Who to cheer for or against?

For the first time in many years, I have no one to really cheer for or against in this year's NCAA basketball tournament. For those of you that know me, this is a problem.

First, I love my Hoosiers. I love them this year despite winning only one Big Ten season game and 6 games total. It was a brutal year, but the brutality came because Kelvin Sampson messed things up. Not because the recruiting was bad or the kids weren't trying as hard as they could. It stinks to suffer through a year like that, but it's not so bad when you realize that it's temporary.

Second, I hate UK. I always have. Didn't matter if it was Pitino, Tubby or Gillespie. In recent years they've had our number and that's pissed me off, but it's the overall rivalry and fact that they have two more national championships than the Hoosiers do that really gets to me.

With both IU and UK out of the tournament in the same year for the first time since I don't even know when, it has me sad. My dad always jokes that I have at least one bracket with the Hoosiers winning it all. And he's right. I usually let my fantasies get the best of me at least once tourney time. But this year, that's not event possible.

It's also not possible to pick UK as the first #1 seed to lose against a #16. Without either of those hopes, the tourney just isn't that interesting to me.

Sure, I can root for Michigan State or Purdue because they're Big Ten teams. I even like Purdue, which is contrary to many Hoosier fans' mentality, but I like rooting for Indiana teams, even if "Indiana" isn't splashed across their chests.

And I can argue that Memphis is the perennial loser who complains about not being a #1 seed, plays no one and then loses when it counts. They made it all the way to the big game last year and that's cool, but the season of blowing through Conference USA teams didn't really prepare them for close games. No where was that more evident than letting Chalmers launch the three to tie when the Tigers could've fouled and sent him to the line for two. That kind of mentality doesn't just turn on in March.

So this year, I'm going to have to be selfish. I'm going to have to root for whichever team (and I've yet to pick) that I have going to the finals. Because I have no emotion directing my picks. No sentamentality or hatred to guide my pencil. I can just pick a team I think has a good shot at winning and then cheer like hell that they win so I can collect the money. It's what Clark Kellogg does every year Ohio State doesn't make it into the tourney.