Tournament of Art

It is my custom every year to track which colleges in the annual NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament also happen to be colleges I have a connection with. I have attended 3 colleges, currently work at 2, have been purchased by a few, and exhibited in galleries operated by many.  These schools are all eligible.  There are also many schools across the country where friends of mine have gone, places I visited, but I don't count these for the tournament, though they may be a rooting interest.  The current format puts 68 colleges in the basketball tournament each year, and there's always at least a little overlap with my list.  Can be anywhere from a few to several.

I thought I might have more this year than I ended up with.  For the past month, sources assumed that University of South Dakota would get the automatic bid of a conference it joined a few years ago, with a dominant record, and I've had work there, but then it got upset in the conference tournament by a school I have no connection with. Syracuse was on a lot of short lists, but didn't make the cut.  When all was said and done, I claimed three connections to the dance this year.

The one that's likely to go furthest is Villanova, a #1 in the east, maybe the whole bracket.  Seen them play a few times this year and they live up to the hype, in fact probably exceed it, as most of the national fans will not respect any teams from the northeast.  Had two prints in a show there years ago.

Coming out of the west with a #8 seed is Northwestern, getting a lot of attention by getting it's first ever invite to the tournament.  (one of my alma maters has been around for more than 300 years and still hasn't made the tournament, but they never care about that)  I had a piece in a juried show there in 1985, while I was still attending school in the state, some 320 miles to the south.

The last one is a bit of a stretch, but I'm allowing it.  A former co-worker of mine left New Jersey and moved to Florida, and while there decided to go back to school and study art.  For several years she regularly e-mailed me, sending me images and asking opinions.  I've never officially taught an online class, but based on the number of such interactions, I feel kind of like I did.  That school she was at was Florida Gulf Coast University, which most people only heard of because they had a run in the tournament a few years ago.  They are a #14 seed in the west this year and not expected to get out of the first round, but several year ago they upset two rounds of teams, so who knows?

I'll keep an eye on things and leave an update after each weekend ends, or when my last team is eliminated.