Cornell head coach Steve Donahue watches practice for a first-round men's NCAA college basketball tournament game Thursday in Boise, Idaho. Cornell is scheduled to play Missouri this afternoon.Ithaca Journal
March 20, 2009
If you follow the headlines on a daily basis, it's easy to get caught up in the barrage of bad news. There's only so much news about layoffs, recessions, Bernie Madoffs, AIGs, executive bonuses and crime one can take.
On Thursday, the basketball world took a break from all that stuff. The NCAA tournament officially began, and teams from all across the country started battling to claim college basketball's top prize.
The NCAA tournament is big business for teams, schools, players and the CBS network, which will televise the games. There's no honest count of how many people submitted a bracket for an office pool or played in any of the hundreds of contests available on the Internet. This is the one sporting event where even the most casual basketball observer will grab a bracket and try to solve the puzzle of who will be crowned champion in early April - a task that often eludes even the most fanatic basketball fans every year.
Closer to home, our community can celebrate a local entry for the second straight year. Steve Donahue's Cornell University men's basketball team (21-9) clinched its second-straight Ivy League championship on March 6, qualifying them for the biggest college championship in the country. They'll face the Missouri Tigers (28-6) at 3 p.m. today in Boise, Idaho. The game will be televised on CBS, with local radio coverage provided by WPIE-AM (1160).
We wish the men's team good luck, and we hope Thursday's first-round games didn't break your brackets. If you choose to indulge in the March Madness, we hope it at least took your mind off of the bad news - even if for just a few minutes.
Closer to home, our community can celebrate a local entry for the second straight year. Steve Donahue's Cornell University men's basketball team (21-9) clinched its second-straight Ivy League championship on March 6, qualifying them for the biggest college championship in the country. They'll face the Missouri Tigers (28-6) at 3 p.m. today in Boise, Idaho. The game will be televised on CBS, with local radio coverage provided by WPIE-AM (1160).
We wish the men's team good luck, and we hope Thursday's first-round games didn't break your brackets. If you choose to indulge in the March Madness, we hope it at least took your mind off of the bad news - even if for just a few minutes.
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