March Madness, one of the most celebrated times of the year for die hard and casual fans alike. Watching the Selection Show to see where and who your team plays...filling out brackets...watch parties...
And of course...gambling.
The month-long extravaganza remains one of the country's most exciting sports events because of it's unpredictability. You're more likely to get struck by lightning than to pick every game correctly.
It's the teams that no one saw coming that puts the Madness in March, and to prove that point look no further than the Michigan Wolverines.
Six weeks ago the Wolverines were hovering around the cellar of the Big Ten and had a losing record in the conference. Not only were they in danger of missing the big dance, they were in danger of missing the second-fiddle NIT as well.
Today Michigan is the Big Ten Tournament Champion, capping off a week that gives March Madness a whole new meaning.
For starters, a power outage on campus prevented Michigan from practicing with lights prior to leaving for Washington DC.
The next day a horrifying plane malfunction not only cost the Wolverines a day of travel, but it could have cost them their lives.
Talk about madness...
So much madness that the team held a vote on if they would even travel at all after head coach John Beilein gave his kids the option of forfeiting the game.
The team voted to play, but the madness was just beginning.
Michigan literally arrived in DC just before tipoff of their noon opener against Illinois, and had to play in practice jerseys because their luggage was still on the plane that failed to lift off.
When was the last time you saw that?
After steamrolling through their first opponent the Wolverines faced Purdue, the regular season conference champion and number one seed in the tournament.
Michigan overcame a nine point deficit to upset the Boilermakers in a thrilling overtime victory.
Anyone would have given the Wolverines a pass for bowing out gracefully in Saturday's semifinal matchup against a tough and physical Minnesota team that was playing as good as anyone in the country the last month of the season.
After all, those Michigan kids had to be physically and emotionally drained, right?
Not on senior point guard Derrick Walton's watch.
And today the Wisconsin Badgers simply ran into a buzz saw as Michigan, with destiny seemingly on their side, pulled away late to earn their first official Big Ten Tournament Championship.
It was the fist time in Big Ten history that a seed as low as Michigan (8) won it all. And they did so by knocking off the 4th, 2nd, and number one overall seed.
Ironically enough it was Walton who voted to not re-board the plane and forfeit earlier this week. Today he is the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Hollywood would reject this script for not being believable.
Michigan will now head into the big dance winners of ten of their last twelve games. They are also riding a five game win streak after posting four of them in the last four days.
The 7 seed Wolverines will play Oklahoma State (10) on Friday in Indianapolis, and regardless of the outcome they have already redefined the meaning of March Madness.
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