Of all the ways I've tried to sum up the experience of the first weekend of the 2010 NCAA tournament, perhaps these two simple words do it the most justice:
Bloody hell.
Needless to say, I was one of the millions of poor saps who put our trust in Bill Self, Sherron Collins, and Cole Aldrich to lead the top overall team in the country, the Kansas Jayhawks, to the promised land. Little did anybody expect that Northern Iowa, an under-seeded nine seed if ever there was one, would pull a monumental upset punctuated by the biggest "Don't shoot it! Don't shoot it! Don't shoot it! Yes!" shot in recent tournament history by Panthers guard Ali Farokhmanesh.
Others had their brackets broken by Saint Mary's deconstruction of Villanova, or Xavier's defeat of Pittsburgh, or Georgetown's loss to Ohio. Or, for a few especially unlucky few, all of the above combined.
Siena was supposed to wax short-handed Purdue. Didn't happen.
The enigmatic Pac-10 representatives, California and Washington, were supposed to fold. Cal beat Louisville before falling to Duke, while Washington beat Marquette and New Mexico to advance to their first Sweet 16 since 2005.
Tennessee was a popular pick to fall to San Diego State. Instead, they'll be taking on Ohio State in St. Louis Friday night in the slot that was supposed to be reserved for Georgetown.
And oh, those Cornell Big Red. It wasn't inconceivable that Cornell would be the Ivy League's first entry to the Sweet 16 in 31 years, but out-classing Temple and Wisconsin by a combined 31 points? Not even The Nard Dog would have put his money on that.
So what now? I'm sure some of you all saw this coming. You saw the 48 buzzer-beaters coming. You saw the potential Cornell/Washington Elite Eight coming. You knew Duke, the "over-rated" one seed, would look as good as anybody in college basketball right now.
But what about the rest of us? Our brackets are in tatters and it's still three weeks before April and baseball finally wipe clear the scars of this year's madness. What about us?
Here are five things to help you move on from your shattered bracket and get you back in the groove of things:
1. Give thanks. It took me the better part of Saturday afternoon (when I realized I was screwed) until mid-day Sunday to get over my grief and realize that though very little good had happened since I started the tournament 7-0, I had still been witness to an amazing weekend of basketball. The buzzer-beaters. The overtimes. The incredible performances by Jimmer Fredette, Jacob Pullen, Jordan Crawford, Omar Samhan and the Aussie Bunch, and Shelvin Mack. It really was an incredible weekend.
2. Look forward to more. I still have an outside shot at my bracket, and I absolutely have to have Kentucky reach the finals, but yet I find myself absolutely giddy at the prospect of a Cornell upset of the Wildcats on Thursday night in New York. Cornell/Kentucky is such an incredible clash of styles, it's almost like you took a modern-day AAU team back in time 60 years. If you can't get excited for that matchup, you just don't like basketball.
Watch out for the Xavier/Kansas State game, as well. It will play opposite Kentucky/Cornell, so it's a clear second billing that night, but both squads have looked great through the first two rounds. This could surprise as the game of the round.
3. Don't forget to look back on the good times. This especially goes for Kansas and Villanova fans who have said goodbye to Collins and Scottie Reynolds, respectively, for the last time. Collins has been nothing short of spectacular in his Jayhawks career, winning everything there was to win and going down as perhaps one of the 5-10 greatest KU players of all-time. Reynolds had a horrific 2010 tournament, but who can forget his heroics in taking Jay Wright's team to the Final Four in 2009? Things ended badly for both players this weekend, but that shouldn't at all diminish the great contributions they made to their schools and college basketball in general over the course of the careers.
There were too many great seniors who met the end of the line this weekend to list them all, but a few others who come to mind: Notre Dame's Luke Harangody, Vanderbilt's Jermaine Beal, Marquette's Lazar Hayward, Richmond's David Gonzalvez, Gonzaga's Matt Bouldin, Maryland's Greivis Vasquez, Wisconsin's Trevon Hughes and Jason Bohannon, Texas A&M's Donald Sloan, Louisville's Edgar Sosa, Houston's Aubrey "Nobody Remembers I Stomped on Chase Budinger's face" Coleman, and California's nucleus of Jerome Randle, Patrick Christopher, Theo Robertson, and Jamal Boykin. (For those I missed, feel free to recognize them in the comments section. No offense intended.)
The extra brutal part is that for Beal, Hayward, Vasquez, and Sloan, the end came on a buzzer beater by the other team. One second, you're a college star; the next, it's all over. That's got to just tear your guts out.
Odd note: Speaking of Reynolds, it may seem like forever ago that Kelvin Sampson slinked away from college hoops, but consider the ripple effects of his exits from Indiana and Oklahoma: Xavier's Crawford and Terrell Holloway, Ohio's Armon Bassett (32 in their upset of Georgetown) and West Virginia's Devin Ebanks should have been the foundation of this year's Hoosiers (sorry, IU fans), and Reynolds would be wrapping up his career with the Sooners right now if Sampson hadn't bolted Norman under a cloud. So while the memory of Sampson's controversial ending may have faded, recognize that this year's tournament still bears the far-ranging results of his malfeasance.
4. Look forward to next year. Fredette and the Cougars should be back. Depending on whether Crawford decides to take a shot at the NBA, Xavier could return virtually its entire team. Missouri will return a nice nucleus. Pittsburgh will be strong. Butler will be a force, especially if Gordon Hayward comes back for his junior season. Villanova will re-load.
And then there are the teams from outside this year's field of 65. You have to figure UCLA, North Carolina, Arizona, and Connecticut will find their way back into the madness. Memphis has a huge recruiting class coming in. And then there are all the guys like Northern Iowa's Farokhmanesh, who most of the country won't know right up until the point he's tearing up their brackets for them.
5. Get ready for baseball. I know I'm co-mingling the sports here, and there are a lot of basketball fans who couldn't give two hoots about baseball. But I love it, and I can't wait. The Cardinals are going to be stout. The Cubs are going to suck. And while the Red Sox and Yankees are fighting their annual battle to see who can be less likable, the Angels will remain the class of the AL West over Seattle and represent the AL in the World Series, losing to St. Louis in six.
Let's just hope that prediction goes a little bit better than my bracket.
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