That's right, one of the best times of year for sports is here. College basketball tournament time! I love it all. I'm not much of an NBA fan, but I love the college game. Living in North Carolina probably has something to do with it. In my opinion, we are the best of the best college basketball states. North Carolina, Duke, NC State - all NCAA champions. Wake Forest a really great program. Then there are the other NC schools - Davidson, UNCC, App State, UNC Wilmington...the list goes on and on.
Here are my Top 5 college basketball states. Like all Top X lists, there is room for argument.
1. North Carolina
2. Kentucky (Louisville, U of K)
3. Indiana (Hoosiers! and Larry Bird!)
4. Michigan (the 2 big state schools have terrific programs)
5. Connecticut (I gotta give props to the women. CT has the best program and the mens program is great too)
Every year has excitement and unexpected surprises. I love a good underdog story and there are at least a couple of these every year. The underdog usually doesn't take the top prize, but denies it to some favorites along the way and that's why they play the game...you never know what might happen.
I like the NCAA tournament - the big one, but my favorite is the ACC tournament - again, I'm in North Carolina which is ACC central. I don't like how the conference has changed lately (Notre Dame is in Indiana for Pete's sake), but it's a big money game now. I much preferred the ACC I grew up in the 1980's and '90s which included Maryland.
So far the NIL (name, image and likeness) craziness doesn't seem to me to have screwed up college basketball too much. There are still great rivalries and players have been leaving early for the NBA for years, so I think college hoops is adaptable enough to handle a bunch of transfers. I don't like it, but I get it and I'm on the side of the players. They make an absolute fortune for the schools and they are adults, so more power to 'em, You want a free market economy, you gotta understand it's going to affect some things you don't agree with.
So I'm looking forward to watching just a ridiculous amount of basketball over the next few weeks. Let's go!
Enjoy the madness.....