Mrs. Thomas, Technology and Sports

I think we're all very fortunate to be living in the time in which we currently find ourselves. The reason I feel this way is because of all the fascinating technology that we will see in our lifetimes. Surely, this can be said about any generation because technology very rarely digresses and the rate at which new stuff comes out continues to increase. So, little bitty babies being born right now, 24 years after me will, no doubt, see a lot cooler things than I ever will, but I do think that we generation y'ers have had a unique view of major technological change. The entire computerization of America has been an incredible event to witness; an utterly world changing series of events that we were all here for. Cell Phones. Smart Cars. Television Quality. Dippin' Dots.

Even with this recent bombardment of amazing toys for us to tinker with as adults, I can't help but feel that we're on the fringe of something that's even greater. We're already on the quest for whatever may be next. I don't think anything as revolutionary as the computer is coming soon, but I also wouldn't rule it out either. I mean, I'm not prepared to say that teleportation isn't possible. It could be developed in a decade or so. Can you imagine working in Alaska and living in Columbus? This could become a reality with a teleporter.

Someone is also probably working on the flying car, which would definitely change the world. I think the flying car could be coming soon, airplanes were invented so long ago, don't they just have to make them smaller now? I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

Let me take you through my life and document the changes in technology I've seen. I promise, I will talk about sports, but not until later, so keep reading ladies.

When I was very young, I remember playing with red and green toy farm machinery, I think the same crap that either my mom or dad (not sure which family these toys came from) grew up fooling around with. Really, pretty mundane toys. I then remember getting an etch a sketch, a remarkably advanced toy compared to my miniature, red tractor. Later, I received the holy grail of toys, the Lite Bright. Playing with this toy not only taught me how to endure grand mal seizures, it also made me realize that I was about to see some wild shit, technologically, when I grew up and 7 year old ham was right, per usual. Overall, I probably didn't have a very eclectic experience in my youth, toywise.

I was also around for the video game explosion. I very vaguely remember having an atari at home, and although I know there were gaming systems prior to the atari, I still feel like it was the first relevant gaming system. I also feel like the joysticks probably helped a lot of younger boys accidentally discover masturbation. I remember getting a nintendo on christmas one year, JACKPOT. It still has some of the most entertaining games I've ever played on any system (Bases Loaded 4, I'm unstoppable with Hawaii). I never had an SNES but I was able to get a Sega, which was pretty good, but I preferred the Nintendo. Then there were weird things like Sega Saturn but later Nintendo 64 and Playstation were released. I was given a Nintendo 64 one year for christmas as well, but my desire to play video games basically died out shortly thereafter. I have played about every gaming system though, with HALO being the only game which I occasionally get the itch to play.

I also remember the advancement of computers. I remember going to first grade, and I can visualize my 1st grade room but I can't place if there was a computer in it. I'm pretty confident that it didn't have a computer at that point. This is what I can remember from first grade. I remember my teacher Mrs. Thomas, saying that her husband, Bill (whom I've never met), birthday was October 25th, which I remember because that is my birthday. I remember one day when Stephanie asked me, "what color goes good with yellow?" To which I replied, "I'm not sure. I should know this, though, my mom sells Mary Kay." Flawless logic. I also remember dropping my lunch ticket in the toilet. One thing I do not remember from first grade, that my mom told me about when I was in fourth grade was making fun of a kid for not being able to read. My mom said that Mrs. Thomas had told her at a PTA meeting that while a classmate was reading aloud, and stumbling on the words, I said something like, "can you hurry up already?" out loud. As I previously stated, I don't remember this incident and I think Mrs. Thomas probably confused me with the class bully that particular night. Anyway, I guess the whole situation apparently went down like this.

Skip ahead two years to third grade and I know for sure, at this point every classroom in the school had a computer. This is probably when I began to beg my parents for a computer. It was a difficult process for me too, because all I really wanted a computer at home for was to play minesweeper. I had a rough time explaining why this would be useful in our home at the tender age of 9. Eventually dad caved, and we purchased our first ever computer. I quickly began a quest to set records for every level of minesweeper. Unfortunately, and I probably could have mentioned this earlier, I didn't even know the object of minesweeper. I just liked clicking until it made me start over.

