Sports Talk 4 Dummies

March Madness

It’s once again March and that means, it’s also once again ‘March Madness’ Are you ready?

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will begin Tuesday, March 19, 2019 and will end Monday, April 8, 2019. Since the introduction of Bracketology, March Madness has taking on a life of its own. cbssports.com/college-basketbal

Over the next few weeks thousands of sports fans from all over the US and even the world will be downloading their brackets to join in the fun of picking who will end up winning the whole thing come April 8th

ncaa.com/news/basketball

If you have ever wondered how the field of 68 teams is picked for March Madness, check out the link below.

ncaa.com/news/basketball-men

Did you ever wonder how a simple NCAA Basketball Tournament evolved into ‘March Madness?

The History of ‘March Madness’ goes all the way back to March 27, 1939 when the University of Oregon defeats The Ohio State University 46–33 to win the first-ever NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Final Four, as the tournament became known, has grown exponentially in size and popularity since 1939.

By 2005, college basketball had become the most popular sporting event among gamblers, after the Super Bowl. The majority of that betting takes place at tournament time, when Las Vegas, the internet and office pools around the country saw action from sports enthusiasts and once-a-year gamblers alike.

history.com/this-day-in-history

Did you ever wonder how and why the term bracketology came on the scene? I did, and I was surprised that it was first introduced way back in 1995 by Joe Lunardi, an editor for a college basketball yearbook.

Slowly it has become the phenomenon that we all know now.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracketology

Last month when I hinted at the coming of ‘March Madness, the Pac 12 Division showed the Washington Huskies will be a shoe in to make the tournament as they are still in first place, however, UCLA still need to improve, which it still does, UCLA is in fifth place in the Pac 12 and although it was in deep trouble has managed to move from ninth to fifth. USC had made a huge improvement and were once in fifth place, looking to continue moving up the standings, however, by the end of February had move down a few slots to seventh

cbssports.com/college-basketball

No matter what team goes all the way to win the NCAA Championship, the fun is in watching the games themselves. There are so many really good players just playing their hearts out for their Colleges. Of course some of the very best will make it to the NBA Draft, but not many. They play just for the thrill of the win.

Good luck to all the teams, and especially to our local teams.

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