The magic of March Madness lies in its immediacy. If you want to boil down why we like the NCAA men’s tournament so much, in such a unique and unfailingly breathless way, there are all kinds of answers, but that’s the main one.
You enjoy the earnestness of it, of young men doing battle not for a $50 million salary, but because competing with everything they have is the only way, which is exactly how it should be.
But you love the danger, the truth that the reason for the thrill ride is based around the ever-present possibility of heartbreak, never more than 40 minutes away.
You can appreciate how the tournament feels like a big fiesta, for yes, the games are beamed into millions of homes and is spread all over the country, yet in truth it feels like it has a lot in common with a youth sports carnival, such is the frequency and the pace of the action.
But you are drawn in just as much by the tension, the stress, the tears, the reality that a prior body of excellent work can be undone by one bad afternoon when the glare of the spotlight and the heat of the moment became too much.
You can revel in March Madness it because it is incessant, with a remote control always needed at the ready, for the play scarcely pauses and it overlaps and it is overload, deliberately, delightfully. That’s what is coming at the back end of this week, with First Four games beginning Tuesday before all the Thursday through Sunday deliciousness unfolds.
But you are hooked because it is here and now, with no slow burn to speak of. Over a seven-game series, the best team is going to hold sway, far more often than not. Two 20-minute halves on a neutral floor smooth over the fine margins that live in this sport, which is one part of why we see all those upsets, year after year.
You can light up for collegiate bonds both ancient and temporary, for there is nothing like rooting as an alumnus when things get tense, yet a day later you’ll scream almost as loudly for a school you may never have heard of until right now, but have fallen for their pluck and poise and the sniff of a shock.
And you can love filling in your bracket because few pursuits where imperfection is guaranteed could ever be more enjoyable. You can bathe in the history, from Jordan’s shot to Webber’s timeout to Kris Jenkins and so much more.
But this period of each year truly ignites and excites the sports fan is because, like nothing else, March Madness overwhelmingly owns its own moment. What has come in the months before doesn’t matter, not when scores are tied and the shot clock is off, no matter what the seedings say.
Alabama, Houston, Kansas, and Purdue selected as 1-seeds for NCAA Tournament
Jason McIntyre and Colin Cowherd react.
The tournament is incendiary, and proudly so. Overlooking everything sits the intoxicatingly stark fact that every dream but one is doomed to die.
So here it is again, a familiar routine where Monday is spent perusing the numbers and planning to dominate the office pool. The more you study, the more you convince yourself of certain things, before it all goes haywire by lunchtime on Thursday.
This year, the top few seeding lines look mighty. They so often do.
There is an overall No. 1 in Alabama that plays pretty basketball but is shrouded in off-court ugliness, part of it linked to star player Brandon Miller. There is a Houston team that doesn’t play like Phi Slamma Jam but has been one of the most consistent squads in the country over several years. There’s Kansas seeking to repeat and Purdue, boasting the extraordinary size and skill of 7-foot-4 Zach Edey.
Down at No. 4 sits Connecticut, the sleeper that isn’t a much of a sleeper at all, with the ability to beat any team, despite a midseason run that tarnished its record, but now appears to be behind it.
For all the strength at the top and the familiarity there is with teams like Pac-12 duo Arizona and UCLA, and Big 12 tournament champ Texas, and Big East winner Marquette – tipped to flounder before the start of the campaign – consider that a 15 has beaten a 2 the last two years.
The transfer portal has allowed talent to filter through the ecosystem and the one-and-done phenomenon has led even some star-filled lineups to be susceptible to the pressure of the moment against veteran-packed mid-majors.
March’s midpoint is the most unpredictable of all things in sports, where time means its own thing. In the space of a year, North Carolina went from the brink of a national title to being out of this year’s field altogether. Time can also work the other way; Virginia won it all a year after becoming the first No. 1 seed to topple to a No. 16.
Soon there will be Cinderellas to fall in love with, 2023’s version of Chicago Loyola or UMBC. When so much is happening at once, drama is never going to be very far away.
That’s what awaits us now on what is, for many, the most thrilling week of the sporting year – the beginning of a tournament that lives in the present, because there is no tomorrow.
