By Doc Elder
What is the greatest American comedy ensemble in 2014?
Do you go with the cast of Saturday Night Live? Are you more partial to the group that puts out The Daily Show? Or is there some other team that I’m forgetting?
Whatever your pick is, that assemblage owes a huge debt to the originators of the genre: The Marx Brothers. Those guys were just incredibly funny in every movie they ever made. Here a sample of dialogue from the movie Animal Crackers:
Groucho Marx: One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
Chico Marx: How did an elephant get in your pajamas?
Groucho Marx: That’s irelephant.
Pretty good stuff, huh?
But what, you might ask, does that have to do with the world of sports? Here’s what: I promised you a look at how my NCAA basketball tournament brackets are doing so far, so let’s see if my predictions were spot on or if they were irelephant.
South
Boy, I was sweating bullets in the first round when Florida got off to the slow start against Albany. I would have committed ritual Hari-kari if that trend had continued because I picked the Gators to win it all. Fortunately for my bracket, they prevailed. With their win over Pitt, they are off to the Sweet 16. Whew.
Midwest
Well, don’t say I didn’t tell you so. I didn’t think that Wichita State could go through the tournament undefeated, and they couldn’t. As I also had suspected, Louisville has played really well. With two wins, the Cardinals are in the Sweet 16, so after Saturday I was two-for-two with my picks.
East
Could my streak of prognostications keep going? The University of Virginia has never had a very good track record in the NCAA tournament—Ralph Sampson was the best player of his era, and he never won a single title there—but the Cavaliers just freaking blew out Memphis Sunday night. I’m not sure if they can play that well from here on out, but they certainly validated my confidence in them so far.
West
Last but not least, could Arizona make me a perfect 4-0 in the prediction department? The Gonzaga squad would have made their famous alumni—notably Bing Crosby and John Stockton—proud with their effort against the Wildcats, but the guys from Tucson proved to be just too much to handle for the Bulldogs. So Arizona is off to the Sweet 16, and my predictions still have the possibility of being perfect. So continue to enjoy March Madness, and I’ll check back with you next week to see if I’m bragging or gagging.