So You're Saying I Still Have A Chance?? Uh ... Turns Out, No

So Sunday morning, Day 3 of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, I check the standings of a pool where there are about 938 people playing.  For Saturday's games I went 7-for-7; I had no horse between Florida and Virginia because I thought both teams would lose their first games, but I nailed Wisconsin upsetting Proverbial Kings Of The Hill Villanova.  I felt good, really good.

And it was reflected in the standings.  The Best Tournament Day Of My Life propelled me up 377 spots to a five-way tie for 25th place.  Only the top 20 entrants hit the money, but believe me, I have never -- and I mean never -- been this close to winning this damn pool in the two decades I've been playing.

Then, on Sunday night, Duke goes down to South Carolina.  South Carolina?  A team with a stellar defense but so constipated on offense it stumbled at the end of the season?  I have Kansas, Kentucky and West Virginia also in my Final Four, but I had (and still have) constant misgivings over whether or not those teams are going to make it.  But I swore that I didn't give much thought to the Blue Devils not making it because they were playing well heading into the tournament, the advanced metrics favored them, the common indicators of supreme talent (namely that they have players who will play in the NBA, period) were all in their favor and the pathway was so open for them.  Duke was my One Sure Thing, the Best Bet that I didn't have to inveigh over.  And they were gone in the second round.  Such is the Big Dance.

Because of that I thought my run had ended.  It felt worse than all the years where I knew my bracket was busted by the end of the first round, because this year I actually had hope.  I was knocking on the Top 20, dammit, and now my runner-up team (I have Duke losing to Kentucky in the final) is gone.  And so am I.

So just now I checked the standings through Day 4/the first two rounds of the tournament.  And ... well, I had misread the standings.  I actually thought I went up, but no, because of Duke, I went down 13 places to a seven-way tie for 38th.  And the dividends on my Duke loss will pay off through the end of the tournament.

(sigh) And I thought I had a chance.  Man, it really would have been better if I had been wiped out after Friday.