Boys who break my heart....

First off, Happy NCAA Tournament time! Yes, this is so special that I have created a holiday for it. One of my best guy friends calls this "the most wonderful time of the year", and I tend to agree.

On a sadder note, a few teams have been disappointments. The first major disappointment came when Wake Forest, a number 4 seed, fell in the first round to Cleveland St, a mere number 13 seed. Though the ACC powerhouse has struggled this season, no one expected them to have the inability to conquer the less-than-impressive number 13 squad. Though I cautioned anyone away from picking this team to go futher than the sweet sixteen, I expected them to at very least squeeze past a terrible team which barely made the NCAA tournament. Thanks, Wake, for messing up my bracket, terrible representation of the best conference in the nation (this is disputable, the Big East is great too, I'm just partial to ACC) and an unending display of disappointing mediocracy.

Another major disappointment came when Boston College fell to Southern Cal. While USC is a perennial football powerhouse, they are at best average when it comes to college basketball. While they've struggled in the past two seasons, Boston College has been an impressive ACC factor in the past, and with their 7 seed over USC's 10 slot, it seemed the Eagles should have been able to upset the Trojans. No dice though, like Wake Forest, the ACC disappointed again, and my poor bracket took a major hit as I had this squad going to the elite 8. Chalk it up to another ACC heartbreak.

West Virginia- what the hell?! With a 6 seed over Dayton, this one seemed like a no-brainer. And with Kansas being such a young, inexperienced squad, it seemed possible that they could squeeze past the Jayhawks as well. Much to my disappointed suprise, the Mountaineers could not even top Dayton, a less-than-mediocre club. I hoped for much more from this Big East team, who experienced an impressive key win over Pittsburg during the Big East conference tournament. The mountaineers also instilled faith in me after knocking out Duke second round in the NCAA tournament last year. In this year's NCAA tournament, they could not win when it mattered though, and West Virginia disappointment fans without being able to play even a second game in the big dance.

So, if you are agonizing about your bracket, you're not alone. With the upsets and teams who failed to show up, even the best can have a few missed picks. I know my bracket is getting progressively worse. No heartbreak I've experienced ever compares to the heart ache the NCAA tournament causes. Thanks for the heartbreak, boys.