NCAA Tourney - Weekend 1 Done

To make this somewhat China related, while CUBA is growing in China and certain schools have a decent following and even some TV coverage, most Chinese are amazed at the phenomenon that is college basketball (and college sports in general) in the US. Its unusual to have 20,000 people attending professional sporting events in China, let alone collegiate ones. Plus, the 20,000 who go to a college sports events in the US aren't just "fans," but rabid and obsessed supporters of their teams. The majority of teams that take part in CUBA aren't exactly the best universities in China (though Qinghua has a men's team that is doing well this year, and Beida seems to have a decent women's team). In this respect, much like in the US, universities that nobody from outside the state (or province in China's case) would ever have heard of otherwise can become famous (in certain circles) due to their success in collegiate athletics.

The first weekend of the US' NCAA tournament is done, the week where people spend more time working on their sheets instead of working and illnesses become hyper contagious on Thursday and Friday is past us. I always hate those "talking heads" and columnists who offer their picks for the tournament to assist others, but who typically just pick the 1 or 2 seeds and maybe throw in a 3 or 4 just for kicks. They do so as they don't want to show disrespect to the better teams or piss people off, despite the fact they, like everyone else, know upsets are a given.

Well, surprisingly this year's tournament has deviated from the norm and there have been very few upsets (or close games), making for one of the most boring tournaments in awhile. With IU going down to UCLA because they failed to be able to get the ball in bounds, I guess I'm cheering for Georgetown now. Here's hoping the coming weekend will offer a lot more excitement than this past one!