Let me join the millions of other budding basketball geniuses who will use their personal space this week to write about the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament. I hate to be a follower, but the tournament is way to important for me to skip over. So for this week you can call me a sheep. I will watch as closely as possible with a 4 month old child even though my beloved Razorbacks had the worst season in team history and will be watching like me. I can still find rooting interest in the tourney by rooting against some bad guys like John Calipari or the more popular rooting for my bracket.
With or without the Razorbacks the NCAA tournament is one of my favorite events of the year. I actually think it is the greatest sporting event of all. The Super Bowl is the bigger one day affair, but the opening weekend, Thursday through Sunday, of the big dance can't be topped for excitement. When you follow that on through to the final four you have a recipe for a great sporting event. To be more precise it is a great sporting month.
Much of the interest in the tournament is because of how well it sets up for gambling. I am not a gambler outside of a few hands of poker and betting on the ponies. I do however enjoy picking my brackets and comparing with friends. I have been doing this as long as I can remember. I remember back before the Internet my Dad and I tracked the tournament using the brackets in the newspaper. We would keep copies on the back of the couch so we could easily reach them and mark the latest winners and losers. It will be loads of fun to pick brackets with Braden some day. I'm sure he will enjoy keeping up with it as a child just like I did. This year he will certainly watch with me even though he has no idea what he is seeing. Arica has noticed that basketball is one of his favorite things to watch on TV. I guess all the people running around give him a lot of movement to focus on.
Starting this weekend the NCAA Basketball Tournament will be a part of Braden's life. I hope it will be something we enjoy together for a long time. More than that I hope he gets a chance to enjoy the ultimate thrill of the tournament like I did back in 1994. That wonderful tournament 15 years ago gave me the thrill of seeing my favorite team, the Razorbacks, win a National Championship. I sure would like to experience that kind of fun again with my son.
4 comments:
Ah yes, I can remember Villanova's epic win over Georgetown in 1985.
That was 24 years ago. Ugh, now I'm depressed.
I went to UCLA so 1995 was a great year for me. That's the last time the Bruins won it all. I'm not a huge b-ball fan (my sports are NFL, NASCAR, golf and some baseball) but it is a great event, no doubt. I don't have a lot of time to watch but I will be rooting on the Bruins. Of course, if I'm part of a pool, I tend to follow more closely. I wish NCAA football would do a similar tournament like basketball. That would be cool!
@Steely Dad: 1995 was great for me too right up until the championship game. I still have nightmares about Charles O'Bannon. If only Missouri had stopped Tyus Edney.
Enjoy. Your son may not take too much interest this year, but by next year will be rooting to make his Dad proud.
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