March Madness…It’s AWESOME, baby!

I’m a sports nut, plain and simple. I love sports and spend a great deal of time watching them, playing them, thinking about them, and, yes, writing about them. I love the competition, the highs and the lows, the back stories and sidebars, the coaches and the rivalries. But I think what I love most about sports is the fact that when the ball goes up or the puck is dropped, nobody truly knows what is going to happen. Sure, there are always favorites and underdogs; there are always point spreads and supposed to’s. But the reason so many hundreds of millions of us tune in and watch these games season after season is that pretty much anything can happen, and even the smartest sports writers and pundits in the world cannot accurately predict how the ball will bounce.

Of all the contests and events that populate our airwaves, none so beautifully and painfully demonstrates this deep athletic truth than the NCAA Basketball Tournament, otherwise known as March Madness. Where else do you find Lehigh beating Duke and Norfolk State upending Missouri in the same afternoon? Where else does a team like Virginia Commonwealth get ripped by ESPN’s best and brightest for even being invited to the dance, only to then outlast 60 of the other 63 teams, making it all the way to the Final Four?  Where else can a six foot white kid named Brady Heslip drain nine three point shots to get his Baylor Bears into the Sweet 16 for the first time ever?

But it’s not only the upsets and the Davidic triumphs that make March so filled with Madness on the hardwood; it’s also the things the favorites and the Goliaths must go through en route to their “expected” victories. When a top seed like Syracuse finds out the day before the tourney that their starting center is academically ineligible, or the mighty Carolina Tarheels lose both their biggest shot blocker and their lightening quick point guard to injury in the first couple rounds, the drama and pressure gets cranked up even further! Suddenly, lesser known opponents who didn’t think they had a prayer start to believe that maybe – just maybe – this really could be their year.

And then there are the coaches. Nowhere else in sport do coaches have the ability to affect game outcomes the way these 68 men do. The entire complexion and flow of a game can be altered in a single 30 or 60 second time out, and a halftime locker room adjustment can turn a twenty five point deficit into a twelve point victory. From the legends like Pittino, Williams, Boeheim and Calipari to the upstarts named Cronin, Smart, Allford, and Stephens, these type A heart attacks waiting to happen are just as interesting and entertaining as what is going on between the lines.

Most of all, I’m just grateful for this time of the year. I wish I could thank each and every school and team who bring us this amazing event to brighten winter’s waning weeks. Here’s to March Madness. Dicky V got this one right – “It’s AWESOME, BABY!”