Heck, it’s been the best tournament in a long, long time. Loved that West Virginia team, it played with bigger heart than expected in almost every game I saw, and starting to feel the same way about that Michigan State team too.

I agree with you PSoTD, though I didn’t start tuning in seriously until the round of sixteen (but ignorance never stopped me from having a strong opinion before–why should it now?!).

I liked that West Virginia team, too. How can you not like a team that features a player named “Pittsnogle”? One of my favorite signs I saw on TV during the weekend was held by a WVU fan. It read:

“YOU’VE BEEN PITTSNOGLED!”

Indeed.

I tend to root for the underdog in these things. I was very happy to see Michigan State knock off Duke, and I’m definitely rooting for them in the Final Four.

Since I never finished up the post above, I’ll just say that I picked a hell of a good weekend to stay inside and watch basketball. It truly was amazing to see all of those comebacks–it was almost as if, by natural law, the games had to end up close. Even when a team was leading by 15 with four minutes left, the game came down to the last seconds.

Other random thoughts:

Bill Murray rooting for Illinois = NCAA version of Spike rooting for the Knicks?

Although I credit the officials with working hard to get that call right at the end of regulation in the Kentucky game, what the hell took them so long to make the call? I mean, if it was too close to call, why not take the perfect solution staring you in the face and let it go into overtime? Why take so long to make that call? Were they really going to reverse it?

But if you’re going to spend ten minutes looking at replays, shouldn’t you look not just at where the foot fell, but also at the fact that Sparks was fouled as he was shooting the shot?

All in all, an excellent weekend. I want more!