The magic of Madness

Grab your seats, sports fans. “The Big Dance” is here. For the next couple of weekends, I’m putting any agita-inducing global madness on ignore and focusing on a more rewarding obsession: March Madness, the 2025 NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. What began in 1939 has become one of the greatest annual U.S. sporting events. Sixty-plus teams from coast to coast plot a path to the national title in this iconic single-elimination tournament. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of. And some good stories.

When asked by a reporter if he’d don his lucky jacket during the 1977 tournament, Marquette University basketball coach Al McGuire said, “You gotta wear the blue blazer when you go to the big dance.”

The tournament nickname stuck.

More than 85 years ago, the term “March Madness” was first used by an Illinois high school official named Henry V. Porter. But it wouldn’t become associated with the tournament until sports announcer Brent Musberger used it during coverage in 1982.

By last weekend, with the first and second rounds completed, there were 32 men’s teams in the mix, the product of nonstop basketball over 48 hours. Next up, we head into the Sweet 16 later this week.

Unfortunately, in most bracket pools, the women’s NCAA teams are left out. Inclusion is better than in the past, but the best women’s college basketball players still don’t get the respect they deserve – particularly surprising in these days of “NIL” (“name, image and likeness”) where student-athletes can now make money from endorsements.

Yeah, we’ve come a long way, baby, but there’s still a long way to go.

For the women, March Madness started in 1982. The UConn Huskies have won the most women’s titles (11), and South Carolina’s Gamecocks won their third title in 2024. The legendary Tennessee Lady Volunteers have appeared in every tournament since its founding.

(Aside: Today in the women’s Round 2, my No. 7 Michigan State Spartans got trounced by No. 2 North Carolina State, 83-49. Ouch.)

For the women’s finals, I’m picking UConn over South Carolina. For the men, it’s MSU all the way.

Back in the day when I toiled in the rat race, no matter where I worked there was always a group of rabid sports guys who organized bracket pools. The rules were simple: Earn the most points per round by picking winning teams. Correct picks in later rounds meant more points. Live to fight another day.

And if you were a college basketball aficionado, pretty smart and a little bit lucky, you’d pick the winner of the National Championship game.

Easier said than done. No one has ever filled out a 100% correct March Madness bracket, according to the NCAA, which tracks and verifies these sorts of things.

The point of all this is to have fun, not who wins, right? But it brings out your competitive spirit no matter who you are. And with the magic of online pools, it’s much simpler to play.

Rebecca and I entered the Anna Maria Island NCAA Bracket Challenge run by our guy Dan O’Connor of Dan’s Florida Condos (located in Bradenton Beach on beautiful Anna Maria Island). Choosing brackets is a first for us. The grand prize: a one-week stay at a Dan’s Florida Condos vacation home!

(Full disclosure: We’ve been renting from Dan for 10 winters now, so this would be pretty sweet.)

As novice and rookie “bracketologists,” respectively, Rebecca and I made our picks before March 20 when the official Madness began, and we submitted them online.

Anyone can win, according to Dan, who says some past winners didn’t know the difference between a hook shot and a layup. It appears the magic of March Madness is in the mismatches. As in upsets.

Year after year, so-called “Cinderella teams” emerge from the pack. These are lower-seeded teams that somehow – against all odds – win and knock off better teams. Bracket-busters that beat a favorite. Hence, the madness.

Frankly, I’m always a sucker for underdogs.

Whether you use your head, your heart or a combination thereof, it doesn’t matter. As in, I actually made a First Four pick because I have a great-nephew named Xavier who’s a promising middle school hoops star. That’s about as scientific as I get. Sadly, No. 11 Xavier, the university, lost to No. 6 Illinois in the first round. (Boo.)

This was a first-ever bracketology experience for Rebecca, who’s never had the slightest inclination to choose college basketball teams in a pool that’s not meant for swimming. She admittedly had no idea what she was doing, bless her heart.

“What’s with this Gonzaga? Is that in Canada?” she wondered aloud.

“No, Gonzaga University is in Spokane, Washington,” I answered.

“Oh. What about Drake?” she asked.

“The Canadian rapper and singer?” I replied. “But Drake, the university, is in Des Moines, Iowa.”

As of today’s rankings, Rebecca was slightly ahead of me. OK, by a mile.

(Aside: Oh Maddie, dear one, where are you when Mama J needs you? Wish I could have had our fur baby choose my teams. Her paw picks in previous years were positively prescient. When it came to balls, that girl was laser focused.)

On the men’s side, the Sweet 16 teams play March 27-28. Then the Elite Eight on March 29-30, and the Final Four on April 5.

The women’s National Championship game is April 6 in Tampa; the men’s final is April 7 in San Antonio, Texas.

It’s been quite an education for us both and has definitely broadened our morning coffee talk. I’m afraid we’re hooked on the Madness.

A more telling sign is that we have three Sharpie accent highlighters on the kitchen table used to mark up our brackets. Go, Green. Go, Blue.

Don’t stop the Madness!

(YouTube video: From Detroit’s own Eminem, here’s “Lose Yourself,” from the soundtrack to the 2002 film “8 Mile.” It was the first hip-hop song to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Song. One of Eminem’s finest, it will get you going whether you’re warming up on a basketball court or sitting in your car waiting for the light to turn green.”)