March Madness

I really had no intention of writing any post related to the NCAA Tournament.  In fact, I didn’t even fill out a bracket this year.  This is the first time I haven’t done a bracket in probably five years.  I rarely do well on my brackets because I love picking the underdog.  And let’s face it, rarely does the underdog come out on top.

Except for last year.  Butler University’s Bulldogs had an outstanding and exciting run.  The past few years my alma mater has not even made it to the dance, so I have to pick someone else to root for.  I’ll admit it; I jumped on the Butler bandwagon.  But seriously, is there any better feeling than watching the team that no once expected to advance come out on top over and over again?  The tournament is not like regular season games.  If you lose a regular season game, there’s always another one to play.  With the tournament, you’ve only got one shot (well, not literally…haha, I’m a comedienne).

I decided I was not going to get sucked into March Madness this year.  But I live in the midwest and it’s called March Madness for a reason.  After Butler eked out a last second win at the buzzer on Thursday, I of course had to start rooting for them again.  Tonight’s game was another nail-biter, and as the leads were never much more than a handful of points, I reminded myself of why I try not to get invested in a team.  It’s an emotional roller coaster!  I find myself feeling nervous, elated, angry and excited as if I were actually playing.  And if the team I’m following ends up losing, I am depressed.  I might even cry a little.  It’s too late, though.  I’m once again hooked.

Assuming Butler wins the next game, we will be in New Orleans when the game after that is played.  How cool will that be?  Not that we’ll actually get to go to the game, but we’ll be there for the excitement and celebration.  Maybe the mascot, a bulldog named Blue 2, will get to go to the Sweet Sixteen.  (By the way, Blue 2 is on Twitter and he’s hilarious and awesome…@butlerblue2).

Are you following the Madness?  Is your team still alive?  If not, who are you cheering for now?  I say go for the underdog!

Sounds of Spring

There are certain sounds and smells that people think of when they think of spring.  Birds chirping, snow melting, grass growing (I swear you can hear things growing if you listen carefully).  There are certain smells in the air – damp ground, fresh air, flowers.  I was thinking of all of these things as I was running along the greenway last week, excited about the warmer temperatures.  It was great to see so many people out exercising and enjoying the sneak peek of spring.  I was about a mile and a half from home when I heard a basketball bouncing.  For me, that is the sound of spring.

No, I do not play basketball, nor have I ever actually played basketball – except when I was forced to in gym class and in the 5th (perhaps 6th) grade when one of my friends asked me to play on a league.  I’m not even sure if I finished the season, I was that terrible and got so worked up about practices and games.  I’m much better at individual sports.  I also am aware that the official basketball season begins in the fall and ends in the spring.  But sometimes certain sounds are associated with particular time periods and the memory is forged.

When I was eleven, this older boy moved in down the street.  I was getting ready to go into the 6th grade and he was going into 8th.  He was a basketball player.  I immediately had a huge crush on him.  We didn’t go to the same schools so I didn’t see much of him in the winter months.  But once spring arrived, I could hear the basketball bouncing in the driveway two houses down.  Even though I didn’t play basketball, we had a basketball hoop and I would convince my brother to go out and play HORSE with me.

Nothing ever came of my crush, but it was a good time in my young life.  From that point forward I have always associated the sound of bouncing basketballs with the arrival of spring.  It’s not a sound I hear very often these days.  There aren’t a lot of kids that live near us.  I guess that means I’ll just have to keep running over on the greenway in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, winter’s grip has not quite loosened yet.  Today we were back to chilly temperatures and bitterly cold pelting rain.  I’ll take it over snow and ice, though, and I know spring will be here to stay soon enough.  At least, that’s what the basketballs tell me.