The Road to the Final Four!!!

As if everyone doesn't know this already, March in this country has become a month almost exclusively dedicated to College Basketball.  In every office, work-site, school, factory (wait do we have those anymore?... let's make it 'think tank'), or (even) Theatre across our vast land, March Madness reigns Supreme.  It's everywhere you look!  And the brackets are OUT.  Countless brackets are filled out every year in the hopes of filling out that ever-so-elusive PERFECT Bracket!  Basically, everybody starts out on cloud nine with all the hope in the world... and then the upsets start rolling in.  At which point the hope switches to the possibility that your bracket will be just good enough to beat your friends :) I mean, there are only 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 possible outcomes after all  (Yea, that's more than Nine Quintillion.)  65 teams get in.  One team wins.  It's simply the perfect event in sports.

So, as I mentioned before, the Under Dogs finally made our escape east from Big Ten Land (also known as the Midwest) and the next stop on the trail was Providence, Rhode Island. Home of Ted Berrigan, the Farelly Brothers, and Brown University - where the Ivy Leaguers live... and act smart.  Yea, Providence is a cool town indeed.  But it was about to get even Cooler :)

And as luck would have it, the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament this year were being played in New Orleans, Oklahoma City, San Jose, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Milwaukee, Spokane, and... Providence.  Yes!  Once again fortune was smiling on us.

I knew we were in for a pretty sweet time when we entered the hotel and were inadvertently welcomed by a NCAA basketball banner!!! A first!!! (I say inadvertently because the banner was most likely meant for the University of Ohio, who was entering the hotel a little later than us… I mean, since they were the ones taking on number 3 Georgetown that Thursday, not us :)  

Just as with the Big Ten Tourney the week before, the UnderD's were able to check out the first round of NCAA action right down the block from the hotel at the Duncan Donuts Center; two more Firsts!!!... my first time ever live at an NCAA Tournament Game, and first time at any arena named after a Donut Brand... well not just any Donut Brand, I guess.  They tell me America runs on this stuff.

America's problems aside, the festivities at the DDC were percolating as we made our way to our seats, nibbling on our Boston-Cremes (just kidding.)  It was definitely NCAA Tourney energy in the air.  From here on out, it was win or go home.  Along for the ride this time was one of our all-time favorites, Honorary Underdog and 101D Physical Therapist, Marissa Chapnick. Although her reputation admittedly proceeds her here, I must sing her praises nonetheless. Hailing from the prestigious (yet oddly Yankee-fan heavy, Staten Island, not only is she, admirably, a New York Mets fan, but marvelously and some would say miraculously, a Florida Gator Fan too!) How does THAT happen??? Marissa and I were the only Underdogs who were able to make the first round that day in Indianapolis and we were in for a show!

The first game was between the heavily favored 2nd seed Villanova and 15th seeded Robert Morris. What a game for underdogs! Robert Morris played a magnificent game and lead most of the way going into the fourth quarter. Only a last gasp come-from-behind effort by Villanova forced an overtime, and then in a heartbreaker for the Colonials, Villanova squeeked out a 73-70 overtime win. We in the stands, and the whole nation breathed a collective sigh of relief, as the first game of the Big Dance almost proved to be a huge bracket-buster! The Underdog in me, feeling the taste of early bracket Mahem so close, was elated at the potential upset (I don't think a 15th seed has ever beaten a 2) so I was kind of devastated that Villanova pulled it out at the end.  Marissa was happy though because all she cared about was preserving her bracket going forward.  It was a futile sentiment.  The Tourney was about to take Doc Marissa (and Everybody for that matter) on a thrilling ride of explosive upsets, impossible to predict!

Take the second game we saw for instance, when number 12 St. Mary's completely outplayed number 7 Richmond. I was blown away by the Gaels performance… I mean, if you google St. Mary's they aren't even the first school that comes up!!! This is St. Mary's, California, from the bay area, and they came to play, people! Their big man, Omar Samhan, was killing everybody down-low and their perimeter players (made up mostly of their five Australians on the squad) was nailing everything in that game. I felt like I was at a basketball clinic of how to work the inside-out game, as Samham was hitting his boys for jumpers all day, when he was doubled. Amazing. And Richmond was baffled.

Of course, St. Mary's went on to stun the world next when they dispatched Villanova in the second round to make the Sweet 16. Samhan and his Underdog cronies continued to turn the NCAA tourney world on its head, but the biggest upset in that first round came later that night from none other than our Hotel-mates - the Ohio University Bobcats. Going up against the number 3 Georgetown Hoyas, the Bobcats killed everybody's brackets by blowing them out, 97-83.  WHAt??? Ohio???  Beat Georgetown?  Nobody saw that one coming!

The next day walking by one of the conference rooms in the hotel, I saw the Ohio coaches going over their game plan for their next opponent, Tennessee of the SEC. And I even had a chance to take a picture with their mascot and cheerleaders in the lobby one night, but I didn't take it. I figured they were overworked as it was and I didn't want to bother them in their downtime. But then why was the guy wearing the Bobcat head?  In the LOBBY?? Aw, I missed my chance! Anyway, their Cinderella story didn't last long, as they got blown out in the second round by the Minutemen. But Butler's Underdog trail did last.

The Butler Bulldogs had played right next-door from our theatre in Indianapolis that previous Wednesday, at the historic, Hinkle Fieldhouse. They won the Horizon League title in convincing fashion against Wright State that night, and assured the extra traffic that we had to get through after the show.  More importantly, that title gave them an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament and against all odds, started their journey that has continued all the way to the final Four!

So here they were, last night, the only two campuses that we played on the entire 101D tour; Butler, from Indianapolis vs Michigan State, from East Lansing. Battling it out to decide who would go to the National Championship game! Who could have guessed that??? Butler's never even been close to this spot before, and well, Michigan State will be playing Goliath in this production :)

And Butler Pulls it off!  The upsets are never ending this year!
Next up for the Bulldogs, an even Bigger Goliath.  Duke in the Championship game!
wow.
You gotta Love the Madness!!!
UnderDogs out