When the majority of people hear the term "March Madness" they think of the best two days in sports. The first Thursday and Friday of the Big Dance are full of drama and emotions. Smaller schools get to make a name for themselves while the blue bloods try to avoid upsets to make their way to the Final Four. The truth is, March Madness doesn't actually start on those two days. No I'm not talking about the two nights in Dayton that give us the play-in games. I'm talking about the conference tournaments.
There are 32 conferences in NCAA Division 1 basketball. Only 6 or 7 of those conferences will have the ability to send more than one or two teams to the Big Dance. That leaves over 25 conferences that will only send one team to represent them. All of these conferences hold their own postseason tournaments in the week leading up to Selection Sunday, when the big bracket will be announced. The champions of these tournaments will get automatic bids. That means every night leading up to the announcement of the bracket, there are teams fighting for their lives, and their right to get into the Dance. You want to talk about dramatic?
Just getting into the Dance counts as a success for these smaller schools, but when given the chance some of them turn their Cinderella bid into a full blown run. Last year's Missouri Valley Conference champion was the Ramblers of Loyola-Chicago. They earned themselves the 11 seed in the South Regional. A region that held overall number one seed Virginia. The drama started from jump. They sank a buzzer beater to knock out the 6th seeded Miami Hurricanes 64-62 on Thursday afternoon. The dream continued with a bigger upset over the 3rd seeded Tennessee Volunteers 63-62. They eventually beat 7 seed Nevada and 9 seed Kansas St. to win the region and go to the Final Four. The fact is, this run didn't come out of no where. The magic started in the MVC Tournament where the Ramblers beat Northern Iowa, Bradley and Illinois St. en route to earn the automatic bid. Had they not survived the gauntlet of winning three games in three days, they wouldn't have even made the Big Dance.
The same goes for a little school named the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. UMBC is in the America East Conference, which is one of the smallest conferences in the country. Known to give the bigger schools problems in the Dance, the America East typically sends Vermont or Albany in to stir the pot. Last year, as the 2 seed in the conference tournament, UMBC went from small school in the Northeast, to a household name. The Retrievers beat UMass Lowell, Hartford and upset Vermont to earn the automatic bid. From there, they became the first ever 16 seed to beat a 1 seed in the NCAA Division 1 tournament when they knocked out the number one overall seed Virginia by 20 points.
Many people just saw the drama of the big tournament but they don't realize that kind of drama fills the whole week prior. Everybody wants to be the next Loyola-Chicago or UMBC. Seniors realize this is their last shot at even playing in the tournament. Others want there chance to be in the spotlight. The Cinderella stories aren't the only fun part of Champ Week though. The big schools are also looking for conference supremacy.
While the small schools are looking for a way in, the blue bloods are looking to solidify their spots. These bigger conferences have so many games that they start games at noon on weekdays and fill the whole day with great basketball. It might be fun to sit back during the Big Dance and watch games from noon to midnight, but conference tournament week will have games start at midnight. It's days filled with teams fighting for spots and jockeying for position. There might not be a more fun couple of days than the Saturday and Sunday of conference tournament weekend. You'll have up to six or seven games going at one time. Flip on CBS to watch big names like Michigan St. and Indiana battle, then flip over to ESPN to watch small schools like Coppin St. and Morgan St. scrap for a spot. It's a weekend full of celebration as dreams come true, as well as sadness as teams fall short.
So what I'm trying to say is, turn on ESPN. Like, right now. The best time of the year is upon us and here you are reading a blog while there is great basketball being played. Don't just watch the teams you recognize. Give the small schools a chance. Give the small conferences a chance. For all you know, you might end up seeing the beginning of a magical run that ends in April. When it happens, you can say you saw that team earn their spot and maybe you can lie and say you called it happening.