Today started out very well. The three of us went to 11 AM mass where we really enjoyed Father Titus' homily. Afterward Doug and Cameron went to Mellow Mushroom for lunch while I worked at the church gift shop. I was done early this week because they were training a new person and only needed me for a half hour. I was happy about that as I got to Meet Doug and Cameron before they left the restaurant.
We spent the afternoon at home watching the finals of the Big Ten Tourney while waiting for the March Madness Selection Show. From everything that Cameron had read online, over 90% of bracketologists had us making the tournament. Because of that, none of us were very worried. The show started off kind of sad with a tribute to Greg Gumbel. I told Cameron and Doug that I would have been OK if they hadn’t had shown that, because I had actually forgotten that the famous sports announcer had died recently. It was nice, however, and I know for them a great way to start Selection Sunday. The show moved by faster than I had remembered and soon we were ready to hear the last bracket. All of us were a little bit surprised that Indiana hadn't been called yet but weren’t too worried as we knew there was still a play in game left or a 10th and 11th seed that IU could fill. Our moods completely changed a couple of minutes later when the fourth and final side of the bracket was announced, and the Hoosiers were completely left off the list.
Cameron was ready to turn the channel as soon as the show was over, but I asked him to stay as I wanted to listen to the commentary. I was in disbelief and hoped to hear an answer about the Indiana snub. The first question out of the announcers' mouths to the chairman of the committee was "Where is Indiana?" They pointed out that North Carolina had gotten in with less quad one wins and a lot less impressive schedule. The chair of the selection committee was the Athletic Director at North Carolina which had already raised some concerns, and the announcers wanted to know if that influenced the decision. Neither the Chairman nor the Vice Chair really had an answer. They did say that the AD was not in the room when they discussed North Carolina. Everyone seemed to except that as an answer and never even brought up that West Virginia had also been left out of the bracket. That was a complete shock as 100% of bracketologists had them in the tourney. Soon talk switched to other topics regarding the tournament and IU seemed to be forgotten.
Since none of the answers on the television screen really satisfied our questions, I spent some time looking online. In the end it seemed like West Virginia had gotten treated worse than we did. Knowing that didn’t make me feel any better about my beloved basketball team, but it helped me accept that there was nothing that I could do about it. I did appreciate later when I found out that Dick Vitale had come out and completely bashed the committee over their decision to put North Carolina in the tournament. I also loved hearing that the state of West Virginia was suing the selection committee over the decision. I definitely don’t remember this much controversy on Selection Sunday, and I was super sad to know that IU had played their last game. In the end, I decided that maybe it was good news as we wouldn’t have to watch the Hoosier lose another heartbreaker.
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