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My March Madness

Have you been paying any attention to these NCAA games? If you have then you must share the sentiment that its lived up to its moniker. Seemingly every game goes down to the wire or into overtime. I'm not going to describe any or all of the magical moments because there's just too many of them. What i do want to mention is the nations best scorer, Gonzaga's Adam Morrison. When the name Morrison is mentioned there is one thing i associate it with. It's like Jordan, its synonymous to Michael Jordan. Morrison to me is the legendary band The Doors and Jim Morrison. Every time i hear someone say "Morrison" immediately i sing in my head "Well, I just got into town about an hour ago. Took a look around, see which way the wind blow" the starting line of one of their hit songs LA Woman... Anyway UCLA handed Adam Morrison his ass in the Sweet-16 making him sob in mid-court like a cheerleader who was just sodomized by the whole UCLA squad. Sure he shouldered the Universities hopes and hoop-dreams or maybe the whole city of Spokane Washington or probably the whole State. A state hungry of a major championship and not since the Redskins Suberbowl Championship during Joe Gibbs's first coaching stint 15 years ago have they won anything. But no measure of burden gives anyone an excuse to sob like a little girl on National TV. First of all it wasn't the biggest game, it wasn't the National Championship Game or the Superbowl for that matter. Surely it was a big game for the favored Gonzaga and the featured major sporting event that day but never had i seen anyone cry like that during a heartbreaking loss in a game in which the stakes aren't really at the highest level. Sure Adam Morrison is a senior and will never again play in the tournament but in retrospect they were not ranked # 1 or favored by the critics to go all the way. The scenario wasn't like Lindsay Jacobellis's choke that will forever live in infamy as the single greatest Olympic blunder of all time. And not even close to Buckners ground-ball misplay in the 86 World Series. To quote Shakespeare "The whole world's a stage" Lindsay and Buckner's blunder the whole world saw but remained composed however petrified Lindsay was of her plight and however heartbroken Buckner was for letting down the cursed Redsox nation. We didn't see them weep. Maybe you think i'm being too critical of the kid, well am i? Maybe athletes should stop and think first before they start weeping on National TV. In fact Adam started crying with 2 seconds left on the game clock, UCLA shooting 1 on 1 free-throws, and Gonzaga getting one more possession to possibly win the game, what a fag. It was like he had planned to cry if they lost..... hmm that's a thought, a premeditated grief. Maybe he's seen too much reality tv.

Anyway in my biased opinion (of course i am rooting for UCLA) i'm glad Gonzaga didn't make the final four or the National Championship Game because God forbid they lose that game, there's no telling what he'll do. He may not be drafted in the NBA predicated on that, kidding...

My March just like the NCAA tournaments has been crazy as well. Not one day all throughout the month did i stay home and just relaxed. We all like to do that sometimes, just stay home and relax, have a brew or margarita or simply not do anything at all. Beside my weekly treadmill night (Tuesday), weight-lifting (Thursday) Saturday 17-week-long basketball tournament and more importantly (lol) Sunday Poker regimen which i kept religiously, i've got my wish of a late winter surge. It has snowed every week in March and it hasn't let up yet snowing again through the first week of April. Five weeks in a row i've taken the trip to Big Bear (maybe 6 in a row this week). While i'm not complaining about the great winter conditions it has taken its toll on my body. I've had to re-schedule weight-lifting on Fridays instead of Thursday (switched for snowboarding day) and not to mention the large amount of sleep that i lose since snowboarding is so contingent on early starts (traffic, distance, cost, vehicle wear & tear etc etc...). I can handle the running, weight-lifting and basketball weekly regimen because i've been doing it for years (well the running one the last 3 years) but the addition of snowboarding weekly (at least the last 5 weeks) has extremely exhausted my body. It's the first time in my life i've actually accepted and conceded to the fact that i'm getting old. My body is soo tired i told myself yesterday, well i have said that before many times. There were Saturdays when i played 7 basketball games in a row, went out partying that evening (+sex) til the wee hours of the morning then spent the next day grilling dogs and carne asada with Ricky at the race tracks. But never do i remember ever being this tired even with the snowboarding season inserted in my schedule.

Well yesterday even though my basketball tournament is over (lost in the 2nd round playoffs to a team we easily defeated twice during the regular season on a last second miracle banked shot from the baseline to beat the buzzer) and the rains let up, i skipped my regular non-tournament Saturday pick-up game. I was too tired. So i stayed home had a couple of coffees in the morning, watched George Mason with their silly green uni's hopes dwindle and UCLA annihilate LSU with their Defense and the Australian Grand Prix on speed channel in the evening. I haven't done that in a while.....

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Sunday, April 02, 2006