Four Play

The final four teams in the NCAA tournament play tonight.  Originally known as "Four Play," an expression established by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request), the designation for this level of play was changed to the "Final Four" when first lady Mamie Eisenhower, an avid basketball fan, suggested that the use of alliteration was more marketable.

Some of the teams playing tonight were not predicted to be in the Final Four and are only there due to upset games last week.  Are the teams you projected to be in the Final Four playing tonight?  How is your bracket doing?

Of course, upsets are what make the tournament so exciting -- but upsets can also be the ruin of those who gamble on the games.  Emmett Lee Dickinson wrote about upsets in the tournament in his now-classic poem "How the Upsets closed around him" (below on the left).  His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "How the Waters closed above him" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

How the Upsets closed around Him
We shall never know –
How He stretched His Anguish and his
Debt – to cover too –

Point Spreads were His simple Basis
Bold then were the Bets
Once it’s over his Bracket
Sums his loss in Nets –

By Emily Dickinson:

How the Waters closed above Him
We shall never know –
How He stretched His Anguish to us
That – is covered too –

Spreads the Pond Her Base of Lilies
Bold above the Boy
Whose unclaimed Hat and Jacket
Sum the History –