You can't avoid the Madness

Has March Madness taken hold with you yet?

How about your brackets? Is that broken, or a bonanza?

Well, Sunday afternoon, I experienced a little of the third-month madness.

My son Jackson and daughter Caroline and I were in Charlotte and going to pick up a few items.

The car radio was tuned to some of the weekend madness, the N.C. State game with Georgetown.

The guy providing color commentary was none other than John Thompson, the legendary Georgetown coach who was following the action as his son’s Hoyas battled the Wolfpack to the wire.

It was one of those games – a nail-biter – you just couldn’t leave. We pulled into the store’s parking lot and it appeared the Pack was going to hold on.

I was thinking all the while my neighbor – USCL professor Noni Bohonak was going to be elated. She’s a huge Wolfpack fan.

Anyway, State’s Lorenzo Brown was at the foul line trying to seal the game. Georgetown was using that same strategy the late Jim Valvano of State fame used to help his team rally and win a national title in 1983. Remember, that team had a Lorenzo, too – Lorenzo Charles. Is that March madness or magic?

Any way, that season you will recall the Wolfpack rallied for wins in their title run, sending opposing players to the line to stop the clock and hope for a miss to keep the “Cardiac Pack” on track for the title. It worked like a charm because they won it all.

Back to Sunday. We’re listening in the car and Brown’s at the line. He netted one foul shot for a two-point edge and he’s in the process of putting up the bonus and Jackson switches off the car and the radio goes silent.

I didn’t have time to say what the #$&? are you doing, but naturally switched it back on to hear the second shot was good for what would be the three-point win.

The G-town Hoyas did get a last shot, but missed and won in Valvano-like manner.

Now, here’s where it gets good. As we get out of the car, another car comes wheeling in and parks across from us.

The first thing I see is a State sticker on the rear glass.

No joking. It’s just part of the madness in that State of mind.

OK, about those brackets? Are your brackets still alive, or have they taken a dive. 

We have a bracket contest at the paper, with basketball junkie Jesef Williams, better known as a staff reporter, ramrodding the contest again this season.

A week ago prior to the start of the NCAA tournament, we discussed the bracket contest which is open to anybody who wants to play at the paper.

Jesef provides the bracket and you fill it in.

Each entrant puts $5 in the pot and the eventual winner takes his winnings and donates to his, or her favorite charity.

Talk last week centered on some folks’ method of picking. One, in a reverse form of picking, went with all the lower seeds last year and the bracket was an expected bust.

Then reporter Chris Sardelli noted his wife, Katie, based her bracket picks on the mascots. Who would win if they actually tussled?

For example in the West Regional, the No. 13 Davidson Wildcats against the

fourth-seeded Louisville Cardinals. She would pick Davidson because a

wildcat could handle a red bird in a one-on-one clash.

Or how about in the Midwest where No. 1 UNC faced Vermont. Tar Heels against Catamounts. Again, a no brainer. Sharp claws and teeth and cat-like quickness would net a win.

You get the idea.

You have probably heard other such strategy,

Chalk it up to the Madness.

See you just can’t avoid it – Chalk, like in the Kansas chant – Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

They would be the No. 2 seed in the Midwest and in the Sweet 16 with N.C. State, which is how this madness column got started.