I was hesitant to write a column about March Madness. What is there left to say? Everyone is getting on the bug right now, and there are hundreds of columnists across the land writing what they love about college basketball during this time of year.
Sometimes it's trivial to get so involved in something like March Madness. There are lunatics out there right now, camped out in their basements, glued to a computer screen with the shades drawn (and occasionally detaching themselves to take a look at the bubble teams play on TV in their conference tournaments), waiting to see who will be where in the Holy Bracket.
Of course, there are the gamblers, and not just the fill-out-the-bracket-for-the-office-pool gamblers - the bet-on-how-long-it-takes-for-the-coach-to-take-off-his-suit-jacket gamblers.
So I wanted to take a step back from all of the lunacy this March, kick back and watch the insanity without becoming crazy-glued to it.
Well, I failed.
I'm checking ESPN.com every day for the latest on the bracket busters and the bubble teams, and I'm watching the contenders for the at-large bids very closely because of your Massachusetts Minutemen and their increasingly impressive resume.
Here's the truth about March Madness: it evokes the most powerful emotions and pride, while providing endless opportunities for small-time colleges and secondary basketball programs across the nation.
The University of Pennsylvania won the Ivy League conference tournament and made it into the NCAA Tournament. While Clemson and Florida State are struggling for their season's survival in the bowels of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Quakers are already dancing.
Some might call that the weakness of the system. I call it Democracy.
And it's not just Penn that had a chance to do it. Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, and Harvard all had a shot to make it. That brings in the fans, the students or alumni who have some pride in their schools and go to the games or listen to them on the internet.
The pride doesn't end there. College basketball's main appeal (like other college sports) is with the idea of the amateur. The kids aren't getting paid and they're going to school like the rest of the students on campus. Of course, the graduation rate of college basketball players is something to be debated and questioned, but the appeal still remains.
Students can go to class with Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.
On this campus, you could have a class with Stephane Lasme and Rashaun Freeman, the guys you see battling for the ever-elusive at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
And to top it all off, the players have more on the line. For most college basketball guys, these years will be the last of their playing days. They cherish every game, every practice, every time they walk onto the holy hardwood of their respective home courts.
They don't jog. They sprint.
They don't try to pick up a loose ball. They dive and tackle it.
They don't take plays off. They don't space out when they're on the bench. They don't scream at their coaches.
Basically, they play a game that all athletes can relate to. When you were in high school, you put in maximum physical and mental effort on the court or you were sitting on the bench.
It's high drama - 63 games as the culmination of months and years of hard work.
So it was extremely hard to resist, especially now that UMass is in the middle of the bubble talk. On ESPN.com, they have the Minutemen as one of the last four team's out of at-large contention.
UMass has won its last six games dating back to a win over Fordham in the Bronx. Seniors Lasme and Freeman have spent the last four years expending every ounce of their energy on the Mullins Center hardwood.
They have been through a coaching change, the coming and going of personnel and athletics staff, and the indifference of the majority of the UMass student body to the plight of their teams.
These are the guys worth watching in March. For Lasme and Freeman, the last four years of their basketball lives in Amherst will end sometime soon, and they will fight tooth-and-nail to make sure it's not too soon.
There is a lot riding on the next couple of weeks for players and coaches across the country. Some seniors are preparing for their stretch run through the college basketball playoff system. Others have already gone home with their dreams of an NCAA berth out of reach.
And a select few have already accomplished their goal. Davidson, Eastern Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Creighton and Winthrop are all playing in the biggest college basketball stage in the world - win or lose, the players will go home happy.
That is what Lasme and Freeman will strive for. That is what all the players will strive for.
And we're here to watch them try.
Rob Greenfield is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at rgreenfi@student.umass.edu.
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