It is said that to have 20/20 vision is to have perfect vision. I think it is very clear and easy to see that nothing is going to be clear and nothing is going to be easy this year in America.
Our president is under investigation in the political realm.
The baseball world has dealt with teams cheating by stealing signs not bases.
America got to witness the amazing run of the gunslinger-led Kansas City Chiefs by Red Raider Patrick Mahomes and it’s longtime veteran and at one time Super Bowl winless coach Andy Reid.
Let’s face it. America have been on a roller coaster of emotions since January 1st and it didn’t get any easier with the crash of an icon named Kobe Bryant in his helicopter with 8 others also aboard, including his daughter Gianna, that killed everyone.
Now we are starting to recover from all of this. Football, college and pro, is over and with people still grieving in the NBA, America needs some stable consistency to look to. Something exciting… something to make them hope again. Something that will make them believe in the beauty of what sports is truly all about. And if you are a basketball fan who has truly been numb to the events of losing one of your sports greatest achievers, life is about to get a little better in that regard.
It is for these reasons that I truly believe that March Madness and the sport of college basketball itself will truly shine a little brighter this year in March.
Think about it this way. I write for a grass roots start up called CBB Review. All of us that write for this organization, we write about basketball because we love the game but also because we especially look forward to the inspirational stories that it brings to us and to all of the country during one of the most amazing times of the year in March and in April.
Above all else, we truly love what this game means and what it represents to many people because college basketball shows all of us, who love sports in general, the best of what our young men and women all across our country can do and how well they can perform at the very highest level.
Nothing shows this aspect of college basketball better than March Madness. If you are a diehard fan of the college game, then you already know that this year has seemingly been flipped on its ear. Duke was defeated at home in its fortress at Cameron Indoor not by Carolina…. not by Virginia…. but Stephen F. Austin! We have the San Diego Aztecs undefeated still yet in February. Even today in the state of Ohio, the city of Dayton has been in the news but not because people are looking forward to watching four of the first games of the tournament being played there. Unless you have been under a rock and you are a college hoops fan, you know that the Dayton Flyers could just possibly be the one team that makes a run at the Final Four if all the chips fall right in their bracket this year.
These are the great feel good stories that we Americans look forward to watching come tournament time.
Looking for the Tar Heels in the tourney? Well unless they actually win the conference tournament in the ACC don’t expect to see any miracles out of them in the Big Dance as of now. Who would have ever thought!
This is what is going to make that soft light you barely see now shine immensely brighter come tournament time this year.
Look at the rankings as of today. The Baylor Bears, the Gonzaga Bulldogs, the above mentioned Aztecs….. these are three of your top programs in the nation right now! The Wildcats of Kentucky, the Spartans of Michigan State, the Tigers of Auburn….. teams we might expect to see at the top of the heap are mid to bottom of the Top 25!
If everything that we have seen go down in the past few months of college basketball just happen to be the big plate of appetizers for the upcoming NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament? Then America…. you are in for one helluva ride when March rolls around!
But think about it……. really really think about it. This bright light of competition….. the stories of many hopes, many dreams and of the many many teammates (young men and young women) who come together believing in one another….. isn’t this what we need for America right now?
I read something today and it made me think. The article that I read stated that through his death…… Kobe’s tragic death…… it has brought together people and cultures from all over the world in grief and mourning for the loss of their hero ….. all because of what he was able to do with a little round orange ball.
So America ….. I want to challenge you. We have mourned and grieved and yes it has really stunk to lose one of our greatest heroes of all time. But let me tell you this…… and I would just about bet Kobe would tell you the same thing.
March Madness is on the way. And while you may have lost one of your greatest heroes ever………… a few more are about to be born.
This is why this beautiful game of basketball is such a life lesson sport…. and why March Madness is that life giving, hopeful and positive vibe that we all need a little bit of in our lives every year about this time.
This is why, in my own opinion, that when March Madness rolls around this year, we should dream that much deeper, live that much better and love that much stronger. Hey q
While it may have brought us a very disturbing, horrific and tragic death, basketball teaches us that we should dream, we should live and we should love this sport in a way that can make us all believe that there is still a little magic to be found in America. That somewhere in the corner of this nation, there is still room for people to dream and believe together in the best that life can give in everyone of us! Even if that life may have a little Madness in it!
#LetYourLightShine
#MarchMadness2020
#ClearEyesFullHearts