March Madness

Something that many people don't know about me is that I love College Basketball. Specifically, regional tournaments and the NCAA tournament. This may come as a surprise to people, seeing as I normally do not follow athletics. There are several factors that have contributed to my march madness.

I grew up in the triangle (click the link for more information) which means that I was nestled between Duke, UNC, NC State, and fairly close to Wake Forest. In other words, people are crazy about college basketball there. I definitely remember the ACC tournament being on in the background of classes when I was in middle school and there was more than one occasion where bracketology was part of a class (just a note: you didn't get graded on how well you predicted the outcome).

So I was basically surrounded by college basketball fanatics. There was one problem: I didn't feel particularly connected to any team. I had been told from birth that Duke was, as the mascot implies, the devil and that UNC was equally beastly. My father actually emailed me a Basketball Manifesto my freshman year of college explaining the ABD and ABC policies of our family (anyone but Duke/anyone but Carolina). My parents got their MBA's from Wake Forest so they are Demon Deacon fans, but I felt a disconnect with the team (especially after I went to NCSA and had to witness the douchebags that went there prancing around Winston-Salem). NC State would have been an ok choice, but I had no connection with State other than being from Raleigh.
Then I went to college and my wishes were finally fulfilled. I was finally able to cheer for a non-ACC team! Imagine my glee in 2005 when we beat Duke in the Sweet Sixteen! Oh it was glorious! Shortly afterwards we lost to Carolina in the Final Four though, which resulted in me receiving several gloating voicemails from Carolina fans.

Needless to say, our recent advance to the Elite Eight has made me very happy!