But easily the best thing about the month is March Madness.
Aside from the 'Cuse jersey, this girl has nothing to dowith college basketball. But do you really care?
In December, I had alot of problems with college football and dedicated an entire blogpost to it. College basketball, and specifically March Madness, is much different. I love just about everything about it.
So lets dissect just exactly what makes March Madness so great.
This is Talor Battle. Sophomore point guard, First-team All Big Ten SelectionSo lets dissect just exactly what makes March Madness so great.
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It Brings Out the Degenerate Gambler in us All
As a diehard basketball fan, I'd love watching the game no matter what. But what draws the casual fan to college basketball isn't the memorable shots, passionate players or frenetic gameplay.
It's participating in brackets.
And lots of brackets. Typically I try to get into three or four and I'm sure there are many others out there that participate in even more. The Office Pool has become an annual tradition. There's nothing better than diligently spending hours filling out various brackets in hopes of winning and cashing in on a big score. It's mostly luck, but when one of our upsets pan out, we're the first ones to brag about it. We agonize over which darkhorse will go deep in the tournament and whine when our Final Four team gets knocked out in the second round. There's no other sport that causes so much exciting discussion between casual acquaintances. Which brings us to another great thing about March Madness...
Yeah Boss, I'll get to that Project in a Second. Let me Just Check How Morehead State's Doing....
March Madness creates an utter lack of productivity in offices nationwide. When we're not scrolling ESPN, Yahoo, CBS Sportsline and every other basketball site for sleepers and upset picks, we're discussing with co-workers which team we think can make a run. We fill out brackets and edit them when we're supposed to be working. While the games are going on, we're constantly checking scores, getting updates and occasionally streaming live games. If your office is lucky (or stupid) enough to show games on the office TV, overall work goes down even more.
When national publications go so far as to write articles about the lack of production, you can tell that March Madness has quite the negative effect in the workplace.
So What You Sucked During the Season? You Still Got a Shot.
Conference tournaments have also provided some of the all-time great college basketball moments. I can still remember Syracuse's memorable run through the Big East Tournament in 2006. Gerry McNamara lit Madison Square Garden on fire and cemented his legacy, by making winner after game-winner and dragging an underachieving 'Cuse team to the Dance....
(McNamara's highlights are at the 1:33 mark)
As a diehard basketball fan, I'd love watching the game no matter what. But what draws the casual fan to college basketball isn't the memorable shots, passionate players or frenetic gameplay.
It's participating in brackets.
And lots of brackets. Typically I try to get into three or four and I'm sure there are many others out there that participate in even more. The Office Pool has become an annual tradition. There's nothing better than diligently spending hours filling out various brackets in hopes of winning and cashing in on a big score. It's mostly luck, but when one of our upsets pan out, we're the first ones to brag about it. We agonize over which darkhorse will go deep in the tournament and whine when our Final Four team gets knocked out in the second round. There's no other sport that causes so much exciting discussion between casual acquaintances. Which brings us to another great thing about March Madness...
Yeah Boss, I'll get to that Project in a Second. Let me Just Check How Morehead State's Doing....
March Madness creates an utter lack of productivity in offices nationwide. When we're not scrolling ESPN, Yahoo, CBS Sportsline and every other basketball site for sleepers and upset picks, we're discussing with co-workers which team we think can make a run. We fill out brackets and edit them when we're supposed to be working. While the games are going on, we're constantly checking scores, getting updates and occasionally streaming live games. If your office is lucky (or stupid) enough to show games on the office TV, overall work goes down even more.
When national publications go so far as to write articles about the lack of production, you can tell that March Madness has quite the negative effect in the workplace.
So What You Sucked During the Season? You Still Got a Shot.
Unlike college football, where once you lose a game you're usually officially out of the National Championship race, in college basketball, every team gets a shot at redemption via the end-of-year conference tournament. This gives every team a chance to make the Dance, regardless of how they played all year. Just look at Georgia last year. The "Dream Dawgs" won just 13 games last season, but went on a miracle run in the SEC tournament, won the tournament title and earned an invite to the NCAA tournament. This proves that no matter how poor your team did during the regular season, they're not dead until they lose in the conference tourney.
Conference tournaments have also provided some of the all-time great college basketball moments. I can still remember Syracuse's memorable run through the Big East Tournament in 2006. Gerry McNamara lit Madison Square Garden on fire and cemented his legacy, by making winner after game-winner and dragging an underachieving 'Cuse team to the Dance....
