I am absolutely giddy with anticipation as we all prepare to take off work, skip school, and somehow avoid all responsibility over the next two days in order to behold the greatest spectacle in sports.
Watching the NCAA tournament is the equivalent of being a kid in a candy store. Wall to wall games broadcast on CBS Thursday and Friday with game breaks every few minutes portraying kids no older than myself going through the utter despair and complete jubilation as their dreams are realized or crushed. There is nothing quite like it. The long, arduous season leads up to this point. Play a bad game and your dream is crushed. Play above your head, hit some threes and dance late into the night with your glass slipper Cinderella.
It’s such an amazing and refreshing treat to see young men playing for nothing more than pride and the name on the front of their jersey. We have become accustomed to watching the greatest players in the world play a brand of basketball devoid of passion and in many cases effort, seemingly only interested in monetary gain and personal glory. Even the greatest players coast for stretches in the playoffs. The whole NBA season is such a grind that it’s hard to blame them. But come March, you’d be hard pressed to find a college kid taking plays off. College kids are diving for lose balls and busting their butts until the clock strikes zero. The quality of the basketball is an obvious drop off from the NBA simply because of the talent level of the players. However, the camaraderie and passion of high level college basketball more than compensates for the diluted talent.
There is nothing quite like a Bill Rafferty, “Onions!†call to get a basketball fan juiced for the tournament. Then you get to watch all day as schools you’ve never heard of attempt to bust brackets and live the dream, by taking out the goliaths of the college basketball world.
What makes it even greater is that anyone can enjoy the tournament. Nearly every American fills out at least one bracket regardless of their knowledge or interest in college basketball. Every casual male pretends to be an expert on calling upsets involving teams that they have never heard of much less seen play before, while many females pick their favorite names, locations, or even numbers to cut down the nets. The best part is that the process of choosing generally has little to do with the results. I’ve seen many pools involving guys who did extensive research to fill out their brackets won by girls who liked the color of a certain team’s uniform. That’s what makes the tournament great. Everyone has an equal opportunity to win, regardless of how little someone knows about basketball.
So sit down on your couch, order your favorite pizza, and be prepared to get beat in your pool by Samantha who picked Arizona to win it all because her favorite animal is a wildcat.
