Let me know how it turns out.

How do you cope with your pre-game anxiety? The nice thing about attending games in person is that the stadium provides an easy outlet for nervous energy. You can stand up and yell for three hours and you aren't out of place. Watching games on television is a different story. Out of all of the NCAA tournament games the basketball team has played in the last five years, I think I managed to make it all the way through maybe one or two of them. The rest I saw in small chunks, if at all. (One unfortunate example: I avoided the Vandy game, then decided to sneak a peek at the score while I was online, saw we were up double-digits with like 3:00 left, and then turned the game on. Oops.) If it's a close game on TV, forget it. I can't handle it. I have no idea how I made it through last year's double-OT win at Miami. Maybe I just need to start smoking; they always look relaxed, those smokers.

Nervousness hasn't been too much of a problem during the last few football seasons because we have not played in many meaningful games (i.e., with major bowl or conference title implications). This weekend's affair doesn't qualify, either (though it is critically important to NC State's Muffler Bowl hopes), but I think I'll take the coward's way out despite the low stakes. The problem with this self-imposed blackout is that I can't watch any of the other games on television, lest the Wolfpack score flash across the bottom of the screen. I can't even watch ESPN Classic.