1) I'm 4'10'' - my athletic prowess leaves a little to be desired. But you don't have to be skilled on the court to get excited about these games. And unlike the NBA, players aren't on multi-million dollar contracts with endorsements and uber-dramatic personal lives; players are student athletes, they actually pass the ball, and they are so excited to be playing you can feel it through the tv.
2) It puts the spotlight on colleges you may not know about. When a team like Davidson or Butler makes a run for it, it reminds us that small liberal arts colleges are out there. I'm thrilled if it leads to just one more student considering a school outside of their comfort zone and looking at a school they had not heard of before. May I suggest revving up Naviance during the commercial breaks?
3) Just like the college admissions decisions that will be on our mind over the next 6 weeks, the way the bracket plays out doesn't always make sense. In the same way that some students will be disappointed if they don't get in, some teams that 'should' win are faced with an upset. Just like how some students don't seem like they can be admitted to some schools end up with a thick packet in their mailbox, some teams, through a combination of luck and hope, win games that it seems like they shouldn't. With both the decisions and the games, things happen for a reason. Life doesn't always work the way it 'should' -- if it did the bracket would be irrelevant and the whole tournament could be predicted based on the seeds. The joy of the games are that they are unpredictable. Same goes for the college admissions decisions. Sit back and enjoy the ride.
4) The Bracket. As I alluded earlier, my basketball skills are not so hot. I took summer school gym in high school and for the basketball skills test was told to just stop trying because my time trial to complete a sequence of drills was already far past the 'F' time limit. But the bracket is another story. In my Fordham days, I won first place. Looking for a pool to join for a great cause? I'm planning to join Backboards to Blackboards a charity bracket for Building Tomorrow, a non profit founded by a William and Mary grad I went to high school with.
5) The NCAA tournament is FUN. Through much of the school year, the college application cycle is filled with the stress of deadlines and panic of students and parents worried about a lot of things. March is a little gap of happiness in between the frenzy of the fall applications and the decisions in April and AP exams in May. Working hard is great, but coming together to enjoy something fun is even greater.
Stay tuned over the next few weeks as I'll try and highlight certain colleges in the tournament that are worth checking out.
In related news, let's hear it for the ElRo Huskies who have had some nice basketball success of their own!
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