The "Madness" around March Madness by Kaveeshan Gnanarajah

 The "Madness" around March Madness

For years, I genuinely never understood it. Every March, millions of people would go crazy and lose their minds over college basketball. Filling out brackets, staying up late, getting up early for games, yelling at their TVs. I always enjoyed watching the NBA, and basketball as a whole is, in fact, my favorite sport to watch and play, but I just never got into college basketball. That was until last year, when I actually sat down and, I must say, I was completely wrong about everything. I love March Madness

The thing I didn’t understand is how fast everything and anything can change. For example, the game yesterday when Kentucky and Santa Clara kept making shots, and in the final seconds, start playa Otega Oweh hits a buzzer-beater and sent it to overtime. In the first 2 days, there has already been so many buzzer beaters, game winners, and overall crazy performances. It is so interesting watching teams that have played bad all season randomly have a few good players randomly do extremely good and have an upset in the first round. Like, one second a team is celebrating and the next second a guy is throwing a shot from way past half court to tie the game and the whole gym full of tens of thousands of college students just yell. You can never look away. 

But honestly, what got me even more into it more than the shots was the atmosphere around it. The crowds, student sections, commentators. Its just this energy that many other sports just do not have. March Madness isn’t just about who has had the better season. It’s about the high stakes, one loss and you are out. The fact that any team can beat any other team if they are having a good day, and nobody knows for sure who will win a game.