Skip ahead another year and I sat in a computer lab for computer class. The towers on these computers had something extra, I was told it was called CD-Rom. This CD-Rom enabled us to play sweet games like, "Sell Lemonade" and "Oregon Trail." Naturally, I went home and started my campaign for CD-Rom. Like clockwork, mom and pop caved and I found myself sabotaging my own family on Oregon Trail so I could put things on the tombstone like, "Here Lies 'Fart'," or "Here Lies 'a studmonkey' (an incredibly popular phrase in my youth)".

Next came the internet, which changed the entire world, obviously. After the changing of the entire world, my parents got the internet as well and I started my new life as a music pirate. Then cell phones were popularized and I received my first one on Christmas during my junior year of high school. It was awesome; it had a calculator and could place phone calls. This technology baffled me for a period of time. I remember wondering how exactly my cell phone worked, I probably still don't know for sure, but I've quit thinking about it. Anyway, I remember coming home one weekend night and the power was out at my parents house. I took out my beloved cell phone and opened it up, I remember thinking, "the power is out but my cell still works." I was completely dumbfounded and perhaps not coincidentally, I was also drunk as shit.

Once the internet blew up, sports coverage began to prevail everywhere, making every sport accessible to nearly all willing consumers. I have absolutely no reason to like hockey as much as I do, but someone like me, who is so enveloped in other sports, eventually just can't stay away from it. Now, it is my favorite sport to watch in person and my second favorite sport overall. I only have the proliferation of the internet, television broadcasting and the laziness of myself to thank for finding this new sport I so enjoy.

I think since the time I received my first cell phone in December 2003, there hasn't been a great deal of brand new technologies developed that have quite affected our lives as much. Sure, computers and cellphones have gotten exponentially better, but I think we're due for something earth shattering to come out. I was pondering this possibility during my last Minster to Columbus drive and it was weird, I got really excited. I really believe we are going to see some wild, wacky innovations in the near future.

One idea that my brain eventually locked in on was 3D television. I know, it already exists, but I began to think about my first experience with it. I saw Avatar in 3D at the imax in Columbus, and although I hated the movie, it was visually incredible. I fast-forwarded my thinking to about ten years from now. I'm predicting that 3D televisions will be standard in households with everything on television being broadcast in 3D. At this point I basically began to flip out just thinking about how amazing that will make sports-watching. I thought about baseball, having a camera right behind the umpire in 3D, the pitch will be coming right at us and seeing it fly away after the batter makes his connection. Even cooler will be foul tips that seemingly, barrel right back towards us. I then thought about its impact on the NHL; already the most visually stimulating game to watch in HD. White ice, blue and red lines, colorful jerseys (sweaters) and people skating all over the place. A 3D camera on the net, having pucks fly directly at us, only to be snatched by the goalies arm that swings out from right in front of us. It's going to be absolutely breathtaking.

So that's basically it.

I've been thinking about this blog quite frequently over the past few weeks. I usually don't take the time to post on it and when I do, it's really only for about a handful of readers. While I really, really appreciate the following I do get, I think there is something I need to change. I like to write about sports but so do about 100,000,000 other people and I'm far from the best at it. I've really only told about 4 people that I've started to write a novel and I'm sure half of the 6 people who started reading this have stopped by now. So about 7 people know now. Keep it quiet. My novel is about 40% autobiographical and while writing it, I've reminisced about so many weird times in my life. Times which aren't necessarily shocking or amazing but have left vivid images in my brain (see the "what color goes with yellow" story above). I'm trying to find my niche on this blog. While I will never be the best sports writer, I am most definitely the best writer of my life. So this post will usher in a series of posts, which I'll refer to as the "Vivid Images Series," which will incorporate a specific memory of my life into whatever topic I choose to write about.

Ok, I think I'm done here, sorry about the length.

Never had to apologize for that before (ZING!)

Da (Bears) Draft!

So, according to my blog (this very, exceptionally entertaining website), I haven't posted an entry since April 5th. Where do I get off? Who do I think I am, tOSU's very own Mark Titus? What? I can just go away for weeks at a time and leave my legions of fans alone in the dark, curled up in the fetal position, telling themselves every thing's gonna be all right, while I laugh all day long and come up with ideas for sweet new food inventions (General Tso's flavored ice cream)!!?? Hell no, I can't do that. I wouldn't even want to do that to my precious Hambino Hounds, so even though it is currently 1:48am, it's time for me to right this ship.

