Tuesday, March 8, 2011

March Madness 2011

Few sporting events generate as much excitement as the first several weeks of the NCAA basketball tournament. Nothing is more exciting than the upsets during March Madness. I remember when Steve Nash's Santa Clara team upset Arizona years ago, but the greatest upset had to be Villanova beating Georgetown for the title back in 1985.

March Madness may generate a lot of money for the  participating teams, but it also costs a lot of money to employers as some employees mysteriously become less productive during the month as a result of checking scores, watching games, and talking about their brackets. The pools I have participated in never really gambled for money, but rather small prizes and pride.

My frustration with filling out the tournament brackets and making predictions is that I know too much. Every year the people in the office who follow basketball, understand the teams, and know the odds seem to get smoked by the girl who hates sports but makes her team predictions according to who has the best uniforms or the cutest mascots. It's still a pretty safe bet to pick Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Indiana and UCLA most years.

The other great thing about the big dance is the intensity and passion of the college players. They put NBA players to shame when it comes to effort. If you don't win, there is no second chance unlike a best of 7 series in the Pros and many of the players know that their career is over after the tournament so they have nothing to lose. I can't wait to see some underdogs pull off some upsets.

No comments:

Post a Comment