For many, flipping the wall calendar from March to April is a joyous occasion, signifying the end of winter and the onset of spring, the packing of sweaters in favor of shorts and a shift from cloudy afternoons to warm sunshine on the Lawn. However, for me, the end of March marks a melancholy reminder that the college basketball season and NCAA Tournament are coming to an end.
The past few weeks, and last two weekends in particular, have reminded me why the NCAA Tournament is the best event in sports. And it is not because of the office pools, filling out of brackets and attempts to predict the most likely 12-seed over 5-seed upset, but rather in spite of all that.
While the American economy took a multibillion dollar hit (and my schoolwork definitely suffered a big drop) in productivity thanks to the tournament, I refused to fill out a bracket and instead enjoyed the madness of March for what it is really about: college-aged kids with amazing talent playing in games filled with heart-wrenching emotion, all for the chance to take a stroll down the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Anyone who watched this weekend's regional finals knows what I'm talking about.
While office pool participants were tearing up their brackets and cursing the television as UAB donned the Cinderella slipper and knocked off Final Four favorite Kentucky, I relished the opportunity to watch David slay Goliath. And, like every year, the tournament produced multiple Cinderella stories and new household names. This year it was the Blazers, Xavier, Kirk Snyder of Nevada and even to a degree, St. Joe's.
While reality shows have become the trend in primetime television, the NCAA tournament still provides the best reality on television. As I briefly mentioned earlier, the NCAA Tournament provides unparalleled emotion and drama in nearly every one of its 63 games. Where else in major college or professional sports can you find the winners and losers equally reduced to tears of joy, sadness or mutual exhaustion?
Although the country's top hoops players (and Jim Harrick's Georgia Bulldogs, for that matter) no longer see the inside of a college classroom because they make the jump to the pros directly from high school, the college game has not been hurt but helped. While parity abounds, it is no longer surprising that small schools like Xavier and UAB can compete with the big boys of Duke and Kentucky.
And although some of the tournament's participants are surely honing their skills with a big payday in mind, there is something innocently intriguing and poetically pure about teenagers competing tooth and nail as legions of fans sit on the edge of their seats and hold their collective breath on a potential game-winning buzzer beater. The emotions are not only real but also refreshing.
With the best weekend in sports (the first two rounds of the tournament and wall-to-wall basketball) and best day in sports (Final Four Saturday) serving as bookends of this three-week, 10-day long event, the tournament is the apex of American athletics.
The NFL can have its Super Bowl, Nipplegate and all. For my money and television viewing time, I'll take the Road to the Final Four any day of the week.
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