My day on the bubble

This time of year, there's one thing that makes me more insane than John Chaney: It's all the so-called experts telling us "who's in" and "who's out" of the NCAA Tournament. They are almost always wrong, and this past week's games only reinforced that.\nAfter watching "tournament lock" Texas Tech get spanked by "NIT bound" Texas A&M and seeing Alabama, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh all falter last week, I knew what I had to do. I had to go to the best "bubble game" of the weekend any way I could. Luckily, it was only a four-hour drive away in South Bend, where Notre Dame faced the UCLA Bruins. Notre Dame has been deemed a sure thing for the tournament, while UCLA is generally considered to be on the outside looking in. \nDespite my hatred for both teams involved in the game, I was sure this was a good idea. So here's a recap of my Sunday in South Bend. I really hope you appreciate what I have to go through for you, the reader. \n11:30 a.m. -- Arrive in South Bend. It was 33 degrees when we left Bloomington. It's only 30 here, shouldn't be too bad.\n11:34 a.m. -- Get out of car to stroll around campus. Can't speak, I am so cold. Who knew the North Pole was only 200 miles from Bloomington? Ike and I battle the cold to take a look at the famous Notre Dame landmarks. \n11:45 a.m. -- Make inappropriate gestures toward "Touchdown Jesus."\n12:07 p.m. -- I no longer have sensation in my face.\n1:50 p.m. -- Introductions of starting lineups. Notre Dame does their own version of the mid-'90s Chicago Bulls introductions. The lights were out, the music was loud, and I kept waiting for the announcer to go, "And NOW AT GUARD, FROM NORTH CAROLINA ..."\n2 p.m. -- Game tips off. We keep getting scoring updates from the IU game via text messages.\n3 p.m. -- Get message that Hoosiers win. Celebrate like we just won the lottery while a Notre Dame player shoots his free throws in our direction.\n3:01 p.m. -- Get blamed for missed free throws.\n3:03 p.m. -- Ike and I belt out a spot-on rendition of "Indiana, Our Indiana" as the Irish trail by double digits. The entire crowd now hates us.\n3:10 p.m. -- Halftime. Bruins dominating 41-26.\n3:15 p.m. -- New Irish head football coach Charlie Weis addresses student section. Everyone has been saying it's great that Weis has lost 60 pounds, but after seeing him in person, I don't buy it. I mean, Charlie Weis losing 60 pounds is like throwing a deck chair off the Titanic.\n3:20 p.m. -- Bump into Ron Powlus in the men's bathroom (insert any number of Powlus career and bathroom content jokes here). \n3:25 p.m. -- Is it me or have Notre Dame's fans had less to cheer about than any other major program over the last 10 years? \n3:55 p.m. - Torin Francis is inexplicably taken out of the game for the Irish. UCLA proceeds to go up 20. Can someone please help me understand how IU lost to Notre Dame?\n4:15 p.m. -- Notre Dame's feverish comeback is thwarted when their head coach, Mike Brey, does a Mike Davis and gets a technical foul for running all the way under his own basket to yell at an official. \n4:30 p.m. -- Final score: UCLA 75, Notre Dame 65. \nSo a team that's supposed to be securely situated in the tournament field loses at home to a team that's not supposed to be in the conversation. \nIf anything, this game proved one thing: Until selection Sunday, nobody knows who is in and who is out. Unfortunately, until then we have to hear everybody's opinion on the matter.