[Original version posted to the Diaries of College Basketball.]

I don’t believe in luck. Not really. I think of myself as a fairly rational person. Then sports get involved and it all seems to go out the window.

I am still blaming myself for Pitt losing to Villanova last week. Why? Because I didn’t sit in the right chair in the living room and I didn’t have a beer. Technically I should blame my daughter for both. She was sitting in the chair, and since it was early in the afternoon on a weekday with me wathcing her while the wife was at work I couldn’t have a beer (and I promised Children and Family Services that I would stop doing that). Still, it seems wrong to blame someone under 3, so I guess it’s my fault. I followed plenty of other little pre-game rituals, but not the big ones.

Rationally, I know that sitting in the wrong seat, and not having a Yuengling during the game wasn’t what cost Pitt that game. But…

Really, this sort of thing goes back to the 1996 MLB playoffs and World Series. A bunch of us at law school got together to watch the games. We all sat in the same seats, repeating the same standards, drinking the same type of beer. The only times we didn’t meet to watch, the Yankees lost. We graduated in ’97 and blamed ourselves for the Yankees losing in the playoffs that year.

I’m very worried about what to do with Pitt’s game at 12:40 pm on Thursday. It doesn’t bode well.

So, here’s the question of the day. What are your rituals and superstitions when it comes to game day for Pitt? How bad does it get?