Oh the Madness!

Can Villanova relive the excitement of the upset they laid upon Georgetown

in 1985 when they face the heavily-favored UNC this Saurday?

March is an awe-inspiring month for the spirit of what was once the Great American Dream. As we all scrambled to fill out our brackets between the passing of Selection Sunday and tip off that following Thursday, we lost our sense of perception of what was really about to take place. Sixty-five teams thrown into the tournament pot together, all with equal opportunity to dance the big dance all the way to a national championship. Regular season schedules, who you beat, who beat you, who was hurt... none of it matters. If you were good enough to get in, you're in and you're given the same opportunity as the other sixty-four. An equal opportunity for all. Win and move on. Lose and go home. The upsets and the 'almost' upsets are what we thrive on with relation to the underdogs; the small schools trying to make themselves known on a national level. Powerhouse programs personify the same percentage of upper-class socialites. We love to watch them play, but we thrive to watch them fall at the hands of the blue-collar, middle-class representatives. This year it was Arizona, Cleveland State, Dayton, Wisconsin, and Western Kentucky that did the dirty work and won over the respect of the majority of those watching. Arizona was considered on the outside of the bubble prior to the selection hour, and yet they won two games before being ousted by a Louisville team that was firing on all cylinders on the night they met. Not a single one of the other sixty-four could have beat the Cardinals that night, but who would have predicted Arizona would have made it the Sweet Sixteen when expert analysts didn't even give them a chance to get in the tournament. When duds take out the studs as Cleveland State did to Wake Forest, excitement runs rampant throughout the field no matter who you picked in your bracket. Some become frustrated when their pick to win it all gets knocked out in this wild pack of wolves hunting the same game, but they should let it go and appreciate the big picture. What fun would it be if the same teams were in the final four every year? We need that diversity and maliformity to revive our appetite for ambition, especially now in the year of the Great Recession of '09. We can all use a little feeling of equal opportunity as we stand side by side while they lower the casket of the "Dream."