Last a couple days ago (that is a real measurement of time), the NFL Draft happened. It happened. The much-hyped event was moved to Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the first time ever. For the record, I was totally against this change (it used to be a Saturday/Sunday event) but I accepted it because, the times they are a changin'. The draft is billed as this huge event and if your favorite team doesn't draft the right player, I think you're supposed to jump in front of a train or something. The draft isn't completely overhyped, however, a team can really propel itself into contention with a great pick, or ruin itself with a bad pick, see JaMarcus Russell. I'm not sure if that M in JaMarcus is capitol or not, I think it looks cool though. HaM SchMitMeyer. Anyways, I mostly tend to think the draft is overrated because you really don't know if your team had a good draft until about 3 years later, and for my favorite team, the Browns, it's rarely worth the wait. So what does the draft mean? I don't know.

I can tell you what it used to mean.

It used to mean that I would be attending some kind of party in the afternoon with a bunch of dudes who really like the NFL. It used to mean that my friends and I would be able to enjoy a responsible amount (of course) of adult beverages, since it was a Saturday, and celebrate every amazing pick the Browns had made (we got Brady Quinn like, 27th overall, can you believe it??!!!!). It also meant that we would rename our beverages in honor of our favorite pick and order them by their new name when we eventually hit the bars. It took a while, but the drink slingers eventually learned what a Joe Thomas was. It used to mean that I would assume the greatest alias ever created, "Magnus Samuelsson" for an annual cornhole tournament, in which I was always quickly ousted. It also used to mean that my friend "Rocketship Ron" would perform some of his brilliant, completely original animal sounds, with the highlight always being the legendary, "hedgehog." It gives me chill bumps just to think about it.

This year was a little different. Without the compliment of steady drinking, I made a "sobering" (uh oh, nailed it!!) realization; the draft is really boring. The most exciting part of the draft this year was seeing Tim "Citizen Snips" Tebow get drafted by the Broncos (Maurice Clarett will be released from the clink soon, BTW) in the first round. It was utterly shocking for me to see Tim Tebow go when he did because Tony Robbins was still on the board. I had Tony rated as my number 1 motivational speaker and Tebow #2, followed by this guy at number #3. Much to my surprise, Tony Robbins didn't even get drafted.

I think the second most surprising thing in this draft was Mel's hair. Mel Kiper Jr. is all about preparing for the future. He is going to be the first person to ever lose their hair, purchase a toupee and have it actually look more attractive than his natural hair. What is he trying to do with that look? It's so bad I can't even figure out how to make fun of it properly. It looks like it smells bad; that's all I got..

Man, I usually think of myself as a nice guy but here I am, making fun of Tim Tebow for being a man of faith and torching Mel Kiper Jr. for having hair that looks similar to an upside down bowl that Ace Ventura ate out of which was made of bat dung.

Well, I was sort of planning on actually talking about some of the picks made in the draft but I want to keep this concise so you'll have time to do other things like, read Bill Simmons' and Mark Titus' blogs, which are literary marathons, and also wildly entertaining. I think that may have to wait for a later date. It may be the same date, just a later time I guess, but what am I psychic? No I'm not psychic, I'm just a regular guy who likes to drink Joe Thomas's and dream of a world where I can eat General Tso's and ice cream on one plate. It is now 2:48, which means I've been working on this for one hour. I better get to bed, Charmed starts in 5 hours and 12 minutes. GET SPELLBOUND!

Sports/Story

SPORTS

Today is kind of a big day for sports, especially if you like college basketball. If you're like me, you really couldn't care less about the National Championship tonight and you probably haven't watched more the five minutes of the NCAA tourney since the Buckeyes were ousted. If you're like me, you watched the Reds be less-than-dominant today and you still basically loved it. And if you're like me, you still haven't showered today. Actually, you'd be exactly like me, not similar to me, if this were all true of you.

