#the 6 seed did win the championship in 2021 lol

[raisinchallah]

you know i think the only good tumblr poll final result was cecil winning tumblr sexyman its been downhill from there cuz that was like a fun throwback it was like a guy you wouldnt expect to be the consensus favorite kind of a dark horse candidate tbh really shook the whole bracket up guy we hadnt thought about in years but all subsequent large tournaments large polls and so on its literally just who is the most inoffensive the broad appeal the blandness oh the evil villain poll its always some rando from a childrens cartoon whos greatest crime is kicking a gumdrop everyone votes for utena and xena yet does not watch the shows we pretend to support women and yet... nowhere but the polls i guess in many ways this is like watching the nba playoffs the earlier weirder matchups are more interesting before things settle out and u realize the fantasy of ur favorite weird 6 seed team making it to the conference finals is not real and will never be real and its always going to be the same teams and so on this is actually teaching tumblr what its like to be sports fans no vriska will never win finals mvp and the mystics will get knocked out in the first round :(

[caffeinatedkylie]

You cannot tell me this year’s tournament wasn’t seeded for pure drama.

We (North Carolina) face potential match ups against Caleb Love* in the Elite Eight and either NC State (hated in-state rival**, 2-1 against them this year) or Duke (much more deeply hated, actual in-state rival, 2-0 against them this year, only one prior tournament matchup and we beat that ass***) in the gd title game.

I don’t think either of them is making it to the championship, but all of these possibilities, to be totally clear, make me feel physically ill 🫠

*Caleb is an extremely talented player who was with us for a few years and was part of a CRAZY postseason run in 2022, but then had a very tough, very up-and-down 22/23 season and ultimately transferred to Arizona. It was a hard departure, and a lot of fans were very shitty about it— I personally thought/think that the coaches had a lot more to answer for, but whatever. BUT he and we have had much better 23/24 seasons, it seems to be all love between him and the program/guys and unequivocally the best move for everyone involved, AND a lot of the fans who were shitty have come around and celebrated his successful season in addition to our own. It would be so incredibly stressful to watch him play us/us play him, and it wouldn’t feel good to cheer against him. (And while Caleb and the guys are competitors and made of tougher stuff than I am as it pertains to basketball emotions, it wouldn’t necessarily be easy for any of them either.)

**Kind of. The rivalry is extremely lopsided— 166-81 all time, 21-3 Final Four appearances, and 6-2 national titles, with >40 years since their last and us winning four in the meantime. But they want to be our rivals, and they come out every single time genuinely thinking they’re gonna beat the hell out of us, and we really enjoy reminding them where they stack up, so sure, they’re our rivals. Unfortunately, they did take the most recent matchup (to cap an incredible ACC Tournament run, to their credit) and they are REALLY feeling themselves about it. So while it’s highly unlikely they make it far enough to play us, boy do I not want to see it happen.

***It was an entire thing. Our head coach retired after the season ended in 2021. Theirs later announced that he was retiring after the following season and basically went on a year-long retirement tour; it was incredibly obnoxious. Which made it extra exciting when we beat them in the last game of the regular season, which was his last game on their home court. Then we played them in the Final Four in his last game ever, and it was too sweet for words, but it was also the most stressful night of maybe my entire life, and I am not equipped to play them on an even bigger stage only two years later lol.