The Problem with the joy of the men's NCAA basketball tournament

Hey, Butler won! That's good for my pool! Oh, but that's bad for my friend, Patrick, a Syracuse grad. And that's the conundrum.
My school, the University of Vermont Catamounts, are just happy to get in. And this year, we were a 16-seed against Syracuse's #1 seed in the Eastern Regional. And the expected happened. Although I thought we played reasonably well, the guys were tight - they missed a lot of shots they could have made, and even with a 15-2 run to close the first half to pull within 12, but 'Cuse knocked down 4 3-pointers over our zone in the first two minutes of the second half, and the rout was on. But, Pat, I'm sorry - Andy Rautins is one of the most joyless people I have ever watched on a basketball court - I didn't mind seeing him get beat.
As a born-again Texan, living in Austin, I've become a Big-12 guy. In basketball, I mostly root for Kansas and A&M. In football, A&M and Texas (and Baylor). Having married into a Cal Berkeley family, I root for Cal in the Pac-10, but not really any other Pac-10 team; except whoever is playing USC in football, or UCLA in basketball. So, my other problem is tonight. My good friend from Pleasanton, Jim, is a St. Mary's grad (http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/ - beautiful campus, ugly website). Tonight, Baylor plays St. Mary's. I have picked Baylor to go to the Final Four. I have Baylor in all my pools, because I don't believe that Duke is that good (go Purdue!). All the East-coasters in my brother-in-law Bill's pool has Duke going the Final Four. If Duke falls, I don't see how I don't win, particularly if Baylor goes to Indy. In all other situations, I would be rooting for SMC; however, my money depends on Baylor. Maybe I'll send some of my winnings to SMC.
I like Kansas State - they are interesting. But, boy, Xavier showed me that the A-10 is actually a pretty good conference.
So, who do we have left? Kentucky and West Virginia, coached by the biggest crooks in college basketball. When Bob Huggins was at Cincinnati, his graduation rate was about 10%, and John Calipari has left a trail of NCAA violations in his wake. My fear is that one of these two guys has a very good chance of winning the NCAA crown. I would choose Huggins over Calipari. Calipari will lose 6 kids this year - not to graduation - to the NBA! I can here his recruitment pitch - 'come to Kentucky, win the tourney, go to the NBA. Don't worry about classes - we'll keep you eligible for the first semester, and you can skate the second semester. No problem.' It makes me sick. that's why we love Cornell.
Go Bears!

So much for keepin' up!

To follow on my last post - Lake Travis won their state championship, and Westlake went to the state championship - only to lose to Euless Trinity in OT. Sharla, Mick and I were there for 3 quarters, then we had to run home from San Antonio to get back to Austin for Shar's group Christmas party (at which we had a very nice time).
And Corinne is darn near 15 1/2!
Today, high school basketball is finishing up, with state championship games this weekend, and the NCAA tournament is rolling, with major conferences in the heat of their conference championships, and my UVM Catamounts in their conference tournament final at Patrick Gym against arch-rival Boston University. BU knocked off #1 seed Stony Brook in the conference semis, while we beat #6 UNH 57-38(we were #2 seed), who had beaten #3 Maine to reach the semis. We have beaten BU twice this year, but that's what makes them dangerous. They have talent, and were picked by the America East coaches to win the conference at the beginning of the year. And their star player is getting hot. We will need a great defensive effort, and Marqus Blakely to play BIG tomorrow.