Libertarian Librarian

Well, I'm still hanging on to first place. But with folks close to me having Lousville and UNC, it's not in the bag yet. If Illinois wins out, I should be golden for 1st place, but if Louisville beats them next Saturday, or NC beats MSU and then Illinois, maybe not so much. Still, I look at it as living on borrowed time at this point. I wrote off my pool at about the four minute mark of the UI vs. Arizona game, at which point, the Illini were down by 15,000 (okay, so fifteen). They were done, and with their loss, so was my pool. Sniff, sniff, woe is me. I'll admit, I was pouting a little. I actually left the room and went downstairs and watched the end of Scooby Doo 2 with my kids, which really isn't that bad if you go into it not expecting a life-action version of the show to replicate what the cartoons did. Though Freddie Prinz, Jr. was terrible. I liked the CG Scooby. So sue me. Anyway, just as Scooby was saving the day with the world's only never ending fire extinguisher (there was enough CO2 to, apparently, put out the Towering Inferno in one go), my wife checks down to let me know the Illinois game just went into overtime. I thought she was messing with me. It took her about 30 seconds to convince me she wasn't messing with me, by which time "Those dratted kids and their dog" had saved the day again, and I could watch the overtime session.

Wow. What else is there to say. How do you come back from down 15 with four minutes to go. You just don't. Amazing. And that was after the rollercoaster ride of the first game between Louisville and West Virginia. Followed up the next day by double overtime between Michigan State and Kentucky (blast you Kentucky! If UK had pulled it out, I would've been 4 for 4 on picking the Final Four). So, I'm living on borrowed time as far as the NCAA's is concerned. But then again, so are Dee Brown, Luther Head, Bruce Weber and the rest of the Illini. 'Cause they were dead. So, hopefully they won't let themselves get buried again against Louisville. One thing I think I can safely say-- there will be a LOT of three-pointers raining down in Missouri next Saturday, since UI and Louisville combined to shoot 63 long balls in their regional final match ups.

Go Illinois!