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.
