Personally amusing to me that yesterday I was thinking, “You know, despite the rough opening weekend, my bracket isn’t that bad.” I had picked half the Elite Eight, an I still had 3 of my final 4 teams. At the very least it would be respectable. Then Texas loses. UConn and Villanova join the losers and now I’m done. Nothing left. Honestly, I haven’t picked brackets well since Pitt started making the Tournament. I just can’t separate my biases. The primary reason why I don’t bet on sports.

Still, watching the way UConn lost to George Mason was incredible. And terribly instructive. Rudy Gay is a tremendous talent. The best player on the court. Everyone knows it. And it seems, whether consciously or not, the rest of the Huskies take their cue from him — and it finally caught up with them.

Gay lacks that competitive fire. That drive. Something about him, when things don’t go his way or come as easily as they have in the past, he fades. He doesn’t step up and he doesn’t take matters into his own hands. And throughout the past two seasons it seemed to seep through an incredibly talented team.

To see Josh Boone go from an aggressive, bold and bordering on early clutch player as a freshman to this tentative, passive scared kid inside the last two years has been amazing. And it just seemed to spread. UConn grew more careless with the ball than ever before.

Nothing Jim Calhoun did could ever fully penetrate this team. We are talking a hall of fame coach. A brutally honest, at times to the media, guy who just kept failing to reach this team. They escaped each of the first 3 rounds on sheer overwhelming talent, but the lack of heart finally caught up with them.

That must really suck for UConn fans. To know you have one of the best coaches. To have all that talent. But to see the team not have the will and heart.