March Madness

Yeah it's March so it's basketball playoffs and the hype that surrounds that is tremendous. I just returned from Kansas City and while the NCAA was having some of it's first round games at the Sprint Center just blocks from where I was, I enjoyed basketball at a different level, the NAIA playoffs located at the Municipal Auditorium. This is the oldest college basketball tournament in the country having been in existance since the 30's. 32 teams from throughout the country converge for a week of almost non-stop action. The tournament was in Tulsa for Several years in the late 90's and early 2000's and it was there that I got "hooked". I've always enjoyed basketball, both playing on a recreational level when I was younger and "lighter" and watching, but to get an overdose that is available like this is something akin to drinking a gallon of lemonade on a hot day. While it quenches the thirst, it's almost too much.
It was in Tulsa a dozen years ago that I attended my first NAIA tournament game. I was scanning the newspaper to see which game(s) I would like to take in when I noticed the alma mater of my best friends school was going to be playing. It was a school I was considering going to myself at one time, so I decided I would go to this game and root for them. So I went and sat behind the bench of this team. It was there that I met "the guys". I think I met Roger first, then the others. Just friendly guys who loved basketball. They had been going to this thing for years and I was taken in as one of there own. They ended up winning this game, so I returned the next night, and they won again. However the third time was not a charm and their team was defeated in a very close contest.
The next year they were back and we renewed our aquatance and I found myself sitting with these guys not only at their teams games but many more.
The next year it was the same.
Then the tournament moved back to Kansas City. The first two years I made the trip and got the overdose of basketball that these men had grown accustomed to. This year after about a 4 year absence (the tournament just didn't fall the same week as spring break) I decided to join these old friends (and some of them are getting up there in years) and saw over 20 games in a three day span. Whew.
So thanks Kenny, Louie, Artie, Denny and the Chaplain. It was a blast, And you guys are the greatest. I needed to get away from the routine that has been my life for the past several years.