When 15th-seeded Western Kentucky carried a seven-point lead into halftime against Marquette on Friday, I legitimately thought something was up. No way Bijan Robinson was going to call that upset on top of the three double-digit winners he had from Thursday’s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 action.
Never mind that Bijan’s perfect bracket stayed intact through 19 games to that point.
Alas, Shaka Smart’s Golden Eagles overwhelmed the underdog Hilltoppers in the second half of what turned into an 87-69 blowout.
Bijan was a good sport about it all once Western Kentucky went down, and had the perfect perspective considering just how few perfect brackets remained to that point.
But the best thing to come out of all this was probably the memes. Whomever is running the official NCAA March Madness Twitter/X handle, the Force is strong with ye.
I wonder how you get that gig. Hopefully that intern or whatever is getting some good NIL money. The exact right combination of tact and roasting. Maybe that person should trade notes with the former (?) Orlando Magic admin.
Here are some more Bijan bracket-related reactions. Some of them came before the Marquette victory, some afterwards.
It’s sort of poetic that the Golden Eagles were the team to burst Bijan’s bubble. Sorry, with all the Bijan/bracket alliteration opportunities, I can’t pass them up as they arise. Gotta hit ’em while they’re hot.
Carrying on. The poeticism stems from the fact that Shaka Smart parlayed his Final Four run and general success at VCU into the Texas head coaching job. However, Smart never came close to reaching the heights he did at VCU with the Longhorns, which led him to Marquette.
In case you’re reading an article about a second-year NFL running back who was drafted in the top 10 and somehow don’t know which college he attended, Bijan played at Texas. He also made the classic homer choice of picking them to go to the national championship. Marquette and Texas could technically meet in the Final Four if the seventh-seeded Longhorns run all the way through the Midwest region. That’d be a laughable notion at the beginning of March Madness. Now that Bijan has been so prescient about how the Big Dance has played out? I may have to tail him and bet Texas the rest of the way until the wheels fall off. At least pick them to cover, right?
Said it last night and I’ll say it again: Hell of a run, Bijan. I was stunned by your initial 12-game hot streak prior to Thursday’s late games, never mind that you were a perfect former NFL undefeated season 16-0 by the end of Day 1. Better than my pedestrian 14-2 start, which apparently 85,000+ people in the ESPN Bracket Challenge achieved.
That mean, nasty voice in my head is getting louder!
