Basketball Eyes

March Madness is not even here and I have basketball eyes. For those of you who have been to the first two full days of the NCAA Tournament you know what I mean and if your experiences are anything like mine you arrive at the stadium of your choice early, find a bar have lunch and probable a pre game adult beverage before you get into the NCAA areas which are tented tailgate parties run splendidly by the host schools. Live music, food, drinks and fans dressed to the nines, in the colors of their champions, dot the landscape. There will be Cats, Jayhawks, Rams, Blackbirds, and Jackrabbits. The talk of who’s going to win and who’s going to get destroyed dins through the tents. Good natured ribbing and trash talk is exchanged and people smile, laugh and check their brackets.

The now 2 and 3^rd rounds of the NCAA Tournament are marathons four games 12 hours, noon to midnight. There is Basketball and more basketball, no other talk, nothing else on any TV in any bar in the host city. Richmond, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Raleigh are wonderful host cities and they really know how to greet and treat fans from all the schools. Welcome parties, dancing and lots of libation are very evident. The feeling, for those who have never experienced the NCAA Tournament is very much like St. Patrick’s Day in Manhattan, at Gleason’s or some other hipster watering hole, with breaks of sobriety while you watch more basketball than you probable ever had before. 

As the night session commences you start to see blank stares in the eyes of fans and the dropping of jaws as exhaustion take hold. This is also exasperated by the Selection Committee matching a Titan against a David and many late, late games, 1 Vs 16 are slaughters at best. By the time the final horn sounds there are many empty seats and many zoned out fans wearing the telltale signs of Basketball Eyes.

You peel off the grime from a very long day as you sit in your hotel room and take a last look at the late games on TV and add up your wins and losses, gearing up to do it all over again, hoping your bracket does not blow up before your eyes.

This year’s Tournament has the potential of being a Bracket buster with Final Four Finalist Kentucky, UConn and VCU returning to the big dance. Get your bracket ready March Madness starts on Tuesday. I am not sure who will be in my final four, but I do know there will be lots of smiles and lots of tears as the tournament  moves from city to city in this year’s version of Basketball Eyes.


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