March Madness Sadness

Occasionally throughout the year Scott would say, "I can't wait for March." The first few times I had to stop and think what he could be so excited about, since his birthday is in April. He was talking about March Madness.

Even though he plays more soccer than anything else, this boy LOVES basketball, so it makes sense that he gets excited. However, the thing he likes most about March is filling out his bracket and keeping track of all the results. We watched lots of live coverage, but mostly he was interested in the final few minutes of games, to find out the winner. Some nights he would have to go to bed before all the games were over, so he asked me to write out a list of the final outcomes and leave it out in the kitchen, so that he could update his bracket first thing in the morning before everyone else woke up. He knew my bracket better than I did, and he could essentially recite it back to me, along with detailed analysis of who in the family should be cheering for whom. He's got great potential for a career as a bookie.

He and Katie both picked Wichita State to win it all this year, based on the sound logic that Wichita State hadn't lost a game all year, so their fortunes should continue. The logic favoured Wichita State, but Scott still loves Duke and Louisville, based on his experience last year. He was all primed for Duke's 1st game, wearing his homemade shirt and watching the game live on R's phone while tagging along to Katie's music class. He was sad to see Duke eliminated in the first round. I thought he would be totally heartbroken, as he was with some of his other first-round losses. However, he took it all in stride when he saw that everyone else in the family had also favoured Duke, so he was not disadvantaged by the outcome.