Ten Reasons Why I Love March Madness

So, today and tomorrow I am totally okay with being unemployed and sitting on my can... Why? If you have to ask, then there's something wrong with you.. It's TOURNAMENT TIME!!

Today is the start of the NCAA Tournament, and in honor of that occasion, I've decided to outline the top ten reasons why the Tournament is amazing, why it's the best 48 hours in sports, and why Tournament is spelled with a capital T...

1. Selection Sunday - this is the precurser to the Tournament, and for many of us it's like Christmas morning, except that we don't get bored after ten minutes of playing with the bracket (more on this later) - I have such fond memories of being on the phone with Uncle Jamus for hours discussing the brackets when they first get out on Sunday - that hasn't happened in a few years, and I miss it

2. Brackets - COME ON! Admit it - you fill yours out first right when Selection Sunday announces the brackets, then spend the next four days using more eraser than a nervous Ashley taking her civics midterm before Spring Break. And then you hear the "experts'" picks - but seriously, how does picking 58% of the winners every year and ending up with four #1 seeds in the Final Four qualify you as an expert?

On the same lines is the office/family/friends pool - I am in four this year, and I know that most of you are in more than one as well - there's ins't anything more fun than rubbing your best friends' face in the fact that he picked BYU and you picked Texas A&M - it doesn't matter that neither of them will go on, it only matters for those 40 minutes (and the endless time before) that is the most intense rivalry in college sports.

It also helps that your Aunt Marge usually wins the pool by picking more games than Billy Packer - I mean, she has the scientific system of picking teams based on uniform color... It also helps when Kellie picks a team to win it all that isn't even in the Tournament... Hey Kel, Michigan IS in it this year - but so is Michigan State, so be specific...

3. Alliteration - with terms like Selection Sunday, March Madness, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, Buzzer Beater, even Field of Sixty-Four has a ring to it! No wonder why people love Tournament Time (hey, there's another one...) - it's just so fun to say the words!

And let's not forget the honorable mention terminology that may not be alliterative, but are still fun - Bracket Busters (wait a minute...), Bracketology, Cinderella, On the Bubble, Big Dance (hey, is that why they call overacheivers Cinderella??) - I mean come on, what other single sporting event has it's own lingo??

4. Everyone gets a chance - Everyone gets a chance. This isn't the snooty Bowl Championship Series, where it's set up so that only teams from the top six leagues get a title shot. In college basketball, all 326 teams have a chance to play their way into the dance through conference tournaments, and the mid-majors are doing a great job of representing, which leads us into...

5. Cinderella Stories - This would include George Mason's incredible run to the Final Four in 2006, Gonzaga going to the Elite Eight as a 10-seed in 2003, Richmond being the first #15 seed to beat a #2 seed (yes, I still included that even though that #2 seed was my woeful USC Gamecocks), the 1987 Providence Friars that brought front-and-center one Rick Pitino, who's premature son was born and died the night before the Tournament - and Providence as a sixth seed made it all the way to the Elite Eight beating mighty Georgetown on the way, and the stories don't stop there, but I don't have the patience to include them all...

But also we need to expand "Cinderella" to include amazing stories from the players themselves, like who can forget the 1990 Loyola Maramount player Bo Kimble, who's best friends and teammate Hank Gathers collapsed and died during the conference tournament. I memory of Gathers, Bo shot the first free throw of every game left handed (Gathers was left handed) and he made them all, as LMU went to the Sweet Sixteen as an 11 seed...

And aside from this, every year there are players on 10-11-12 seeded teams that step up to make huge shots and destroy the brackets of folks everywhere - but the amazign thing is that almost always, even if it destroys you and your four pools, you end up cheering for the underdog and smile when they pull it off!

6. Freshmen - March Madness is where we were introduced to a kid named Michael Jordan, who hit the game-winner against mighty Georgetown in '82, and Carmelo Anthony, who carried Syracuse to the 2003 title. Stephen Curry in 2008 made a national name for himself, scoring more than anyone else in the Tournament and proving that sometimes the big guys get it wrong in recruiting... LeBron, you don't have any idea what you missed out on...

By the way, this will now end I think as freshman outstanding performances will increase and therefor become less special as the "One-and-Done" rule forces freshmen to play in the Tournament - I mean look at last year, with no less than four freshmen playing in the Tournament and becoming first-round draft picks, including the first two overall picks...

7. CBS NCAA Theme Song - tell me you don't get psyched when you hear it - I'll be whistling it subconsciously throughout the year...

8. College Players - They play the game for the right reasons, and even if you KNOW they're going to ride the pine in the pros, you know they're enjoying the Tournament.

Example number one (and really the only one you need): Tyler Hansborough. If you've ever watched him even play a regular-season game against North Delaware Institute for the Blind you've seen intensity, concentration, effort and hustle like nothing before. The kid is incredible - including jumping off garages into the pool during the off-season - but as great a college player as he is, and as much as he fires his team and the rest of the nation up (and hopefully spurring them on to a National Championship, per my own bracket...) he's going to absolutely suck in the pros. He just is. No arguments...

9. Adios Billy Packer - CBS does a pretty good job every year with the Tournament, and I'm not really sure it's fair to talk about one of the greatest things about this particular time of year being the absence of a dude who was so involved for so many years. But I couldn't stand the guy, this is my blog, so you'll just have to deal with it. Packer was pompous, Packer was pretentious, Packer was sure he knew more about basketball than anyone, including coaches, players, talking heads, the selection committee, and even your Aunt Marge who beat him regularly in her brackets... And now that CBS has retained the help of Jay Bilas, I gotta say I expect great things from them... Que le vaya bien, Billy Packer...

10. One Shining Moment - I know, I know - it's the most inane and manipulative three minutes in sports every single year - but come on - who hasn't brushed a tear away ever so slightly so your friends don't see, even thought they're doing the same thing... Yes it's cheesy, but it's kinda so cheesy it works...

Okay, so there's the list - but this by far doesn't include everything, so as honorable mention I'm going to include:

Commercials - I'm really looking forward to more in-the-car POV Sonic commericals, Coke Zero commercials in their never-ending fued against real Coke, and call it cheesy, but I like knowing how many college athletes there are, and that the majority of them are going to go pro in something other than sports...

Lane Violation? - That's right, they actually call the games like they're supposed to be called in the Tournament

School Allegiance - Even if you graduated 40 years ago, if you're lucky enough to have your team in the Big Dance, you are GEEKED and won't let anyone who's #2 Alma Mater lost to a #15 Coppin State team forget that he's not in it...

Dick Vitale - Love him or hate him, he is college basketball

NIT - yes, sub-par teams, but not sub-par games - let us not forget the red-headed stepchild of the NCAAs...

Gambling - I don't condone it, but there is $2,000,000,000 per year wagered on the Tournament, on everything from who gets in, seed position and how many times Rick Pitino's hair is going to more (over-under is 0)

Bruce Pearl - watch him coach Tennessee, it's like hearing Mozart the way it should be played...

Students' Ridiculous Signs - seriosuly, who thinks "Mom, Send More Money" is going to get you on TV... wait a minute... there's one...

So now that you have all of it, ENJOY! And you suckers at work - remember you can catch all the games online this year so you're not stuck watching a 16-1 blowout just because that's the media market you're in... WOOT!

So what do you love about the Tournament??