Cinderella never lost three slippers, so why do the college basketball gods find it amusing to highlight this year’s NCAA Tournament with three Cinderella teams?

Was it not enough to give us one team that we must curse on end for single handedly destroy our bracket? No, they had to take it two steps further and make life for basketball fans full of three times the headaches and heartbreak.

Three schools I’ve never heard of in the Sweet 16 ?” this is never supposed to happen.

You expect such teams to be one and done. They get their shining moment, then return to their one-horse towns and let the big schools fight it out for the title. But the fairy godmother decided, “No, not this year,” and put the likes of Bradley, Wichita State and George Mason in the Sweet 16. It is un-heard of.

In the week prior to the tournament, I searched and searched for Cinderella, but obviously my boys at ESPN didn’t have the right slipper size information on hand, as they told me, “Watch out for Air Force… San Diego State is a real threat… and don’t look past Northern Iowa.” Of course, I bought in and went with the advice of Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale and I got burned.

Schools whose games are televised after the World’s Strongest Man Competition on ESPN 2 burned me.

It would have been easy to pick a team like Florida State had they been put on the bracket, but come on, Bradley? Who picks Bradley for a Cinderella team? Bradley is the name of your little sister’s boyfriend, not Cinderella in the NCAA tournament.

I go into every tourney, knowing three things, a Big Ten team will make a run, Duke will somehow blow it for me, and there will be ONE Cinderella.

This year, I got no Big Ten teams left, Duke is still holding on strong, and there are three Cinderella’s out there, stomping on my heart with their slippers.

Josh Oates can be reached at [email protected]