Is It Time for March Madness Yet?

Originally Posted on January 19, 2006 on Foxsports.com.

It was a balmy 50ish degrees here in Iowa - quite a change from the typical January subzero temperatures in the frozen tundra.  Because it felt like March with things thawing out, I got anxious for the annual March Madness to begin.  Then I realized college basketball had barely begun conference play.  (Sigh).

It's true.  College basketball is not one of my favorite sports.  It's my mother's fault - she forced me to endure too many Iowa Hawkeye basketball games on Wednesdays and Saturdays when I was growing up.  Granted, we lived in the country with only 4 channels at our disposal (PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC).  But I did not like watching those games.  I'd even suggest we watch something educational or a Billy Graham special or anything else.  Mom was not to be swayed from watching her game.

So  I organized boycotts.  Read lots of books.  Listened to the radio.  Ignored my family.  Nothing worked - they still watched the game (although Dad did occasionally join me in listening to the radio and reading the books).

Now, once you've organized a boycott, it's hard to backdown -especially if you are not successful at it.  Well, at least it's hard for me to admit I'm wrong.  Hence, I'm not a big fan.  I do like going to a game, and in fact attended the recent Iowa State-Texas game, but I don't think I'll ever love the sport the way a lot of people do.  I think the fact that I had a great high school basketball team to watch and don't have a college team to call my own contributes to this too.

That said, I do like March Madness.  I like watching the teams play what could be their last game of the season.  Watching the strategy of the teams.  Watching the upsets.  Watching the Cinderella teams make a run at the championship.

Somehow I joined a March Madness pool which involves a monkey flipping coins (who usually does better than I do in picking the right teams).  Many of my friends are already watching games in anticipation of making their picks for the tournament.   I will probably watch the Iowa State -Kansas game next weekend and call it good.  Unless there's a blizzard.  And nothing else is on TV.