NCAA Hoops: Let's Draft a Team!

It's Sweet 16 Weekend in the NCAA tournament, and all I've heard from people around here is how boring it is because none of our teams are in it. No Mizzou.  No Illinois.  No SLU.  Even old dependable Southern Illinois whimpered away quietly! Well, folks, it's time to get over it.  I say we draft a team to be our own, and I propose the University of Louisville.  There are plenty of reasons to do this:

Proximity.  Louisville is now the closest campus to St. Louis with a team in the dance.  (26 miles closer than Lawrence, Kansas, not that we could ever root for the Jayhawks, anyway.)

Daring.  U of L is a number 3 seed in the tournament, and is not loaded up on all those bandwagon jumpers that come around when number one seeds are announced.  Example:  Our office pool has 35 people in it. Only four entries picked a team not seeded number one, and three of those picked Tennessee, the team Louisville trounced last night!  How boring is it to pick a number one to win?  Lets hitch our wagon to the dark horse that shocks the world! (See the 2006 baseball Redbirds for an example.)

Ethnicity.  Louisville's coach is Rick Pitino.  Pitino is Italian.  He loves Italian food.  He owns Italian restaurants.  He'd fit right in on The Hill!  (Can anyone really picture Mike Krzyzewski in an Italian restaurant?  He looks like he eats quiche.)

Heritage.  Louisville is named after King Louis.  St. Louis is named after King Louis.  'Nuff said.

The Bird.  We're a Cardinal town and they're the Cardinals.  Heck, their Cardinal even has TEETH!  (See picture) These are our kind of colors and our kind of bird!

So that's my case.  Take it for what you will, but know this:  if you take it to heart, you could be giving yourself two more weeks of March Madness that otherwise would have long since passed you by.  GO CARDS!