It is officially the day before the start of March Madness, and you can feel a change in the winds.
Before you all jump down my throat. Yes, I realize there were play-in games last night, and there will be some more tonight. Those games are an embarrassment to college basketball and March Madness. I refuse to recognize them as legitimate.
The real games don’t get underway until the round of 64, and that starts tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will all embark upon a great journey of basketball together. There will be wins, there will be losses, emotions will swing from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, beers will be drank, food will be eaten and we will all take our first step towards winning our bracket pools.
As Herb Brooks said, “Play your game!” Don’t panic if you go down a couple games early. We’re in a marathon. We’re not in a sprint. That is of course unless your championship team gets bounced in the first round. If that happens then I suggest buying a bunch of beer and blacking out.
True story, one year in college some buddies and I sat at the same bar for eight hours watching March Madness. You have no idea the swing of emotions you go through during an eight hour stretch of binge drinking with money on the line as a team runs the pick and roll to take a game winning shot.
That’s what we can all do starting tomorrow. You do that during a regular day of the week and people are going to accuse you of having a problem. Do it during March Madness and you’re patriot.
Good luck to everybody. We’re all in this fight together, even if only one person can ever win a bracket pool. Let’s go!