College Basketball

I love college basketball. I follow it as best I can during the regular season, checking up on my alma mater Marquette as well as clicking in on ESPN's scoreboard, headlines, and rankings each week to see what's happening. Towards the end of February, I begin my watch as Conference titles, Selection Sunday, and Tourney Time draw near.

I remember the first year my dad got me hooked on college basketball. I was in 7th grade, and I think the Minnesota Gophers were doing well that year. That may have been the year of or the year before we went to the Final Four. That was an awesome year to be watching college hoops. I have watched the tournament faithfully ever since. Am I a bracket pool person? No. not really. I entered my high school buddy Boeser's pool a couple years, but the only year I ever came CLOSE to winning was my sophomore year of high school. I had all the boys so pissed because my bracket was kicking everyone's butt and they didn't want to lose to a girl (sad, but true!) I had Duke and Michigan State in the Championship game, and I think I had Duke winning it all but Michigan State won out (or the other way around, I don't remember -- whoever the favorite was, I picked, but the other guy beat 'em). So I lost everything... in one pool anyway. My dad's girlfriend at the time had entered a bracket of mine under her name, and I won third place in that one. So instead of wining $300 gift certificate to Daytons (now Marshall Fields) and the cash from Boeser's pool, I won $100 gift certificate to Daytons and not-quite-ridicule at "well, she's not as good as she thought she was" from the guys. I will never forget that. It was an awesome and fun experience, but so disappointing at the same time.

Then of course there was the year Marquette went to the Final Four. I was a sophomore in college and was living the dream of watching a Division I college basketball team playing live for four years. That was Dwyane Wade's glory year and glory team. It was such a rush going through that whole process, from the buzzer beaters and nailbiteres and adrenaline rushes from the regular season, ending in a thrilling regular season closer to beat Cincinnati at home on Senior Night, to clinch the C-USA conference title from Cincinnati for the first time in 8 years or something all the way through our tromps of Holy Cross, Missouri, Pittsburgh, and Kentucky into the very sad and pathetic loss to Kansas in the Final Four. What a rush and what a run it was, day one through day end that year. It was a good year to be a Marquette student and fan. Especially as an employee at the Phonathon -- our Final $4 Million Challenge to complete the Al McGuire Athletic Center was the height of excitement in the call center that year. I can't imagine what big schools like Duke, UConn, and others go through every year, thinking this will be the year or another year to get to the Final Four or make the big championship win.

Do you think I'm nuts being so obsessed with college hoops and sports? I'm the person who loves sports but cringes at the amount of money we spend on athletes and athletic stadiums versus education and the arts. But I will say this, college sports peak my interest a million times more than professional sports, and at least the students are also getting an education, even if the NCAA has incredible obstacles to overcome in regards to many of its "popular" athletes and athletic programs regarding academics.