When people say there is nothing like "March Madness", they mean it. Sports, as well all know, can be totally unpredictable. Yet come every March, we always find ourselves stupefied. This year, it is certainly no different.
After the brackets are released on Selection Sunday, spend hours laboring over their picks. Their goal? The perfect bracket. Picking a perfect bracket would be considered the Holy Grail of all things sports. However, nobody ever has, and nobody ever will.
Brackets were meant to be broken, there is no other way to put it. The odds on favor to win the National Championship always loses to that mid-major from the middle of nowhere. The NCAA tournament was designed so that tiny little college from an even tinier conference would have the same chance as the big schools from the massive conference.
But that is what makes "March Madness" the greatest sporting event ever.
Everyone always throws out the term "Cinderella". Who will be this year's Cinderella? Which team can make a run to the Final 4?
Lehigh upset Duke. Norfolk State downed heavy favorite Missouri.
Yet, The Virginia Commonwealth Rams are the perfect definition of Cinderella. Coming from the lowly Colonial Athletic Association (a mid-major), the Rams were seeded number 12. Nobody had ever heard of them, or their head coach Shaka Smart.
The 2010-2011 Tournament sure would not be the last you would hear from them.
Led by Senior Forward Jamie Skeen and Junior Bradford Burgess, they blew past USC, Georgetown, and Purdue.
VCU had clinched their first Sweet 16 bid ever, and caught the attention of the national media.
Cute story, time to get back to watching real teams. VCU was not close to being done by a long shot.
They squeezed past Florida State, and advanced to the Elite 8. Who would they play? The tournament favorite Kansas.
Real great story. Should be fun to watch Kansas roll over them.
Not in the slightest.
VCU, just like they had done to the rest of their victims, caught Kansas by surprise, and won 71-61. The sports world EXPLODED.
Who the hell is VCU? Shaka Smart? Where did they come from? Nobody, not even the Rams themselves, could have predicted they would make it this far.
The Rams had conquered the impossible, and are poised to do it again this year. They defeated Wichita State in the second round, and lived to play another day.
Even the people who watched them do it last year, still could no believe they were doing it again.
You do not need to be a #1 seed from a large conference to be a champion. All you need is great coaching, good players, and maybe a little bit of luck.
Anybody can be a champion. It may have just taken Shaka Smart and the VCU Rams for people to realize that.
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