Old-school sports brackets are still in vogue with me
Gilbert S.C. Keith-Agaran
I’ve noted before that I haven’t been to Las Vegas very much. Last century, my grandfather Lino and grand uncle Juan used to make an annual trek to Sin City on one of those local charters. My mother Lydia, sister Vel and her buddy Nelson go often, and now that they’re all retired, they’re regulars at the California or Fremont. I’ve been to Las Vegas three times, and once was just a layover at Harry Reid International Airport (formerly McCarran) while the other two for conferences.
I admit, however, making an occasional sports wager with friends. Super Bowl blocks, or a stupid bet on the Bengals (I’ve even donated to legal sportsbooks by buying futures on Cincinnati winning the AFC title and Super Bowl). I’ve put money on the San Francisco Giants during the Even Year era in the World Series (betting on regular season games takes too much time, although I keep thinking SF can sometimes take a series against the evil empire and owe a lot of lunches to friends who are fans of the boys in blue). I cheer for the Golden State Warriors but have never gambled on them (perhaps I cling to memories of empty arena seats in Oakland except when the Los Angeles Lakers or Chicago Bulls came into town, which dates my fandom I admit).
I do look forward each year to March Madness. Now that’s a fun time that I’ve indulged in since college (when brackets were on paper and not online with ESPN, Yahoo or other services). My undergraduate classmates hailed from all over and brought their regional biases for basketball programs, but the Southerners (partisans of powers like North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Louisville, Clemson, Maryland, Georgetown, Virginia), New England (followers of St. Johns, Villanova, Syracuse, Seton Hall) and Midwesterners (fans of Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan State, Marquette, Illinois) loved their hoops and the tournament.
Westerners like me clung to UCLA, UNLV, New Mexico, and Arizona making some kind of noise— with the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big Eight and SEC hoarding the at-large bids. I was happy to be at Boalt Hall when Kevin Johnson played for the California Golden Bears. And that became a problem in filling out brackets because I consciously had western schools upsetting the favored teams from other regions that collected all the at-large bids (I just knew that the selection committee was making a mistake in seeding teams and handing out bids to undeserving programs).
It’s one of the reasons that I’ve enjoyed the success of Gonzaga and occasionally some of the old Pacific Conference/WAC teams (Oregon, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Brigham Young, Texas-El Paso). Since marrying a Texas girl, I’ve also become a fan of Texas teams (especially her Alma Mater—Hook ’em, Horns, but also Texas Tech, Houston and Texas Christian). So now my brackets get skewed by relationship considerations.
I also enjoy Ivy League success on the hard court as much as the board room or high court, especially now that Yale has become one of the bullies of the conference. It’s just a fact of life that old college ties are strongest during tournament time, even if some alumni never attended a game at Payne Whitney Gym. My undergraduate buddies and I could never understand why we were not as competitive as then-Ivy elite Princeton or Pennsylvania hoops programs (the Quakers went to the Final Four within memory of our bright college years). In our minds, you only had to admit three or four decent players to fill out a more competitive basketball roster (if Duke, Michigan, Virginia, Notre Dame and Stanford could do it, why not Old Eli?) while football required a lot more.
I joined the basketball boosters when Riley Wallace coached the Rainbows (it wasn’t a big ticket item at the time). So I will cheer for Hawai‘i when they make the tournament—I liked it better when UH was in the old WAC which occasionally had more than one bid. I’m glad the ‘Bows are moving to the Mountain West although the league will not be as strong with programs departing for the new Pacific Conference lineup.
My booster time is why I have a semi-soft spot for Princeton (even when they keep Yale out of the tournament and despite the Big Three rivalry) and loved their 2023 Sweet Sixteen run. When prominent Hawai‘i Princeton alum John W.A. “Doc” Buyers was unavailable to host Bill Carmody’s Tigers in the 1998 Rainbow Classic, I was somehow volunteered (one Ivy is like any other Ivy is what the booster club powers that be reasoned and Princeton arrived in Honolulu on a two game losing streak anyway). Princeton swept through the tournament, slipping by Florida State, upsetting Texas and then beating UNC Charlotte.
I helped with a Thanksgiving holiday gathering for the players, coaches and the family that travelled with them thanks to Max Sword (Outrigger was the tournament title sponsor). I also got the Tigers use of the Stan Sheriff Center weight room which then-assistant coach John Thompson III saw and wanted them to use. I still have the Rainbow Classic champion wrist watch somewhere among my prized possessions.
Gilbert S.C. Keith-Agaran practices law in Wailuku. The last time he won an NCAA bracket pool, Louisville beat Duke for the 1986 national championship under Head Coach Denny Crum.