The greatest single-elimination tournament in the world begins again on Thursday. Sixty-Eight teams begin their trek to obtain the most prestigious award in all of college sports. It’s a grueling three-week run that requires the winning team to win six games at various neutral sites across the country. The tournament brings together the hardcore, casual, and even the non-interested fans of the sport. Millions of people will grab a bracket and fill it out in order to have a reason to follow the tourney. Some of us will pick on the basis of thinking we know it all about college basketball. Plenty of us will mark down winners based off the feistiest mascot. No matter how many games you’ve watched throughout the season starting Thursday, even you have a chance to win that bracket pool. My goal is to help you through the next three weeks and provide you with an NCAA tourney survival guide. After failing to place a team in the tournament last year, the state of Indiana will have five teams in the field of 68. Problem being, they were all put in the Midwest bracket. This is the same bracket that features arguably the most dominant team in college basketball history, the Kentucky Wildcats. Purdue, Butler, and Notre Dame will all play on Thursday, while Indiana and Valparaiso will start their run on Friday. As great as putting five teams in the tourney looks on paper, there’s a legitimate chance that none of the teams from the Hoosier State will see the Sweet 16. A team that the town of Warsaw has adopted as its own, the SMU Mustangs, will start their tourney against Steve Alford’s UCLA Bruins on Thursday as well. Led by cagey WCHS graduate Nic Moore, the Mustangs are fresh off of winning the American Athletic Conference regular season and postseason titles. Moore was named the conference player of the year after averaging 14.4 points and 5.3 assists during the regular season. For those of us that watched Moore grow up from Madison Elementary to where he is now, the nation’s biggest stage, his success doesn’t come as a shock. He’s always been a natural leader and now will get to lead his college team into the tourney with a chance to make a run at history. With Iowa State lurking as a potential second-round opponent, the Mustangs’ trip the Sweet 16 won’t be an easy one. Something tells me the 5-foot-9 point guard that plays more like he’s 6-5 wouldn’t want it any other way. The road to the top of the mountain in college basketball will ultimately run through Kentucky, a team that now sits at 34-0. To win the title, Kentucky will only have to travel 588 miles to three different venues. We all know how Big Blue Nation travels, so expect every game to be a virtual home game for the titans of the basketball world. Are they unbeatable? Maybe? Regardless of the power Kentucky brings to the table it only takes one team on one night to dethrone the crowned jewels of college basketball. We’ve yet to see any chinks in the Wildcats’ armor, but some might argue their inexperience in a tourney format might be their downfall. I know there’s a certain team from 1976 that would like to see some team knock off the Wildcats. It’s March Madness, and this year should be no different. There’s always drama and great games associated with the next three weeks, and I plan on soaking it all in ... well at least until Kentucky cuts down the nets. I think everyone will agree that nobody wants to see that!
