Sunday, March 16, 2008

March Madness 2008 - Selection Sunday

Well it's time again. Just twenty minutes until the NCAA March Madness team selection meeting begins.

This year, I'll be administering a company pool. But I won't have much work to do (that's right - a lazy admin; but I'm an official member of thelazyadmin.com group run by my friend and colleague Rodney Buike, an IT Pro Advisor with Microsoft Canada anyway, so what would you expect?) since the pool mechanics will be managed on a web site (http://www.runyourpool.com/).


In my humble opinion, there is no sporting tournament as consistently exciting as the NCAA March Madness men's basketball. Even so, it's sometimes a little difficult keeping up with all the teams, all the coaches, all the players, not to mention the history, the upsets, the continual switching between games on TV, and so on. But that's part of the reason why it's madness.


This year, the game I'd most like to see is the Best of the Big Ten Wisconsin against Memphis (currently ranked 8th and 1st - at least before the selection meeting). One of the best vignettes I've seen was about a young boy with leukemia, named Max Bass, and his basketball hero on the Wisconsin Badgers, Michael Flowers, both of whom sport the number 22 on their team jerseys. The vignette isn't yet available online, but the buzzer beater in which Michael Flowers got the winning 3-pointer to beat Texas - and which he dedicated to Max - is available here.


I've also signed up for the March Madness VIP pass on ncaa.com, specifically the NCAA March Madness On Demand. I should warn you, right now it's over 80% full for the free VIP registration. Today, all you get is historical highlights since it's only Selection Sunday. But during the tournament, and for the first time in history, you'll have access to all 63 games in streaming video, as well as recaps, highlights, etc.


Let the excitement begin.

No comments: