Remember last year, when I was able to follow the tournament to the end, because I was one win away from taking the cash in the biggest pool I entered?

Yeah. That was fun.

This year … not so much. Even if we pretended for a second that Ohio State hadn’t lost to Georgetown yesterday, my brackets — all of them — would have been in pretty rough shape.

And with the loss to the Hoyas? Wow. It’s bad.

I still have final four teams left, and I suppose there is a tiny chance to pull something out over the next couple weekends. But to be realistic? From this point on, Uncle Crappy is a spectator.

** UPDATE, 10 p.m. Monday: OK. It’s not so bad; Ohio State’s loss only made it seem that way. I’m in sixth place in the internet pool — that’s the one with the big payoff — and my non-fantasy brackets — the ones without Ohio State winning the whole thing — are in the top 10 at both my office and that of The Wife. It’s a little hard to project those, but the internet pool comes with an automatic projection thingie, which says I can still win, actually under several scenarioes. So from here on out, I’m a big freakin’ Villanova fan. Go Cats!