As a columnist, I do my best to stay unbiased in my reporting.  But hey, I'm human, so I will occasionally offer an article that shows my true colors.

I breathed a gigantic sigh of relief yesterday when I saw that UCLA was up by 20 on Xavier with just a few minutes left to go in the regional final in Phoenix. 

If Xavier had somehow knocked off UCLA, it would have been my worst nightmare. 

Let me explain.

Xavier’s campus is about five miles from the campus of the University of Cincinnati—my team. Cincinnati Bearcats basketball is my favorite team in all of sports.  Xavier is much more than a hated rival.  It’s hard to explain unless you root for either one of these two schools.

When the brackets came out, I immediately knew Xavier was a lock for the Elite Eight. 

I don’t know what it is about the tournament, but this team’s karma just seems to vault them to ridiculous heights.  Last year, this squad nearly knocked off Greg Oden and the Ohio State Buckeyes. 

So as I watched UCLA struggle against Texas A&M and also against Western Kentucky’s pressure, I will admit—I was worried.  I’ve witnessed too many of Xavier’s inexplicably lucky comebacks and wins. 

I thought this would be the year that my worst nightmare came true:  Xavier would make it to the Final Four (making all of this worse is that Cincinnati isn’t even at NIT level right now). 

Meanwhile, Xavier slipped past former Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins and West Virginia on Thursday by (of course) benefiting from a missed Joe Alexander free throw.  Alexander later would foul out early in overtime on one of the weakest plays in basketball history, which also helped the Muskies’ cause. 

I tried to avoid the game yesterday altogether, but finally I broke down and logged onto ESPN.com to check the score.  When I saw the 20-point lead, I said, “Finally, your f****n' luck ran out, Xavier.” 

I may sound like a hater, I may sound jealous of Xavier’s success.  And hey, you’re entitled to your opinion.  All I know is that my worst nightmare didn’t come true.  And I’m damn happy about that.