The methods of Madness

Posted by admin on Apr 12, 2006 in Sports | 0 comments

David Azuma

By the time you read this, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament will be finished. A new champion will have cut down the nets and entered its name into college basketball immortality. Along the way, we will have been treated to some of the finest sporting moments of the year. This tournament never seems to disappoint. Here are some of the reasons why.

The tournament is the only time the smaller schools get to strut their stuff on the national stage. These teams are not loaded with McDonald’s All Americans and players biding their time before jumping to the NBA. They are built of players who have paid their basketball dues. For most of these men, making the tournament represents the pinnacle of their basketball careers. This year, a handful of lesser-known schools made names for themselves by knocking off teams with superior basketball pedigrees. The biggest Cinderella story of the tournament by far was provided by the George Mason University Patriots, who went on a magical run to the Final Four. On the way, the Patriots toppled basketball giants like Michigan State, North Carolina, and Connecticut. George Mason used great determination and heart to overcome the odds and destroy everyone’s bracket in the process—which brings me to my next point.

Is there anything better than filling out a bracket and entering an NCAA pool during March Madness? These friendly betting contests give everyone a reason to watch the games. Suddenly, people are living and dying with each bounce of the ball as they watch Seton Hall square off against Wichita State. The tournament becomes a white-knuckle frenzy for everyone as we frantically try to follow the action, tabulate our points in the pool, and lament the early loss of one of our Final Four teams (thanks Duke). Eventually someone emerges the winner and earns bragging rights for a year. This person will likely proceed to tell you how they had been following the Bradley Braves all season and knew they were primed for a run in the tournament. March Madness – the event that makes everyone an expert.

Finally, the tournament always features a number of very colourful names and characters. The University of Alabama Birmingham Blazers started Squeaky Johnson, a dreadlocked, whirling dervish of a point guard. Unfortunately, when the Blazers were unable to repeat their impressive run of a year ago, I learned with the help of my roommate that you never bet on any team that starts a player named Squeaky. The Louisiana State University Tigers were led by Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis, a 310 pound battering ram of a post player who has as much in common with Shrek as he does with Shaq. In addition to these cartoonish nicknames, sports commentators across the continent were treated to the task of pronouncing the name of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, of the University of California Los Angeles. Yikes! Luckily, he made it all worthwhile by having a pretty strong tournament. Adam Morrison, the nation’s leading scorer, takes the floor with a wispy pre-teen moustache and Brent Sopel-esque hair. Morrison is certainly one of the most memorable college basketball players of his generation but he was overshadowed in this tournament. Joakim Noah, a 6’ 11” forward with a hairdo as electric as his game, stole the show this year. Noah, son of a former tennis star and a Miss Universe finalist, was a force at both ends of the court. With a cast like this, it’s no wonder this was one of the most memorable tournaments in recent history.