Blind brackets

HAILEY GAJADHAR, SPORTS COLUMNIST

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By now, you’ve probably heard your local sports guy or girl say March Madness at least a billion times, and you probably either love it or hate it.

For those of you living on a different planet, March Madness is the NCAA (National College Athletic Association) men’s basketball playoff tournament. It completely takes over in the last few weeks of March and continues on into April. It is difficult to hear about anything else in the world of sports—other than people complaining about the Winnipeg Jets.

To be honest, I’ve never made a bracket, and I was really excited to try it out this year. Now, before you start rolling your eyes and just assuming I picked blindly… you’re only half right.

They always tell you to pick with your brain, not your heart. But I’m absolutely rubbish at following the rules. And because of that, I picked the University of Oregon to win the whole thing. Oregon is my favourite college team for anything—football, track and field. I’m a duck through and through.

So, I have Oregon winning, and for the rest of the bracket I made some educated guesses and a bunch of blind point-at-the-paper-type guesses.

You probably nailed it right on the head when you first started reading. Here’s this girl trying to write about something that she has no idea about.

You’re absolutely right.

But, I’ll ask you this—am I really any different from the rest of the people who pay attention to March Madness?

Where are all you college basketball fans the rest of the year? At least I follow college football semi-regularly and have actually heard most of the names of the colleges before.

Maybe I’m running in the wrong circles here, but I don’t hear anything about NCAA basketball at any other time other than March Madness. Does it even exist the rest of the year?

That’s a question for the trees in the forest that fall when no one’s around, but I’d bet on the fact that most March Madness fans aren’t fans during the regular season.

Don’t get me wrong. I definitely have an appreciation for the people who do their research and pay attention to college basketball. I wish I had the time, but my schedule just won’t allow it.

For the rest of us though, I think we should all just own up to what we are: A bunch of fakes just making those point-at-the-paper-type guesses.

Hailey is a self-proclaimed champion heavyweight boxer.

Coming in at 5’1”, she has the reach of a 12-year-old boy and an opinion that won’t quit.

Having never been in a fight, she remains undefeated.

Follow her on Twitter @HGaj