I'm going down in flames...

Yes, I am going down in flames, again. It defies logic to pay money to play an NCAA pool and NOT to pick the winners -- but that is what I do, year after year. I'm an all or nothing guy, and can't pick schools I dislike. It would be psychological torture to be happy that those teams would win. So this year I have three Jesuit schools in the Final Four. Only 13% of the schools in the tournament are Catholic colleges. I doubt that even Charlie Currie, SJ at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities has those picks. Unless St. Ignatius Loyola himself starts to get interested in college hoops I'm a goner. So be it.

It reminds me when my buddy Howard Feldman and I ran a pool at work around 15 years ago. We made everyone play as I can be persuasive (the old days when you had to grade them by hand!) and he came upon one pool that had the following teams in the Final Four: Saint Mary's College, Saint Peter's College, Mount St. Mary's University and Princeton. He asked me what person would possibly pick such a sorry lot. I replied... my mother ;-)

Mom only rooted for the Papes, and Princeton snuck in there because current Richmond Spiders coach and former Archbishop Ryan High School standout Chris Mooney was playing for the Tigers. She used to know his mother -- so they got an exemption.

So let the madness begin! I hope whoever wins appreciates my donation ;-)