Day 21: Go Wildcats!

The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has begun. March Madness. This is one of my favorite sports events of the year. This began many years ago when my older brother Jon taught me to love this game. In my hometown, Welch, Oklahoma (Population 700ish), I played basketball. Maybe you read about it in my blog from last year; if not, go ahead and go back, as it is worth the read. When you took PE class, you play basketball in fifth and sixth grade. This definitely helped me know more about the sport. About this same time, my brother lived near us, and we spent a lot of time together. Therefore, since I did not live with my dad at that time (the original sports fan), my brother's remote controlling landed on basketball.

Picture it: Welch, Oklahoma, early 90s. With a one block Main Street, 5 churches, 1 grocery store, and 1 school, what else would you do there? Watching basketball with Jon meant that you cheered for the Duke Blue Devils and Mike Krzyzewski (Sha-chef-ski).  My whole family loves to get excited about sports, and loud coaching/cheering from the coach is sure to ensue. This was an exciting time to cheer for this team. On the opposite side of town, North Carolina Tar Heels were being revered by sister Toni Clarkson. Both of these siblings coached basketball, so their knowledge is much more vast than mine. Interestingly enough, in 1991 and 1992, Duke took the cake, and the following year, North Carolina won.

Then, the moment came that kept me rooting for years. 1992. Christian Laettner. 2 seconds on the clock. Duke vs. Kentucky. Laettner was for Duke. Long pass to Laettner, and he makes it! They win! NCAA Champs! This is when I fell in love with the NCAA Tournament. I have filled out brackets for years since then.

As usual, I can't just cheer for the same team as my family. No, that would be too easy. I try for a while, as I did in this case. Just like Duke, I also have tried to cheer for the Dallas Cowboys for the NFL and the Oklahoma Sooners in college football, yet the only team we could ever agree were the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan (and probably more than half the country rode that band wagon).  To stick with my own tradition, I had to find my own basketball team that fit me. Sure enough, there was a team that was blue and white and had the mascot The Wildcats, just like Welch! This team was none other than the Kentucky Wildcats, the same team that Duke beat in the moment I began cheering. Their coach at the time was Rick Pitino. I truly started following them, and during my junior year of high school and freshmen year of college, Kentucky won the championship. I was so dedicated and arrogant that I might have bragged a bit too much at school. They even decorated my car over the NCAA feud during high school. It was fun and exciting. Over the years, they have held their own pretty well. They won again in 2012. Thanks for traveling down memory (or the free throw) lane with me.

Tonight, I cheered Kentucky to victory with their first game in this year's tournament. I am sported in my jersey that I got from the Frosted Flakes box in high school, I kid you not. Go Wildcats!