The NCAA selection committee is hard at work at this very moment deciding who will get to go to the Big Dance. You may wonder why I choose to comment on the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at all. I guess if I hadn't lived in Indiana for 11 years or married a Hoosier, this day might have gone by without much notice from me. I have never been any kind of athlete and still don't completely understand all the rules of college basketball, but it's impossible NOT to get caught up in the excitement of this time of year. I blame my husband for pulling me into the insanity.
Basketball is a religion in Indiana and Ron remains a faithful follower even though we moved to Texas in 1984. He grew up in Connersville where the boys' basketball team won the state championships in 1972 and 1983. We were actually at the 1983 state championship game at Market Square Arena and exhausted ourselves jumping up and down and screaming ourselves hoarse watching that final game. I'm sure that he could tell you the names of the players and give you a summary of the key plays. I just got caught up in the emotion and excitement of the whole thing.
There are few things that evoke more excitement or emotional outbursts from my husband than watching college basketball games. I have spent the last 32 years of my life watching him get red in the face while yelling at the TV during games. There are also a few things that remain constant. He is generally supportive of Indiana teams (he was thrilled by Butler's performance the last couple years) and he always roots for Indiana University. Coach Bobby Knight is still revered in our house no matter how flawed he may be as a human being. Another constant is the disdain Ron has for the Kentucky and Duke teams. His grudge against those teams goes back many many years. I am a Hoosier by marriage so I don't completely understand it, it just IS.
Need any help filling out your brackets today? I'm sure that Ron will be happy to give you his opinion. In fact, Mandi may be willing to share her picks with you as well. She is the only one of our children that has the "disease." I'm not sure how the other two escaped it - it's quite contagious. I will let you know how we all fare with our picks as we wind through to the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, the Final Four and finally, to the National Championship on April 2nd.
Can you feel the excitement?!?!
1 comment:
It does get exciting, but I'm more interested in the Stanford women's team. My late wife was a Stanford grad, and that team has done extremely well over about the last 15 years.
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