March Madness

As we enter conference tournament play and get ever closer to the NCAA Tournament, I am creating some posts to get people ready for the Big Dance, including my 2015 March Madness Guide.


March. The time of year when the thermometer starts rising, the snow starts melting, and college basketball starts exciting. Not that the rest of the college basketball season isn't enticing  and sometimes chaotic. There is just something about March. Maybe it’s the single-elimination tournaments (both conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament), and the understanding that anything can happen on any given day. Maybe it’s the introduction of Cinderellas, teams that many people don’t know of until they cause chaos in the postseason. Maybe it’s the coming out party of many a tournament hero. Maybe it’s the amazing game-winning shots and unbelievable buzzer-beaters, made all the more iconic by the high stakes. Maybe it’s simply the sport of filling out brackets, a favorite pastime of millions of people. Maybe it’s the joy of watching a loathed juggernaut get upset or the agony of watching a favorite team falter in the final seconds. Maybe (and most likely) it’s the combination of all of these reasons. Whatever it may be that causes so much euphoria this time of year, it is unlike anything else. College football (at least the highest division) only has a four team playoff. Not many people fill out brackets for college baseball or lacrosse. Hardly anyone will remember who won the NCAA Division I college volleyball national championship last year (was it Penn State?), but many remember the magical run the Connecticut Huskies went on in last year’s NCAA Division I college basketball tournament. No other sporting event (except maybe the Super Bowl or the Olympics) can have such an effect on so many. Not many sporting events are so monumental that there is a profession made just for projecting the tournament field (bracketology). Not many events cause Warren Buffet to offer $1,000,000,000 for a perfect bracket. This is the time when ordinary collegiate student-athletes can become legends, even if they never go on to success in professional basketball. This is the time when people meet (and fall in love with) the Jimmers, Kembas, and Shabazzes. This is the time when people jump on bandwagons, and cheer for the underdogs. This is March Madness.