March 14 - April 12
March Madness 2012
Today is Selection Sunday, following a week of division tournaments (championship week) to help determine which NCAA college basketball teams will receive invites to the big dance.
Only 64 spots are available for the hundreds of NCAA Division I teams across the country. Many teams selected are annual regulars, quite a few are returning after long absences and then there's the handful that have rarely if ever been on such a big stage. They're the ones to watch and wonder about. They're the ones who give the meaning to terms like "Upset" and "Cinderella." And they are the ones who fight to the last man, because they have nothing to lose and a "david topples goliath" legacy to hopefully cement.
The tournament is rightly called March Madness. Only basketball players with a fever to compete against the best in college would welcome such a potentially humbling and maddening invite.
Of 64 teams selected, only 1 will not have to experience the agony of defeat. The 63 teams that are eventually cut up with their remains left on the tournament's hardwood floor, become casualties of an ongoing war to beat the best in order to be the best. It's a war that can drive any sane person mad. It's a war against one's self and how they're built to handle adversity. It's a war where winning means life in abundance and losing is surely a cold, cutting death.
Many will die a glorious death, winning praises for their gallant effort. While others might leave the tournament whimpering and succumbing to emotional breakdown. One or two might even think there's nothing left to live for and consider Kervorkian methods to end the suffering of losing. May the Lord bring peace and understanding to those broken hearts, enlightening them to the fact that in the grand scheme of things it's just a game.
As for we the viewing public, we'll watch with excitement and anticipation as these gifted young athletes put it all on the line in hopes of becoming that one survivor of the madness that is march.
So fill out your brackets, place your bets and lay back to enjoy a month of basketball battles as entertaining and drama filled as ever. The month of march was made for going mad!
"When you're wounded and left on
Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out
to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier."
Wow, Kipling was a little extreme, wouldn't you say?
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