Sentimental Favorites

What an afternoon. Both of my sentimental favorites in the NCAA basketball tournament went down to defeat: UCONN and Villanova. I suppose there are other reasons to root for or against a particular team, but you see, my youngest brother attended UCONN and both my father and one of my sisters went to Villanova.

Barry died in 1984, on Memorial Day weekend, after a four year fight against lymphoma. He was an art major, the only art major living in the jock dorm, in fact. He ran cross country in high school and college and once ran the mile in 4:27 in high school. We have a couple of his watercolors in our house. So that’s why UCONN is special to me.

Years ago when we were in junior high, dad took us through the Villanova campus to show us where the action was back in the ‘40’s. We read comic books during the tour, sorely disappointing our parents. My sister, a year younger than I, did attend ‘Nova for her nursing degree, thus redeeming us for the time being. So, I looked forward to seeing the Wildcats in the Big Dance.

I guess if you follow a coach, or a certain player, those would be reasons to hop up and down with every shot. Maybe you just tuned in at the start of the tournament and got hooked on a certain team as a quirky upstart. It’s always fun to root for an underdog, or against a perennial dominating team. That’s all I ever do. Sometimes my favorite team is just whoever is playing Ohio State. That is unless my sentimental favorites are on the court. Then I am utterly committed to them all the way.

So tonight I’m bummed. But then, the pressure is off for the Final Four. I can say I really don’t care, but darn, that LSU looks huge.