Your Guide To March Madness and SMITM: March 14 – 20

By Jeremy Suede on March 14th, 2011

The only time of year when all eyes of the sports world are square on college basketball is upon us. It is March Madness and for the next couple weeks the most spoken word in America will be “bracket”. The NCAA Tournament will decide who the best basketball team in all the land are and which players will be able to make it in the NBA. Only a team that can face down adversity and come together now will be able to go undefeated and claim the ultimate prize in college basketball. These games make for some of the best drama in all of sports and if there is a close game coming down to the wire then you need to find a way to watch it because you will never see more memorable buzzer-beaters than in March Madness

Duke, Ohio State, Kansas and Pittsburgh have taken the top spots in each regions and will have the most pressure on them and thus the biggest target on their backs. Duke has an even bigger target on their back because they won last year and the added pressure of trying to repeat as champions. This is where players step up and prove they can play under intense amounts of pressure and under the big lights of the national spotlight and pave the way for their NBA career. But it is also the time when good, solid players who know they won’t make it to the NBA, can take the opportunity to make their names go down in history. All it takes is a game-winning buzzer-beater over a higher ranked team to cement your place in legend.

The best/worst part of it all is the emotion shown on these kids faces after a big win or big loss. You have to remember they are kids, just college kids who aren’t professionals and wear their emotions on their sleeves. You will see faces of pure joy but on the flip side you will see pure aggony on the faces of the losing teams. It’s a great time for kids to see what it means to play on a team and what it takes to succeed. They will see some great shots that will go down in lore and hopefully in their memories forever. This is a great time of year and and your entire family can enjoy it.

March Madness = life long memories

Since I can guarantee memories when watching March Madness, this week the only thing I recommend watching is exactly that. So here is your layman’s guide to getting everything you can out of March Madness:

The first thing you should do is print and have everyone fill out this bracket. In order to do this you will have to pick out which teams you want to win each game/round. Pick just for fun, give yourself something to root for in each game. Unless you’re an expert (and if you’re reading this you’re not) then the only thing you can do is just pick the teams you like whether it’s because of a particular player, coach, school, uniforms, whatever. My advice is to fill it out backwards starting at the Final Four. Pick who you think will win and work your way backwards from there for at least their paths. Picking an upset could be disasterous though so watch out.
Take a look at the schedule to see what teams are playing when and try to watch as many games as you can. If you can’t watch the whole game, don’t worry, just try to keep an eye on this Scoreboard and when there is a close game coming down to the last 2 minutes, flip the channel to it. The most long lasting memories happen in the last 5 seconds anyway.
There will be upsets. No doubt about it. So expect them and expect them to decimate your bracket unless you happened to pick them, then they make your bracket golden.
Cinderella Teams make the tournament worth watching. They are the George Mason’s of the world. The team that shouldn’t be that far in the tournament but they are because of some magic and luck in memorable upsets. Which team will it be this year?
When your bracket blows up (because they undoubetdly will)

Players/Coaches To Keep An Eye On

Jimmer Fredette - Besides having the best nickname in college basketball (his real name is James), Jimmer is the best scorer in all of college basketball. His BYU team has been a contender all year but when they lost Brandon Davies, their chances were cut. But Jimmer is a great player and we’ll get to see how good he really is and how good of a leader he can be.
Ben Hansbrough - In his senior season Ben is is considered one of the best players in the game and should have a decent career in the NBA. If he can lead his Notre Dame team to a tournament win then his lottery pick draft status will be secure and his place in college basketball won’t just be that he was Tyler’s brother.
Kemba Walker - He proved he could play and lead his team to glory when his buzzer-beating shot gave UCONN the Big East title over Pittsburgh but now he can cement his draft status with a big showing in this year’s tournament. Lot’s of points and high pressure moments under the national spotlight could change his life and this is his time to rise.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski – Before you try, it is pronounced “Shashefski” or simpley “Coach K”. This man has coached Duke for decades and his recipe for winning is tried and true. He is a dominating coach that can lead his players to victories at all levels. He coached Team USA to gold in the Beijing Olympic games and then lead his team to the championship last year. His team is a No.1 seed and his chances of repeating seem pretty good. Will he be able to repeat?
Coach Rick Pitino - This coach of Louisville truly knows how to get the most out of his boys when it comes to tournament time. Doesn’t matter which school he is coaching, he knows how to get them into the tournament and get them deep into it. He has only won the entire thing once and now he is looking to taste it again. Some scandals have plagued him as of late but a national championship will get people talking about something different.