The mens NCAA tourney is the greatest sporting event in the country, I think. The first two rounds of the tourney features 49 games, out of which, about 10 are absolutely incredible. After the first two rounds are completed, I find myself watching stuff like, "Modern Family," instead of tuning in for the subsequent games. Over the past few years this tourney has gone overwhelmingly "chalk" (meaning the favorites have advanced), which sucks for people who love to root for the underdog, but is great for people who like to watch the most talented teams in the finals. Sure, I used to cheer for the underdog, I get it, it creates captivating stories, but as I become older, fatter and marginally wiser, I hate underdogs. Five years ago, I may have went out and bought a Butler T-shirt for the game tonight. Probably not, I bet I was drunk five years ago today, but you get my point, I don't like underdogs anymore. Wouldn't it be much more exciting to see the talent of Kansas vs. Duke squaring off tonight? What about Player of the year, Evan Turner taking on Kentucky and future NBA star Johnny Wall?

I'm not saying that I don't want Butler in the championship because they'll get blown out. I just think that so called, "underdogs" (Butler was preseason #11 or 12) making appearances in the Championship prevents a more exciting matchup. If you're watching the game tonight, try to notice (it shouldn't be real difficult) how many white people are playing and ask yourself, "is this a country music video shoot, or the best two teams in college basketball?" Say what you want about the NCAAF postseason system, but at least we almost always get two national powerhouses whose rosters are filled with future NFL players in the championship.

I also have never really understood the national hatred for Duke. Why am I supposed to hate a bunch of smart players who perform in the classroom as well as on the basketball court? Why should I disapprove of a team whose members will go on to benefit society?

STORY

I once knew a guy named Larry.

Yeah, that was it, Larry, not Terry.

And he was also very hairy

Did I even mention his allergy to dairy?

One day, down by a bog,

Larry decided to go for a jog.

While listening to music he completely zoned out

And became unaware of his whereabouts.

Larry tripped over a log

And called for his dog,

"Owie, owie, please come here, Callie!"

Much to Larry's dismay,

Callie did not obey.

Larry sat up and looked down at his leg,

The memory of what he saw will never be vague.

Out through the skin did stick his bone,

and he muttered under his breath, "that stupid dog is probably still at home."

The sun began to set and it grew dark,

Larry grabbed two stones to try to make a spark.

You see, Larry lived in Canada and he was becoming more than chilly,

And we all know what the cold does to a man's willy.

Beyond that, Larry was losing feeling in his fingers and toes

and he began to wonder how long until he froze.

Larry thought about his absent dog and his anger began to stew.

"Man's best friend? Well, that's just simply not true."

Larry remembered Lassie saving Timmy when he fell in a well,

But where his dog Callie was, there was no way he could tell.

He decided to give it one more try so he started to shout,

"Callie, Callie, come on out."

Larry, in immense pain, sat and he waited,

The last bit of daylight had already faded.

Frozen and unable to move, Larry had nearly given up hope

When Callie finally emerged he thought, "Can I believe this? Nope!"

Oh Callie, I'm glad you finally came!

I guess you heard me saying your name.

Just then, a look of evil came over Larry's face,

Bone out of his leg, he might be confined to this space.

Larry wielded his pocket-knife, turned and said,

"In this cold, Callie, I'll surely be dead.

You've been a great dog and I hope you don't mind,

but you see, Callie, I really need your hide."

Larry stabbed his dog and she began to yelp,

"Shh, Callie, no one will answer your cry for help."

The Lou

Really, I'm writing this entry for therapeutic purposes. This post isn't about sports and it also isn't a short work of fiction. I'm basically just recounting some of the more major events from last weekend. I thought I would never be the guy who just blogs about his boring life, but here I am, and here you are, so I'm guessing you're just as bored. In case you didn't know, I was in St. Louis from Thursday the 25th until this morning (Sunday). While I did have a great time and was able to catch up with one of my all-time best buds' (Zoid), there were a few things that did not go my way during my stay in the gateway to the west. I need to get these things off my chest because it was a little ridiculous.

My mini-vacation (well, I guess I've been on vacation for a while now) in St. Louis began on Thursday. I departed from a chilly, overcast Minster around 10:45. Shortly into my trip it began to rain, which would have made the remaining 6 hour drive miserable for most mortals, however I enjoy a challenge and I met that challenge with an unprecedented ferocity. I listened to "Eye of the Tiger" for the last 5 hours and 45 minutes of the drive and conquered the sheets of water spraying from semi's that rendered me legally blind. Hammertime-1, Mother Nature-0. To Mother Nature's credit, I am currently winning the vast majority of my contests by much more than 1. If I weren't so busy trying not to slam head-on to medians while I was visually impaired, I may have taken the 6 hour downpour as an ominous sign that my trip would steer me into many potholes, so to speak, along the way.

