March truly is, well, Madness

I have no problems telling you that I am by no means a hardcore basketball fan. I think the NBA is by far the most boring professional sport to watch and even have a hard time watching a regular college basketball game.

Even if it's Celtics vs. Lakers, I can fall asleep. The constant stoppages, traveling, fouls for getting run over, one-man teams, everything about it bores me and leaves me disinterested. Most college games are more of the same, though top matches can be great for a couple reasons: the emotion, the run-and-gun play that can erupt, the student section, the role players who come up huge, everything. I can really enjoy a good college basketball game.

Luckily for me, the NCAA Tournament combines the best aspects of college basketball (excitement, clutch players, buzzer-beaters, overtimes, emotion, upsets, Cinderella stories) into a couple weeks of action. The first day of play saw a scare for some top teams, such as the Terps' second round oppenent Memphis, but was relatively uneventful in terms of upsets (One could call Maryland's win an upset, but certainly not one on the level of some other games).

The second day was, however, fantastic. Number-one seeded Pittsburgh barely got by East Tennessee State, Cleveland State upset fourth-seeded Wake Forest, Wisconsin beat Florida State in overtime, and Siena's Ronald Moore took Ohio State to double-overtime and then won it himself with 4 seconds remaining.

The Siena game in particular was great. Back-and-forth the whole game, momentum shifts, huge shots, it had everything. And, oh yea, double overtime. Overtime in any sport is exciting. In the NCAA Tournament, it is madness. Every shot is huge and a turnover or foul can be extremely costly. During the Siena-Ohio State game, every fan was standing and I'm sure the players' hearts were pounding about a thousand beats per minute. I can't even tell you what state Siena is, but I was rooting for them to pull it out, and not just because I picked them in my bracket (I always love when a non-BCS school upsets a team like Ohio State, just like most of America does).

Cleveland State's upset of Wake Forest - really, it was a shellacking - was awesome in every sense of the word. A thirteen seed who would not have gotten in if it didn't upset Butler in its conference tournament put a beating on a powerhouse ACC team that at one point was the #1 ranked team in the nation. The game was never even close. The Vikings wanted the game more and, behind their point guard Cedric Jackson, annihilated the Demon Deacons. Usually, I want the underdog to win on a buzzer-beater or something, but yesterday's domination was even better. Wake Forest was shell-shocked. I loved it.

Hopefully we continue to see the teams that are too small and less talented, with no five-star recruits and no all-Americans, play on and make this year's tournament one to remember. Because the more madness that there is, the more I enjoy it.

(Photo credit: Newsday)