Typically, March is a great month. For one, daylight savings happens and suddenly I feel like moving off my couch past the hour of 5 pm. This is beneficial. Also it starts to get warm (ish) out and we have days like yesterday - where I find myself taking Jack for a nearly two mile walk and nearly killing him in the process. That's ok - he needs to get in shape as much as I do. Except both of us being out of shape is 100% my fault.
The best part of March, though, is the NCAA tournament... one of the greatest sporting events of the entire year. The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is nonstop action from Thursday around noon to Sunday night - and the beauty is... you never know what's going to happen.
This is the first year I have a real job and won't be able to watch all the games on Thursday and Friday. I can already imagine that my productivity is going to be down at work anyway, checking scores all day - but luckily the first round game I care about the most is Friday at 3pm, meaning that I'll get home just in time to hopefully not watch Cornell get slaughtered too badly. This is the second year in a row that my alma mater has somehow made its way into the NCAA tournament and even though they have little chance of advancing past the first round... well, it's nice to see them there just the same.
My other "alma mater", well... that's a different matter. Anything other then the championship game is a total and abject failure this year. Two years ago - they ripped my heart out in the Elite 8 when they let their lead against Georgetown completely evaporate in the closing minutes of the second half. They then proceeded to completely not show up for overtime - not hitting a basket for the first three minutes or so while Georgetown went ahead and just ran them off the floor. That one hurt.
Last year hurt worse. Preseason favorites, Tyler Hansbrough as the reigning player of the year, and the #1 overall seed going into the NCAA tournament. They cruised through to the Final 4 where they immediately went down by about 30 to Kansas in the FIRST HALF, leading Billy Packer to proclaim the game "over" with about 30 minutes left to play. (The silver lining to this is that ultimately led to him getting fired - leading to NCAA fans nationwide to jump with joy.) North Carolina came back to within 2 in the second half on an insane run that only served the purpose of getting everyone's hopes up before they finally lost by about 10.
Most schools - a final four is something to remember forever. At UNC, a loss in the final four is something you want to forget as soon as possible.
This year is the last shot for the players I have been following for years. Many of them stayed one last year just for a chance at the title they should have won last year. In the preseason, many thought they had such a strong team that they could run through the season undefeated. Injuries slowed progress along the way, but they still have a #1 seed. I'm hoping that this is the year, but every sports fan says that about their team every year until the dream is cruelly snatched away.
Well, there's always the chance that Duke can lose in the first round again...
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