The NCAA Final Four basketball tournament is called March Madness for a reason. It's a tournament that truly is mad - even more mad than your mom gets after you bring home a report card with straight D pluses.
The tournament has buzzer-beater excitement because so many of the games go right down to the wire and each game means another team is elimated. It's not like the best of seven series they have during the NBA finals or the World Series where you can afford to lose a game. If you lose during March Madness, you're done. There are no second chances. (Kinda like when you go bungy jumping and the rope slips off your feet - you can't just go back up and re-tie it.)
March Madness also has the upset factor. Every year there's a couple of teams that play the game of their lives and send a powerhouse like Duke or Arizona packing. The favorites this year are Duke, who won in 2001, Kansas, Maryland, Cincinnati and Gonzaga - but one of these teams will definitely go down before the Final Four meet at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on March 30th.
The tournament is a great chance to see the best players in college hoops - players you'll probably see in the NBA in the next two or three years. Jason Williams of the Duke Blue Devils will be trying to lead his team to a second straight title - and is also one of the favorites to be picked first overall at the 2002 NBA Draft
Animals Everywhere
30 of the 64 teams in the 2002 tournament are named after animals.
Nine are named after birds, nine are named after cats and seven are named after dogs, including the Terriers, the Bulldogs, the Huskies, the Wolfpack and the Salukis - a breed of dog that is tall, slim and used to hunt gazelles in Arabia. For more info on the Saluki, click here.
March Madness gets underway on March 14th. If you're mad about college hoops and want to pick your teams, you'll find a tournament bracket and schedule by clicking here.
For more on the mens' and womens' final four basketball tournament, head to www.finalfour.net
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