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.

UConn and Kentucky Shock Critics, Advance To Final Game

There is so much to write about regarding the irony of tonight's National Championship game with the University of Connecticut and the University of Kentucky.  UCONN and KU will square off to answer questions that millions asked going into this tournament, but few had UCONN and KU as the answers.

Given that truth, it also seems appropriate that we all shut up (or write less) and watch the game.  After all, only the friends and family of these teams had these teams winning it all, but even they didn't put it on their bracket. With such abject failure, who among us has room to forecast that which no forecaster had the vision to see.

In hindsight, there was that pre-season poll which placed Kentucky as the number one team in the nation.  The John Calipari recruiting class was seen as an historic group of freshman.  Had the journey been less rough, there might have been more comparison's to the infamous Fab Five of Michigan than ever materialized this season.

What has materialized is a similar scenario to the one that the Fab Five experienced.  Michigan and the Fab Five made it's way to the National Championship game and found themselves head to head against a more seasoned North Carolina team.

Can Napier seize the title and a top draft selection?

Shabazz Napier of UCONN is clearly the flip side to the freshmen of  Kentucky story line.  Napier is a senior who won a National Championship as a freshman, and stayed around to do it again.  In this day and age, staying in school is the formula for losing draft value as upper class players are generally seen as the left behind.  In essence, they become the REST of college basketball, not the BEST of college basketball.

If the older kids win they will say, "Stay In".  If the young boys get it done they will all be gone (since they have finished their one). What is right and what is best may be the same thing, but maybe not. Maybe the right thing is that every American be free to pursue their dreams even while the best thing is to get as many kids as we can ready for the real world.  Some actually say it is impossible to achieve both.

If the Northwestern University athletes and the labor lawsuit that went in their favor is a sign, young people these days are not only clear about what they want, they are willing and able to go get it.  Much like slave owners of the past, the modern owners of the NBA and NFL's unpaid semi-pro league (aka NCAA sports) have made a critical error in allowing the workers to educate themselves. In a twist of irony, the non-guaranteed education that is sort of promised to each kid is proving to be the most dangerous weapon against those who continue to exploit them.

We are all just as shocked by the outcome of the Northwestern ruling as we are with the outcome of this years National Championship run.  I, for one, am done with deciding what young people can or can not accomplish. Even in tonight's game.

How To Cure BBS (Broken Bracket Syndrome) So You Can Enjoy March Madness Again

Check out the best bracket left in this tournament.........Mine..........Sort of!

When you take the time to play lotto, and you are one of those people who plays the same numbers each time, you are passionately connected to each number as the lotto balls get called, unlike those quick picks where you can hardly remember your numbers. When hope is in the air, it hardly matters where those numbers came from, just that they have a chance to be called. Once the reality dons upon you (again) that you didn't win, you lose your connection to that piece of paper rather quickly.

Such is the nature of today's NCAA March Madness Tournament.  Every year is suppose to be that year in which we resurrect our sullen ego and reestablish our basketball prowess.  Back in the day, somebody you know was always the winner of these things.  Now, it seems to be the last guy or gal that you ever expected winning it all.  What is more frustrating is the method to their madness.

Some choose best uniforms, others lean towards hottest cheerleaders.  There hasn't been one of these quirky directions that has shown the power to win year after year, but the quirky road is clearly paved with more riches than the measured one that lead every analyst on ESPN (and Barack Obama) to wrongly choose Michigan State as the national champion..

If you would like to make the argument that this is a reason kids need to stay in college longer I might be inclined to take you up on that notion just for the sake of my Broken Bracket Syndrome (too many years of excessive indulgence in March Madness without a sniff of choosing one Final Four team).  Broken Bracket Syndrome (BBS) is sweeping the nation as we speak, causing millions who love basketball to throw away their useless lotto ticket of a bracket and to possibly lose a viewing interest in the proceedings overall.

From this day forward, I have found the cure for BBS.  Oddly, it derives from the same ideology behind the  lotto we play each week. The quick pick.

Thanks to PickMyBracket.Com (and photoshop), I have the closest thing to a perfect bracket that mankind will ever see in this era of parity in college basketball.

PICKMYBRACKET.COM allowed me to pick my most important statistic for victory and some quirky selection as the criteria for the final bracket it randomly produces. Each of my selections kept "Rebounding" as the number one statistic for victory on a list that included 3 other selections (offense, assists, defense).

For my brackets, the only thing I switched was the quirky option for bracket building, which included 4 choices; Mascot, SAT Scores, Co-Ed Hotness or Best Party School.  The chances of winning the NCAA bracket challenge is hard so hard, billionaire Warren Buffet put up a billion dollar prize for any one who creates a perfect bracket. With riches at stake, playing one bracket is about as smart as playing one lotto ticket

The 3 brackets I chose to follow all appeared plausible and calculated (kind of computer like), so I instantly appreciated the ease of creating something that I have unsuccessfully labored over for years. The only problem was that they each had a few problems.  In that dreaded first round, there are always games that could go either way.  On this website, the option to make minor adjustments to the random selections it generates does not exist (though I bet you it might next year).

For example, I am certainly a Colorado Buffalo fan who was happy to see them get in the tournament, but noticed that they received a life time achievement award with the #8 seed they garnered.  While it was easy to debate the worthiness of such a high seed for Colorado, it was hard to argue with the #9 ranking that their first round opponent, Pittsburgh received en route to a pummeling of the Buffaloes.

My gut said change that selection, but again,  the option did not exist.

My gut also said that UCONN had to be included in the Final Four of my bracket.  So, on this bracket (see above) I did switch out (photpshop) UCONN for Villanova (the computer selected Villanova instead). In actuality, UCONN was the only team that I can truly take credit for selecting.  The other teams were force fed by a computer that factored in party reputation as a key element in which team to choose. (Clearly CU was chosen over Pitt for this reason).

This year, my quick pick bracket gave me a reason to watch closely even after the first round was over.  If I had the foresight to put my money where my new found bracketology is, I might have made out like a bandit this year.  Sadly, this bracket will only give me remnants of my shattered ego back as I have finally risen to the top of my family bracket competition.

Does it matter that I essentially pulled the lever on a slot machine to win this time around?  Broken Bracket Syndrome is an illness that doesn't scoff at hope for a cure.