Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Count Down to Madness

Just a few more hours until the best college basketball weekend of the year, and one of my favorite 4 days in all of sports. The NCAA tournament is always exciting, but there's something about the first two rounds, 48 games played in 4 days, that I really love. I guess it's the fact that with so many games crammed into such a short time period, you know you're going to see at least a couple of good ones. Also, the first two rounds are the time when the lower seeds get their chance to shine. While the 1's and 2's are playing in blow outs, the most compelling matchups are between the more evenly matched teams lower down. A five is almost always upset by a 12, either a 13 or 14 seed usually wins or at least gives one of the big guys a scare and the 6-11 seeds are usually so closely matched up that many of them are interchangeable. These are the rounds that transformed Gonzaga from an annual giant killer into a Goliath in it's own right, that made Bryce Drew a household name, that thrust Weber State into the center of the college basketball spotlight, if only for a week or so. By next two rounds, most of those teams will have been thinned out, the adrenaline from the opening round will have worn off, and the Duke's, UNC's and Illinois' will have finished their warmup games and thinned out the herd. Most of the teams seeded below 5th will have gone home to watch the Finals, much like the rest of us. But for 4 days in March, college basketball's stage belongs to the understudies.

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