It was a particularly fun tournament in our family this year! More people than ever were involved: Jay, Ty, Megan, Xena, Babalouie, Katie, Zach, Sara, Josie and Nick all filled in brackets. Selection Sunday happened to coincide with St. Patrick's Day, so we had the gang over for corned beef with all the fixin's and they filled in their brackets, which were put up in the kitchen for all to see and keep track of.
It was an exciting venture! After the first round of games, Nick was in the lead. We had kids and grandkids dropping in during every round, some staying for all the games and dinner, some just for an hour or so before heading back to real life. This continued for all three weekends of the tournament. We didn't have brackets for the women's tournament but we were universally all in for watching Caitlyn Clark perform her feats of amazement.
Nick didn't stay in the lead for long; Katie, Sara, Megan and Babalouie all took turns vying for the lead. Very few brackets got busted early. it was all very exciting and fun! Jay cooked a ton of wings every weekend for who ever showed up: we had a huge pot of spaghetti one week, brats, ribs, pizza, turkey...from Friday to Sunday we were poised to feed an army and the army usually arrived. Sometimes it was just Zach and sometimes the house was packed with kids.
By the Final Four, the only brackets left were Jay (Coach, to his grandkids) Xena and Babalouie! Both the kids had Purdue winning and Jay had UCONN. That meant Xena really couldn't win because Babalouie had more points so if Purdue won, he'd take the honors but if UCONN won, it was Coach's bracket that would remain on the wall till next year.
And of course, that's exactly what happened. UCONN successfully defended their national title and Jay's bracket is already in the frame of honor. Now, you might think that a HOF basketball coach would have an unfair advantage over a ten year old as for picking a winning bracket but you'd be wrong. Bracketology is a less precise science than climate change and Jay rarely wins. So this was a big deal.
In the midst of all this fun, we also celebrated Easter. He is risen! Alleluia! Death is defeated and the gates of Heaven have been opened wide!!
Most of my kids were out of town for the Holiday so Katie, BoopityBoop and I joined my Mom and sisters at Katie McC's house for Easter baskets, eggs, a honey baked ham and more food than we could eat while we played all kinds of fun games. Oh and the basketball games were on in the next room. It was perfect.
Last week was very basketball oriented as both the men's and women's Final Four were played out. This is the first time we watched as much women's as men's and since Caitlyn is done, it may be the last. She's phenomenal. Players like that just don't come around every year. Her team didn't win, as South Carolina just had too much size and speed on their side but it was a fun game.
In the midst of that game, I crashed a baptism party. My nephew Hootie and his wife Juliana have welcomed a second baby, a little girl, into the world. T was baptized on Sunday and I had some gifts for her so I buzzed over to my brother Joe's house (the baby's grandpa) and watched the women's final there. I got to hold the baby while admiring the basketball skills and fabulous makeup of the South Carolina Gamecocks. When you're a women's team and you're called the gamecocks, it makes total sense to go full FloJo on national TV. They looked gorgeous and they played like Amazons.
So another year of basketball has been entered into the record books and my whole family can go back to pretending they're just like regular people again.
On to the Masters!