PECULIAR RAMBLINGS OF YOUR AVERAGE NERD: 17-002 MARCH MADNESS EDITION
Hello everyone. Hope this blog entry finds you well, and not buried in snow and ice like many of us here in the Northeast!
The month of March is one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is (usually) getting warmer, the MLB baseball season is around the corner, and I celebrate my birthday this month. But one of my favorite things also takes place in March - something that holds the interests of millions of Americans, even to the point that work slows down in office buildings and schools across the country.
I'm, of course, talking about the NCAA Basketball Tournament. That yearly rite of spring where fans and students alike get swept up in the excitement of games being played all day and night. Where the word "brackets" is spoken in every other sentence, and not have anything to do with carpentry. Where friendly (and not so friendly) office pools pop up and the girl from accounting who picks the winners based on her favorite colors actually wins the damn pool! Where we get enjoyment from seeing the small school be the "Little Engine That Could" and beat the big State U. in a huge upset.
I always loved watching the tournament. Growing up, I couldn't wait until school was over so I can race home and put on CBS to see whatever game was on that afternoon and then watch basketball all night while doing my homework. Sometimes, if I had a teacher that was cool, he/she would actually put the TV on in class so we could watch a few minutes of it, especially if one of the local schools was playing at that time. And it was so much fun watching one game on TV while hearing updates of other games happening at the same time, being surprised with the results. And I loved filling out those printouts of the tournament brackets from the newspaper trying to predict what would happen. In short, it's pure madness, and it's great.
Today I don't feel the same youthful enthusiasm for the tournament. Partly because I can't devote the same time and energy to watching college basketball. Partly because of how the NCAA and its member universities operate collegiate sports, but that's another topic for another day. Still, I look forward to this edition of March Madness, and once again I'm going to try (and probably fail) to predict what will happen this year.
Here's my bracket, which I entered this year in ESPN's Tournament Challenge:
I have Villanova, Gonzaga, Louisville, and Kentucky in the Final Four, which takes place in Glendale, Arizona. And I have Villanova successfully defending their title from last year by defeating Louisville in the Championship Game. Will I be right? Maybe, maybe not. But either way it should be fun to watch and find out. Good luck to you as you try to make your picks and survive the Madness!
