This is, in this writer’s opinion, the best time of year in sports.
Baseball training camps are in full swing, with this year having the added bonus of the World Baseball Classic. The NHL and OHL are in the home stretch of their respective regular seasons, and the PJHL, WOAA Senior and local minor hockey leagues are deep in their playoff runs. The Masters golf tournament is in a few weeks, as is WrestleMania.
And then there is March Madness.
The NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are perhaps the most exciting three weeks in sports. The tournaments feature 68 teams in a single knockout tournament to crown the best college basketball team in the United States.
For as long as I can remember, March Break always coincided with the start of March Madness. Part of the excitement is printing off the tournament bracket and predicting the outcome of each game.
By the end of the first day, people’s dreams of perfect brackets have long been shattered, and many brackets are busted by the end of the weekend.
This year’s tournament saw plenty of upsets in the first round, including No. 1 seed Purdue losing to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson University – only the second time in 152 No. 1 vs. No. 16 games that the No. 16 seed has won.
I participate in one Final Four pool, and the first email I saw on Saturday morning contained two simple words:
“Stupid Purdue.”
Bracket busted.
This year, as I watched the games over the weekend, my eight-year-old son Duncan sat down beside me and studied my filled-in bracket on the table.
“What’s this?” he asked.
After explaining it to him, he asked if I could print him off a bracket to fill out.
“Sure,” I said.
Within minutes, Cameron wandered into the room and asked what we were doing.
After hearing an explanation, he too wanted in.
Fast forward to the weekend. Duncan is sitting in the basement, basketball games on the TV, jumping from bandwagon to bandwagon as the games change.
“Tennessee is going to win it all,” he tells me.
“Why?”
“Because look at their record, Dad! And they beat Duke,” he replies.
As a Duke fan, I thank him for rubbing salt in the wound.
The Kentucky-Kansas State game came on Sunday afternoon, and when Kentucky took the lead, Duncan enthusiastically stated, “We’re winning!”
In my family, cheering for Kentucky is strictly forbidden. That’s like a Toronto Maple Leafs fan saying they want the Boston Bruins to win the Stanley Cup.
“Excuse me?” I say.
“We’re winning. I picked Kentucky to win this game,” says Duncan.
I immediately text my father.
“Duncan is cheering for Kentucky. Where did I go wrong in my parenting?”
A few moments later, I receive the following reply:
“Book him rehab. NOW!”
Fortunately, the basketball gods realized that Kentucky should never win, as Kansas State came back to win the game.
I texted my Dad and said, “It’s awfully quiet here now.”
His reply?
“Tell the boys that’s why you don’t cheer for Kentucky. They’ll just break your heart. Evil people. Just evil.”
Duncan didn’t think that was a very nice thing to say.
“Papa’s not wrong,” I said.
Once the evening games started, Duncan looked at his bracket and made sure it was all up to date.
“Next year, I am going to enter your pool,” he said. “I can beat you guys. You keep making silly picks like Duke; they aren’t going to win!”
I think he’s saying these things to get on my nerves, to get a rise out of me. However, if he comes back next year and tells me he’s a North Carolina fan, we may have a problem…
If you’re like me and your team has been eliminated already, enjoy the rest of the rollercoaster that is the NCAA Final Four. If you’re team is still in it, good luck.
Unless you’re a Michigan State fan… I don’t like them either.
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Mike Wilson is the editor of Midwestern Newspapers. Comments are welcome at mwilson@midwesternnewspapers.com.
