Today: Mar 28, 2024

Madness – opinion column

Morgan DouglasSports Editor

It is that time of the year, baby. 

Sunday, Mar. 13 is Selection Sunday, meaning we’ll find out together which teams have punched their tickets to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, which is quite a mouthful and why we call it March Madness. 

Of course, the madness part is a real thing, anyone who has ever filled out a bracket could tell you as much. 

There will be upsets. 

Upsets are definitely one of my favorite parts of the tournament. 

I can recall the first time the crew and I filled out brackets for a pool back in high school. The year was 2014, and without any method to my madness, I had the 11-seeded Dayton Flyers making it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen. 

We were all following along with their first-round matchup with the heavily favored Ohio State Buckeyes, a six seed, during Mrs. Manning’s English class and I was the only one who had Dayton winning, as my classmates guffawed. 

My buddy Derek and I listened to the game on the radio the whole way home, and I had the last laugh. Not only did Dayton win the game, but they went all the way to the Elite Eight, I underestimated the Flyers. 

Since then, we’ve seen Loyola-Chicago Ramblers go on a couple of unpredictable runs with Sister Jean in tow, and saw 16 seed University of Maryland, Baltimore County Retrievers take down number one Virginia Cavaliers back in 2018. 

For those over 21, March Madness has become a whole lot more interesting with the introduction of legalized sports betting in the state of Connecticut, potentially raising the stakes on every play for those who partake. 

I am not going too deep into that aspect, as most people will be doing friendly office pools amongst co-workers or friends with perhaps a few shekels wagered on each bracket. 

Rest assured, there will be one smart aleck who takes UConn to win it all. Take advantage of the homer, for sure. 

There will also be someone in the pool who takes virtually all favorites, with very few upsets. Wrong again. 

I love a good 12 seed over five seed upset. Between that and 11 seed over six seed, something is bound to hit. 

One more important thing to remember, especially recently, is that the teams with the big-name players rarely make a deep run if they even make the tournament at all. Ja Morant got bounced early, as did Zion and that historical Duke team. 

I do not have all the answers, obviously. You’re just going to have to get lucky. 

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