Grady Gallagher | Blogger

Shout out to the Beavs! Conference Champs! All the offseason work such as lifting, shooting hoops, and long distance running pays off, but it’s not over yet. Be sure to come out Thursday night to Siebens Fieldhouse and watch the Beavers take on the winner of Dubuque and Simpson. If the Beavers prevail, the championship is set for Saturday night in Decorah.

After each week passes, I keep saying to myself, “March Madness is almost here.” I cannot remember a more even field of competition across the board than this year. Being ranked in the top five is surely a promise to be defeated. If I’m filling out my bracket today, my final four is as follows: Michigan State, Michigan, Arizona, and Butler. If you saw my bracket last year, you can surely bet there was a 98% chance that none of the teams I just named would make it. I can’t wait to skip cla…I mean watch the games whenever I possibly can. Nothing is better than turning on the TV and seeing Florida taking on Witcha State in a mid-afternoon battle.

Over my time experiencing the madness that March becomes, I have noticed a trend of the four types of fans that arise during March.

The first, nicknamed “Nelson,” is the guy who constantly asks you who you have picked in the game that is currently going on. After 37 times of him telling you who he has picked (without you EVER asking him, may I add), you finally confront him about the situation and say that you, in fact, heard him the first 36 times. By the end of March, Nelson has told you his picks so many times that you know them better than your own picks.

The second, nicknamed “Garbage” or “Debbie Downer,” is that member of your group of friends who fills out a bracket but can’t remember who he picked and doesn’t really care that much at all about who wins. These are the friends we have tried to avoid during March because, unfortunately, they do not understand the magnitude of this time of year and are deeply missing out.

Next, we all know that one guy who fills out like seven brackets (cough, cough…my apologies…cough).

Anyway, the final type of March Madness fan, nicknamed the “Silent Killer,” always proves that less is more. This is the guy who rarely speaks up about who he has picked unless he is asked and does not brag about the strength of his bracket showing so far. He is the guy who is always near the top of the bracket pool and needs to remind us of his picking abilities in order for us to notice.

Those are the four different types of people I’ve seen with March Madness, and this March, I expect to see nothing different.

Switching over to the NBA, I am really not a fan of all the critics who always compare Jordan to LeBron. They are different players. Jordan was not a 6’8”, 260-pound horse. If LeBron keeps playing this way, the Heat will not be touched. I really don’t think we are appreciating what LeBron is doing right now. If anyone else in the league was as hot as he was before the All-Star Break, we would be all over them. Instead, we just say we expect this from LeBron. I don’t know if that is quite fair. I’m not saying I’m a huge LeBron fan, but the constant criticism and comparisons are so old and annoying. Let’s start talking about someone else like Nate Robinson. He’s having a pretty decent year.

I’m just praying the Warriors can pick it back up. Before the All Star break, I was beginning to worry, but I think it came at the perfect time. As long as Steph Curry stays healthy, this team will make some noise in this year’s playoffs.

Well, that’s all until next week. Thanks again for reading. If you get a chance this week, do me a favor and turn your iPod to “The Show Goes On” for a quick play; you won’t regret it.