Published: March 10, 2009 11:16 am      

LIFESTYLE: Let the madness ensue

The fact that Selection Sunday falls on the Ides of March this year seems quite appropriate.

March 15 was the day on the Roman calendar upon which a festival was held to honor Mars, the god of war; it also is the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C.

Just as Romans did two millennia ago, several dozen of the nation’s best basketball teams will begin a three-week war this evening when their placement in the NCAA tournament is announced. Countless other schools will see their title hopes join Caesar among the ranks of the dead, leaving their supporters with little more than a feeling of emptiness.

When the NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket is announced this evening, 65 schools nationwide will bask in four or five days of glory while inundating the Internet searching for information on their first-round opponents (the fates of the teams from Niagara University and the University at Buffalo in their respective conference tournaments were determined after this section printed).

Selection Sunday used to be taken for granted by Jerry Kelly, a member of the Syracuse University Alumni Club of Western New York, for whom his team’s inclusion used to be as automatic as the sunrise. While this year’s team figures to have secured a spot, the Orange’s absence from the field the previous two seasons means Kelly and other SU fans now have anticipatory butterflies as the selection show airs.

“It’s just kind of an empty feeling that it’s not going to be much fun in March, and we’re going to have to sit through NIT games. It’s no fun,” said Kelly, who still followed the Orange in the second-tier National Invitational Tournament despite the disappointment. “I wouldn’t say it’s a huge high (when they get in), but it’s like, ‘OK, the world’s normal again.’ ”

A normal world for fans of mid-major schools — those without big-time athletics budgets and multiple TV appearances — usually includes no postseason whatsoever. That makes those times when their schools make the tournament all the more special.

Carmen Gentile couldn’t have felt much more special than he did in March 2006, when the team from his alma mater, George Mason University, became the lowest seed ever to advance to the Final Four.

“It was just a wonderful feeling, the camaraderie. It just unites people,” said Gentile, a Buffalo attorney who went to the Virginia-based university for law school. “After I got over the fact they were (in the Final Four), I kind of sifted out what the press was saying. I really got a kick out of reading the newspaper and listening to the radio about how they were a Cinderella. It was like they were in disbelief. That gave me a real chuckle.”

Gentile, who completed his undergraduate studies at Canisius College, got a similar — if shorter — thrill out of seeing the Golden Griffins make the 1996 tournament, in which they lost a first-round game to Utah.

“That was a wonderful week. County Executive (Dennis) Gorski went to Dallas for the game, Mayor (Anthony) Masiello went,” he said. “When you just happen to hit a good year when you win those close games ... you just appreciate it as much as you can at the moment.”

That moment has almost become a rite of spring of late at Niagara University, where the men’s basketball squad has qualified for the Big Dance in two of the previous four seasons and was poised as of press time for trip No. 3. NU freshman Pat Fetzer, a North Tonawanda native, said he and his roommate planned to host a selection show viewing party in their dorm room and that he would look to accompany the team wherever it might go should the Eagles gain a spot.

“It’s always going to be an exciting thing,” said Fetzer, who expressed a desire to have the Purple Eagles make the tournament during his entire four years on Monteagle Ridge. “I don’t think we can ever get spoiled.”

NU basketball coach Joe Mihalich declined to be interviewed for this story, but he said after the Eagles’ MAAC tournament win in 2007 that Selection Sunday and the time leading up to game day should be soaked up by those schools lucky enough to participate.

“You’ve got to go in with the mindset that anything can happen,” the coach said. “It’s something we really want to enjoy.”

Bracket time

That’s not to say, however, that only fans of participating schools are able to enjoy this time of year.

NCAA tournament pools will dominate office time beginning when people report to work Monday. The consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated that $1.7 billion worth of productivity will be lost during the tournament’s 16 days due to employees discussing their brackets, researching their picks and watching games at work.

Some 30 million Americans took part in office pools in 2005, according to an NCAA study conducted that year (office pools are allowed in New York state, provided that all money that’s collected is paid out). Those people’s wagers add up to more than 96 percent of the $2.5 billion bet each year on tournament games.

When it comes time to fill out your bracket, R.J. Bell of pregame.com offered a few tips to assist in that process. Top seeds advance to the Sweet 16 about 86 percent of the time, he said, with the national champion having been a No. 4 seed or higher going back more than two decades.

If you’re looking to pick an upset, No. 12 seeds have won nearly half of their first-round games over the past seven years, he said. And don’t expect things to go great opening weekend — the odds of filling out a perfect bracket are 9 quintillion to one.

If you’re in the position of someone like Gentile, whose heart might compel him to make a pick his head knows is improbable, you might want to abstain from the process altogether.

“Seeing your school advance unexpectedly, you’re just on cloud nine,” he said. “You have to pinch yourself to see if this is really happening.”

Contact editor Paul Laneat 693-1000, ext. 116.



• Visit the Life in the Slow Lane blog to read more about March Madness, including a Syracuse grad's experiences watching a small school get its dancing shoes ready Life in the Slow Lane