Boy's First Bracket

R made up some NCAA March Madness brackets as something fun to do together for our "stay-at-home" date night for March. Scott decided he wanted in on the action, so she helped him fill out his own bracket. He read all the names of the universities and their team names and looked at their won/loss records to pick his favourites. He picked #2 seed Duke to go all the way. He recognizes Coach K when he sees him on commercials now.



Each day the computer has been on, showing game footage or score updates and Scott has taken great pleasure in circling his wins with a red pen. He has had more wins than losses so far. He is beating both of us. He correctly picked Oregon to upset in the first round, which I found suprising. When we suggested we could make him a Duke shirt, he was very excited.



The night before Ohio State played its first game, he laid out the red Buckeyes shirt that we got from Old Navy. We bought it because it was on sale and it was red. But now he is a little bit of a Buckeyes fan. After we put him to bed we heard footsteps upstairs. We expected to see a little pair of eyes poking through the railing on the stairs, but none appeared. On our way to bed we checked in on him and found he had gotten up to lay out his Ohio State apparel on the floor and then gone back in bed. Very cute.



In addition to his Ohio State shirt, he has a red sweatshirt with a graphic of a bulldog on it. He asked me if it was a Gonzaga shirt, since they are also the Bulldogs. I said sure. It was red with blue on it, so why not? He was pretty excited about that. Conversely, he was shocked when Gonzaga lost to Wichita State 76-70, since he had Gonzaga in his Final Four. I was shocked that he could say "Wichita State" and "Gonzaga" without really batting an eye.

It really cracks me up to hear him talking about these teams with such familiarity. We were in the change room after his swimming lesson and he suddenly launched into the following conversation:

S: Now we are going to have to play a different team.

D: What? A different team?

S: Yeah. The Oregon team.

D: Oh, for basketball?

S: Yeah. The Oregon team won and they were only a 12 and now they will play Lewis-ville. (This is how he pronounces Louisville.)

D: Oh, that's right. You picked Louisville, didn't you?

S: Yeah. And Georgetown lost! They were supposed to play San Diego, and I only picked San Diego to win one time. (he says the "Diego" part almost too well, like he is talking about the character on TV.)

D: I heard that Georgetown lost. That's crazy. What number were they?

S: I don't know (shrugs and turns to leave). I have it at home. We have soup at home too.

For a basketball dad, it doesn't get much better than this.