While many people on campus head toward the tropics to party or to volunteer during spring break, I will be doing what I enjoy most every spring: watching the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. There is no place I would rather be for 168 hours straight than on my reclining sofa watching the most exciting postseason in all of sports.

This year is a little different than most, though.

No, I’m not talking about the fact the Illini didn’t make it. (I assume they won’t win the Big Ten Tournament.) Usually our spring break is a week later and the tournament’s first two rounds correspond with the beginning of break, and the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight correspond with the end.

This year everyone will enjoy the first and second rounds starting a week from today, and Selection Sunday is coming up this weekend; I don’t know if there is one day on the calendar I look forward to more.

In fact, I get into arguments all the time why Selection Sunday is better than Christmas Day. Now, before I outline these arguments, I will first point out that I do not celebrate Christmas besides eating Chinese food and going to see a movie.

But I think most avid college basketball fans will agree with my line of thought regardless of religion. Leading up to Christmas Day everyone is very excited. People shop for presents for each other. They get to cook all sorts of delicious food. The music is played all over the radio, and everyone has a skip in their step. There is always a lot of build up that this Christmas will be amazing.

Then comes Christmas Day — 6 a.m., open up the presents underneath the tree, and then what? The bubble bursts. This holiday that has been built up to be a gigantic celebration is practically finished before it started. Now we look at Selection Sunday. There is an entire season beforehand. Going into February, conference play is in full force. Every game is so meaningful.

Then the week leading up to Selection Sunday is Championship week. Teams with no business even being considered for an at-large bid are given a chance to prove their worth. So there is all this build up, much like Christmas season. And then Selection Sunday is upon us! But rather than a huge let down, you have three weeks of NCAA basketball to still look toward!

What better celebration can you have than that? Furthermore, everyone celebrates Selection Sunday and suddenly they’re all experts. The person who has not seen a basketball game all season long is arguing that there is no way Kansas has what it takes to play for the national championship. And the sad thing is, from what I’ve learned the person who has not seen any basketball all year can pick the winners just as well as the experts.

I look forward to nothing more than finding my special groove in the couch, Greg Gumbel and Selection Sunday. Merry Selection Sunday everyone!

Free Throws

To finish off the Free Throw Contest for the year, senior in Business, Brett Vollmar, shot to beat the Illini. Illinois lost another game this week partly due to free throws. While the Illini needed to be firing on all cylinders to beat a very talented Michigan State team, they shot under 50 percent from the line. They shot better against Minnesota, but not great. Overall, Illinois shot just under 59 percent for the week, so our shooter needed to hit 6-of-10.

At 5-of-8, Vollmar seemed destined to beat the Illini, but doing his best Illini impression, he missed both free throws to lose the contest. The pressure got to him. Vollmar wasn’t the only shooter this week though. My girlfriend, Casey Roth, has been pressing me to include her in the contest as well.

So this being the last week, I relented and I must say her shot is a lot better than mine. Casey shot 7-of-10 and beat the Illini. Too bad I refused to pay her money.

I was rather disappointed with the results of my contest this year. I was expecting to lose a lot more. Maybe I don’t give the Illini enough credit for their 60.8 percent free throw shooting. But I do know this: If Illinois is unable to make pressure-filled free throws starting today, their season will come to an end shortly.

Kevin Spitz is a senior in Engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].