The Rome report

Even though basketball is fourth on my depth chart of sports, behind football, boxing and baseball, the tournament is second to the Super Bowl in my depth chart of events.

There is no other event that has the highs and lows of the tournament. No other event can make me go from loving it to hating it as fast as the tournament.

This season’s tournament is no different.

After watching most of the games so far, there have been moments where I have wanted to yell with jubilation and moments where I have wanted to scream in agony. Sometimes these moments have happened right after one another.

I went from being happy with Gonzaga’s game-winning layup to being mad that the dreaded Duke Blue Devils defeated Texas and advanced to the Sweet 16.

It was great to watch Cleveland State crush Wake Forest and advance to the second round. Some people had Wake Forest going to the Final Four.

It was not fun watching Connecticut crush Chattanooga 103-47. Especially because the Connecticut starters remained in the game with less than 10 minutes and up by 30 points. To make matters worse, Connecticut guard A.J. Price said the beating would have been worse if head coach Jim Calhoun had been on the sidelines. Calhoun did not coach the game since he was in a Philadelphia hospital because of an undisclosed illness.

Excuse me, A.J. I do not think a 56-point beat down is letting a team off easy. Next time you want to take it easy on a team, try to refrain from throwing alley-oops and shooting 3-pointers when you are already up by 30-plus points with less than 10 minutes left. Better yet, tell your replacement coach to show a little bit of class and pull the starters.

I was not rooting against Connecticut before the tournament started, but now I cannot wait to see them bounced out.
It was great to see the Tar Heels advance to the Sweet 16 after LSU played them tough.

It was not great to see our Rams get nipped by the Bruins. It was even tougher to interview the guys after the game and see the disappointment on their faces.

That is the nature of the NCAA tournament: highs and lows.

Sometimes I love it. Other times I hate it. That is the reason I watch.