Final Bore

I'm probably the seven hundredth person to make that joke, but I don't even care. These games were utter snoozers. The tournament always seems to go out of its way to do the opposite of what you think will happen; a lot of double-digit seeds pulling first-round upsets usually means three #1s make the last four, while a year like 2000 can produce just a single win by a team seeded #11 or lower but gives us a 1-5-8-8 Final Four. This year proved to be no exception. The tournament of surprises, the first in the 64-team era to give us a Final Four without a #1 seed, yielded one of the most uninspiring Saturdays in history.

George Mason/Florida was over just after halftime, LSU/UCLA even sooner. LSU played, I'm pretty sure, about as poorly as they could have. Sure, give UCLA credit for doing what they've been doing, but it is by and large brutal to watch. If only Gonzaga could hold a lead.

So both the higher seeds won and both games were not very fun to watch, certainly not down the stretch like we'd been accustomed to the past couple rounds. It didn't help that UCLA/Florida was the one final matchup I didn't want to see, since I liked LSU and George Mason most of the four teams and wanted to see at least one of them make it. Plus, LSU's loss means Alma doesn't win the Challenge (and no offense to Stan, but he's not going to buy me pizza), though she does finish second.