That’s what I’m talking about. The NCAA regular season came to a close with a bang, as No.1 Illinois, No. 3 Kentucky and No. 4 Kansas all lost in dramatic fashion last Sunday.  As if people needed another reason to get fired up about the upcoming Big Dance, we got a wild finish.  I love it.

This gives you so much more to think about as you fill out your NCAA brackets.  Granted, we’ll get to see these teams again in their conference tournaments this week, but how will Illinois handle its only loss of the year?  Are Kentucky and Kansas No. 1 seed material?  Have seeds of doubt been placed in the collective minds of some teams?  Or do these losses help focus for the stretch run?

We’ll find out soon enough.  I’ve got to tell you, though, that as a fan of a crappy team, I do like to see the big guys fall.  I also think the Illinois loss will be good for them.  While they have looked to be the best team in the country for most of the season, I still wasn’t convinced that they were going to run the table.  Now that they’ve suffered a loss, that monkey is off their back.  The Illini are one of the teams to beat, no doubt. 

Kentucky I’m not as confident in.  I’ve watched them win ugly in the SEC all year.  Of course, Tubby Smith and crew will take ugly wins all the way to the Final Four if they can.  Florida was in the same position that several Wildcat opponents found themselves in this year, but the Gators joined South Carolina as the only squads that could finish the deal.  Good for them.  Maybe Billy Donovan can get his team to do something  in the Big Dance, unlike Florida’s disappointing recent history.

So I’m going to start early with my research for the NCAA Tournament.  I’m a Bracketaholic, entering just about every contest and office pool I can.  The thing is, I’m awful at it.  I subscribe to the One Bracket theory.  That is, no matter how many different pools I’m in, I stick with the same bracket.  This s not the only way to do things, but it helps me keep my rooting interests straight.  I don’t have to remind a bunch of serious gamblers that putting all your eggs in one basket is not a good idea, but I do it when it comes to the Big Dance.

The reason I’m starting early is that I’m on a real bad run with these things.  You know that commercial ESPN is running that ends with the tag line “There are no bad brackets”?  Those people obviously didn’t see mine last year.  I’m still mad at Stanford for tanking to Alabama.  That game pretty much screwed my “One Bracket”, although Connecticut did me a lot of good. 

Here’s how bad I’ve gotten at tourney pools.  I’ve lost the last two I entered – TO MY WIFE!  I’m talking about a two-person pool, me and her, and she has beaten me twice in a row.  It’s pitiful and emasculating to go down this way.  Our college football bowl pool came down to the Rose Bowl result last year, and she giggled like a schoolgirl as Vince Young ran circles around the Michigan defense.  I don’t remember the main cogs in her defeat of me in the Big Dance last year, but they were crazy picks that came through. 

Not this time, boys.  I’m starting with the SEC Tournament, and I’m gonna win.  I’ve got to.  I can’t lose to her again.  We don’t play with money, since it’s mostly all hers anyway, so I wind up cooking elaborate dinners and doing a lot of housework while pouring her glasses of wine and watching Gone With The Wind again.  No sir, I’m not going out like that again.  My win streak starts now.