March Madness

I never really paid attention to college basketball until I married Glen. I knew my dad filled out one of those bracket-thingy's in the paper at some point in March and that those games were on all the time. Honestly, I was thankful when it was over!

After Glen and I married, I realized - a little - what it meant to be married to a true-blood Hoosier. Glen doesn't just fill out a bracket. He tapes the selection show and watches it live (except this year), with his own bracket pages printed from the computer so he can fill out the match-ups as they're being announced.

The passion! The commitment!

Just for fun, I thought that year I'd fill out a bracket and see how I did in making my picks compared to the college basketball guru.

Let's just say, I rocked and a tradition was born in our home that March of 1995.

It wasn't until 2003 that Glen actually beat me. He likes to point out that he has picked the National Champion three of the last six years (I think it is - I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong), so my reign as the bracket winner is over. We'll see.

Now, our children are in on the fun. I print out a bracket form for each of them, and they each make their picks. Nathaniel always shows his partiality for Floria by picking a Florida team to make it all the way - which actually worked out well for him when Florida won the National Championship (Glen could tell you the year.)

This year, Isaac & Lydia chose American to go far, "After all, we ARE Americans," they both told me, separately. And both chose Temple to do well too, "because, well, it's a temple Mom."

It's fun to see them make their picks, and see how well they do. The one who picks the most games correctly gets bragging rights for the year. Anna's doing well right now, because this year I explained what those little numbers next to the school names mean. Since two of the four regions have the top four seeds playing each other in the Sweet Sixteen, Anna picked those regions perfectly.

I will point out that as of right now, I have picked the most games correctly in our family. Anna and Glen are tied for second place, and poor Nathaniel lost his National Champion in the first round when Florida State lost to Wisconsin. Hum, perhaps you stick a little closer to our current home, son.