The Monday Mommy: NCAA Tourney Off-Court Entertainment
Basically guys, it’s a crap shoot and we all know it. However, as a society we are all still riveted. What keeps us enthralled even after our carefully chosen brackets have been tossed in to the trash in a fit of rage, are the random human interest stories that come along with the tournament. We love the Cinderellas and the village idiots alike.
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Let’s face it. When the NCAA tournament rolls around every March, the average sports fan has only watched a handful of actual college basketball games throughout the regular season.
Aside from diehard college basketball fans and the students of the schools involved, the majority of folks only begin to care when it is time to fill out their brackets. There’s always that self proclaimed head sports guy in every office going around from cubicle to cubicle, pressuring people that could care less about basketball to enter their pool. You know that guy; everybody does.
Years upon years of societal pressure has created a fever surrounding the NCAA Basketball tournament that rivals only the madness caused by the Super Bowl. People call in sick to work, plan trips to Las Vegas and spend hours debating how to fill out their brackets.
The manner, in which those people that have not followed college basketball throughout the season actually select the teams that will advance, can vary widely. Some go with the uniforms that strike their fancy while others will choose to put the teams with the better mascot through to the next round. There are folks who let their children decide who to pick, based on whatever criteria their infant or toddler deem worthy.
Basically guys, it’s a crap shoot and we all know it. However, as a society we are all still riveted. What keeps us enthralled even after our carefully chosen brackets have been tossed in to the trash in a fit of rage, are the random human interest stories that come along with the tournament. We love the Cinderellas and the village idiots alike.
This year we are blessed with a generous smattering of both. Here’s a look at some of the most entertaining off-the-court moments of the 2013 NCAA Basketball tournament thus far.
The Coach and the Supermodel
Not only was Florida Gulf Coast University’s take down of the second seeded Georgetown Hoyas and domination of San Diego State to make the Sweet 16, the story of a team of unlikely heroes; the coach of that team could be considered one as well. FGCU’s coach, Andy Enfield is married to a bonafide Super Model. His wife, Amanda Marcum has graced the covers of Maxim, Vogue and Elle magazines. She has also walked the Victoria’s Secret fashion show and posed for a myriad of other publications.
The two met when Marcum, a huge Oklahoma State fan, needed a ride to Boston to attend the Cowboy’s second-round game of the NCAA tourney in 2003 a la When Harry Met Sally. They bonded over sports and their first date was to a St. John’s NIT game. Enfield and Marcum were engaged six months later and have been married for eight years.
Sports geeks all around the world rejoice! Your Cinderella story could be out there somewhere just waiting to be written about.
CSU Ram Boy
Justin Stank, our own 16 year-old ram suit wearing CSU fan has hit the big time. Well, he garnered the media’s attention during the first few days of the tournament at least. The cameras would occasionally pan to the sweating teen at memorable moments throughout both of CSU’s appearances. They showed him clapping, screaming and even yawning while wearing a full body ram suit complete with a jersey worn over the top of it.
The pinnacle of Stank’s media fever was an article written about him in the New York Times, where we learned the history of the ram suit. He has worn some version of that costume for 15 and a half years. Every few years or so this super fan’s mom will have to tweak a seam or two or just simply sew a new one in order to accommodate a growing teenage boy.
The CSU jersey was not part of the original get up and was not added until about six years ago. In order to mimic Cam, Colorado State’s actual mascot’s look, he decided to wear a jersey and change it with the seasons. Stank wears his suit for not only basketball but football and volleyball as well.
Good for you, Justin Stank. Get your fifteen minutes now while you can, because the way we see it at South Stands, this could go one of two ways. He either continues this path to become an official team mascot or we find him in 10 years at a fetish convention.
The Shockers
Wichita State’s actual mascot is a shocker. What is shocker you ask? Who cares, it’s an awesome school mascot to root for. You can’t make this stuff up.
After knocking out Pittsburgh in the first round, (I refuse to call the play-in games anything but what they are), Wichita State, as the number nine seed sent one-seeded Gonzaga packing. The Shockers busted brackets like wildfire and gained the attention of the media and tournament viewers looking for a great underdog story. The certainly lived up their school’s team mascot.
To those of us with dirty, gutter minds this is especially snicker worthy. I read my fair share of two in the pink; one in the next round tweets come across my timeline after their take down of Gonzaga to earn themselves a spot in the elicit Sweet 16. Apparently we are never too old to get a kick out of a perfectly placed sexual reference. Am I right?
I am sure as the NCAA tournament rolls on, we will uncover some more human interest story gems along the way. Most of the top-seeded teams have already been picked clean of great stories involving their players and coaches. However, it’s the underdogs that provide us with the untold drama and amazing storylines that feed our need as a society to hear all about them.
Bring it on FGCU, Wichita State and LaSalle, what glorious skeletons are still left in your assorted closets? I have no doubt they will be uncovered and exposed by the time that confetti hits the air and “One Shining Moment” is blasted through the arena’s speakers at the end of the tourney.
Follow Jennifer on twitter @themondaymommy.
