At this time of year, even if you are not a college basketball fan, it’s almost impossible to miss March Madness – where NCAA Men’s and Women’s Division I teams are vying for their respective national crowns. We’re inundated with predictions, tweets and stories about who is number one, who should make the tournament and which teams got dissed.
I bunkered down the weekend of Selection Sunday (for the uninitiated, that’s when the selections for the tournament are made) for multiple conference games. Many teams only get to the big dance if they win those conference championships. Hence, those games are intense.
For many years, I’ve been addicted to college basketball. It’s the one sport I continue to follow closely, as baseball and football slowly lost my interest. I’ve also been a long-term addict to the NCAA tournament, starting with Thursday and Friday late-morning games of the first weekend. Some years I would take off work to catch those first two days. Other years I would schedule lunch to watch the early results. Whatever worked to feed the addiction.
The intensity of those early games seemed unmatchable. There is something about a small school going against the behemoth that charged my batteries, and captured the hearts of Americans. We love seeing the little guy win.
A slight change in the landscape appeared the past 3-4 years or so. More mid-major schools impacted the tournament, such as Butler or Wichita State. They aren’t big colleges, but they aren’t tiny ones either. So if they won, though it would be an upset versus a Duke, North Carolina, Kansas or Kentucky, it wasn’t as big a deal as if, say, Stony Brook (in this year’s tourney) beat Michigan State.
These patterns ever-so-slowly changed my behavior. It was hard to put a finger on why I wasn’t quite as hyped as 10-15 years ago. This past weekend, I figured out why.
Watching Stony Brook play Vermont in a winner-gets-into-tournament game, while the other team goes home, woke me up to what I’d forgotten that makes the college game so much fun. The two teams compete in the almost-unknown America East Conference (which I would have miss-communicated right now as the “American” East Conference, BTW; praise to Google). The small gym was packed. The word “raucous” (in a good way) fit the crowd. The atmosphere was intense.
Are either of the teams capable of winning the NCAA DI tournament? No, but they were totally matched up for this one and they took it out on each other, possession by tight possession.
This matchup, like several others (South Dakota State vs. North Dakota State, Farleigh Dickinson vs. Wagner and Wisconsin-Green Bay vs. Wright State all come to mind), demonstrated how much FUN basketball is. Almost none of the young men participating in those games will play beyond college unless it’s in a men’s league at night after they finish their full-time job duties during the day. I think that’s why these small conference championship games are about as good as this sport gets – everything is on the line. The game is played with that mentality.
These players (and coaches and referees) will remember those conference championships probably the rest of their lives, more even than their follow-up TV moment during selection Sunday when they get picked (and the whole team jumps up and goes nuts for the cameras) to be fed to the big wolves the following Thursday or Friday.
Some will win an NCAA Tournament game. Most will get immediately blown out.
Here’s to those small DI college tournaments. Long may they live.
I bunkered down the weekend of Selection Sunday (for the uninitiated, that’s when the selections for the tournament are made) for multiple conference games. Many teams only get to the big dance if they win those conference championships. Hence, those games are intense.
For many years, I’ve been addicted to college basketball. It’s the one sport I continue to follow closely, as baseball and football slowly lost my interest. I’ve also been a long-term addict to the NCAA tournament, starting with Thursday and Friday late-morning games of the first weekend. Some years I would take off work to catch those first two days. Other years I would schedule lunch to watch the early results. Whatever worked to feed the addiction.
The intensity of those early games seemed unmatchable. There is something about a small school going against the behemoth that charged my batteries, and captured the hearts of Americans. We love seeing the little guy win.
A slight change in the landscape appeared the past 3-4 years or so. More mid-major schools impacted the tournament, such as Butler or Wichita State. They aren’t big colleges, but they aren’t tiny ones either. So if they won, though it would be an upset versus a Duke, North Carolina, Kansas or Kentucky, it wasn’t as big a deal as if, say, Stony Brook (in this year’s tourney) beat Michigan State.
These patterns ever-so-slowly changed my behavior. It was hard to put a finger on why I wasn’t quite as hyped as 10-15 years ago. This past weekend, I figured out why.
Watching Stony Brook play Vermont in a winner-gets-into-tournament game, while the other team goes home, woke me up to what I’d forgotten that makes the college game so much fun. The two teams compete in the almost-unknown America East Conference (which I would have miss-communicated right now as the “American” East Conference, BTW; praise to Google). The small gym was packed. The word “raucous” (in a good way) fit the crowd. The atmosphere was intense.
Are either of the teams capable of winning the NCAA DI tournament? No, but they were totally matched up for this one and they took it out on each other, possession by tight possession.
This matchup, like several others (South Dakota State vs. North Dakota State, Farleigh Dickinson vs. Wagner and Wisconsin-Green Bay vs. Wright State all come to mind), demonstrated how much FUN basketball is. Almost none of the young men participating in those games will play beyond college unless it’s in a men’s league at night after they finish their full-time job duties during the day. I think that’s why these small conference championship games are about as good as this sport gets – everything is on the line. The game is played with that mentality.
These players (and coaches and referees) will remember those conference championships probably the rest of their lives, more even than their follow-up TV moment during selection Sunday when they get picked (and the whole team jumps up and goes nuts for the cameras) to be fed to the big wolves the following Thursday or Friday.
Some will win an NCAA Tournament game. Most will get immediately blown out.
Here’s to those small DI college tournaments. Long may they live.