(McNamara's highlights are at the 1:33 mark)
How 'bout Them Nittany Lions?
If you're not a Penn State fan, I advise you to just skip this one and move on. You're not going to like it. You'll think I'm a homer (I am), and question my journalistic integrity for writing about a team with no basketball history, that hasn't made the tournament since 2001 and has only made the Dance three times since 1965. I implore you non-Penn State fan... don't read this.
OK, now that that's out of the way... have you seen Penn State basketball this year? In case you haven't, let me summarize. The team has won 21 games and 10 in the Big Ten. They hold wins over the top three teams in the league - Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue. They beat the Spartans on the road and swept Illinois this year.
Unfortunately, their out of conference schedule is downright embarrasing. It's being predicted that the Lions will need one or two wins in the Big Ten tournament to get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Truth be told, I've been a North Carolina fan since I was a kid, but I've loosely cared about the Nittany Lion basketball program since I enrolled to Happy Valley. My freshman year I went to the first game of the season. We were playing Georgetown and I had near-courtside seats (they were extremely easy to get good seats back then). We were up a point with 2.1 seconds to go and it looked like we would pull off an unbelievable upset. The Hoyas inbounded the ball and one of the Penn State players tried to intercept it. He ended up fouling a Georgetown player, who went to the line, sank two free throws and gave the Hoyas a one-point win. Needless to say, I never went to a Penn State game again.
Let's just say it's nice to finally be able to root for Penn State in basketball.
If you're not a Penn State fan, I advise you to just skip this one and move on. You're not going to like it. You'll think I'm a homer (I am), and question my journalistic integrity for writing about a team with no basketball history, that hasn't made the tournament since 2001 and has only made the Dance three times since 1965. I implore you non-Penn State fan... don't read this.
OK, now that that's out of the way... have you seen Penn State basketball this year? In case you haven't, let me summarize. The team has won 21 games and 10 in the Big Ten. They hold wins over the top three teams in the league - Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue. They beat the Spartans on the road and swept Illinois this year.
Unfortunately, their out of conference schedule is downright embarrasing. It's being predicted that the Lions will need one or two wins in the Big Ten tournament to get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Truth be told, I've been a North Carolina fan since I was a kid, but I've loosely cared about the Nittany Lion basketball program since I enrolled to Happy Valley. My freshman year I went to the first game of the season. We were playing Georgetown and I had near-courtside seats (they were extremely easy to get good seats back then). We were up a point with 2.1 seconds to go and it looked like we would pull off an unbelievable upset. The Hoyas inbounded the ball and one of the Penn State players tried to intercept it. He ended up fouling a Georgetown player, who went to the line, sank two free throws and gave the Hoyas a one-point win. Needless to say, I never went to a Penn State game again.
Let's just say it's nice to finally be able to root for Penn State in basketball.
and responsible for making Penn State basketball semi-relevant this year
Selection Sunday
With all the excitement that comes from following conference tournaments, bubble teams and top teams jockeying for tournament seeds, Selection Sunday is the culmination of it all. For true hoop heads (and those that want to get an early jump on their brackets), this night is when we get first looks at the bracket and immediately start picking potential upset teams and argue over which bracket is the hardest and easiest. Is it sad that I look forward to watching a bunch of old guys reveal which teams go on each bracket line?
Nah, didn't think so.
The Concept of Basketball All Day is Quite Appealing to me
One of the best things about March Madness is that the games leading up to the Final Four are played all day. The first two rounds feature games from Thursday-Sunday, with tons of action to keep fans of every team interested. On Thursday and Friday, most fans will have to work, but that doesn't mean they won't be glued to their computer screens checking for updates (unless you were cagey enough to get off that day. It's a tough sell these days with bosses wising up, but I encourage you to still try).
What's great are the Saturday and Sunday games. Sounds like another excuse to get hammered to me! Camp out at a bar and drown your sorrows after the No. 12 seed you had making a run to the Elite Eight gets hammered by 20 in the first round. And you can take solace in the fact that if the game you're watching doesn't go how you hoped, there are about four more coming on in a half-hour. Anything that allows you to binge drink for hours while watching athletic competition is a winner in my book.
This man was very pleased with Western Kentucky's
run to the Sweet Sixteen last year
Cindarella Slippers. That is if Cindarella Had a Size 16 Shoe.
