Brent Holloway is the sports editor for The Times. Contact him at sports@gainesvilletimes.com.
This was the year, maybe more than any other, that March Madness lived up to its name.
It was the tournament of the underdog: Northern Iowa beat top seed Kansas; Butler rocked Syracuse, made it all the way to the championship, and took another No. 1 seed — Duke, no less — to the final buzzer.
So it seems both fitting and ironic that a self-proclaimed underdog would win The Times’ third annual Bracket Bust thanks to the Blue Devils, the anti-underdog. Kevin Bailey of Lula took the crown this year, besting our own field of 65 in a competition that wasn’t decided until Butler’s final half court heave clanged off the rim.
“I was in the Bracket Bust last year, but I didn’t do too good,” Bailey said with a laugh.
In fact, he’d never won one of these annual contests, even when his only competition were his sons, Korentheus and Sterling.
“Oh, Korentheus usually won,” Kevin Bailey said. “We used to call him ‘ESPN,’ because if you wanted to know anything about sports or anybody who played, all you had to do was ask him and he could tell you. Him and Sterling, they both know more about sports than I do.”
Maybe in regard to this year’s tournament, less is more.
Kansas was the pick to win the title by the overwhelming majority of Bracket Busters, but the Jayhawks went down in the second round.
Kentucky was the next most popular pick, but the Wildcats and their fabulous freshmen fell short of the Final Four.
Syracuse was third in popularity, but the Orange went down against Butler in the Sweet Sixteen.
In fact, only three pickers had Duke winning it all. Bailey bested them by successfully guessing 12 of the teams in the Sweet 16 and five of the Elite Eight.
In an ironic twist that perhaps only I’ll see the humor in, the biggest Duke fan I know — my podcast partner Jonathan Zopf — would have been the first Times staffer to win the Bracket Bust if his beloved Dukies had lost the championship.
But Bailey had the wisdom to do what even Duke faithful didn’t, even though he’s the first to admit his method for settling on the Blue Devils as his predicted champion was less than scientific.
“Well, my other team, North Carolina, was out of it,” he said. “So I figured Duke’s in North Carolina, only a couple of miles down the road, and coach (Mike) Krzyzewski is an old veteran.”
As most conversations with Bailey tend to do, ours eventually turned to his sons: Korentheus will be a sophomore next fall at Western Kentucky where he’s a defensive lineman, and Sterling is a junior defensive end at East Hall and one of the state’s top prospects in the Class of 2011.
For Sterling, that means March brought a different kind of madness.
“We had to turn off his phone,” Kevin Bailey said. “There so many people calling: ESPN, Rivals, Scout, the writers from Notre Dame, writers from all over. We eventually just had to shut it down for 90 days so he could focus on school and the tests he had coming up. Now if they call, I just have them talk to me.”
As for the recruiting process that has generated all the phone calls, Kevin Bailey said the family is taking it slowly. Sterling has 23 offers and is planning to take official and unofficial visits to campuses across the country.
And they’re bracing for another round of madness next week, when the spring evaluation for college recruiters begins April 15.
“That’s when the colleges can start calling you, coming to see you, all that,” Bailey said. “So it’s really about to get crazy around here.”
It was the tournament of the underdog: Northern Iowa beat top seed Kansas; Butler rocked Syracuse, made it all the way to the championship, and took another No. 1 seed — Duke, no less — to the final buzzer.
So it seems both fitting and ironic that a self-proclaimed underdog would win The Times’ third annual Bracket Bust thanks to the Blue Devils, the anti-underdog. Kevin Bailey of Lula took the crown this year, besting our own field of 65 in a competition that wasn’t decided until Butler’s final half court heave clanged off the rim.
“I was in the Bracket Bust last year, but I didn’t do too good,” Bailey said with a laugh.
In fact, he’d never won one of these annual contests, even when his only competition were his sons, Korentheus and Sterling.
“Oh, Korentheus usually won,” Kevin Bailey said. “We used to call him ‘ESPN,’ because if you wanted to know anything about sports or anybody who played, all you had to do was ask him and he could tell you. Him and Sterling, they both know more about sports than I do.”
Maybe in regard to this year’s tournament, less is more.
Kansas was the pick to win the title by the overwhelming majority of Bracket Busters, but the Jayhawks went down in the second round.
Kentucky was the next most popular pick, but the Wildcats and their fabulous freshmen fell short of the Final Four.
Syracuse was third in popularity, but the Orange went down against Butler in the Sweet Sixteen.
In fact, only three pickers had Duke winning it all. Bailey bested them by successfully guessing 12 of the teams in the Sweet 16 and five of the Elite Eight.
In an ironic twist that perhaps only I’ll see the humor in, the biggest Duke fan I know — my podcast partner Jonathan Zopf — would have been the first Times staffer to win the Bracket Bust if his beloved Dukies had lost the championship.
But Bailey had the wisdom to do what even Duke faithful didn’t, even though he’s the first to admit his method for settling on the Blue Devils as his predicted champion was less than scientific.
“Well, my other team, North Carolina, was out of it,” he said. “So I figured Duke’s in North Carolina, only a couple of miles down the road, and coach (Mike) Krzyzewski is an old veteran.”
As most conversations with Bailey tend to do, ours eventually turned to his sons: Korentheus will be a sophomore next fall at Western Kentucky where he’s a defensive lineman, and Sterling is a junior defensive end at East Hall and one of the state’s top prospects in the Class of 2011.
For Sterling, that means March brought a different kind of madness.
“We had to turn off his phone,” Kevin Bailey said. “There so many people calling: ESPN, Rivals, Scout, the writers from Notre Dame, writers from all over. We eventually just had to shut it down for 90 days so he could focus on school and the tests he had coming up. Now if they call, I just have them talk to me.”
As for the recruiting process that has generated all the phone calls, Kevin Bailey said the family is taking it slowly. Sterling has 23 offers and is planning to take official and unofficial visits to campuses across the country.
And they’re bracing for another round of madness next week, when the spring evaluation for college recruiters begins April 15.
“That’s when the colleges can start calling you, coming to see you, all that,” Bailey said. “So it’s really about to get crazy around here.”