March Madness has arrived! The NCAA College Basketball Championship series is one of the most unique and enjoyable events on the sports calendars for it truly is an all-American event from the Pacific Northwest to Florida to New England to Southern California and all the heartland in between, the great colleges and universities and some no one’s ever heard of are playing for the national championship. Three weeks sixty five teams will be reduced to one, the national championship.
Management at work looks the other way and who cares if gambling is a no-no, but everyone from the suits in the corner office to the kid in the mailroom have their brackets filled out, and isn’t it funny how the office sports prognosticators seldom win? Last year it was Betty with the big thick glasses in accounting. The year before that, it was that cute little honey who works for the head of payroll. The year before that, it was that kid from Korea working in I.T. This year, everyone started today dreaming of winning the big price, but the upsets are already underway.
Your humble writer here plays three sheets each year – the well researched, the “play the hunch,” and the wishful thinking. As such, we have Kansas, Duke, and Maryland atop of three separate brackets. How strange it feels not to have picked the North Carolina Tar Heels on any sheet. Last year’s champs are this year’s chumps playing for honor in the lowly NIT tournament. Talk about turnarounds, their participation in the NIT doesn’t even rate the Dean Dome. It’s closed for renovations so the old Carmichael Auditorium once again hosts the men’s team.
Aside from the University of Maryland’s #4 bid, the region is represented by Morgan State representing the MEAC conference. The Georgetown Hoyas look strong as a #3 seed for the Big East. Richmond represents the Atlantic 10 as a #7. Not to far from Crab Town, two Big East teams, West Virginia and Villanova enjoy #2 seeds. Yet, the biggest story of the tournament so far comes from down at the other end of the Chesapeake Bay. Old Dominion, a #11 slot, representing the Colonial Conference the same conference as Towson University, upset Notre Dame. It took overtime for Villanova to claim its victory over the lowly Robert Morris.
True to form, within the first four games, great stories have emerged and the once mighty Florida Gators are already finished. Thirty two games in two days and even Betty in accounting and the Korean Kid are keeping track.
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