March Madness Is Here

This Thursday kicks off one of the true gems in American sports, March Madness. With all due respect to the teams currently battling it out in the play-in games, Valparaiso and Michigan State’s 12:15 tip-off on March 21 officially starts the big dance, sending sports fans nationwide into a two week craze during which alma mater pride supplants frustrations over student loan payments, college hoodie sweatshirts again become the hottest fashion style, statisticians attempt to quantify workplace productivity losses due to online streaming, and we all succumb to the powerless feeling of why we didn’t pick that dam team.

Once you get past idea of how the field is set — and it can be a big one to get over (7-10 guys sitting behind closed doors picking teams with no accountability but big time bucks at stakes for the conferences they represent over the long-term) the NCAA tournament is one of the closest things we have to perfection in our sports culture. It has just the right number of teams, a comfortable time span over which it unfolds, nail-biting drama that rivals any Daniel Day-Lewis movie, and the best sportsmanship and quality of play that you can ever come across.

Photo Credit: SportsIllustrated

The DM(Northern)V’s lone representative this year is Georgetown. Gone are the Maryland Terps after coming up short in the ACC tournament which they essentially needed to win to get to the big dance. Out too is American University which has been known to make an appearance or two out of the Patriot League as well as 2006 Final Four Cinderella George Mason. And as for the GW Colonials…well, they’ve been missing Carl Elliott, Danilo Pinnock, and Pops Mensah-Bosnu for a while now.

Watch out for Virginia Commonwealth though! The 2011 national semifinalists made the most out of their first year in the A-10 where going up against stronger competition such as St. Louis, Butler, and Temple (all in the tournament) has only served them well. A defensive oriented team that plays at a frenetic place, loves the full court press and can stroke the three ball, they are indeed a force to be reckoned with. Top college hoops analysts Jay Bilas and Andy Katz have them going to the Final Four.

Photo credit: Daniel Sangjib/Times-Dispatch

Inevitably though, the pride of the region rests on how far Georgetown can advance. The Hoyas’ hopes for a top seed in their region were all but dashed following a loss to Syracuse in the Big East Tournament. Instead, they’ve settled for a #2 seed in the South region where, barring an early upset, they should be expected to advance to at least the Sweet 16. It would set up an enticing “re-match” with Florida after an early season game contested on a navy battleship was suspended due to rainy conditions, but was never rescheduled. Besides Florida, also standing in the Hoyas’ way to the Final Four are national heavyweights Kansas, North Carolina, and Michigan.

The storied tradition of Georgetown basketball is of course well known. And a hot streak this season had them consistently in the discussion as one of college basketball’s top teams. But their recent tournament history has been disappointing. After making the Final Four in 2007 they have failed to get past the second round in their last four tournament appearances. Sophomore standout Otto Porter is widely considered one of the best players in the nation and a sure-fire lottery pick should he go pro this year. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from past tournaments, it’s that the stage is ripe for big-time, Alpha-dog players (Anthony Davis, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony, to name a few).

With so much parity in college basketball this season the stage is set for a tournament for the ages. Week in and week out, the top-ranked teams fell like big-time investment banks in late 2008 making it a wide open field this year up for the taking. In his annual State of the Tournament address, President Obama picked Louisville, Indiana, Ohio State, and Florida to advance to the Final Four. But who knows, no matter how much you strategize, if your office pool goes anything like mine, prepare to hand over your money to the sweet and innocent accounts payable rep who claims to “know nothing about college basketball.”

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