Big crowds, big finishes, big upsets … it’s good to have the NCAA Tournament back in its true form.
Welcome back, March Madness™. We missed you.
We didn’t really have it last year, when every men’s game was in a bubble in Indianapolis, the women’s tournament took place in the San Antonio area, crowds were limited and socially distanced and everything was hermetically sealed for obvious reasons. And we had nothing in 2020, when the cancellation of conference tournaments came at the very beginning of a mass lockdown and the loss of the national tournament became an early symbol of our deprivation.
It is safe to say, though, that in view of what’s come before, what may be in front of us, and everything else happening in the world these days, we need this magnificent distraction as much if not more than ever. “Nothing can screw up March Madness,” Charles Barkley said on CBS Sunday morning. Give Chuck credit, by the way. When TNT’s NBA announcers were added to the NCAA Tournament crews a few years ago, Barkley was absolutely unprepared to discuss college basketball. He’s much better now.