Not psyched about the Madness

Call me a downer, but I’m just having a hard time getting wild about March Madness.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney—maybe the biggest collegiate event of the year–kicks off this week, and while I’ve treated past tournaments as an excuse to binge on hoops for eight or more hours a day, this year, I’m filled with an overwhelming sense of “meh.” There might be a few reasons for my nonchalance this year; the main one being that, the only collegiate sports team I root for, Villanova, will not be “dancing” this month after an underwhelming season following the departure of surefire Hall-of-Fame coach Jay Wright.

And while I’d normally be happy to throw my fandom behind an upstart local team like No. 13 Iona who drew No. 4 UConn in the first round, I’ve had a hard time getting invested in the Gaels after all the uncertainty about Rick Pitino’s future with the program began to dominate local sports chatter.

But most of all, I came to realize that I’ve just done a terrible job following college sports this year. Ordinarily, I’ll start to really get zeroed in on the rankings—both national and Big East–around Jan. 10, so when the tourney rolls around, I’ve got at least a passable knowledge about the teams and players to watch. But my attention this winter has been stolen by the Knicks and the Rangers, meaning I was barely even paying attention to the conference tournaments last week.

Heck, I can only name a handful of college stars right now, and the first guy that comes to mind is Alabama’s All-American Brandon Miller, a terrific player who has been all over the news for all the wrong reasons.

Does that mean I won’t be tuning in this month? Of course not. March Madness is tradition and I’m sure I’ll find some sort of hook to the narrative, be it this year’s Cinderella team or a double-overtime first-round scare for a favorite. But outside of my own personal brackets— which were basically filled out by flipping a coin—I just don’t feel invested at the tournament’s start.

But who knows; maybe Friday afternoon, Iona will be putting a second-half scare into the Huskies and I’ll forget about the fact that Pitino will soon be leaving these kids for the greener pastures of Jamaica, Queen snd really buy in.

Or maybe this is one year I just admit the the college game has—at least for now—gotten a bit away from me.

Just like those teams who were relegated to an appearance in the NIT, there’s always next year.

Follow Mike on Twitter @LiveMike_Sports