Cinderella Liveth!
George Mason University proved me and everyone else in the world wrong by beating UConn to advance to the Final Four today! The game was another classic; it took GMU overtime to do it and UConn had a shot at the buzzer that would've won it for them. Every time UConn went on a run, the scrappy boys from George Mason were there to answer. I kept waiting for UConn to pull away, but they never did.
The game didn't look like a fluke, either. UConn didn't give it away with turnovers or sloppy play; the Huskies played a fairly decent game. The Patriots just played a little better, so they became the only 11 seed to make it to the Final Four since, well, the LSU Tigers back in 1986.
I wonder if anyone in the world had George Mason in the Final Four besides a few students that attend the university. Probably not. ESPN claims that out of the 3 MILLION brackets submitted in their bracket challenge, only four people picked the correct Final Four! I bet all four are students at George Mason.
I even had to do a Google search to figure out who George Mason was. Here's what I found out:
The Bill of Rights received a lot of attention during its recent 200th anniversary, but little recognition was given to George Mason, who was the driving force behind the document. Mason (1725-1792) was the author of the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which the Marquis de Condorcet called "the first Bill of Rights to merit the name." Mason fought against ratification of the United States Constitution because it contained no bill of rights. As a leader of the AntiFederalists, his objections led to the first 10 amendments, which were ratified in 1791.
Mason is relatively unknown among the Founders, but his intellect was renowned as one of the finest in the Colonies. In fact, Thomas Jefferson called Mason "the wisest man of his generation." Fellow Virginian Edmund Randolph added: "He was behind none of the sons of Virginia in knowledge of her history and interest. At a glance, he saw to the bottom of every proposition which affected her." James Madison praised Mason as "a powerful reasoner, a profound statesman, and a devoted republican."
There's your history lesson for the day...free of charge! Tomorrow, we'll look at the probabilities of an 11 seed beating a 6 seed, a 3 seed, a 7 seed, and a 1 seed in a row. I'm betting it's around .000032%.
