Onions!

Yesterday I was at home, watching all my recorded college basketball games from Saturday when my fiance came into the living room. She sat down on the couch, looked at the TV, and proclaimed, "I'm so sick of you watching basketball." She couldn't understand how I could spend hours watching something as boring as the game of basketball. Wait a second...did she say BORING?!?!

So I sat in my chair the rest of the afternoon and wondered to myself how she could call a game I grew to love boring. There are many reasons I love college basketball. I could start with growing up pretending to play the entire NCAA tournament bracket with my Nerf hoop. I could describe the hoop down at Lake Arthur Estates mobile home park. The one with the slanted rim and the concrete court that had potholes that acted as defenders. I could talk about draining endless free throws on that court or on the gravel driveway at my friend's house.

I can also focus on why I love the game now. The way college kids swarm the court, as if a dam had burst 60 rows up, after an upset win over a ranked team or capturing that NCAA automatic bid. Or how about nine seconds left, the floor spread and the arena roaring as the star player holds the ball at the top of the key, about to break thousands of hearts. I could only imagine what it would be like to be in the student section at Cameron Indoor, it has to feel like you're surfing a tsunami. I can explain how March Madness has the power to propel me out of my seat and want me to yell..."Onions!!" Not to mention that I still take vacation time for the first two days of the tournament so I don't miss a single minute of it.

I can confess that I've spent an hour talking to someone and never made a true connection like the one that comes from running a give and go with a stranger during a pickup game. I can remember when I was younger and seeing a play on TV one night, then seeing it again the next afternoon when I brought it (or tried to..ha ha) to the court. I get a kick out of watching the guys on the bench during games stick out their arms to hold each other back, as if saving one another from oncoming traffic, because the last play was just too damn exciting.

I also appreciate the old school ways of college basketball. Like how the pick-and-roll might be the oldest play in the book, and teams still can't stop it. I still enjoy watching and playing (on my PS2) the Princeton style offense. To me a perfectly executed backdoor cut is the most beautiful play in sports. Although I still get goose bumps from the student section reactions to an alley-oop dunk.

I could explain all this to my fiance and she probably still wouldn't understand. Using her as a prop while showing the half-court trap on our living room rug would probably have her totally confused (Yes, the trap is my favorite defense in college basketball). After all, college basketball is a game you have to grow into, and with luck you'll never grow out of it. So overall, why do I love college basketball?

Because it makes me happy...especially when Duke loses.