TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
MY DRIFT COLUMN BY PATSY MORRISS PHOTOS BY MATT CORNELIUS This is Madness
I don’t know what the month of March evokes in your head. Maybe corned beef? Windy days? Lent? Three things come to my mind when March approaches: squeaks, whistles, and buzzers. Soon enough the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, otherwise known as March Madness, will tip off, and for the next three weeks all we’ll hear will be squeaks, whistles, and those hideous buzzers. For me, the squeaks are the worst. I never notice them when I’m actually in attendance at a basketball game, but on television they sound out loud and clear, not to mention continually. They must put microphones on the players’ shoes. Don’t get me wrong; I love basketball. I never played it myself, nor did any female in my high school, as Title IX didn’t arrive until the year after I graduated. There was also the fact that I possessed not an ounce of athleticism. Anyway, my long history as an avid spectator commenced in junior high, the year I never missed a seventh-grade basketball game. It no doubt had less to do with the game and more to do with the left guard, on whom I had a crush. But still. Raising a son who played every sport known to man, I watched thousands of contests in various sports, and actually preferred basketball over all the others. If I’m honest, that had less to do with the game and more to do with the climate-controlled venue. But still. The NCAA Tournament takes what is already an exceptionally popular sport and ramps it up into a cultural phenomenon. Any time you turn on the television later this month there will be a basketball game, and the odds are it will involve at least one team of which you’ve never even heard. I tend to get a little bored with it after a couple of hours, but my husband never wants to turn it off. He’s mesmerized by it, in part because of its unpredictable nature. The tournament’s single-elimination format is conducive to all kinds of surprises, including the elevation of a Cinderella team into the Final Four and maybe even the championship. Which brings up brackets. Do you engage in bracketology? While I never have, I get a kick out of listening
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LIFE & STYLE
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