NCAA Tournament: Bubble time is best
Honestly, this is the one time of year that you don’t have to love, or even like, college basketball to sit down in front of the television and take in a game between two schools you have never heard of.
Unlike college football where a handful of teams are the only ones that really matter, you have to keep track of almost all of the legitimate D-I programs in men’s college basketball to truly get a grasp on March Madness. This week, we will watch as the five power conferences have their tournaments to crown the champs and automatic bids, while the mid-majors also get after it, hoping for a ticket to the Big Dance.
Sure, the major programs are fun to watch, but this week is all about the teams you have never heard of, and the huge programs desperately trying to make a late push. We already know the Duke Blue Devils, Maryland Terrapins, Villanova Wildcats, Kansas Jayhawks and Oregon Ducks are in the field of 68, regardless of what happens this week. It’s the teams on the bubble such as the Wichita State Shockers, Saint Mary Gaels, Baylor Bears, Syracuse Orange and Ohio State Buckeyes that really keep us in our seats.
March Madness is the greatest sports tournament on Earth because you never know what is going to happen. While we have never seen a No. 1 seed lose to the No. 16 seed in the opening round, we have had ample No. 15 seeds pull off the stunner by beating a No. 2. Heck, only a few years ago we saw Florida Gulf Coast University go to the Sweet 16 as a 15th seed. By the way, FGCU is back in the tourney this year for the first time since that run.
While the actual NCAA Tournament does not start until next Thursday (Tuesday if you want to be technical) this is the week where all the fun really starts. There were some smaller conference tourneys last week, but now we have the major conferences and the mid-majors all going at once, with legions of schools frantically trying to make it in with dreams of becoming the next Cinderella.
This is a time when young men can think like little boys again, looking into their immediate futures with wonder, hoping to make history and be the 1985 Villanova Wildcats or the Butler Bulldogs of this century, who earned consecutive trips to the Final Four under head coach Brad Stevens. While Butler lost both times in the National Championship game, it allowed all the small schools to think big.
Whether you barely watch college basketball or can’t live without it, sit back and enjoy the next month. It is a beautiful thing.
