March Madness (Steve Gilliard Explains Why Everyone is Acting Weird in Your Office)
Posted Fri Mar 16 17:24:57 2001 by steveg |
By Steve Gilliard
The most important event in America's office life takes place over
the next three weeks. Once a year, America's offices have a major
slowdown. The last weeks of winter end in something called March
Madness or the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament. So if your
coworkers are wearing their college sweatshirts, running around with
sheets of papers and calling long distance, this is why.
The NCAA Men's Tournament was once a dinky little tourney
overshadowed by the NIT's (National Invitational Tournament) now call
the Not Invited Tournament. In the early 1980's, the field of teams
expanded, soon fixing on 64 teams. While the eventual winner tends to
come from traditional basketball powers, the NCAA's is the best
sporting event in America.
Why?
Because unlike the much hyped and promoted Super Bowl, the tourney
can sneak up on you and kick you in the ass. Small teams can play well
and go far enough to matter. Talent usually wins out in the end, but
some of the best basketball you will ever see will take place in the
next three weeks.
It's the kind of thing you only get in baseball, the long shot team
playing their heart out. You can't see that in football, too many teams
are evenly matched these days, even in college. Work in basketball
shows. A Southwest Missouri State isn't going to a bowl game. It can go
to the NCAA's.
There is a lot bad said about big time college sports and much of
what is said is true. But a lot of the kids at the tourney get to be
seen by national audiences, at least for a day or two. Any game can
turn from a blowout to a nailbiter all the way down. There has never
been a bad tournament. Some bad games, but some real kick ass winners.
Why is this so important? Because it is so much a part of the
worklife of the country as well as the Internet. My friend and I are
IM'ing each other as I watch the game and telecommute and he sits in
his office. Why? Because the tourney is fun. It became part of my
consciousness in college, where I came across the office pool.
I love the office pool. Gambling and no set out outcome. Let me put
it this way, you win by survival, not by perfection or even luck. You
have better odds of marrying a Hollywood actress than getting a correct
pool. It is an act of gambling legerdemain that I have never seen.
Because with so many teams, someone will do something heroic.
This is one of the few times in our collective lives, you get to
see the unexpected. After one day, so many small schools have come from
behind and beat major powers I feel thrilled to watch this. Last night,
Hampton Institute came from behind and won in an amazing game, a game
they should have never done anything but show up and lose, against
regional power Iowa State.
So if you're wondering why so many people are sitting around
staring at Sportsline, listening to sports over the net or just
watching TV, this is it. And March Madness continues for two more
weeks.
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Name: bob
Email: pale_13@usa.net
Date: Tue Mar 20 09:18:46 2001
Comment:
Emily, as a grad of the only major university in NC not in the ACC, who
happens to live dead center between Duke and Carolina, I assure you
nonbody will be more thrilled than I to watch the Blue Devils get
trounced. |
Name: Emily Dresner-Thornber
Email: emily@netslaves.com
Date: Mon Mar 19 16:47:40 2001
Comment: Yeah, my picks are completely hosed. shake angry fist!
My only redemption is the hope of a Duke and Kentucky game, wherein
lies the hope that evil will be defeated by the Wildcats and not
allowed to move forward to the Final Four. |
Name: Scott
Email:
Date: Mon Mar 19 11:04:56 2001
Comment:
You should also mention that the tournament games Thursday and Friday
may have brought major surfing slowdowns, as people used streaming
audio to listen in on close games. Definitely noticed it where I work.
Damn Florida and Iowa State!
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Name: bob
Email: pale_13@usa.net
Date: Sun Mar 18 23:13:09 2001
Comment: "We are aware that this is not a sports heavy audience..."
Does that mean I get extra credit for being on the roster for a Division 1 soccer program when I was younger?
Course, that was a trick so I could travel with the team (was a
reporter with the student paper that the coach at the time liked), but
it counts for something right?
no?
Okay.
Didn't think so.
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Name: emil
Email:
Date: Sun Mar 18 00:16:00 2001
Comment: march madness is an Akea sale, isn't it? i didn't know it was also a hockey craze - you americans are so interesting!
|
Name: Emily Dresner-Thornber
Email: emily@netslaves.com
Date: Sat Mar 17 15:46:43 2001
Comment:
It's difficult to explain March Madness to the uninitiated or to those
who didn't, say, attend a major Big-10 school which was once home to
the Fab Five. It's difficult to explain to people who were never tear
gassed for a basketball game. :)
March Madness is about more than basketball. It's about the great
upsets, kids who go to no-name schools getting their one time in the
sun, it's about the tiny guy taking down the multi-million dollar
basketball program. It's arguably the best sports time of the year.
And, most importantly, it's about good vs. evil, where 63 teams all
try to take down the vile, evil villian Duke who squats over the entire
NCAA like some kind of toad. :) |
Name:
Email:
Date: Sat Mar 17 13:41:09 2001
Comment:
YEAH! THE XFL RULES! Oh, wait a second, this isn't about the XFL. Maybe
all the netslaves are waiting in line to renew H1B visas... |
Name:
Email:
Date: Sat Mar 17 13:40:35 2001
Comment:
Yeah! The XFL RULES! Wait a second, this isn't about the XFL... Maybe
all the netslaves are apathetic because they don't have ESPN in the
line for H1B visas... |
Name: steve gilliard
Email: sgilliard@netslaves.com
Date: Sat Mar 17 09:07:13 2001
Comment: Or that they're so pissed their pools are screwed up that they are unable to type straight.
We are aware that this is not a sports heavy audience, which is why
I'm explaining the NCAA's. My football playing friends hardly need the
lecture.:-) |
Name: eudas
Email:
Date: Sat Mar 17 05:39:11 2001
Comment: judging from the flurry of posts on this column, i'd guess that many people are like me -- apathetic about all of it.
|
Name: steve gilliard
Email: sgilliard@netslaves.com
Date: Sat Mar 17 00:56:18 2001
Comment: Yep. Amazing games. Just amazing.
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Name: Emily Dresner-Thornber
Email: emily@netslaves.com
Date: Fri Mar 16 22:21:58 2001
Comment: I didn't see Iowa St., man. Talk about an upset. Holy crap. And now Indiana St. beat Oklahoma.
Luckily, none of my big picks have gone down yet, so I'm still okay
in the pool. All of my third round picks are still standing. I have
Arizona, Stanford, Duke and Michigan St. in the final four, myself.
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