#317 March Madness

Every year my husband runs a March Madness NCAA basketball pool. This was never a big deal in my house growing up; in fact you could say I was barely aware of the tournament until I started dating my husband. The first year I played his, I won. That was the last time I ever won. I think it helped that I knew absolutely nothing about the teams. I’m still not a basketball fan, but I know enough about the teams through my husband to throw off my picks.




My husband has a core group of home town and college friends who play every year, but all who are interested are always welcome. After we got married, my father and Eric started playing in the pool. My father has a little knowledge of college basketball, enough to make a serious attempt at his bracket. I know he enjoys watching some of the games and seeing how it all shakes out.



Eric had absolutely no interest in college basketball, and yet he still entered the pool. I think he did it just to participate. He clearly had no interest in winning. He was the comic relief in the pool and it got to the point where every year people would wait to see what method he would use to make his picks. The first year he did one side of the bracket alphabetically, and the other side reverse-alphabetically. Another year he had Florida Atlantic (who was the play-in team) winning the whole thing. One thing was sure, Eric’s picks would make you laugh—especially if he actually beat you as he did with my husband a couple of years ago.



This year my oldest son is old enough to understand what’s going on. We’re not going to let him enter the official pool, but we’re going to have a family pool among my husband, myself and the two older boys. The winner will get to pick the restaurant for a family dinner out. While my oldest may understand the tournament, he knows nothing about basketball. And the 4 year old is too young to truly understand, but too old to leave out of the game. We should have some humorous picks this year. I’m sure they won’t be Eric quality funny, but they’ll remind me of him just the same.