Please Mr. Postman

Some letters I just need to send--
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Dear NCAA--

We hereby decline your generous offer to host another sub-regional next year. No, really! We're not going to go all Johnny Paycheck on you or anything like that, but we just can't take it any more. Maples is supposed to be a House of Horrors for others, not us. This just isn't the way it is supposed to be for our team or for us either.....too much pressure! We only want to be gracious hosts when we WIN! If I had gotten tomahawk chopped one more time, I would have gone postal, I tell you!

As fans, we got booted from our seats so it wasn't all that familiar to us anyway. It's fun to sneak into the better seats until someone kicks you out who tells they bought their tickets just yesterday! Bad karma abounded.

So thanks, but no thanks. Maybe you could get Idaho State to take it instead. Their coach expressed great interest in the concept....give him a call!
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Dear Old Dominion--

You did it to us again. No, really! YOU were the ones that were supposed to beat Florida State, not us! Then we were supposed to beat the stuffing out of you! Don't you know anything about seeding? This is the second time you have contributed to our discomfort--perhaps not as dramatically as before, but just as painful in the end.

It's official--we don't like you.
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Dear Marist--

Thank you for reminding us what a joy the game can be. No, really! What fun it was to watch you pull off the unexpected. We like it when it is happening to anyone but us. Besides, you have one of the cutest mascots ever.

If you beat Tennessee, we're moving to Poughkeepsie.
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Dear Maryland and Vandy--

Thanks for losing. No, really! Us 2 seeds need to stick together! Misery loves company!

It won't take us off the ESPN continuous loop, but it at least we get to share the time with you!
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Dear Coach Yow--

Just win, baby! No, really!
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Dear Stanford Team--

It's hard to know how you are feeling right now and perhaps some of the pain will last for a very long time. But hopefully very soon you will be able to reflect on the season and know just how terrific it was. Many were ready to dismiss you early in the year with a loss to BYU and that dreadful trip to the Southeast, but you fought back. You lost 2 starting point guards yet were one of the top teams in the country. Let's face it, there is only one happy team at the end of each year and it just wasn't to be this year. But that should not diminish your devotion to yourselves and to each other.

Brooke, Clare, Kish and New--it has been our honor to watch you. Sometimes you were almost like our own kids as we watched you grow and mature, both on and off the court. Your joy made us happy, your tears made us cry. We'll miss you, but you'll never be far from our hearts.

To the rest of the team--it will be different for you next year for sure. You'll have a new dynamic to contend with--familiar faces returning and new players to get used to. But you'll hang in again and get another chance to live the Big Dream. You already know that the true joy is in the process, but maybe next year the end can be sweeter.

Right now, we are distraught just like you. I guess you don't feel this way if you don't care. Right now, it doesn't seem possible, but we'll be ready, just like you will, next year. No, really!