March Madness is nothing short of chaos


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By the time you’re reading this, it’s too late.

Your chances of becoming Fallon’s first billionaire were just flushed down the toilet. So much for having the town in your hand, asking you what big plans you have envisioned for the little community.

Building the Ed Arciniega Athletic Complex into a massive indoor stadium? Not going to happen.

Installing stadium seats in the Elmo Dericco Gym? Forget about it.

Remodeling the local golf course into the next PGA tournament destination? In your dreams.

Don’t you just love March Madness when the best experts in the country struggle every year for the perfect bracket? Or how about multi-billionaire Warren Buffet feeling so confident that he will give out $1 billion to a flawless bracket winner?

March is one of the best sports month of the year, highlighted by the NCAA basketball tournament, which began on Tuesday with the First Four. But the meat of the Big Dance started on Thursday as people are glued to the phones, computers or TVs for 12 hours. Forget about working during the day, especially if you have a smartphone streaming the games until your shift ends.

While it makes watching the tournament more exciting having some local flavor, the three-week championship tournament is one of the most fun sporting events to not only watch, but participate in.

It helps when Nevada is dancing in March but let’s face it, the Wolf Pack have a long road to getting back to the tournament for the first time since 2007 during Nick Fazekas’ last year. And those were definitely the brightest moments of Wolf Pack basketball history, especially in 2004 when they reached the Sweet 16 with marquee upsets over Gonzaga and Michigan State before losing to national runner-up Georgia Tech.

But when you don’t have a team to really root for, it allows to experience the tournament from a different perspective and truly root for the underdog.

Predicting the next Florida Gulf Coast or finally deciding to give the office bracket pool a try are just a couple of the many reasons that the third Thursday of every March should be declared a national holiday.

Bracket busting, however, is the No. 1 reason to watch March Madness.

If you can’t have the perfect bracket, then no one should have one. And to borrow a line from one of the most memorable villains in cinema history, it’s never a bad time to introduce a little anarchy and upset the established order of college basketball.

Who cares if your national champ is already out of the tournament? Start rooting for the underdogs and all the double-digit seeds. Start wishing that we’ll finally see a No. 1 seed go down in the opener.

Basketball is a fun and enjoyable sport but for everyone in the country, it only matters in March when teams enjoy wreaking havoc and putting opposing coaches on the hot seat.

Enjoy the next three weekends, especially if you’re $1 billion bracket is already busted. Everything is not supposed to be in order.

It’s chaotic. It’s unpredictable. It’s madness.

March Madness is an agent of chaos.

Thomas Ranson can be contacted at lvnsports@yahoo.com.