A public service announcement from East Coast Bias

Kids, every year we hear tales of trauma and grief much like the following, and it's so easy for us to distance ourselves from it and dismiss it as not a real problem. Until it happens to soembody close to you. Or, more accurately, to you.

I urge you, URGE YOU, to submit your brackets well in advance of 12:00 noon on tipoff Thursday of the tournament. Give yourself time to proofread your brackets. Make sure that you've entered everything in correctly. There is nothing worse than waking up in the morning, being psyched about a picking performance the previous night that will catapult you into first place in your pool, only to see that because you were "too busy billing clients" to spend the extra five minutes to proofread your pick, or because you "wanted until the very last possible minute to make all the changes that you could" that you didn't leave yourself time to proofread your picks, that you've entered your picks incorrectly.

I, personally, was very happy watching the closing moments of Xavier and West Virginia last night. I "knew" that I had Xavier in the Elite Eight, and as of that moment, my Elite Eight was still perfect. Louisville had not beat Tennessee yet (and nobody in my pool had Louisville in the Elite Eight so that game could only help me, not hurt me). I log onto Yahoo this morning, and sure enough, I had mistakenly entered Duke to beat Xavier.

So kids, take your time when you enter your brackets. Buckle your safety belts, don't do drugs, and proofread your brackets.

Don't cry for me. I'm already dead.