One Depressing Sports Weekend

We don't mean to overstate this, but Saturday was a disappointing an evening for college basketball as we can remember. It's not just that George Mason lost to Florida, or even that they lost so convincingly. Their legend had been secured simply by making it to Indianapolis at all; any mid-major who makes the Sweet 16 for the next 10 years will be asked if they can "pull a George Mason."

But this has been as exciting a tournament as we can remember, pretty much every round, every day, every timeslot, every game. But both GMU-Florida and LSU-UCLA were bland, depressing blowouts, difficult to watch after halftime. That we would have come so far for so little seemed wrong, incongruous, some sort of cosmic cheat. That the ratings — insert usual "Neilsen ratings are pointless and outdated" disclaimer here — for the Patriots-Gators game were down eight percent from last year's Illinois-Louisville game somehow dented the story more; maybe people weren't as caught up in this as we thought.

But at least we had a Sunday evening baseball game. Baseball! That will cheer us! Oh. A three-hour rain delay. Nevermind. At least we'll catch the score on SportsCenter in the morning. What? Is that Stuart Scott doing another poetry slam? Aw ...

It's a difficult morning to be in love with sports. We'll do our best to snap out of it by lunchtime.

Cinderella Mauled By Gator [Deadspin]