March is Mad

The 2010 Men's NCAA basketball tournament begins tomorrow. This is always a very exciting time of year, and this year is no different. Well, no different in the fact that an exciting tournament is about to begin, but less exciting for me due to the fact that my personal favorite team is once again nowhere near being good enough to make the tournament field. That team is Indiana University, and as long as I can remember I was raised to love and cherish the IU basketball team. However, recent years have seen a tremendous rift within the Houston household over team loyalty.

You see, it all began in the year 2000 when coach Bob Knight was fired from the university. Although his firing was fairly controversial, I was left with only a little bit of sadness and despair over his departure. On the other hand, my father, the man who made me into the hoosier loving man that I am, found the whole situation very troubling and basically severed ties with the university and its basketball team. My father decided to change his loyalty to Texas Tech to follow coach Knight, and also more recently after letting go of the Red Raiders after Knight's departure from that team, he has found a new "love" for the New Mexico Lobos coached by former Indiana player once coached by Knight, Mr. Steve Alford. Now, while all of this has taken place I have kept my loyalty in its right place. I have stayed with the hoosiers through it all and will remain until I die.

My loyalty has not been easy. Recently, thanks to now former coach Sampson, the hoosiers have been scraping the bottom of the barrel. However, the season immediately after Knight left, the hoosiers made a glorious run to the national championship game. Looking back on it, it is no coincidence that as soon as Knight's tremendous yet tyrannical reign ended at Indiana, his players rejoiced and played with more vigor and zeal than they had in years, nearly culminating in another championship for the school. The team may be extremely far away from a repeat performance of this tremendous feat, but they continue to gain positive experience every year and sooner than later they will be back in the tournament and ready to make a run for another championship.

As far as this years tournament and the teams that are in it, I have a few basic opinions on how things will go. I am a little biased as far as some of the teams are concerned, which may lead you to not head my words as much as you should. First, I look to see the Lobos lose in the first round to Montana in the hopes of being able to rub it in my fathers face for years to come. Another team that I loathe, but respect, is Duke. This hatred may or may not be due to the fact that my best friend loves the Blue Devils, but either way I despise them. I am able to look through my hatred and realize that they are well coached and always play the best team basketball every single year. This year, Duke has the best team it has fielded in several years, and I am putting all my imaginary money on them winning the entire tournament. There are several teams that can easily defeat the Blue Devils and snatch the championship away, but many of them lack the team skills that Duke exemplifies and uses game in and game out to dominate.

Take the necessary steps to watch as many games of the tournament as you can, and if you do nothing else, please join me in cheering heartily against the New Mexico Lobos. Thanks for reading