An inverse ratio between my age and my ability to correctly predict the outcome of college basketball games during the NCAA Tournament has developed over recent years. When I was eight, I was to March Madness bracket pools what T.J. Detweiler was to pranks. For five years in a row, I cruised through my mother's office pool, winning more than enough money to buy Crazy Bones for the next few months.
Fast forward to 2010, a year in which zero of my Final Four picks made it, my big upsets — UTEP, Richmond and Texas A&M — all fell flat on their proverbial faces, and the one time I make a brilliant call — a few weeks ago I predicted Tennessee's transformation into a tournament sleeper — I don't even have the gall to put it in my bracket. So much for my career aspirations to be Ms. Cleo.
But all the heartbreak has gone by the wayside, because this has been, bar none, the best tournament of my life. Two five seeds are in the Final Four, including Michigan State and coach Tom Izzo, who solidified a reputation as the best big−game coach of my generation by leading a rag−tag bunch without Kalin Lucas past Northern Iowa and the Volunteers. Ohio beat Georgetown, Murray State downed Vanderbilt, and Cornell put its TI−89s away to beat a No. 4 and No. 5 seed. Omar Samhan took the nation by storm after leading Saint Mary's over Villanova, and Ali Farokmanesh confused spellers and gamblers alike by performing one of the gutsiest basketball plays in recent memory. If only Duke would just lose already, it would be perfect.
What can beat this? How about the 2006 tournament, when No. 11 seed George Mason made the Final Four among big conference giants? That year had nine first−round upsets, and two No. 2 seeds went down in the second round. Perhaps I'm succumbing to present−day bias, but 2010 exceeds 2006 by far in my mind. Michigan State's buzzer−beating win over Maryland, for instance, would have been heralded as certainly one of the top−five games of the past 10 years had it been in a later round, and Northern Iowa over Kansas was, hands down, the most stunning upset I can remember.
It's been a March of classic moments — ones that embody the tournament's true power.
March Madness has this miraculous ability to bridge social and class gaps like no other single−national sporting event can. (I say single−national because multinational ones like the Olympics and the World Cup bring countries together through sport.) Offices literally grind to a halt when the games are on. Workers trade in spreadsheets and ties for brackets and jerseys. Women and men, young and old come together — even if they're competing against each other — to play.
What else has the power to do that? The Super Bowl happens after the nine−to−five shift. Yet during March, for two days straight, I can watch 12 hours of non−stop, live action of my favorite sport.
Last weekend, a friend boisterously proclaimed that he would give anyone in the room $100 to spell the Duke coach's name right. "K−R−Z−Y−Z−E−W−S−K−I," I instantly shouted, and was met with utter disbelief. I still haven't gotten the $100. But it's not about the money, right? It's about the fun.
Yesterday, my uncle told me that he looks forward to the tournament because sports news seemingly is the only good news in newspapers today. Among economic plague, political rivalries and foreign conflicts, it's a social revolution, a phenomenon that has reached its height with the excitement the 2010 tournament has brought to the table.
And I'll keep suffering through mediocre bracketology, because I'd trade my entire Pokémon card collection to see a 16−over−a−1 upset just once before I die. Sure, at this rate, I'll probably be 0−for−32 next year, about ready to hurl myself off Jeff Foote's shoulders and land headfirst in a ditch. If the bracket remains this exciting, though?
Who cares?
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Alex Prewitt is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu.
