The "Mad" in March Madness

 

chicanery - noun - use of trickery to achieve a political, financial or legal purpose (Google)

When I think March, I think madness–the madness of college basketball, that is. I adore watching college basketball. The excitement that these tall, terrific tossers generate is often second to none. And I'm not alone in my opinion. According to Statista.com, 10.5 million people watched the NCAA tournament in 2019. In 2021, the proceeds from the games were 1.16 billion dollars, which is no paltry sum. And I'm afraid to research just how much Vegas has profited from the losses of gamblers who have wagered thousands on these potential, inchoate NBA greats. 

As we all know, where there is money to be had, there is chicanery. But just how much and what kind of chicanery takes place on and off the courts is debatable. Case in point, last Saturday, my daughter and I spent three hours witnessing the back-and-forth between UNC (my daughter's alma mater) and the defending champs of 2021, Baylor. For most of the first half, UNC was winning by a margin. Yet during the second half, after Brady Manek, a key, high-scoring forward, was ejected for what might have been an unintentional elbowing of a rear opponent, Twitter lit up with posts of foul play on the part of the referees. Could it be possible that the refs were paid off to influence the direction of the game? It surely seemed like it since they kept making bogus calls against UNC from that point on–so many, in fact, that Baylor went on to tie the game at the bell. Although my daughter gave up hope of her beloved team winning, as a firm believer in David-Goliath pair-ups, I didn't. I knew that despite any chicanery on the part of the refs that good triumphs over evil in the end. And I was right. UNC won the game fair and square by playing above and beyond the possibly corrupt refs. In overtime, the UNC team members followed the rules so that no fouls could be called against them without making the refs look like they were intentionally hurling a wrench into the engine of the match-up. The result was exemplary.

There is a lesson in this episode of March Madness that is quite sane and applicable to life: Even if Deceit surrounds you on all sides, if you are honest and play the game by the rules, you will prosper because the good guys tend to win eventually. I'd like to think that life is capable of that Hollywood ending, a winning bracket sans chicanery. 

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