I'll Take One Ticket To The Madness

It's the middle of Champ Week, which means a few thoughts are running through my mind about the things I love during the Madness:

1. Surprise conference tourney champs bursting team's bubbles
2. Small conferences playing their tournament at highest seeds gym
3. Schools I have never heard of suddenly become my favorite schools because they are my big upset pick
4. All teams given a chance to live the dream
5. Liberty in with 20 losses
6. Watching young coaches make names for themselves, I'm talking to you Billy Donlon
7. Players with names like Erik Buggs
8. Bryce Drew back in the Big Dance
9. Meaningful sporting events starting at noon
10. Hooking up my iPad to a monitor to stream games while also watching on television and my computer at the same time
11. Looking forward to staying awake to watch the 10:50 match up of UNLV vs Tennessee
12. Tracking how you are doing in your office pool
13. Comparing your bracket with your friends in the office pool
14. The excitement you feel the first time you see the standings for the office pool
15. Discussing how you should not have to work during the tournament
16. Highlighting your bracket that you have at home to make sure it is being scored correctly
17. Hoping every year for a VCU or a George Mason type run
18. Watching as Brad Stevens and Tom Izzo can suddenly make their teams so much better in tournaments
19. Checking Bracketology daily
20. Hoping your team makes it into the "Locks" category on Bubble Watch
21. Talking about players that you barely have seen - like you have watched them all year
22. 4 wins in 4 days
23. 5 wins in 5 days, in Madison Square Garden
24. Hoping against hope that someone goes all Syracuse vs UCONN and plays 6 OTs
25. Buzzer Beaters
26. Cinderellas
27. Being torn if you would rather an underdog win for the "coolness" factor of it or the big name win because it helps your bracket
28. Having players burst onto the scene that you have never heard of
29. Remembering Steph Curry's wild run
30. Finally having a chance to watch Doug McDermott on TV
31. Watching Greg McDermott coach Doug McDermott
32. Checking every score to see if you win your scoring square
33. Crazy on court celebrations
34. Bench warmers being the biggest cheerleaders
35. Clark Kellogg on the call
36. Former proteges beating the coaches that gave them their first job
37. Dick Vitale's reaction when first seeing the bracket
38. Immediately printing out the bracket and filling it in
39. Deciding whether to enter the same bracket in all of your pools or to mix it up
40. Teams that "should have gotten in"
41. Teams that "shouldn't have gotten in"
42. Gus Johnson yelling
43. Crowds pulling for the underdog
44. Yelling for CBS to switch to a different game
45. Adidas attempting to make a splash with new uniforms
46. Adidas making a splash with new uniforms
47. Adidas making a splash because they have designed the ugliest uniforms in history
48. Group watch parties
49. Sudden return of college pride
50. Cutting down the nets

The big conferences begin playing their tournaments mostly today and tomorrow so might I suggest just sitting back and enjoying the fun.....