O’Donnell: March comes in like a question mark and will go out like a … what?
THE MADNESS OF MARCH WAS ONCE primarily defined by college and high school basketball tournaments.
Now, in the year 2026, a sudden international fury casts a shadow over such new-age alternatives as the World Baseball Classic, the microscopic media attention paid to the NFL combine and the big-race team of a 63-year-old aerial billionaire opening the NASCAR season with three straight victories.
(No. 3 begs the question: Does the pit crew of Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing utilize any efficiency principles of the triangle offense?)
It's enough to make a slab of tumbling sagebrush long for the times when the Grapefruit League, the Cactus League and fresh memories of Coppertone spring breaks were more than enough to tease the center of the impressionable mind.
SOME NCAA CONFERENCE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS begin this week. By design, they will determine 31 of the 68 teams in the men's and women's events. The full fields will be announced on Selection Sunday, March 15.
Those remaining 37 slots will be filled mainly by remaining universities and athletics departments that have most shrewdly directed NIL money and other resources to acquire the best-matched sets of quality, big-moment players.
The brawny leagues won't tip off their cash-scratch fevers until next week.
THE FIRST WAVE OPENED Monday night. Specifically, that would be the Horizon League, home of such college basketball flyovers as Wright State, Robert Morris and Oakland (Michigan).
The Patriot League and the Sun Belt Conference joined the dreamin' kind Tuesday.
Biggest band to participate in Week One is the Missouri Valley Conference with its crisply run “Arch Madness” in St. Louis.
THE VALLEY WAS ONCE the greatest college basketball conference in the land.
That was around the time when Fidel Castro was the most promising new revolutionary in the Americas and Philly-cheese crooners like Bobby Rydell and Fabian made teen girls swoon.
There was Oscar Robertson over there, and Chet Walker surviving the life in Peoria and Ed Jucker's Cincinnati so close to the first three-peat in NCAA tournament history.
THAT WAS ON the fabled March Saturday night in 1963 when the Bearcats were all but cutting down the nets over Loyola at Louisville's Freedom Hall.
But with no shot clock or 3-point arc, Jerry Harkness and wrecking crew still brought the Ramblers back from a 45-30 second-half deficit and forced an uber-theatrical overtime.
With the extra time expiring, Vic Rouse tipped in a miss and Chicago had its first — and still only — NCAA men's basketball champ 60-58.
IT WILL BE SUCH A DIFFERENT VALLEY beginning Thursday night at the Enterprise Center.
The only legacy members left are No. 2 seed Bradley (20-11) and coach Brian Wardle and No. 8 Drake (13-19).
The top seed is Belmont (26-5), the private Christian school from Nashville. The Bruins once had no prayer of competing in the MVC.
Now they do. And for those looking for a regional rooting interest, a mainstay of the BU ascension has been 6-foot-9 Drew Scharnowski of Burlington Central. The redshirt sophomore prepped for coach Brett Porto, not far from where friends and backroads have been meeting at Mott's Lounge since 1924.
THE VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIP GAME tips Sunday (11 a.m., CBS).
One night later, the onslaught begins.
And some of the question marks of the new March madnesses will be answered.
STREET-BEATIN':
While Chris Holtmann has rightfully been receiving credit for breathing life back into the DePaul men's program, the No. 1 aim of the Blue Demons now is to get a repeat Big East bid to the alluring Crown Basketball Crown in Las Vegas. The CBC has trimmed its field from 16 to 8 for Year Two and will once again offer a cash jackpot to winning players. CJ Gunn and Blue-D mates need home-court wins over Villanova Wednesday (7 p.m., Peacock) and Butler Saturday afternoon. …
Team USA finally opens pool play in that World Baseball Classic vs. Brazil Friday (7 p.m., Fox). With a superstar-laden roster including such CHI faves as Alex Bregman and Pete Crow-Armstrong, Major League Baseball couldn't be risking much more for peanuts-level brand enhancement. The timing of a global sports event such as the WBC also couldn't be much worse. …
With the beleaguered Tim Carey and his family's Hawthorne Race Course filing Chapter 11 late last week, the sharks are circling federal bankruptcy court. A most valuable item HRC still has is its license to open a racino. Waste Management has also long reportedly been trying to buy the racetrack land, which has an estimated value of $95M. …
And most curious point of micro-dissonance to come out of the NFL combine had to be “the short-arm debate” about Miami (Florida) edge Rueben Bain Jr. His arms measured 30⅞ inches, the shortest for an edge at the combine since 1999.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.