College basketball / Man in the Mittle / Beware the ides of March madness
By Jerry Mittleman
Basketball's "Big Dance" has begun.
Cultural phenomenon, basketball orgy and showcase for future NBA stars, the NCAA college basketball championship tournament, colloquially known as March Madness, kicked off throughout America yesterday.
Advertisement
According to broadcaster Simmy Reguer, "March is the best time of year for basketball in America. The basketball is excellent and spring is on the way. Students party and alumni get together to recapture memories of younger, more carefree times".
In Israel, hoops fans can watch the madness on ESPN, which gives continuous coverage from Thursday to Sunday. Middle East TV also broadcasts selective games, but the information is usually only available on the METV website.
The tournament's atmosphere is like a basketball version of a beach party: 65 teams who will play in 13 different venues over three extended weekends until a champion is crowned in San Antonio on April 7th.
During the three days between the announcement of the participating teams and the tournament's opening tip-off, millions of Americans fill out lottery tickets at their place of work, with their choice of winning teams. Everyone wants a piece of the action, from maven to uninformed. This week millions of office secretaries chose a winner of the Coppin State-Mt. St. Mary's game - teams that very few of the them can locate, and even fewer have ever seen play.
Opening-round action began noon yesterday New York time. There will be 48 games played between now and the early hours of Sunday morning, by which time 16 finalists (the Sweet Sixteen) will still be standing. The games are extensively covered on both cable and network television and during this long weekend, the bouncing of basketballs and the flow of beer is endless.
Because of the wide range of participants, the tournament has an egalitarian nature, and during this opening weekend, there are always several instances of college basketball Davids slaying basketball Goliaths.
Next Thursday, the party begins anew, with four Regional Championship Tournaments, that also run from Thursday evening to Sunday evening. This phase of the event is less fiesta and more serious basketball, since at this stage, it's mostly the top teams who are still playing, and the level of play is intense and of high caliber.
The winners in each region move onto the Final Four in Texas, two weeks from now. (By the way, the term Four Final, though off repeated, originates from college basketballs' finals and semi-finals).
This year's tournament should be influenced by a mini-rebirth which has taken place in the college game, since, as of last year now, NBA teams now are forbidden from signing players straight out of high school.
Traditionally, March Madness had been a high-profile preview for college stars before turning pro, but of some of the games' greatest players - such as LeBron James, Kobi Bryant and Kevin Garnett - never participated, due to a decade-long trend of passing up college ball for immediate entry to the NBA.
This season, freshmen stars like Derrick Gray, Michael Beasley, O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love and Eric Gordon will all add luster to the tournament, before moving on and making some NBA team happy next season.
Since the college game has been in a long-term situation of parity, the event will again be a wide open contest, which should add to the fun and excitement. Any one of a number of excellent teams such as UCLA, Memphis or North Carolina, could be crowned champion, three exciting weeks from now.
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
