Thursday, March 16, 2000

Brett Muller

Time's Up! Pass your brackets to the front, please.

Thursday. It's finally here.  For hoop fans it marks the beginning of a two and a half week stretch of absolute basketball nirvana.  It also starts the test--your own test-- your own personal tournament bracket.  This test,
though, will be unlike any other test you have ever taken while you were in school. Not in elementary, not in high school, college, anywhere. You have had plenty of time to study for it but how well did you prepare?

Did you start the semester strong in November by watching and analyzing the preseason and early season tournaments showcasing many of the country's
finest teams?  How long did it take you to notice what Syracuse was doing in their early non-conference season? Were they for real?  Would Michigan
State's tough non-conference schedule help or wear them out while preparing for this Thursday? Did you notice what the two young freshman guards were doing from Arizona?  We certainly hope so -- it could all be on the test.  How about that big fella down in Cincinnati -- are you keeping an eye on him too?

After a brief hiatus for the holidays it was time for the second semester, conference play.  Did you watch Big Monday? Even the Midnight game. It wouldn't hurt to catch a glimpse of the Utah's or New Mexico's of
the college basketball world because you know there is going to be a  7-10 or 6-11 matchup somewhere with a team from the Mountain West Conference. If you didn't catch them in the regular season you are taking a big chance that they are going to make the conference tourney final, your last chance to see them play. 

How about Super Tuesday? You know the SEC typically sends  at least 4 or 5 teams to the tourney and that one of them will make a deep run, but who will it be? You can't keep picking Kentucky every year and hope to get away with it.  Or how about the Big 12 -- was this league overrated or was Iowa St. poised to whip the field?
We'll have to wait and see...

Well, if you have been sleeping in class or missing class altogether and you didn't pay to close attention to the regular season, you do have one last chance to give your brackets some credence.  I'll call it college basketball's Cliff Notes or conference tournament play.  It's your last
chance to study your notes before you have to complete the test. You really are rolling the dice here because if upsets occur in the early rounds, WHOOPS, now you have to go in blind, never a solid option. 

However, for many of the small conferences it is your only chance to see them play. Hofstra, Iona, Utah St. all schools you'll only see once so you better take advantage of it. After all, it's easy to pick upsets but do you have a reason for doing so? No? You're picking blind? Like I said, never a solid option. 

Then there are the major conference tournaments where the big boys meet, not necessarily to fight to get in but to fight for higher seeding.  Here there is always the chance that a team will get hot like this year in Arkansas and St.
Louis. You have to decide whether or not this hot streak is a mirage or not.

Times up! Put down your pencils and pass your brackets to the front, please. The tourney is about to begin.

So now comes the judgement day. Your tournament bracket is turned in and ready to be graded. But how many tests have you taken where the teacher grades it in front of you? That is essentially how this test will be graded. Your answers are in stone now all you can do is sit back and watch.  There is no doubt that there will be times to gloat and there will be times where you will think to yourself (YOU IDIOT WHY DID I PICK TULSA TO GO TO THE GREAT 8 *$#@"!). 

But in the end it's all part of the madness; it's all part of the fun. Though if your bracket is in the trash can by Friday because you didn't study let me be the first to say I told you so!

Bret Muller is announcer and executive producer of "The Ball Team Show."

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