I'm MAD (mad, I tell ya!!) about March basketball!!!!!!!

Now, I don't mean mad as in "angry."

I mean mad as in "CRAZY." I am CRAZY for, in love with, obsessed with, crazy about... the NCAA basketball tournament. I love March Madness...and I totally blame my Dad for it.

Growing up, my Dad gave me some wonderful instructions on life and happiness and contentment. He taught me about the value of family, and left me with an amazing tradition of faith.

But, there are two other things that he gave me a great appreciation for...

Music and Sports!

I grew up listening to the best music from Dad's amazing record collection (the Byrds, the Beatles, the Moody Blues, Cat Stevens, Elton John, the Mamas and the Papas); and he taught me to love (and to understand) sports. The only time I ever remember us begging Mom to let us skip church on Sunday night was to watch the Dallas Cowboys (sometimes we got away with it, sometimes we didn't!). And when March came around, Dad taught me the joy of March Madness. We'd print out the brackets (well, back in the "old days" we'd make copies of the brackets from our local newspaper) and fill them in, seeing who could beat the other person. Just the other day, the girls and I were visiting my parents and Dad handed me a bracket to fill out (we also got Delaney and McKenna to fill theirs out). (And Dad still has copies of brackets from way-back-when.)

So, I get my love for March Madness honestly...although Dad says I've taken it to a whole new level! I pretty much watch basketball non-stop through the tourney, I keep up with the different players' stories, cheer for a "Cinderella" team that I fall in love with along the way, and cheer on my personal favorites. This year, Alabama is absent from it all, but I have other "favorites" to root for... this year, I'm cheering on Texas, Vanderbilt (my SEC pick), and Purdue (for Phats, of course!!)

I finished my brackets last night, since the tournament starts today and I ended up having an interesting final four. Although it's not full of surprises, it does have only one #1 seed (Memphis) in it; my other three in the final four are #2 seeds Texas, Georgetown, and Duke. I will probably be totally wrong about the finals, but it's fun to give it a shot! (And, along the way, I have some upsets picked; it seems that #12 seeds almost always beat their #5 seed opponents, so I've got two of those picked).

(And I thought this was funny... Delaney picked her brackets and she did two separate ones. She did a "real" one where she has North Carolina and Memphis in the finals and she did a "fantasy" one where her favorite teams would make it all the way. The teams in her final four are Texas, Gonzaga, Purdue and Notre Dame, with Notre Dame winning it all! Now tell me that isn't crazy??!!)

So, I will be watching a lot of basketball in the next few weeks, and it all starts today... but first I have to go see Dawn! Yay!! (Photos to follow tomorrow... you know that!)

In the meantime,
go to Phats blog where he has a bracket challenge going on among certain blog friends (including moi!)
and go to my brackets at espn.com.

Let the madness begin!!!