It’s That Time Of The Year!

This is it. This is the day when no work gets done, when offices are abuzz with brackets and computer systems are overwhelmed with the number of folks streaming college basketball games on their desktop computers. Don’t forget to tip your servers, fans.

It’s madness – March Madness. Non-stop action, from morning to night. Starting Thursday and rolling through Sunday.

This is the really fun part of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament because all 64 teams play, there are some bizarre upsets and enough crazy end-of-game scenarios to gush over until the next one two hours later on another court in a galaxy far, far away (or Detroit).

Because of the way the NCAA seeds the bracket, the potential for mismatches is high. Poor little Penn, after winning the Ivy League tournament, plays Kansas in the first round (1:50 p.m. on Thursday, TBS). Kansas has won the Big 12 since the Cenozoic Era. And yet, hope springs eternal (or for a couple of hours). Same for Radford, which won the Big South Conference title and gets to play Villanova, which won the national title in 2016. Let’s just tell you that Radford’s nickname is the Highlanders, because you won’t hear it again after this game.

You want a contest with a good chance of an upset? Ohio State plays South Dakota State at 3:50 p.m. or thereabouts on TNT. Mike Daum of the Jackrabbits (they’re the ones who aren’t the Buckeyes) has been likened to Larry Bird after winning the Summit League’s tournament MVP award for three straight years. Larry Bird! See him now, even though you might get lucky and be able to see him again.

And if experience matters, it favors the Jacks. They’re in the NCAA Tournament for a third straight year while OSU is back after a two-year hiatus.

Story lines galore. Hoops and scoops. It’s madness!

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman