FOUR DAYS AWAY from beer, brackets and basketball, baby! *March Madness 2020* is steadfastly approaching
and for avid college basketball fans like yours truly typing this post, not every town across the country is blessed with a nearby NBA or NFL or major-league team they can hold down during its appropriate season; which leaves us with our obsession and adoration for college hoops. NOW maybe I am a special case, considering I was born and raised in the town that is home to the
most winning college basketball team in history: THE University of Kentucky! Haters are gonna hate and say that we're tied with D
uke, but, I like to combat and say, well, there is NO D
UKE, without "UK." Anyway, I am rambling I don't even live in Kentucky anymore...
The point: March Madness begins this Sunday, March 15th and ends April 4th with the NCAA championship game AND I have experienced not one, not two, but THREE NCAA Championship victories in my lifetime thanks to my Wildcat men's basketball teams ['96 w/ Rick Pitino, '98 with Tubby Smith, '12 with John Calipari], and it's turned me into a psycho when it comes to UK basketball. SO, I am going to give you my top FIVE slighty-crazy things you can do, to prove your March Madness allegiance to whatever men or women's college basketball team you hold down to the core of your SOUL! Here we go:
1.) Sleep Overnight at "BnB Dubs" RIGHT HERE in Chicago!
Would you sleepover night in a decked-out chicken wing restaurant, overdose on buffalo chips (with CHEESE), drink hella beer and watch NOTHING but basketball during your stay? If you say 'YES', you may be an allegiant to the house of college basketball! Famed chicken wing spot Buffalo Wild Wings is hosting a digital contest RIGHT NOW where you upload a video proving you're a superfan (like me) of March Madness! Post your video on Twitter or Instagram with the #bnbdubscontest hashtag, AND tag a friend to bring with you during your overnight stay! Not only are you bunking up with a buddy overnight craming your face with wings and booze, but there's an indoor basketball court, hella TV's and all those photo ops to post on social will seriously give EVERYONE FOMO [fear-of-missing-out]! I am 100% posting my video as soon as I finish this post!
2.) Randomly Approach an NCAA Basketball College Champion
...WITH CONSENT, of course! Over the past weekend, I found myself out a public event for a birthday at BOUNCE Sports Club (shoutout The Franchise, such a DOPE pop-up party!). As I was sipping the glass of champagne I finessed from a VIP table I wasn't even sitting at, I noticed a tall man conversing at the high-top table behind me, and betcha-by-golly-wow this man was none other than the Untouchable himself, the one-and-only Antoine Walker, 1995-1996 University of Kentucky NCAA Champion, praised back home and well known as being apart of the greatest team in NCAA Division I Men's Basketball history. Of course, I thought, would it be weird if I went up to this man; who I met ONE TIME when I was NINE years old at a UK game, and just gave him his flowers? Oh yea, giving someone their "flowers" is millennial talk for giving someone their praise and thanks while they're still alive. Anyway: DUH! I finished my glass, walked right over, and by the end of the conversation, Mr. Walker thanked me and told me he appreciated me when I was NINE and appreciates me now at 32 years old!
So hopefully, this small moment of fan-dom inspires someone else to walk up to a favorite college basketball player and give them their flowers! That *officially* blesses you with your second of five stones (Marvel reference) to earn your crazy allegiance to March Madness!
3.) BRACKETS! BRACKETS! BRACKETS! *to the tune of Mötley Crüe 'Girls! Girls! Girls!'*
Even if you're solo dolo, fill out those college basketball brackets, people! It makes the games THAT much more intense and when you keep up with brackets, you learn more about other teams and players, plus you can hold conversations with people about the game. I am not the most sports savy dame on the block, but when it comes to March Madness, filling out brackets and keeping up with my teams - especially when it's crunch time like Elite 8 or Sweet 16 - helps me be received a lot more serious when it comes to the games. Start a pool at your job! Throw a bracket party, and the team that loses has to take shots. Wanna REALLY prove your crazy allegiance to March Madness? Make the losing team take as many shots as the points they lose by! Five point L? Too bad, here's five shots of MALORT! There's so many fun games that can be played when participating in filling out brackets. Three suggestions down, two more to go!
4.) Dress for SUCCESS.
Back when my team won in '12, I lived in Dallas, Texas... so it physically pained me to my soul, knowing UK was killing it on the road during March Madness and I couldn't make it home. So, I pledged an allegiance to my Kentucky Wildcats, to MY John Calipari, and wore a different article of UK paraphernalia every single day during March Madness. I mean even on OFF days when we weren't playing, I was sporting either a hat, or a pair of socks, pants, sweatshirts, T-shirt, underwear, hair bows, ANYTHING. AND people you CANNOT use a professional work setting as an excuse to NOT wear something that holds down your team; one day during March Madness I had a corporate meeting with our then company CEO and I wore a ROYAL Kentucky BLUE blazer with a Wildcat pin. Baby believe me, anything is possible when you're crazy for March Madness. You put good energy in the world, you get it back and THAT'S WHY my team WON against the Kansas Jayhawks that year. Risk it all, and dress for success for your team playing in March Madness. It sounds crazy, but hey - keep faith!
5.) Talk about nothing but March Madness.
The FINAL stone, to ensure your crazy fandom for March Madness: reference everything you talk about back to March Madness. It's possible, trust me. Planning a trip to the movies? Finesse March Madness talk in there. Giving a lecture at school or at a church conference? Drop a March Madness gem. Below, please find my list of terms that can easily be inserted into ANY conversation about ANYTHING:
- Elite 8
- Sweet Sixteen
- Courtside
- Basketball
- Jersey
- Champion
- Coach
- Waterboy
- Assist
- Walk
- Alley-Oop
- Jumper
- Jumpshot
- Foul
- Freethrow
- Three-pointer