Bummer #1

I arrived at Zoid's apartment on Thursday night and we basically just hung out and went to bed (probably could word this sentence differently to minimize how gay it sounds). I awoke Friday to find that Zoid had gone to work and Cathy (Zoid's girlfriend) and I quickly became bored. We decided to make the 1/2 hour drive to downtown St. Louis (Zoid lives in the 'burbs) so I could see some stuff. I wanted to see the new Busch Stadium, so after parking and feeding the meter for two hours, we walked to Busch. While we were walking around their new stadium we saw an open gate being guarded by a guard (fitting, huh), so I asked him if I could quickly get in to take a sneak peak at the field and maybe snap off a picture. The guard did not oblige, I guess he thought I was a terrorist or something, also I was wearing my Reds hat, so that probably didn't help my cause.

Bummer #2

Cathy and I then took a 15 minute walk over to the Arch. Cathy said when you're at the top of the arch you can see down into the stadium, and basically, the rest of the city, so that sounded pretty awesome. I was excited for this, how many people can say they have been to the top of the arch, without lying? I was about to become one of those peoples. We walked up to the counter to sign up for the tour where I saw a sign which read, "tours start every ten minutes." There was also a sign hanging right next to the previous sign which read, "next tour begins at 11:50." At the time I read the second sign, it was only 10:40, so I guess someone setting the tour times is not competent in mathematics. The trouble was, since there was a 2:00 max on parking meter's, and we were all out of silver, we didn't have enough meter time to wait for an hour and then take an hour tour. So, I still can't morally say that I've been to the top of the St. Louis arch.

Bummers #3, 4 and 5.

I love Zoid, but I have to be honest, if the Buckeyes weren't playing their sweet 16 and (possible) elite 8 games in St. Louis, I probably wouldn't have made the trek to Missouri. Zoid informed me that it was his girlfriends' and one of his other buddies girlfriends' birthday and they had made dinner reservations for Friday night. I was left to fend for myself in a foreign town, for one of my biggest sports games of the year (3). Luckily, the official Ohio State bar in St. Louis is located less than a mile from Zoid's apartment, so I just decided to eat and watch the game there. Basically, I ended up driving to St. Louis to watch a game at a bar, by myself. Zoid felt pretty bad about leaving me hanging but I told him it wasn't a big deal and that I really wanted to watch the elite 8 game, so we decided to cross our fingers and actually go to the elite 8 game on Sunday. The Buckeyes lost on Friday (4), however, and I was a "Grumpy Gus" for the rest of the night. So obviously, we couldn't watch the Buckeyes on Sunday (5).

Bummer #6, averted

If you've experienced the absolute thrill of meeting me, you'll know that I do enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage. Most of my life, the beverage of choice was the wallet-friendly, smooth-tasting, Natural Light. A fine (wish I could still say American) product indeed. If my Dad was buying or if it was a special occasion, I would dabble into the Bud Light arena. Being that I've always had a love for Budweiser products, we decided to tour the Budweiser factory in St. Louis. This bummer almost occurred immediately. We arrived only to see a sign posted out front which read, "All Tours are full." Reluctantly, Zoid and I still decided to enter, just to walk around the lobby area and look at some of the knick-knacks they had sprinkled about. We then noticed an open door, and inside of that open door were people who just finished their tour and were drinking their complementary beers. Zoid and I snuck into this room (it was really easy) and began to drink a couple free beers, while we decided what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. We each drank two beers (you're only SUPPOSED to have 2 free beers) and thought we would leave. As we were walking out, we noticed that a tour was beginning, so we sort of shimmied to the middle of the pack and joined the group without ever showing the tour guide our passes, which we didn't have. It was a small victory but it felt good given the string of bad luck I had encountered on my trip. At the conclusion of our tour, we were lead back to the "free beer room" as I call it, and received two more free beers apiece, a major victory for myself and America.

Overall, St. Louis was a pretty good time and although a few things didn't really go my way, I did get to see one of my best friends' and spend some quality time with him, for which I am truly thankful. That's the stuff that really matters, not getting to see the inside of Busch Stadium or riding to the top of the Arch. I'm just sorry it took me over a year and a half to go see Zoid.

