Sweet Sixteen

I remember from days long ago when sweet sixteen held a completely different meaning for me. But those days are long past and my only glimpse of that nolstalgic age now is through watching my own teenagers pass that milestone.

These days when I think of sweet sixteen it doesn't come packaged with curls, curves, and bubblegum flavored lipgloss. Granted, I don't know the lipgloss preferences of the NCAA but I'm thinking they were prefer something orange with a leather & sweat flavor. As Dick Vitale... who by the way grates on my wife's nerves about as much as Dr. Phil grates on mine... would put it, "W'ere talking basketball baby."

It's the last great adrenaline rush for sports fans before succombing to the Oh my God is it still baseball season? hell that smothers Spring, Summer & everything good about them. Don't get me wrong, I like baseball okay. It's just that after about 300 games the innings start morphing together into a huge kaleidoscope. It's like smoking pot for a long time. After awhile you just don't care anymore... about anything. At least not until October.

Enough about baseball. Today kicks off the NCAA tournament's round of sixteen teams playing for a spot in the Final Four. Being here in Winston-Salem we are of course proud of our Wake Forest Demon Deacons being lead by freshman sensation Chris Paul. Georgia Tech and the continuing dynasty of Duke University round out the ACC representation.

Duke, who fell asleep during the ACC tournament with a, "Hey we're Duke we can't lose" attitude that got them bounced by Maryland has come alive in the NCAA tournament. I suspect the verbal onslaughts Krzyzewski delivers on the court are tame compared to the locker room so it's no surprise to me Duke woke up. They will be tough to keep away from a Final Four date.

Wake Forest is going to have to get past St Johns who are playing the Rodney Dangerfield we don't get any respect card to the hilt. They seem to be determined to make believers out of those who didn't believe their 29-1 record was worthy of a number one seed. So far no one is eating crow but the critics. Don't count Wake Forest out though. The backcourt seems to have finally accepted Chris Paul for the true star he is which makes all of them better. If Big E can stay in the game and off the bench with foul trouble and this happens to be a night when Danelius shows up to play the Deacons could be trouble for St Johns. Wake has shown already this year they can beat the best.

Georgia Tech travels to St. Louis to play this years Cinderella team, Nevada who has been nothing short of impressive in this years tournament. Nevada doesn't look ready to go home yet and I'm not convinced Paul Hewitt can motivate his team past them. Regardless of the outcome, it should be a great game to watch.

Sweet sixteen... what a feeling. Why, if I were 25 years younger I'd be thinking about...

Who am I kidding? It's March madness baby! I'd be thinking about basketball.

In a perfect world men would have lots of cold beer and munchies, get laid at halftime, & make it back just in time to polish off their sixpack watching their favorite team win.

Until next time...

Mike Gowen © 2004