Final Four

First, I’d like to thank the sports gods for providing a pretty good weekend of basketball for me to watch while nursing my head cold. The Loyola Chicago story really is terrific, and it’s also good to reminded of their run in 1963, which I very vaguely remember following as a ten-year old, particularly because of the civil rights subtext (or maybe text). (There are several good accounts of the Loyola-Mississippi State regional final, which couldn’t be played in Mississippi, and then the final game against Cincinnati, easily findable online; here are a couple). And the Duke-Villanova regional final yesterday was a classic nail-biter, marked (if I may say as the father of a Duke grad) by a terrible call against Duke in the last minute of regulation (I suppose the college basketball gods were balancing things out for the usual pro-Duke predilections of the refs), as well as by Grayson Allen’s game-winner going in and out in the last second of regulation.

 

In any case, here we are. All of America, except for Wolverine grads, will be rooting for Loyola Chicago next weekend. The odds of course suggest they’ll fall to Michigan in the semis, and that the Villanova-Kansas winner (that should be a good game!) will take the whole thing. But let’s not be fatalistic. I’m keeping hope alive. Loyola Chicago in 2018! And a better Republican nominee in 2020!

 

As for our contest, a couple of you had Loyola Chicago going to the final four—I’ll have Jim Swift find an appropriate reward for you (though since you then lost your nerve and had Loyola losing in the semifinals, I’m not sure you really deserve one). About 20% of you picked a Villanova-Kansas matchup in the semis, evenly split as to the winner, and a few of you had Michigan going to the final and even winning—so plenty of you are still in play. In fact, if we get a Villanova-Michigan finals, the four of you who picked that will surely deserve a huge TWS prize package! What you’ll get, on the other hand, depends on the whims of Jim Swift…

 

In any case, I’ll report next week on how things stand on the eve of the final.

 

Meanwhile, Ride On, O Ramblers!

 

* * *