By Seth Herrold (@HerroldTimes), R-T Sports Editor
It is that time of year.
Once again we are all sharpening our pencils, filling out brackets and ponying up probably more money than we would like to admit in various pools. All the while, the red markers and lighters are on stand by.
For most brackets, life is short and ends in a crumpled heap at the bottom of a trash can. For a select few, though, life lasts forever.
I have two brackets I have never thrown away. My 2003 brackets remains my masterpiece. I missed just two first round games. the entire left hand side of my bracket was perfect in the first round. It went downhill from there – how could it not. Marquette defeating Missouri left a trail of red on the page. Kansas getting past Arizona cost me as well. But that bracket still represents my high water mark for forecasting the tournament. I also still have my 2011 bracket. The first time I ever won the Republican-Times bracket pool, doing so on the wings of Connecticut.
I also think its only fair to mention at this point – on the heels of my bracket bragging – that in 2012 I was cruising to my second-straight R-T bracket pool championship. I had such a lead and was so confident that I spent the money I collected for the pool. Obviously the bracket burned in the next round and when it came time to pay the eventual champion their winnings, I had to do it out of my own pocket.
Such is life predicting the unpredictable.
The NCAA Tournament is a beautiful creature. It single handedly bridges the gap between football and baseball for me. It can be exhilarating and agonizing and – especially in the early rounds – a good bracket can go bad and a bad bracket can be redeemed in a mere handful of games.
With that, let’s dive into the third edition of Herrold’s Hearings. Thanks for the questions again this week. Remember you can take part in this weekly endeavor by following me on Twitter at @HerroldTimes. As always, thanks for reading.
The one thing about predicting the NCAA Tournament is that while the thing as a whole is pretty wild, there are usually a lot of people who can pick the champion. I nailed Syracuse in 2003 and Connecticut in 2011. I also had UConn in 2004 and Duke in 2015. I also had Louisville winning in 2013. I’m not sure I’m allowed to claim that one anymore, though.
That brings me to this year. I think the national champion comes out of the Midwest Region. To me that’s the toughest bracket in the entire tournament. The top four teams could all win and the team that survives that region is going to be tough to beat in San Antonio. That region also houses what I consider the top three coaches in college basketball. You have Bill Self and Kansas, Mike Krzyzewski and Duke and Tom Izzo and Michigan State.
So who wins it all?
This year I’m picking Michigan State. I like the make-up of that team I think the key game for the Spartans is Duke in the Sweet 16. They win that, book them all the way.
Also in the Final Four, I’m going with Villanova, North Carolina and… Arizona. Wouldn’t be March Madness without a ‘mad’ pick. I suppose Arizona could get there; they are a four seed after all, but with all that program has been through in the last year it would be quite an upset in my mind.
As Jenni Croy told me after her NCMC Pirates won the Region 16 championship, though, March is a good time for upsets.
I remember when baseball was at the height of the steroid era and my friends and I used to wonder why the Royals couldn’t ever get a pill-popping, juice-injecting mountain of a man to crush the Royals’ lowly franchise record for home runs in a single season. The Cardinals got Mark McGwire. The Cubs had Sammy Sosa. Where was our steroid guy?
All these year’s later, the Royals’ home run record has fallen and the franchise has its steroid guy. Thankfully, though, that’s not the same person. Mike Moustakas broke the record – on a side note I’m glad he is back, by the way.
But when Bonifacio received an 80-game suspension for PED use I was a little surprised to say the least. For one, he is not your typical knock it out of the park guy, even with the lively baseballs the league started using last year. It’s a little disappointing, too, because Boni was one of the guys who I felt was going to lead the Royals into the next era.
What I do like about Bonifacio is that there were no claims that he accidentally took this and it contained trace amounts of this or his trainer gave him this and he didn’t know what was in it. The guy owned up to trying to get an advantage. I can respect that even if I don’t agree with what he did. Owning up to doing wrong is a good sign here. I think he learns from this, works harder and comes back better after missing the first 80 games of the season.
We will see how it goes without Bonifacio but, hopefully, the Royals can keep themselves close and make a go of it when he returns.
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