MARCH MADNESS PHILOSOPHY 101

By Dan Miller
March 12, 2007

The same thought enters my mind every March.
65 college basketball teams whittling it down until there's only one standing..... and that one will be the new men's NCAA national champion.
That team will also be the only one of the 65 that doesn't end its season with an agonizing defeat.

That's right, when it's all over, 64 teams will have tasted bitter defeat -- and we'll have seen on our TV screens close-ups of the young players with puzzled looks on their faces.... tears in many of their eyes.... and heads hidden beneath towels, or buried in their hands.

Don't the players for those 64 teams realize that just getting selected to the tournament means they've had a good season and played wonderfully together?

No, it doesn't matter.
It all ends with a painful loss.

And for the vast majority of the seniors, it will be their final taste -- ever -- of organized basketball.

So here's my wish for these young people.
Look around.... take in the atmosphere.... soak in the majesty of just making it that far with other young men who'll forever have a common bond with you.
Years down the road, it really won't really matter whether your team won or lost, you'll know you were there....
And you'll know with just a little break here and there you could have been national champs.

When I think back of games I played as a youngster under the trees in the parking lot with my pals, not a single score -- not a single specific win or loss -- comes to mind.
In the end, that never was the important part.
We just didn't know it then.

Read the words of Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee:
"The medals don't mean anything, and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing."

(P.S. -- For those who make it to the pros..... forget everything I just said.... then, you must win!)

_______________________________________________