March Madness

March Madness starts tomorrow.  A quite unique sporting event that only Americans care about - a series of knock-out basketball games over the next few weeks between 68 college teams.  Frankly the most interesting thing about it is to work out where the hell some of these colleges are located geographically - I don't have a clue about most of them.  I can't even support a local team, as none qualified for the tournament (though the favorites - Gonzaga Bulldogs - are located in East Washington).  But naturally I have completed a bracket - even though I have absolutely no clue about how good any of these teams are.  They are seeded, so you can play the probabilities (though that didn't stop me picking a 16-seeded team to beat a 1-seeded team - only because the 16-seeded team was the Hartford Hawks, so I couldn't miss an opportunity to pick the namesake of my UK hometown).  March Madness was canceled last year, so I expect it to dominate the sports coverage here for the rest of the month.  Even though I have so many issues about the fact that these student athletes are not paid - despite the huge amounts of revenue this tournament generates.  It's also going to be interesting to see if the pandemic plays a role in this tournament - I think they are playing all the games in just the one state this year (Indiana), and I believe there are "stand-by" teams in case any positive cases are recorded.