Tackle Basketball: A Folkstyle Championship Open Thread

I tried to come up with greater meaning for this one.

I tried to analogize it to the Iowa-wisconsin football games of late, but realized that recently even the winner of those has broken 28 or some reasonable football value.

I tried to analogize it to soccer, but realized that in soccer usually both teams flop around and feign contact—that would do a disservice to Texas Tech, who Rodger Sherman pointed out have an actually-intriguing backstory.

I tried to explore the Big Ten hearts both these schools broke along the way, from Texas Tech vanquishing the whole state of Michigan to Virginia lucking into an Elite Eight survival over Purdue; that, though, would explain the Red Raider half of the equation and just kind of gloss over the disservice that Tony Bennett—and all of that terrible coaching tree’s ilk—has done to college basketball.

And, in the end, it’s really what I think I already knew—there’s no greater meaning in any of this. The most deserving team doesn’t always win, and the best storylines—whether the ones in demand (obligatory SEO mention of Zion Williamson) or in the conference’s best interest (yes, we can have that discussion) or in my own personal best interest (laughs the fan of Northwestern, Minnesota pro sports, and West fucking Ham United)—aren’t ones made for you. Sports is uncaring; like life, to rip off Hobbes (not the fun one), it is nasty, brutish, and short.

Unless it’s a UVA possession; those are interminable, awful, and usually end in dumb fucking luck.

Guns up.

[3] Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. [1] Virginia Cavaliers

NCAA Championship: US Bank Stadium, Minneapolis MN
8:20pm | CBS | UVA -1.5 | O/U 118.5

Anyways, here’s your open thread. Enjoy, if that’s what you call watching a UVA-TTU basketball game. I’ll be drinking a Bad Weather Brewing Company (St. Paul) Anomaly Sour Ale, which is guava and passionfruit and a whole bunch of other sour stuff that will parallel my mood.

Don’t burn the place down.