Tag Archives: basketball

And sometimes your bracket comes out smelling like a rose

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In my previous post Sometimes Your Bracket Just Stinks – a Life Lesson I said you sometimes fail even after proper planning and research. It’s an unfortunate fact of life and you learn and move on, I said.

I wrote that after the first weekend of the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, my bracket bloodied and battered by upsets and bad picks.

The bracket taught me another lesson last night.

The NCAA Tournament bracket as metaphor for life and career taught me another lesson last night. I’d picked Louisville to win it all – not a stretch as they were the overall #1 seed. But lots of #1 seeds bite the dust early and past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. Indeed, Louisville appeared to be headed home early a few times during the tournament. Here’s what I learned: Continue reading →

Sometimes your bracket just stinks: a life lesson

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You read the so-called experts’ opinions. You read the stats and you checked your gut. Then you made your selections and held your breath. You did your due diligence and things still wound up in the toilet.

Are we talking about basketball brackets? Marketing? Career? Well yes, we are. All of that.

If you’re a college hoops fan you know your tournament bracket could be about as worthless as a comb for a bald guy like me.

You may have heard it said that successful people fail often. (Seth Godin’s take on it here is worth the read.) Continue reading →

What’s so great about Challenger sports?

If you want to know what’s so great about the Arc of Greensboro’s Challenger Sports League, ask Evan.

But don’t expect him to tell you it’s because he gets to participate in the same activities that his typically developing counterparts do, even though it’s true. He probably won’t tell you that everybody gets to play regardless of skill level, but that’s true too.

He’s probably not going to say anything about the cool surface on the baseball field that’s wheelchair friendly, or how the basketball goals are lowered so everybody has a chance at sinking a shot, or how the bumpers keep his bowling ball on course toward the pins.

He won’t think to mention the annual awards banquet where every player gets a medal and a high-five from the coaches.

He may forget that the Greensboro Grasshoppers minor league baseball team hosts an annual spring clinic for Challenger athletes.

He won’t talk about how special athletes enjoy the benefits of physical activity, friendly competition, and socializing with their peers. Or how Challenger is an extraordinary collaboration of parents and community organizations. (He probably doesn’t even know what “extraordinary” means.)

No, Evan’s probably just going to tell you he likes Challenger sports because it’s a whole lot of fun. And that’s true too!

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