The Kansas Jayhawks®, University of Kansas, image from Sportslogos
The UNC Tar Heels®, The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, image from Sportslogos
...and I still don't know which team I'm pulling for tonight. Tipoff's at 8:47pm (EST) (and CBS will be streaming it online again, too, click above link and then look for "NCAA® March Madness® on Demand"), and I'm completely undecided. I'll be thrilled, honestly, if either one wins and really sad, honestly, for the loser. I've been lucky enough to 'storm the town' in celebration a few times when each has won a big game (and the odd Championship), but I've also looked at the bottom of a few beers when there's been a heartbreaking loss. And, with these two, it could easily go either way.
However, in the interest of my own public safety, I will be staying in and watch the game here at the humble abode. If I knew I could restrain myself from clapping or even appearing to support Kansas in the slightest form, I would try to go out into Chapel Hill proper, the town's been waiting for this game all week...but, unfortunately, (as countless friends can attest), I don't watch and cheer like that. I'm not a shrinking violet in so many things in my life, and especially so with my sports appreciation. Be it basketball, football, racing, whatever...I'm a bit vocal for 'my' guys, 'my' team, 'my' driver. I'm that tomboy sports nut that people hear about like it's some sort of urban legend. Ain't no myth, kids. (And, yes, I once did aspire to be a sportswriter...makes sense now, doesn't it?)
It's one thing to go to Bailey's (like I did for the Orange Bowl, back in January) and cheer on the Jayhawks (against Virginia Tech), but it's quite another to go to same bar and do the same when the Tar Heels are the competition. It's sorta the equivalent of going to a duel knowing you have an angry mob to face and they've all got much, much better ways to hurt you than you do them. Like murdering one's brother or coveting the neighbour's wife, there are some things one must not do, and there is no rationale...before, during, or after...for doing so. As I found out the hard way in 1993 (as a fresh transfer to here from the land of Jayhawks and still living on campus at UNC), you do not cheer against the local heroes without taking certain precautions. Call me what you will, I just don't want to wake up to the smell of rotten eggs in my room air conditioning unit and all over my vehicle again.
And, yes, I guess this does serve as an admission that I've gotten 'soft' somehow in my old age. So be it. That doesn't erase the fact that my heart and sentiments are divided between these two great schools, these two great teams.
But may the best team win tonight...but whoever does, I think, will eventually take the Championship on Monday.
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