Courtesy of Creative Commons
The month has arrived when Cinderella’s carriage revs up.
When a Golden Retriever can perfectly fit a slipper and dance its way to history-making.
When a 98-year-old chaplain can wheel around across the nation reshaping what it means to be an underdog.
March Madness allows for this magic to occur every Spring, bringing together basketball fans across the country.
There’s something poetic about all these schools and storylines being brought to one event that no other sport can account for.
The college football playoffs only allow 12 teams to compete. The NFL has just about the same team win every year. The NBA has prolonged, overreaching seven-game series every round of the playoffs.
But nothing can beat 68 teams fighting for their lives to keep their season alive for one extra day.
I remember sitting on the carpet in my parents’ room toward midnight in fifth grade.
After a long day of basketball watching, I had too much adrenaline to sleep, especially since 16-seed UMBC – ranked lowest in the tournament – was on the brink of making history against the perennial powerhouse Virginia, regarded as the best team in the nation that season.
CBS Sports play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz’s words still ring through my ear to this day. “What has happened to Virginia?!”
Followed by color analyst Bill Raftery answering Nantz, “Flustered by this persistent performance!” and then Nantz letting out a loud, “From the corner, three more!”
This dialogue from the announcers didn’t encapsulate the improbability of the moment: in the 79-year history of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, a 16-seed had never beaten a one-seed. And I had finally witnessed it firsthand.
Now, a 16 and one-seed might not feel like a huge difference number wise, but historically, this matchup in the tournament felt like a nuclear power fighting a tribe living in northern Montana.
Shoes squeakily slip across the hardwood floors over the freshly painted “March Madness” logo in the middle of the floor.
The ball is tipped, and the immortality of a school in a two-stoplight town faces off against an unconquerable blue-blood program who has been in this situation countless times.
It’s hard to put into words how exhilarating the first two days of the tournament. Sitting at home flipping through each channel of games.
Thirty-two games spread across just two days.
I remember sitting in my eighth-grade science class watching the first couple of games of the day on my elderly school laptop. Don’t worry, Mrs. Norris, I got my assignment done.
There’s something poetic about all these schools and storylines being brought to one event that no other sport can account for.
So, if there’s no spring plans with family or friends, tune into one of the most electrifying spectacles in sports.