The March basketball tournament (March Madness) starts next week, and for anyone who doesn’t follow sports as much as our family does, that is a college basketball tournament and a great way to have some fun with the family.  This is how it works.

The tournament bracket starts with the top 64 teams (besides the play in games) in Division I college basketball. There are four regions, and every region consists of 16 teams with each team getting assigned a seed.  The #1 seed plays the #16 seed, the #2 seed plays the #15 seed, etc.  The higher the seed represents the better team (usually).  Once a team loses a game, they are out of the tournament. You will often hear people refer to the sweet 16, elite 8, and final four. These are the last 16, 8, and 4 teams remaining, respectively.  

The boys in my immediate family are sports junkies!  They love sports, they bond through sports, they are very competitive and there is a wager going on at all times.  When I married my husband, Dave, 31 years ago, I was a moderate fan of the Vikings because my parents watched them.  I was a high school athlete because it was a way to be a part of something, not because I was competitive or even that good at it.  But I soon discovered that if I was going to be a part of Dave’s life, I needed to embrace sports as well.  I began cheering for all of his favorite teams.  Green Bay Packers (much to my family’s dismay), Minnesota Twins, and all Minnesota Gopher teams (we both are alumni).

Sports are a big part of our lives.  So, when events like this big basketball tournament roll around, we make an effort to include the whole family.

Having Fun with March Basketball

Pick Your Winners

Every year, we all download our bracket (you can find them on-line everywhere) and pick our teams.  The boys have followed college basketball all year long and have pretty knowledgeable information on who might win each of the games, but I believe it is all a big crapshoot!  There are always a lot of upsets!  When I pick teams, it is all based on a feeling of who I like better.   My daughter, Maggie, liked the name Marquette, so she always picked them to go far and she ended up going to college there!

Here are some other ways to pick winners

• If you are competitive and actually want a chance at winning, you might want to pick who you think will be in the Finals first and then have fun with the rest of the bracket.
• Pick winners based on if you have been to the city or state.
• Obviously, always pick your alma mater?
• What color uniform do you like the best?
• There are many experts out there with brackets you can copy.  (I did this one year and beat Dave, he won’t let me do it again)
• Look up the mascots for every team and choose your favorites.
• Throw darts or roll the dice!

The odds of actually picking a perfect bracket are 1 in 128 billion, so from my less competitive angle, you might as well have fun.

Because my boys do everything for a wager, we have to have a prize for the winner!  For several years, we let the winner pick a place to go out for dinner and we all went.  But, now that the kids have all moved out of the house, that is harder to do.  Now the winner gets cold hard cash.

Here are some other ideas for winners

• The most common prize is money.  Everyone put in a set amount of money with their bracket, $5, $10, or even $100.  Payout to 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place.
• The winner picks the next family vacation.
• For our fantasy football league, the winner gets to pick a “dream dinner” and the rest of us have to cook it for them at our cabin.
• The winner picks the next movie to go to.
• The winner gets to be “King or Queen” for the day.

Whether you are playing with your family, part of an office pool, or part of the many on-line contests, have some fun!

• Watch the Championship game together and make basketball treats!
• Use anything orange and make them into basketballs.  Oranges, tangerines, cheese balls.
• Orange frosted cupcakes
• Reese PB m&m’s
• Cheese puffs
• You wouldn’t believe the ideas on Pinterest, just search “March Madness”.  You can get very creative!
• Another fun idea I found on Pinterest was to play Basketball bingo.  Here is the link to download the cards.

So, next week when the tournament starts, instead of being annoyed by all of the basketball being watched on TV, have some fun with March basketball.  After all, engaging with your family is one of the things that matter most in this life!

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” Billie Jean King

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