The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

There are no tomorrows in March -- only today matters.  In March, you’ve got to give 110 percent; leave it all on the court.  And you know what? Every single one of these pathetically tired clichés are actually true when it comes to the tourney.  How can you beat that?  You just can’t.  Thursday and Friday bring the world an absurdly packed slate of games, 16 on each, starting at noon and going straight through to 11 p.m., with inevitable upsets aplenty. 

And let’s face it -- the upset is what holds 90 percent of the appeal of March Madness to your average non-college basketball junkie.  Seeing Bryce Drew hit a three-pointer as time expires, seeing Gonzaga and Kent State make Elite Eight runs, seeing George Mason get all the way to the Final Four appeals to the underdog and the everyman in each one of us.  When we witness one of these teams out there hanging with, and possibly even upsetting, the big boys, a part of us empathizes with them.  We imagine that we’re out there with them, playing the game of a lifetime, with one chance to leave our indelible mark on the American sports consciousness. 

As far as major sports go, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is the only playoff system that offers this beautiful opportunity for a huge upset on the national stage.  And that is what has made it most people’s favorite playoff system.  Is it the best?  Not necessarily (I personally don’t really think it is).  But is it my favorite?  Oh, without a doubt.  And in less than a week, it’ll be here.  I’m getting goose bumps already.

I also wanted to mention what’s probably the best gesture I’ve seen in sports in the past few years.  Courtney Paris, the University of Oklahoma’s women’s basketball team’s double-double machine, and arguably the most talented female player in the nation, recently went on the record saying that she would pay back the full value of her scholarship if her Sooners failed to win the national championship.  She also said that she felt that she wouldn’t have earned her scholarship, valued at $64,000, if she hadn’t led her team to at least one championship in her four years at OU. 

In any other year, the karmic boost of this move probably would have been enough to lead her Sooners, already one of the top five teams in the country, to a championship.  Unfortunately for Paris, however, she chose to make her promise in a season with an absolutely stacked UConn team, one that’s beating its opponents by something like 30 points a game and is arguably one of the best women’s basketball teams of all times.  So now it seems inevitable that Paris’ Sooners will be steamrolled by the Huskies, and that’s just damn unfortunate.  But, still, nice gesture, Courtney.

--Ethan Frigon