by Trevor Freeman
Chicken Wings. Cinderellas. Yuengling. Bracket Busters. Nachos. Harold Arcenaux. Budweiser. Sweet 16. Jalapeno Poppers. Bryce Drew. Chicken Fingers. Elite Eight. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Bo Kimble. Mozzarella Sticks. $20 a bracket, winner take all. Jack Daniels. Final Four. Do you feel it? Is it in your blood yet? Is your body ready for the monthlong binge that is the greatest sporting event on the planet? Are you ready for the Madness?
by Trevor Freeman
I am writing this article because every March I plug Hank Gathers’ name into the Yahoo search engine to see what articles come up. And every time I open up an old article, I cannot believe it has really been seventeen years since arguably the biggest tragedy in the history of college sports spawned one of its most remarkable stories.
The month of March is coming up soon. You know what that means. March Madness is waiting for us, along with many cinderella sleepers. George Mason went dancing last year, and many will follow in their footsteps. Let’s find out who will be dancing when it comes tourney time and who will get ousted quickly.
You know you love ’em. Somewhere deep inside yourself, in places you don’t like to talk about, there grows a strong and profound love of Duke basketball. I know, I know. There was a time when I too shared this shameful secret. I joined the groans that came with every Blue Devil win, year after year. I feigned disgust every time I saw Christian Laettner drop in that famous fade away. I cursed Coach K and made wild accusations of referee tampering and tournament committee bias with the rest of the Duke haters. Then, on one fine March evening, I realized that I liked the Dukies because of the way they focus on team basketball, the way they hustle on defense, and the way they always, always, ALWAYS win. It was that day that I stood up and embraced my inner Blue Devil, that little voice inside my head telling me what I already knew—I am a Duke fan.
Is the “Hoosier State” the king of hoops, especially when it comes to so-called “mid-majors”?
{A similar version of this article is set to appear in the November issue of an Indianapolis magazine.}