1. Start your own madness on Selection Sunday.
Selection Sunday is when it all begins— the bracket is set, tournament rivalries match up, and upset speculation starts immediately. It never fails that the bracketing committee will find a rivalry to exploit; of the last three NCAA Tournaments that Kentucky has appeared in, they have played Louisville in two, Connecticut in two, and North Carolina in one. Granted, the best teams rival each other, so it’s given that they should meet in the end, but we’ll never really know how much pull television executives have on the committee. The Selection Show will air on CBS at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 15.
2. Build your bracket.
Bracketology is a serious form of science, and it’s where March Madness gets real. In filling out a bracket, some people play it safe, and live and die by seedings, advancing favorites to go all the way. However, March Madness fanatics like me know that that’s never the way it works. Every year, there’s gonna be a Mercer to beat Duke and a Morehead State to beat Louisville. (God willing, am I right Kentucky fans?) To build a winning bracket, you’ve gotta be willing to take risks and pick a long shot or two. After all, it always seems like your little sister who picks based off name alone wins your family bracket competition.
3. Secure the best seat in the house.
When the first and second rounds begin, there is basketball on TV non-stop. CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV networks play games simultaneously with score updates scrolling across the bottom, so make sure to have your channels memorized, fingers stretched, and remote batteries changed. There’s going to be some serious channel changing during the first week or so of the tournament. Basketball dominates TV, and that’s why March is the best time of the year.
4. Get hyped for your team.
When Aaron Harrison hit the buzzer beater in last year’s tournament to edge out Louisville, I have never witnessed a more exciting moment. There’s something about March Madness that gets adrenaline pumping through your veins, so there isn’t any excuse to not take advantage of it. John Calipari has coined the phrase “You people are crazy” for Kentucky basketball fans, and we live up to that sentiment proudly. Somewhere in Kentucky, there’s a 90 year old woman yelling at Marcus Lee to grab a rebound so loud that her dentures fall out, so you can definitely get excited as your team advances.
5. Hang banners.
Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, and the championship game— there’s nothing better than following your team all the way to the end, except the result: hanging another banner in the rafters of your home gym. At Rupp Arena, there are eight national championship banners, and Kentuckians won’t rest until there are nine, and then 10, and so on. Those eight banners mean more to my home state than any landmark or attraction, and if you’re lucky enough to hang one, it’s the sweetest ending to the tournament.
6. Celebrate like a champion.
From State Street to the parade in your small town, Kentucky throws down when our team wins. That being said, though, we don’t celebrate unless we win it all. Here in Kentucky we expect championships and we get them.
