wins. Oh, sure. Someone wins. Someone out there fills it out correctly but I've never met that person. And, I've never met someone who's met that person. I've never known someone who's met a person who's met that person or been relatives with that person or worked with that person. So...I guess it happens that someone fills out all the slots correctly but the odds are against them. Big time. Case in point: who saw 11-seeded George Mason rising their way through to the Final Four? Unless, you were attending GM at the time or were a homer Alumnus, then you didn't. Nobody did.

But, no one fills those things out because they think they'll get it all right. We fill them out because we want to care about the games. We want a rooting interest in games featuring teams that we haven't given one second of our time to watching during the regular season. Do you think I'm going to stop down for a December Sunday afternoon mid-major barnstormer? Hell no. I've got soccer to watch (I'm not kidding). So, go ahead and pick your 12-seeds over the 5-seeds. Make sure you just mark all of those 12s winners because one of them is sure to do it. Happens every year. And, my Jayhawk buddy, Steve, can relax because KU got the 1-seed this year and they're a lock to get out of the 1st round, now. No 1-seed has ever lost to a 16-seed. Ever.

Yes, I'll fill out the bracket because, frankly, there isn't a whole helluva lot to do this time in the Sports year. The tourney's always fun to watch and, no, I don't think it's the greatest event in American sports. I'll reserve that right to whomever is your favorite team and whatever big game they end up playing in this year. That's always a greater event than some generic labeling of a series of games between amateurs as "THEE greatest."

Finally, hate Duke. Just because. For the same reasons that you hate the Yankees, the Cowboys, and Notre Dame.