I love Pilates

Hello Hambino Hounds!!!!!!! Let me start off by explaining what I was doing during my little blogging hiatus. I spent some of my time studying for finals, writing papers, watching television, applying for jobs and of course, watching Television.

I spent most of my time however, learning how to play Backgammon, doing Tae-bo and Pilates, and practicing on my unicycle. Turns out, unicycling is one of the most difficult types of cycling one can attempt to do and I badly bruised my coccyx.

I’m not going to lie, some of that list was fabricated, but the unicycling stuff was definitely true. I’m thinking of joining the circus. Also, thanks to Tae-Bo and Pilates, I now have a delicate blend of flexibility and bulk, which is really paying off in my gymnastics classes. Enough about what I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks, I’d like to talk about what I’ve been THINKING for the past couple weeks.

I was actually thinking about sports for a little bit and I think it was blogworthy.

I want to chat about the NCAA Tourney, which has been pretty amazing this year, unlike the past couple years, where there were very few upsets. Saturday Northern Iowa defeated Kansas, the overall #1 seed in the tournament. Northern Iowa had a terrific regular season and won the Missouri Valley Conference.

Kansas, on the other hand, had an even better regular season in a power conference, and was widely considered the best basketball team in the nation. If this were college football, these two teams would never have come within 100 miles of each other, but it isn’t. If this was college football, I could have watched Eastern Michigan, the MAC champion, play Eastern Carolina, the CUSA champion in the GMAC Bowl, and I wouldn’t have been less interested. Suppose this game started at 7:00pm EST. I would have watched Jeopardy, and probably dominated most of the show, and then I would have missed the final question, because I never get it right. I would probably have started to flip through the channels around 7:28, since Jeopardy just finished and realized there was a football game on ESPN2 between two teams that I don’t care about. At 7:30 I would have switched to Wheel of Fortune and rocked every puzzle until the last one, I can also never solve the last puzzle on Wheel. At 7:59 I probably would have looked around my kitchen and, provided it was my lucky day/birthday, I would have eaten some ice cream/ice cream and chocolate cake. After my cake/ice cream fiasco, I would have found it necessary to take a generous nap. I would arise around 9:00pm to go back to the only sporting event on Television, only to find that the GMAC bowl wasn’t even close, at which time I would probably pop in one of my Tae-Bo VHS’s and let Billy Blanks sculpt my body into a chiseled-masterpiece that would surely have made Michelangelo proud.

My point is, if Northern Iowa had a football program and won its conference, they would never have been able to play the #1 team in the postseason. They would have played in a crappy bowl, which basically wouldn’t matter. The NCAA Tourney is one of the greatest events in sports and I don’t even really like basketball (just ask me about the NBA). The tourney is filled with excitement and every team has a chance to win. Teams get to play the best and you have to beat the best to win, the way it really should be.

I get the argument that the lack of a tournament makes the college football season better because once you lose; you’re most likely eliminated. It makes every regular season game important, we sports fans have to watch every game. Here’s the thing about that argument, unless you’re in the SEC, 1 loss could mean that you finish outside the top 8 (I would propose an 8 team playoff), so that argument becomes irrelevant. Once a team were to lose its first game (teams rarely go undefeated in college football) the rest of the season would be crucial because 2 losses could definitely put teams on the outside looking in, so the small, 8 team playoff, could make the regular season even more exciting.

Boise State argument… Some proponents of a playoff, site that Boise State gets an unfair shot at the national title, they go undefeated and get passed over for a one loss Big-12 or SEC team. That is not what’s wrong with the current BCS system. The real problem is if Boise would actually make the Championship Game. If we just leave Boise out, who cares, there isn’t that many Boise fans and they wouldn’t bring much revenue for the game anyway. The real trouble would be if Boise does make the championship. What if a one-loss SEC or different power-conference-team gets passed over by Boise because Boise going to start at #5 preseason this year? It would be terrible; the championship would be a sham. If a non-BCS conference team could survive an 8-team playoff, I could definitely deal with that because they would have earned it in the postseason. It would be a tough pill for millions to swallow if we watch a Boise team beat Roast Beef Tech. over and over and then get lucky in a championship game.

I want to applaud NCAA Basketball for putting together such an amazing event.

GO BUCKS!