Finally, after a long two-year wait, the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament (March Madness) is back.

This has always been my favorite sporting event of the year. There’s nothing better than the normal Thursday through Sunday of non-stop basketball action. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the tournament was canceled last season.

It feels like it was just a few short months ago that everything was starting to shut down and sporting events were canceled left and right. Sports are a big part of my life and I can still remember sitting on my couch watching every major sport cancel or postpone its season this time last year.

There’s been so much that has changed for me over the past year. I was the Sports Editor for my college newspaper. I graduated from college. I moved to a completely new state and started a new job. It’s been crazy to look back on this past year and see all the things that have changed.

What’s been crazy to think about, is all those changes started to take shape this time last year when the NCAA tournament was canceled.

This time last year, I was cruising along in my second to last semester of college. There had been rumblings for a few weeks about the Coronavirus in some of my classes, but none of us actually thought anything serious would happen.

My last in-person classes as a college student would happen the week before everything shut down. I had no clue it would be the last time I’d see some of my college friends. The week of lockdown was my spring break. Instead of enjoying it, I was freaking out because everything was being shut down.

After the NBA decided to call it quits on March 11, 2020, I knew it was only a matter of time till the other sports followed suit. The next day saw the NHL and MLB suspend their seasons. College basketball and golf were the two stragglers. I kept thinking there’s no way the NCAA would shutdown one of the biggest money makers all year. I was wrong.

The next day, I woke up ready to watch The Players Championship (golf) and various conference championship tournaments in college basketball. One after the other, the conference tournaments were shut down. The golf tournament got in a full day, but they received criticisms all day long on social media and canceled later that night. 

The only college basketball game played that day was between Big East schools Creighton and St. John’s. I savored every second of the game just waiting for it to be canceled. It was actually a very entertaining game, but was eventually canceled at halftime with St. John’s leading 38-35.

Later that afternoon was when the NCAA Tournament had officially been canceled. I couldn’t believe it. The sport I grew up loving and my favorite sporting event of the year wasn’t going to happen.

What was even more frustrating about it, was my Wisconsin Badgers were finally looking really good heading into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since they lost in the 2015 National Championship Game to Duke University.

I thought Wisconsin finally had a team that could compete for a national championship again. They had just won a share of the Big Ten regular season championship and were coming into the postseason firing on all cylinders.

When it was announced by the NCAA that all players could return for another year of eligibility, I thought for sure Wisconsin would be right in the thick of things. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case this season.

After starting the season ranked in the top 10, the Badgers have fallen off the face of the earth the past month or so. Losing seven of their last 10 games and limping into the tournament as a nine seed with a matchup against the University of North Carolina. Survive that matchup and it’s almost certain they’ll face No. 1 seed Baylor.

I haven’t watched as much college basketball this season as I normally would, but I’ve already filled out multiple brackets and have my final four set. I have Gonzaga beating Alabama and Illinois defeating Baylor, with Illinois defeating Gonzaga for the National Championship.

Instead of focusing on just my team, like I normally would during March Madness, this year I plan to just sit back and enjoy the madness. Especially now that I know it can all be easily taken away from us.