From time to time over the years...starting with the improbable run by Jacksonville University in 1970 to the NCAA championship finals against UCLA, I have followed in a sporadic way men's college basketball. Perhaps my most intense season was in 1983 when I had a lot of free time on my hands and spent an enormous amount of time watching college hoops on TV...especially games in the Atlantic Coast Conference. That was when super-teams like Michael Jordan's North Carolina Tarheels, Ralph Sampson's Virginia Cavaliers and Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon's independent Houston Cougars were surpassed at the end by the Cinderella North Carolina State Wolfpack, coached by the indefatigable Jim Valvano...never seen anything like that again. I enjoyed the rise in stature of my hometown Florida Gators in later years under coaches Lon Kruger and Billy Donovan...those back-to-back championship seasons in 2006 and 2007 were incredible. Of late, my interest has waned...probably at its lowest when the March Madness tournament in 2020 was cancelled because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Today I switched my TV back and forth watching a number of games as the regular season is coming to an end before conference championship tournaments begin next week...that's already happening on the women's side. Florida most likely will not be going to the NCAA tournament this year with a 16-15 overall record, but they showed me why they, under first year coach Todd Golden, should at least get a bid in the second-tier NIT. I haven't been keeping up with this season, but I have a few days to catch up before the bids for the 68-team field in the NCAA tournament are presented. And then the fun begins with the brackets...
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