Even mom gets in on Madness
Have you been following your NCAA men’s basketball tournament
bracket this week? Are you winning the NCAA betting pool at work?
What about the one that you’re in with friends and family?
It never ceases to amaze me just how many people
– from every walk of life – get excited about the annual March
Madness tournament. Heck, my own mother is in a pool and I don’t
think she’s watched a complete game from start to finish since
Larry Bird retired from the Boston Celtics.
Even mom gets in on Madness
Have you been following your NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket this week? Are you winning the NCAA betting pool at work? What about the one that you’re in with friends and family?
It never ceases to amaze me just how many people – from every walk of life – get excited about the annual March Madness tournament. Heck, my own mother is in a pool and I don’t think she’s watched a complete game from start to finish since Larry Bird retired from the Boston Celtics.
Sure, I am in one of these pools at work and in another one with friends. Then again, I write about sports for a living. I’m supposed to sign up for things like this – Super Bowl pools, World Series, Masters, etc, etc. It makes me look good, more professional and polished – like I know what I’m doing. But what the heck do I or any other typical fan know about Winthrop, American or Belmont basketball?
This tournament is unique in that it gets people pumped up to watch, even when we normally don’t watch. It’s like instant magic the moment we make our picks. Somehow, by making our picks, we become official pundits of NCAA Division I basketball and the teams we’ve selected to advance.
Somehow by having a hand-written note on a tournament bracket sheet we find ourselves rooting for a team some 3,000 miles away from us – and we couldn’t even name the coach of the team for a $100.
It’s just amazing to me. Here we are screaming and yelling at the TV cheering for a team we knew nothing about just seconds before making our picks in order to talk smack with friends. Of course, most of these pools involve money and that’s always a motivator.
Maybe the sudden-death format of the tournament is what people enjoy most of all. Maybe it’s because there are so many games going all the time… Maybe it’s because the bracket itself looks kind of cool… Who knows? Whatever the case, it seems like all of America whips up into a frenzy over the NCAA tournament, making our picks as commonplace as a trip to Starbucks.
Maybe it’s because each team’s seeding/ranking is listed, which opens the door for the people who don’t know the difference between a three-point play and a double dribble. These insightful numbers allow them to make an educated guess.
Maybe it’s because there are so many schools involved that each person that signs up for one of these office pools either attended one of the schools in the tournament or knows someone who did.
I bet the average office participant couldn’t name 10 players in the entire tournament let alone the starting lineup of any of the No. 1 seeds from each region. Yet for some reason these tournament keeps us all glued to our television sets.
Personally, I used to hate it when these games would go into overtime and eat into the weekend golf coverage. But that doesn’t happen any more thanks to a switch in scheduling and network coverage. Although college basketball isn’t my favorite and there’s a 9-month old baby in our home to boot, I have to admit I’ve watched the games with more interest this year than most.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You’re wondering what my picks are? After all, the sports editor’s picks are gospel. I understand. Since we’ve advance too far into the tournament at this point, I’ll just mention my Final Four picks. They are: North Carolina, Michigan State, Georgetown (Oops), and UCLA. In the championship game, I’ve got North Carolina beating Michigan State, the sleeper in the tournament. And if it comes down to a tie-breaker, the final score is 86-74.
