I apologize for ruining March Madness

I feel like this is somehow my fault.

I did a pretty upset-heavy bracket this year, which seems like a good thing, except that I had a lot of the wrong upsets. I still have my national champion alive, Villanova, but even in a good year, there’s a pick or two that stick in your craw through March… and this year, oh, is it sticking.

The worst part is, I knew it at the time. I knew what I should do, and I let everyone down.

I should have picked Duke to go all the way. We’d be rid of them by now. Instead, Mike Krzyzewski is going to one more Final Four, where he’ll win one more national championship, because that’s how the universe works.

Tom Brady goes to Tampa Bay, doesn’t embarrass himself, wins another Super Bowl, thrills everyone by retiring, and then unretires.

Max Verstappen wins the Formula 1 world championship on what is unequivocally Some Bullshit, to the point that Formula 1 has admitted it, and it doesn’t matter, the title belongs to that Dutch twerp forever.

Krzyzewski loses his last game to North Carolina, takes time out of the postgame ceremony to publicly trash his own team, gets embarrassed in the ACC tournament, comes limping into March Madness, and of course now Duke is invincible. There was no doubt that they were going to dispatch Arkandas in the West Regional final, and they did, 78-69.

Krzyzewski now goes to New Orleans for his 13th Final Four, with his sixth national championship coming in a week. Unquestionably the worst part? The Blue Devils’ next game will either be a cruel end to St. Peter’s Cinderella run, or Krzyzewski avenging that UNC loss at Cameron, on a somehow even bigger stage.

It’s my fault, and I’m sorry.