It's the most wonderful time of the year — buzzer beaters, Cinderella stories and ruined brackets. When March Madness is here, I'm glued to the television as soon as it starts.
And when No. 9 seed Northern Iowa took out No. 1 Kansas in the second round, I remembered when I first started watching the tournament.
I fell in love with the Madness in sixth grade when I watched the Arizona Wildcats — a No. 4 seed — win it all with Miles Simon leading the charge. I documented the event by cutting out newspaper clippings with headlines stating "Simon says NCAA," and tapping the collection to my bedroom door.
That year, the Wildcats beat Kentucky 84-79 in overtime to win their first national title. Arizona became the first team in the tournament's history to beat three No. 1 seeds on the road to victory. You don't get a much better underdog story than that, and from then on I was hooked.
Any team is beatable on any given day, and that's what makes the tournament so great. Northern Iowa believed this when they beat Kansas, and I hope the Huskies believe when they play West Virginia on Thursday.
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