I love March. I love March Madness. When I played basketball in high school we’d be playing our regional and state tournaments at the same time the college tournament was happening…so it felt like we were all wrapped up together in the middle of the madness.
This year the tournament looks a little different. All games being played in one city and the people in charge changed the scheduling a bit. Not to mention the absence of fans, pep bands and handshakes this time around.
But I love it. I watch almost every game. Here’s some things that came to mind this time around…
Every team in division one basketball has a chance to win the championship. Starting with the conference tournaments, each team controls their own destiny. If you keep winning you keep playing. You have a chance to prove you’re the best.
Every team has a chance to win, only one team actually wins. All the other teams end their seasons with a loss…and that heartbreak is the underpinning and glue of the tournament. It’s how most teams and fans will experience the end of their season. All teams are hopeful ‘maybe this is our magical year’ and yet for all but one of those schools, that dream will be dashed.
The heartbreak and those dashed dreams, we all know what that feels like. The hard work and skill and long hours and camaraderie, and still don’t get the desired result.
Another wonderful aspect of a single elimination tournament is that there’s no use in not going as hard as you can. No reason to save energy or hold back. If you lose the game but still have a bunch of gas in the tank, you don’t get some extra prize. So it’s full throttle. College athletes trying as hard as they can. And I like watching things where I believe they’re trying their hardest.
The last thing worth mentioning is momentum. It’s real. And these games have it on full display. When a few things go right it seems more likely that a few more things go right. And it’s clear what you need to do to start gaining momentum…do the next play really well.
And one other thing that relates to momentum. I’ve played hundreds of basketball games in my life and watched thousands more and here’s what I’ve seen…something happens when a team gets up by twenty points. Once the lead gets to twenty it seems to just hang there. Maybe it gets to twenty at the beginning of the second half. If the game keeps going like this they should win by almost forty. But usually they don’t. Usually they end up winning by nineteen or twenty one or twenty four. I’ve seen so many more teams win by about twenty than win by about thirty…or forty.
Why? It’s because teams stop working towards momentum and instead focus on sustainability. Protecting instead of building. Yes, each have their place. It’s just more fun to watch team building a lead than keeping a lead.
And only because this is probably the only time I’ll be able to say this…As of this writing, my bracket on ESPN in the 99.4 percentile.
