Governor Nixon had the Missouri Tiger men’s basketball team stop by the governor’s mansion this week for dinner.  The team dropped in on the House and the Senate earlier and signed autographs at the capitol for an hour.  Coach Frank Haith was on the dais in the Senate but did not speak.  The last Missouri coach allowed to speak to the state senate assured everybody he wasn’t going anywhere.   Senators probably didn’t want to court fate this time.

Our sports director, Bill Pollack, has been comparing his NCAA bracket with Nixon’s bracket throughout the tournament and has been increasingly ebullient as the tournament went along.   Bill picked the winners in 35 games.  The governor had only 28.

The governor’s bracket fell apart when Missouri lost in the first round.  He had picked the Tigers to win the championship.  After all, he is the governor of MISSOURI.  Imagine the damage to his re-election campaign if a Republican candidate could claim “Nixon has done a lousy job in creating jobs—and he picked Kansas to win the NCAA tournament!!!!”   It’s not a chance an incumbent Missouri governor could ever take.

Bill’s bracket took a hit when he picked North Carolina over Kansas in the quarterfinals.

Perhaps it was being political correctness that did in the governor’s NCAA bracket.  Maybe they’ll have a rematch next year when there are no election pressures.

Governor Nixon figured the last four teams standing would be Missouri, Florida State, North Carolina, and Kentucky.  He figured Missouri would beat Florida State for the title.

Bill had Kentucky, Ohio State, North Carolina, and Missouri.  He figured North Carolina would beat Kentucky.

So our sports director is feeling quite superior in his bracket competition with the governor. Maybe he should invite Jay Nixon to the Pollack Mansion for dinner.