By Drew Zuhosky
You’ve been staring at it since Monday morning, but by the end of Sunday night, you’ll have it ripped to shreds, and it’ll be in your wastebasket. No, I don’t mean your chemistry paper. I mean your NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship bracket.
Yep, it’s that time of the year again — March Madness!
By now, 64 of the initial 68 teams who made it into the tournament remain in the field after the First Four round held in Dayton the past two evenings. Later today, just after noon, the fun kicks into high gear.
I love tournament time every single year, relishing the opportunity to watch as many basketball games as I can either on TV or on the NCAA’s “March Madness Live” website.
Watching these tournament games is only part of what makes March Madness so great. Earlier this week throughout the country, the office pools for March Madness got underway.
Another good aspect of March Madness is that the games are easily accessible on television these days. Before the tournament expanded to 68 teams six years ago, all games were aired on TV by CBS, but you were stuck with whatever game that your local affiliate was fed during a broadcast window.
Now, all tournament games are aired by either CBS or Turner-owned cable networks TNT, TBS and TruTV. This year, for the first time ever, the Final Four and National Championship will be aired on TBS on April 2 and 4.
For the people who want to keep up with the tournament while at work, radio coverage of the games will be aired on Westwood One Sports. This coverage can also be accessed through Westwood One’s Website.
What really makes the tournament so amazing is that there’s a chance that every game could be an upset.
Back in 2010 in what was then known as the second round, The University of Northern Iowa, the #9-seed out of the Midwest, defeated University of Kansas 69-67. That year’s Kansas team was the #1 overall seed in the tournament.
In that season’s National Championship, Butler University, formerly a foe of the Youngstown State University men’s basketball program, came very close to pulling off the mother of all March Madness upsets against Duke University — but Butler’s Gordon Hayward’s half-court game-winning 3-pointer just narrowly missed the hoop.
Even if the team you picked in your bracket doesn’t go to Houston and win the whole deal, it’ll still be an entertaining next few weeks that begins in just a few short hours.
You know what has to be done aside from work today, right?
Go grab your lunch, and then just get on your couch and don’t move until all the games are over around midnight. Good luck with your brackets everyone!
