Stunner Saturday

Quick question: What city is host to Northern Iowa University, and what's their mascot?

Couldn't answer, could you? Well, the Northern Iowa Panthers hail from Cedar Falls, Iowa, and they're led by their sharpshooting 3-point machine with the best last name in the NCAA tourney, "Ali Farokhmanesh." Haha, and they are officially crowned the Bracketbusters of 2010, cuz a majority of brackets in America went into the trash cuz Kansas was on the bottom line as the champion .

It's funny how this stuff works. Kansas, the favorite going into the tourney and consensus best team in America, probably would have won this game 8 or 9 times out of 10 if they played that much. But in a one-game, 40-minute, single-elimination affair, things are much more dicey and luck plays a factor.......a three-pointer called a 2-pointer here, a charge called instead of a blocking fall here, and a ball rolling out instead of staying down could be all the difference.

Insane, insane, insane. An NCAA bracket obliterated after 2 and a half days of action--- now that's fast. I actually had changed my Villanova final 4 pick to Duke right before the deadline, but imagine if I had Villanova too.........woo boy. That woulda added to the mayhem. As it is, I think people around the country should scoop their crumpled-up bracket from the trash and double -check their league: there's a good chance that a good portion of your league is in the same situation, and the #2 team is Kentucky.....if Kansas can falter, so can Kentucky, so stay in there. What myself and other Jayhawk-widows (those who were married to the Jayhawks but who suffered when Kansas left prematurely) have to root for a Kentucky loss, plus their other semifinal team to win (so if you had Kansas v. West Virginia in the finals, you're rooting for W. Virginia to win it all), AND you want someone BAD to come out of the Midwest region instead of Kansas, NOT Ohio St, cuz Kansas-shorters probably picked Kansas. #3 Georgetown is already out, so you want Maryland, Tennessee, or Michigan to get to the Final 4. Or, dare I say it, maybe even the Northern Iowa Panthers! (gasp). It'll be a long shot, but we've already seen some of those long shots hit the mark.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan