It's the most wonderful time of the year! Well, as long as your team is one of the privileged few that will be particpating in the greatest of America's sporting events that is. Selection time is finally upon us, and if anyone out there can honestly say that the Marquette Golden Eagles are exactly where you expected them to be, then let me buy you a beer my friend. And I hope you are enjoying your new position as King of the Optimists. Most realistic predictions had Marquette not even in the picture for Selection Sunday. Even the sunniest of outlooks had us sweating bullets, with a bottle of booze in one hand and a handful of Tums in the other, as we nervously awaited our bubble fate.
As it is, none of that is the case. Marquette is sitting pretty, just waiting to find out our seed and first round opponent. How did this happen? I have no f'ing clue, but I don't care. If I had to guess, I'd say balls, sheer balls...and maybe 3-point shooting. But that's not important now. As everyone has said, everything from here on out is gravy. However, that doesn't mean I can't have a wish list.
What I am hoping for:
-Getting off the 8/9 line - By all accounts this is where MU is probably going to end up. Now I'm not foolish enough to think that any 1st round opponent is going to be a cake walk, but that doesn't mean I can't be peaking at our potential 2nd round game. That's all part of the fun, right? We should all really be rooting for the committee to look fondly upon our near misses versus the upper echelon of the Big East, and bump us up to that 7 seed. Or, if that doesn't work, perhaps look scornfully at those ugly NC State and DePaul losses and knock us down to a 10 seed. Either way, I'm cool with it.
-Avoid a potential 2nd round match up with Kansas - Ok, no one is any hurry to play a team that is good enough to get a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But if I had to pick the scariest of them all, I pick Kansas.
-Get a game on Thursday - This really makes no difference to me personally, I'm calling in sick regardless of what day we play. This one is for all the MU faithful that expected a down year for the Golden Eagles and snapped up tickets for the first round games in Milwaukee. I don't want them to have to choose between our game, and experiencing the first round action live and in person. Not that that should be a tough choice.
That's it. That's not much of a list compared to years past. I'm just thankful to be in the tourney for a 5th straight year. So sit back and enjoy it Marquette fans. Smile along with me during this brief reprieve from the blood pressure raising, hair pulling, ulcer causing "excitement" of this season. Lord knows we've earned it.