There was no joy in Cougar/Jazz-ville

For all those who are fans of the BYU Cougars and Utah Jazz, yesterday was a bad day.

BYU was handed its latest first-round tourney loss by Texas A&M, 67-62. While this isn't anything new (BYU's last win in March Madness was in 1992), it's still disappointing. A&M (6th in the Big 12 conference), looked very beatable, but outside of Jimmer Fredette, a freshman, no one really showed up.

Oh well. Maybe next year.

Later that night, the Jazz played at home against the Lakers. The Jazz were riding a 19-game home winning streak. The West race is so tight that even a two- or three-loss skid could bump you out of the playoffs altogether. The Lakers were missing Bynum and Gasol.

The stage was set for a Jazz win.

Unfortunately, Utah decided playing defense was not necessary, and trailed 38-18 after one on their way to a 106-95 loss.

Yeah, didn't go well. The above picture is entertainingly captioned as ""Kobe Bryant dunks over Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur" at espn.com.

I reality, neither Boozer nor Okur even attempted to move over and challenge the dunk, preferring instead to watch from a safe place. It essentially captures the problem with the Jazz... no interior defense to speak of.

Even Andrei was timid. On a different play, Kobe beat his man baseline, and Andrei moved over to help. He was at the basket with plenty of time to at least jump and go for the block, but he instead stayed on his feet and watched Kobe do his thing. Wow.

Anyway, bad times.

In other news, my March Madness bracket is following its typical pattern. The first day most of my picks are good. I'll miss a couple, but not enough to discourage me or completely blow up my bracket.

Day two (today, things go to pot. I've already lost three of my Sweet Sixteen picks and the games have barely started.

Even if gambling wasn't against my religious beliefs, I'd never gamble. I've got horrible luck and worse sports prognostication ability.