The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year! End Of Madness Sadness

We're stealing the song and using for the correct season.
Thanks Andy!

Sorry December. Your song has been taken. We've contacted Santa and he will be personally getting in touch with the family of Andy Williams or whoever has the copyright to that Christmas song that he made so famous.  December is notorious for being maddening, but it is hardly the month of the year that we fondly brand with the moniker of "Madness".

This won't be another sharp criticism of the dreaded Christmas season that claims to be the most wonderful time of the year, yet for some involuntary reason, whenever February comes to a close, and March turns the corner, I find myself ballroom dancing all by myself while singing the Andy Williams Christmas classic "Its The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year".  This year, I accidentally caught myself singing along with another fella who seemed equally oblivious to the fact that it was 65 degrees outside and all the holiday lights had finally been pulled from the trees- which means neither of us live in Boston.  Even the birds seemed to be chirping along like they also knew March Madness was about to begin as well.

Reports say nearly 29 million Americans hummed along to our tune as record numbers tuned in to view the championship final despite the fact that the undefeated lure that we all had snagged in our mouths got its line cut by a pesky badger. The University of Wisconsin proved themselves worthy of their number one seed even though Duke overcame them, captured their 5th crown and proved to the UCONN Huskie's women's coach, Geno Auriema, (who also won his 10th title) that the boys can play basketball too.  Earlier during the tournament, Auriema complained that the boys were light years behind the girls in regards to the quality of game on the court.  He was totally correct, but the boys may never catch up with girls so long as one and done's force teams like Wisconsin to be the only schools in the land that graduate basketball players, allowing them to stay long enough to shake the AAU syndrome.

To the credit of the Blue Devils, the young guns got it done this time, but they certainly had the support of a Hall of Fame coach to join their ride.  Either Mike Krzysewzki knows how to deprogram modern players from bad AAU habits better than most modern coaches, or he's finally recruiting the top AAU kids that can also satisfy Dukes stringent enrollment standards as well since Duke has grown more "athletic" (code word for lots of black kids) over the years.  Coach K might look back on this years team and consider them among the smartest teams he's ever coached considering the youth of the team as well.  If these really smart Blue Devils decide to stay in college, they will have Kentucky like expectations from the start of next season, although Coach K would likely engineer a loss or two just to destroy the stigma of  another team trying the undefeated run.

In some ways, the tournament has become nothing more than a gamblers dream which is actually generating the spectator frenzy we call madness.  That 12 year old who won $20,000 from ESPN but couldn't collect because he was under age, will probably play the brackets for the rest of time trying to duplicate his near $20,000 feat.  We love the games but we really love choosing them correctly, especially the upsets.  This years tournament was a bit upsetting to our brackets since the higher seeds primarily prevailed all tournament long.  What we are starting to learn is the connection between our brackets and our interest in the tournament- which wanes a bit when brackets go bust. Because so many players leave early, its hard to actually claim an interest in the players anymore.  Whether we actually know the players or the teams before we make our brackets, or we get to know them when the tournament begins, we can always count on a memorable scene or two every tournament season.  Like the Georgia State team with the father and son sharing such a special moment. Or the journey of Kentucky's Wildcats, complete with winning epic battles with Cincinnati and Notre Dame before succumbing to Wisconsin.

This must be the most wonderful time of the year because I start to feel so darn awful once CBS plays that song "One Shining Moment" to conclude it all.  Fortunately, coaching youth basketball allows me to feed on my favorite dish all year round, yet, even I shake my head in dejected acceptance that the NBA is all we high level hoop spectators have left .You know, that league where you are wasting your time and your life if you watch the first two or three quarters?  You know, that league where the game looks a lot like AAU ball most of the time.  One of the greatest reasons to be sad about the end of college basketball is the NBA alternative that remains. Typically, we feel less stressed out when Christmas finally goes away, so how could it be the most wonderful time of the year?

I will stop advancing the virtue of March Madness at the expense of the NBA and Christmas, since hatred will not hasten the wait of the return, when me and that dude in the grocery store will ballroom dance around the lettuce singing our newly adopted March melody.  Unlike Christmas (last dig), every time I think that this tournament is great, the NCAA Final Four tournament only gets better.