His First Madness

I'll give Singapore - home of Richard Chandler - a day off, because today is all about the Madness. Yes, the annual winnowing of 64 teams down to a single National Champion begins today.

Now my son turned five earlier this year, and for the first time, wanted to know more about "all those boxes" on that sheet of paper I was filling out with all those "names of states." Yes, it was bound to happen sooner or later… he's finally old enough to have caught the Madness.

I explained to him the basics of the bracket - what the seeds meant and the whole concept of a single-elimination tournament. Then I let him pick each game on his own. To my surprise, he actually did a fairly decent job of it.

Kansas is his eventual champion, which is a very real possibility. Of course, his love of the letter "X" explains why he has both Xavier and New Mexico making the Final Four, but all in all, right now he's got as good a chance of his old man does at having a perfect bracket.

I'll keep you all posted as the Tournament moves along as to which member of the Mass family is less confused when it comes to college hoops. For the record, my bracket can be found here for your perusal, and heck if a certain "you know who" wants to donate a nice cash prize to the winner of this little family wager, who would I be to turn down the offer?