As you know, I love college basketball. My Super Bowl of sports. A month-long ride of hoops. Making the NCAA tournament (a field of 65 teams) is an honor. Something each of these college athlete works hard for. You work the whole season to make this field of 65, your one and only chance to make a run for the National Title. Making the NCAA tournament puts a school you've never heard of on the map. Never heard of Valpairaso? Well, you did in 1998 when this underdog team's Bryce Drew hit a buzzer-beater to upset No. 3 Ole Miss. Don't know much about Hampton University? In 2001, everyone knew their name when they upset #2 Iowa State, one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament. Making the tournament showcases what the little guy can do. Everyone wants the upset, everyone cheers for the underdog. It's about David Vs. Goliath, knocking off #1, knocking off #2. Above all, what I love about college basketball is that when you watch, you understand what a special time it is in the lives of these young men and women. They don't play for money, for fame, but simply: For the love of the game. And it's a beautiful thing. There's a strategy to the game. There’s an art to it. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski knows it. Former Indiana and Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight is the General of the sport. Jim Calhoun is a man who took a losing school (UConn) that no athlete wanted to go to in the mid-eighties and turned it into a basketball powerhouse in the 90’s and that has continued. It's a very special sport. This is something I've always wanted to share with my girlfriends, but haven't quite succeeded in getting them hooked. So I'm going to try and explain what they can be a part of....
Don't Understand the Field?
There is a field of 64 teams (really 65 teams, there is a play-in game for a 16 seed). There are 4 brackets of 16 teams: The East, the West, the Mid-West, and The South. Each team in that bracket gets seeded #1 through #16 and they are matched up accordingly. #1 (the best) Vs. #16 (the worst), #2 Vs. #15 and so on. It feels like throughout this month that hoops is on all the time, but it doesn't make much sense to a non-basketball fan who's been watching it for years. So here's a breakdown to understand the hoops schedule (all on CBS)....what you are watching and when:
Third weekend of March - The First & Second Rounds:
Thursday and Friday are the first rounds... There are 16 games played within these 2 days. The field quickly goes from 64 teams to 32. Saturday and Sunday are the second round games. 8 games are played within these 2 days. The field goes from 32 to the "sweet sixteen".
Last weekend in March - The Sweet Sixteen & The Elite Eight:
Thursday and Friday are the sweet sixteen rounds.... There are 4 games played over the course of the 2 days, dwindling the field to what is known as the "Elite 8". Saturday and Sunday are the Elite 8 games.... 2 games each day and by Sunday evening, you have your coveted "Final Four".
The Final Four
The Final Four is held the first Saturday of April and this when all the hoopla begins. It is an honor and is always a VERY tough road to get to the Final Four. This either doesn't happen for a lot of teams and if it does happen, it's rare. Each trip to it is special, because when you are there, you never know when you'll be back. It brings a school together. It's very very special to be a part of a Final Four team...as a player, as a fan, for the school itself. It's an event in a college basketball fan's life that you always remember. If you are attending a school that this happens to, the memory of this weekend lasts a lifetime. I once got in an argument with a friend because she didn't understand why her boyfriend was so obsessed with wanting to watch the Final Four when his alma mater, Indiana University, was playing in it. I had to set her straight. First, Indiana University is synonymous with college basketball, the Final Four. Basketball is everything to a kid growing up in Indiana. So let your boyfriend watch this game. Trust me. It's once in a lifetime. So it's Saturday, April 4 where 4 teams compete to take part in the the National Championship game just 2 days later.
The National Championship Game
The championship game is played the Monday night immediately following the Final Four on Saturday Night. This year it's Monday, April 6.
Oh, I'm sorry... am I boring you? Well you get in on the action and you can have fun with this too! Here's what you need to do.
Fill out a bracket. Find someone in your office or your neighbor and you can be sure they are in an NCAA pool. Put in 5 bucks and do a little gambling. Yep, I'm encouraging a little gambling. Do you want those new shoes? A contribution to your new 7 jeans? Just gamble on a few teams. You don't have to know jack. People study and study every year, and every year they lose. They listen to analysts, read blogs, check box scores. Don't do any of this. Go take 5-10 minutes and write down the team that gives you a good feeling. Go with your instincts. You might pick the big upset. You might be out in the first round. Or you could win it all. Above all, go with your instincts. The only rule of thumb in this tourney is that a #1 seed has never lost to a #16 seed since the field of 64 was created. It never happens. It COULD happen, but I'd stay away from that pick. Pick some upsets... 5 over 12 seeds (just for a round or 2), a 1 seed going out in the 3rd round, maybe even a 15 over a 2. Just go with your gut and be different. That's how you make some cash. Some teams to know about... Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Syracuse, Kansas State, Villanova, West Virginia, Baylor, Ohio State. They all have a good chance of winning it all, but it's much a crapshoot.
I'll tell you a little story: My friends from college all got together for a reunion weekend in March. Naturally, coming from a college basketball school, we planned to drink and watch hoops that weekend. One of my girlfriends complained... why would she want to watch basketball all day long? What did she care? She liked the sport, but didn't know much about it past the University of Connecticut. I gave her a bracket and a pen and told her to go in the other room, make her picks and come back with it filled out. I gave her a few tips, a few suggestions, but that was it. She comes out after about 5 minutes and says she picked St. John's to win it all (it was 2000). This was a good pick. They were a 2 seed. I was proud of her. We were already in the second round of the tourney by that Saturday, and it turned out St. John's was playing that day against Gonzaga and heavily favored. They were loaded with good players like Ron Artest, Bootsy Thornton, and Eric Barkley and led by a great coach, Mike Jarvis. The game was pretty tight. Now, what happened next is kind of hard to explain if you weren't there.... I had created a march madness monster. I've never quite seen anything like it. My friend went from a girl who could have cared less about the sport to a girl who was sitting about 3 feet away from the television screaming the words "Score mother f*ckers score!!". It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. This same girl? Not only did she participate in a pool the very next year, but she won the whole thing... and she's been gambling every March. I'm quite proud of that. So my point is, you could be a March madness monster, you just may not know it yet. Still not hooked? Play a fun drinking game out of it. This same day, we decided to designate a player to each girl. One drank every time Bootsy Thornton got the ball, the next one drank when Artest got the ball, my poor drunk friend drank when the camera just showed the coach. It did not get pretty. But it was one hell of a time.
And if you don't care about the money... there's another kind of pool you can join. The Wine-O's... everyone contributes a bottle of wine and the winner can win about 15 bottles or more... depending on how many people you gather together for the pool. Think about that could a month or 2 of never hitting the liquor store... not a bad plan, right? You could have your choice of Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay... YUM. I think I may have gotten you hooked.
Are you single? Well, if you are - now's the time to pay attention. Fill out a bracket. Get a highlighter (for your wins). Go to the bar. Go meet some guys, that's where they are for the 1st and 2nd rounds. Use terms like "bracket", "seed", say something that makes you sound like you know your stuff - for example...casually say "there could be some history here if a 16 beats a 1. That's never happened". Break out your bracket, highlight who won, cross off who lost. Talk to your cute neighbor about who's in your Final Four. This works. I guarantee you will have a marriage proposal by the end of the night.
Well, I'm hoping I've sold this one. So get out your 5 bones, your bottle of Pinot, and you bracket and join the FUN!!!
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