March Madness!!!

Do you have any idea how keyed up I've been this week?

My Baylor Bears are in the Sweet 16 and play Friday night against Saint Mary's!!!

To say this is a rare occurrence would be a major understatement!

I'm 39 years old... and in my lifetime, Baylor has made it to March Madness three times: 1988, 2008, and this year.

In fact, the last time we won in this tournament was 1950! We were "1 and done" the other years.

For those that don't follow college basketball, I'll explain what "March Madness" is all about.

In college basketball, they crown a "National Champion" by whoever wins the NCAA Basketball Tournament... which is dubbed, "March Madness." 64 teams began this journey last week divided into 4 divisions (North, South, East, and West). Within each division, teams are ranked 1 to 16. So, the #1 team plays the #16 team in that division... etc.

Now, Baylor had a fantastic season... we are 27-7. And, because we played in the toughest conference, we were awarded with a #3 ranking in the South division.

We won our first two games, and now there are only 16 teams remaining. Hence... "The Sweet 16." If we win tomorrow night, we make it to the next level: "The Elite Eight." And, I'm sure everyone has heard of the "Final Four" - it is the champions of each of the 4 divisions facing off.

In case you forgot what transpired in 2003 at Baylor, I'll rehash: One of our star basketball players went missing... he was missing for about a month. It was then discovered that one of his teammates killed him and buried his body in a rock quarry. Horrible! And "shocking" to the Baylor faithful.

If that's not bad enough, we had a coach who was paying the tuition of the dead player. When investigators figured out something was amiss, he tried to convince everyone that the dead player was a drug dealer... and he was caught on tape saying all of that. Incredible!

Well, the NCAA came in and they dropped a NUKE on our program: Players transferred (all of our stars), we lost scholarships, and we were forced to drop all of our non conference games for one season... meaning we could only play 16 - the conference games.

If you've ever seen that movie, "We Are Marshall," recall that scene where the president of the university is searching for a coach... and everyone is saying no. Well, same thing. Who would want to coach at a school with a program so decimated?

In fact, things were so bad... morale on the campus was so low... that Bill Cosby actually called the university to see if he could come and give a free "talk" to uplift the students, university, and the city of Waco. It was a packed basketball arena!

Baylor hired a 33 year old coach named Scott Drew. When he arrived, he didn't have enough players... he actually went to the intramural gym to find students to come play basketball!

I think his first season he won maybe 1 game. I think the second was better... 3 wins or something.

Well, we've become better each year. In 2008 we made the tourney and everyone went nuts! But, we lost the first game...

Last year we were supposed to have a great team, but we lost too many in the conference. Late in the year, we went on a run. We upset Kansas and Texas, but lost to Missouri in the Big 12 Tournament. Instead of making the NCAA Tournament, we went to the NIT Tournament.

It's a lower-level tournament, but it strengthened us as a program. We won all of our games and made it to the championship at Madison Square Garden... unfortunately, we lost to Penn State.

This year, we were picked to finish 10th out of 12 teams in our conference. The coaches and media felt that we lost all of our good players to graduation, and we wouldn't do very well.

My how things have changed!

These kids have grown as a team throughout the year. They have taken that "underdog" role to heart... and played with their hearts all year! They're a very fun team to watch... fast, dunkin', and they can launch the 3's! They also play awesome defense!

Now that you know the whole story, doesn't me being "freakin' crazy" all week sound justified? I never EVER thought I would see my Baylor Bears at this stage... in front of all of these people... especially looking back at those dark days of 2003.

A few more points: There are only two Big 12 teams remaining - Kansas State and Baylor. And to garner some "State" pride, we are the lone Texas team!

No matter who you root for, I hope you can support my Bears for the sheer struggle that they've been through to get to this point. We play in Houston tomorrow night at 6:30. It will be on CBS... so check it out!

Oh, and why am I not going to Houston? For the fear of jinxing my Bears! I've watched every game this season (with the exception of 2) in my house - either on TV or online. So I'll be parked right here tomorrow night... pacing, screaming, cursing, cheering... the whole enchilada!

Sic Em, Bears! Keep making us proud!!!