For years, basketball was my favorite sport. While playing in high school I tried to emulate the NCAA stars of the 1980s-1990s. Coverage of NCAA Basketball Championship in those days was limited, even for the US audience. The early round games were broadcast on CATV with only the later rounds picked up by the national network. So for the international viewer, coverage was even spottier. I think the first championship game I remember seeing live was the Michigan/Seton Hall final – I think that was another watching the game between class periods type of a thing (see my Super Bowl post).
Since returning to the US combined with CBS’s broadcasting every game of the entire tournament, the annual March Madness tournament has been one of my most favorite times of the year. My enjoyment reached even higher levels during my years in Princeton, NJ, which happened to coincide with the Princeton University basketball program producing the memorable first-round upset of the defending champion UCLA Bruins. My co-workers will confirm that the Tournament schedule is blocked off on the church master calendar years in advance and I’ve even used vacation days just to be able to watch every minute of action of the first two rounds of the tournament.
But the madness of March hit me in a new way this year. First off, work at the church has been so intense I’ve hardly had time to think about the tournament this year. My engagement level in the tournament is lower than in previous years, though I can still tell you who’s in the Final Four. But when I reflect on what I did during the first weekend of the tournament, you’d think the law of gravity was turned on it’s head.
On the beginning day of the tournament, a day in that past that I’ve devoted solely and completely to watching basketball from 12 noon until 12:30 at night (with about an hour’s break for dinner), this year I instead rented Pride & Prejudice to watch with my wife. GASP!
My wife is a Jane Austen fan, among other authors. We have a BBC version of Pride & Prejudice, a two-tape set that is several hours in length. She’s watched it numerous times and I’ve endured it a few myself. So it’s not as if we didn’t know the story. But recently, Hollywood released another rendition of the classic and we missed it in the theaters. It was released on video in late February, but every time we were at Blockbuster, all of the copies were rented out. As fortune would have it, when I stopped at Blockbuster on the beginning day of the tournament, one copy was available. Without hesitation, I grabbed it and went on my way, thinking of the ramifications of my actions only after I had picked it up and headed for the counter.
And so, while the results of the first round were being decided on the court (mind you, I don’t think I missed any of the big upsets), my wife and I enjoyed an evening together with Mr. Darcy, Liza Bennet and the rest of the Bennet clan. Yes, the title March Madness really is apropos.
