Let the madness of March begin
As a die hard sports fan my two favorite times of the year are the end of December and the middle of March. At the end of December you have the football bowl season and FCS football playoffs.
I get to see football teams I was unable to catch all season long go toe to toe with some powerhouse squad. Nine times out of ten, the powerhouse team wins, but every once and awhile, there’s an upset that shakes the college football landscape.
In March, it’s college hoops that takes center stage in the country. Like the football bowl season, I get to see teams that in some cases I have never heard of, make a deep run into the NCAA tournament.
Every year there is some Cinderella squad that knocks off a higher seeded team, or has some breakout player that announces their arrival to the big stage. Current NBA stars Stephen Curry and Ja Morant used the Big Dance, as the NCAA tournament has come to be known over the years, to launch their stars.
I prefer the other name for this time of the year - March Madness. It’s an apt description, since any crazy thing can and often does happen in the NCAA D-I tournament. I’ve seen teams that have no business being there, teams that snuck in by winning their tournaments, put fear into the hearts of blue blood programs like Duke, Kansas or Kentucky.
I’ve been fortunate to see my Wisconsin Badgers make three Final Fours in the last twenty years, which again, I take nothing for granted. For decades Wisconsin languished in the dumps of the Big Ten conference and college basketball in general.
Certainly, there were good players on those squads from the 1960’s and 1970’s and 1980’s, but the field in those NCAA tournaments was much smaller, and it was harder to punch your ticket and go dancing. I’ve been spoiled to see Wisconsin make it to the NCAA tournament for most of my life, and kids born from 2000 have seen Wisconsin teams do amazing things.
Of course, what I love best about March Madness isn’t just seeing my Badgers make a deep run, but seeing amazing comebacks, circus style shots and kids who will never play competitive basketball again go up against a Goliath of a team and come away with a victory.
Perhaps that is why I like the Big Dance more than the bowl season. You know that every team has a chance, and over the many, many years, March Madness has served up the madness.
It was only a few years ago when the University of Maryland - Baltimore County (UMBC) Retrievers came into the tournament as a sixteenth seed and shocked the world by defeating a one seeded Virginia.
It was the first time the lowest seeded squad had defeated the highest seeded squad. And yet, a year later Virginia found redemption by winning it all. Like I said, madness.
So, 68 teams from around the country will vie for basketball supremacy. Kids will put it all on the line for college hoops glory, knowing that for some, it’s their last ever chance to play the game they love.
It’s hard not to love a spectacle like that. Hearts will be broke, as will dreams, but for others, a magical moment will live forever suspended in time and be replayed for years to come. Bring on the madness.
M USINGS AND G RUMBLINGS
ROSS PATTERMANN REPORTER
