Bracket pool victory

One of the best ways I have stayed in contact with distant friends has been fantasy football and a March Madness pool on a sports website. The NCAA Tournament has always been a good way for people to stay in touch when life scatters us all over the map. Now, it gives us something to do while we wait in our dwellings during a pandemic.

It is a crazy thing how when I text a college friend I haven’t seen in a while about a tournament pool that friend replies, “I was wondering when you were going to text me about that?”

The past few weeks, friends I have hardly seen or heard from during the pandemic had something to talk about. The first weekend was spent making fun of the Big Ten Conference as eight of the nine schools from the league were bounced the first two rounds.

My brother Scott, who knows nothing about college basketball, takes pride in beating me in the first round of the tournament. I tend to be aggressive picking upsets and that typically costs me early. This year was no exception.

Water finds its level and this year demonstrated that. My friends who pick odd teams to win it all fell behind the second week. Half our pool had Gonzaga and Baylor in the championship game. Thankfully, that is what occurred. As the only one in the group that had Baylor winning it came down to the final game.

My strategy has always been to pick a team that fewer people selected to win the title. Gonzaga was a clear choice and I knew my friends would all pick the Bulldogs. This made Baylor my best chance at winning the bragging rights. Monday night, Baylor came through for me.

What do I win exactly in this bracket pool? Nothing tangible as we do not bet money on it. I won in the fact I felt closer to friends I do not get to see much. I won in the fact for three weeks I did not care about COVID-19.

I told them they all have to come to Linton this summer. The odds of that happening though is that of a 16 seed advancing over a one.