Everyone loves an underdog, and March Madness is infamous for producing some of the best Cinderella stories every year. We see double-digit seeds upset powerhouses, tiny schools in the middle of nowhere making runs to the Elite Eight and players that most people haven't heard of it become national celebrities.
One of the best examples of this was George Mason's run in 2006. Coming into the tournament as an 11-seed, the Patriots used an experienced team made up of mostly hometown kids to topple heavyweights like my Tarheels and tournament-favorite UConn, making it all the way to the Final Four.
Another, more historic example is the 1985 Villanova team. Ranked eighth, the Wildcats made it all the way to the Championship, and toppled the heavily-favored, Patrick Ewing-led and reigning champion Georgetown Hoyas for one of the greatest tournament performances ever.
And who could forget last year's Davidson team, featuring Stephen Curry? Davidson probably won't make the tournament this year (and they shouldn't), but last year the 10th-seeded Wildcats made a run to the Elite Eight before falling by a basket to eventual-champion Kansas. During the tournament, Stephen Curry was electric. He made big shots look effortless, endeared himself to the nation and made the name Stephen (also spelled Stefen) the most popular name for newborn baby boys in the year 2009 (alright, I have no proof of that last fact. But in 15 years, when you see every boy athlete named Stefen, remember I gave you the heads up).
Which team and player will take the nation by storm this year? It's hard to say, but you can bet that it'll be fun trying to figure it out.
And since we probably won't see Curry in this year's tournament, let's finish this with a look at some of his greatest highlights....
With all the excitement that comes from following conference tournaments, bubble teams and top teams jockeying for tournament seeds, Selection Sunday is the culmination of it all. For true hoop heads (and those that want to get an early jump on their brackets), this night is when we get first looks at the bracket and immediately start picking potential upset teams and argue over which bracket is the hardest and easiest. Is it sad that I look forward to watching a bunch of old guys reveal which teams go on each bracket line?
Nah, didn't think so.
The Concept of Basketball All Day is Quite Appealing to me
One of the best things about March Madness is that the games leading up to the Final Four are played all day. The first two rounds feature games from Thursday-Sunday, with tons of action to keep fans of every team interested. On Thursday and Friday, most fans will have to work, but that doesn't mean they won't be glued to their computer screens checking for updates (unless you were cagey enough to get off that day. It's a tough sell these days with bosses wising up, but I encourage you to still try).
What's great are the Saturday and Sunday games. Sounds like another excuse to get hammered to me! Camp out at a bar and drown your sorrows after the No. 12 seed you had making a run to the Elite Eight gets hammered by 20 in the first round. And you can take solace in the fact that if the game you're watching doesn't go how you hoped, there are about four more coming on in a half-hour. Anything that allows you to binge drink for hours while watching athletic competition is a winner in my book.
This man was very pleased with Western Kentucky'srun to the Sweet Sixteen last year
Cindarella Slippers. That is if Cindarella Had a Size 16 Shoe.
Everyone loves an underdog, and March Madness is infamous for producing some of the best Cinderella stories every year. We see double-digit seeds upset powerhouses, tiny schools in the middle of nowhere making runs to the Elite Eight and players that most people haven't heard of it become national celebrities.
One of the best examples of this was George Mason's run in 2006. Coming into the tournament as an 11-seed, the Patriots used an experienced team made up of mostly hometown kids to topple heavyweights like my Tarheels and tournament-favorite UConn, making it all the way to the Final Four.
Another, more historic example is the 1985 Villanova team. Ranked eighth, the Wildcats made it all the way to the Championship, and toppled the heavily-favored, Patrick Ewing-led and reigning champion Georgetown Hoyas for one of the greatest tournament performances ever.
And who could forget last year's Davidson team, featuring Stephen Curry? Davidson probably won't make the tournament this year (and they shouldn't), but last year the 10th-seeded Wildcats made a run to the Elite Eight before falling by a basket to eventual-champion Kansas. During the tournament, Stephen Curry was electric. He made big shots look effortless, endeared himself to the nation and made the name Stephen (also spelled Stefen) the most popular name for newborn baby boys in the year 2009 (alright, I have no proof of that last fact. But in 15 years, when you see every boy athlete named Stefen, remember I gave you the heads up).
Which team and player will take the nation by storm this year? It's hard to say, but you can bet that it'll be fun trying to figure it out.
And since we probably won't see Curry in this year's tournament, let's finish this with a look at some of his greatest highlights....
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