Madness, Moments and Memories Made In March

By Taybor Miller, FJN Sports Editor Once again the time has come for the NCAA tournament as 2023 marks the 84th year since it’s conception.A tournament that brings about many adjectives to describe it, chaotic, historic, ridiculous, and astonishing are some that come to mind. If you’re simply watching as a spectator and nothing more to just enjoy the game that is basketball. If you’re someone in the millions of others that fill out that tournament bracket in chase of the ever elusive “perfect” bracket, then the tournament could be described in many other colorful words that can’t be printed, but nonetheless each team, round, and possible match-up analyzed in hopes to do what most would consider impossible.I’m someone who’s played basketball among family and friends, competitively at high-school, while also enjoyed being the spectator or announcer for basketball. I’ve attended practices from JUCO, to DII, and DI, watched kids on traveling teams, co-leagues, and Senior leagues.Many of the similarities with successful teams always stand out. Yet when it comes to the tournament time, any one of us can pick the team on paper should be winning handily.Then the magic that happens during this time of the year that will have you in tears by the game that unfolds, whether you’re on the winning side or losing the moments can get the best of you. One of the best example that comes to mind is that in all honesty, I never would’ve thought that I’d be alive in my lifetime to see a 16 seed upset the No. 1 seed but UMBC became the first 16 seed ever to upset a No. 1 seed in 2018, when the Retrievers defeated Virginia and became an overnight sensation. Only to then see the following year with Virginia coming back to the ultimate redemption of winning the tournament in 2019.Easy to say that plenty of talent will be on display, but the levels of why a team is as good as they are will be unveiled in the crunch time moments. I’ve always thought that in the tournament times the identity of a good coach will be seen as they put their players in positions to make the play, but it’ll always fall on to the players to make it happen. Some might show up, some might pull off a career night for the better, or it could be the latter. In this tournament you’ll see the extra efforts, and attention to the devil in the details because those will often times be the make or break to surviving in the tournament. Of course there’s other reasons to why some may be watching be it a bet, or bragging rights, it’s a time full of basketball that will be bringing people together. Even if you’re not a fan of the sport.The efforts, emotions, and so much more is on full display that memories can made from a few weeks that last a lifetime. The years and historic teams that make those “Cinderella” runs at times can get mixed up, but a quick google search ends those debates, or even connects the dots to memories that were forgotten. Some teams, players or certain moments will never be forgotten and live as vivid as the time it unfolded in front of our eyes.I still remember where I was sitting as I watched Mario Chalmer’s miracle shot and seeing my cousins run around as wild as I had ever seen. The year of 2023 now marks it to a decade ago that Trey Burke hit a late three for Michigan against KU upsetting the No. 1 seed in the elite eight. I now look back on that memory with a certain fondness because not 10 minutes after that game my brother, and three of our cousins met up for pickup games at the park as that endeavor would go on for three hours.We were talking trash, reviewing the game all while competing against each other, and making memories that were inspired by the game that brought us together. No matter the year, personally I try to fill out three brackets as one is for fun and believing the underdogs and hoping something crazy happens.A second bracket a strategic one where you try to analyze, listening to every report that scouts or analysts have to give. The third bracket is doing the exact opposite of the second option because lets face it there’s some opinions that just won’t carry any weight and sound ludicrous, not to mention that you’ll probably second guess some of the choices. In each of those brackets though, somehow, and some way I’ll convince myself that the team I have at the end is the right choice.Sure, after the first day of competition one of my brackets will most likely be useless, but before it all happens. In the moments after finishing the part of filling out the bracket, the thoughts of awaiting how it’ll all play out while comparing to friends and families as a hard time is given for the choices that have been made.One thing will always be certain is that no bracket will be perfect, we each hope to have the least amount of misses, and by the end when it’s over after 67 games are played in the span of the three weeks with all the memories made fans will look back saying it goes too fast, it’s almost madness.

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