Wednesday, March 19, 2008

mad*ness: (noun)

1. the quality of being rash
2. craziness, foolishness, folly;
3. stupidity, especially a poor ability to understand or to profit from experience
4. unrestrained excitement or enthusiasm;

It's the night before the greatest four-day sporting stretch in North America, which only leads into the best long-form sporting event this side of the World Cup. All the 6-7 tweeners are tucked tightly in their beds with visions of Erin Andrews dancing in their heads. All the grizzled newspaper men are still clean shaven and have barely started creeping out the cocktail waitresses at the many downtown chain hotels to which they are dispatched. Assistant coaches are checking taped hotel room doors and head coaches are scribbling defensive sets on yellow legal pads while ignoring goodnight-text-messages from their wives.

And, then there is us. All of us budding bracketologists and amateur armchair analysts with our crumbled paper brackets and ink-stained finger tips and paper cuts in places that there shouldn't be paper cuts. We've all watched so much television and thought so hard and then flippantly filled out online brackets (speaking of those, get on it http://whatwouldoakleydo.blogspot.com/2008/03/first-ever-best-ever-wwod-pool.html) in a matter of seconds with a click here and a click there. Here a click. There an upset. Everywhere a hunch, hunch.

It is in these actions that the madness of March is really exhibited. After all, even the lowliest play-in game loser is still just a basketball team going about it's business the way it always does. They play ball. They make bounce passes and set screens. They rotate too late from time to time and watch some shots that felt pure rim out. Win or lose there is nothing particularly "mad" about what they do. They win some. And they lose some. Even the close games are just games. Buzzer are beaten every night in some gym, some where. Such shots are reserved for this time of year. Just the way that we react to them is.

We scream and holler loud enough to make Gus Johnson nervous and make wagers upon our wagers and fill out brackets for office pools that contradict the brackets we filled out in the big money pool at the local watering hole. We bet against ourselves so many times over that it's hard to know how to feel about scores as they scroll across the bottom of the television screen or as they refresh on our computers at work. Yes! Vermont beat Syracuse!!! Oh, NO!!!! Vermont beat Syracuse??? It is us, the frenzied fans and degenerate undedicated college basketball fans who are the mad ones.

Looking at those definitions of madness I know for certain that all pertain to my own behavior during this bestest of months. I have made rash and foolish decisions while filling out my bracket. I've been shown repeated folly in the amount of bets that I make on these games (even though, I swear, I actually do pretty well). And, perhaps most important of all, I am so often overcome with enthusiasm that forces me to jump out of my chair and hand out high-fives to strangers and also leaves me incapable of learning from the experience of busted brackets and the memories of March-past. So, according, to the dictionaries of the world I am indeed mad. And, so are you. But that's OK with me as I've always liked the mad ones.

Like Jack Kerouac said, “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”

For the mad-sports fan (and don't let any literary types cover up the fact that Kerouac was a two-sport star coming out of high school in Massachusetts and went to Columbia on a football scholarship) there is no better time to "be saved, desirous of everything at the same time" then during the first four days of the NCAA Men's hoops tournament. And, there is no one who I would rather watch these games with than the mad ones. The ones piling 2 buck drafts on 25 cent wings on Thursday nights and telling me for the fifth time in the first-half how crazy it would be if that walk-on from Drake could lead his team to the Elite Eight and how Hansbrough can be had Harangody if UNC doesn't get the calls.

This tournament is for the mad ones. It is for us. Enjoy.

REMINDER: SIGN UP FOR THE WWOD? TOURNEY POOL!

Ladies, gentlemen, women of questionable moral fiber and scoundrels of less than honorable professions: you are cordially invited to participate in the inaugural March Madness pool hosted by What Would Oakley Do?

The 2008 WWOD? NCAA Tournament Pool is based over at the Yahoo Fantasy Sports site. Head over there and click on the "Join a Group" option. After selecting that option (I think you have to do that twice), you will then be prompted to enter a League ID number and a password. Do exactly that.

League ID #:107981
Password: kennyskywalker

And, since this is an above-ground pool, there will be no entrance fee required for admission. There will be no gambling and squandered money that could be better squandered on $10 Knicks tickets, scratch-offs, late-night trips to the diner for cheese-fries with gravy or mid-afternoon visits by the Ice Cream Man. But fear not those hungry for prizes and validation, this is no pointless endeavor on your part as the winner will still be receiving the bestest and the coolest prize offered anywhere in the wider world!

Is it money? No.
Is it courside seats? Nope.
Is it a date with one of the Knicks City Dancers? Not even close.

The first-prize for winning this year's pool isn't any of those things. It's even better. It's something harder to come by. It's something so special and unique that you didn't even know you wanted it until now. The first prize for winning the 2008 WWOD? NCAA Tournament Pool is your very own, limited-edition, commemorative What Would Oakley Do? t-shirt.

This high-quality item features orange screened printing on both sides of a heavy duty blue t-shirt. The shirt is available in large, extra large and also in large. The front features the name of your very favoritest website and eight images depicting some of the many things that Oakley may actually be doing at any given time. The back features a large number 34 and the web address of the site printed just above it. This shirt is fresh off the runways of Milan and Paris and could be something that is embarrassing your wife or girlfriend in just a matter of weeks. Don't miss out!

So, hurry up and join the Pool. The water is terrific. And, so is the shirt.