Fact: Ohio is crazy about its sports. That is why there's no surprise that Ohio State created March Madness in 1939 with Coach Harold Olsen, the Godfather of the Final Four. For those who follow NCAA basketball they know how huge and exciting this time of the year is. The rest of us need a little brush up.

March Madness is a basketball single-elimination tournament that happens between Mid-March to early April. In this short time frame 64 teams (68 if you count the recently created "play-in" games) compete in 3 weekends to become the NCAA National Champions.

The teams get eliminated in chunks as only the Sweet Sixteen make it pass the 1st weekend. 2nd week narrows down even further to the Elite Eight. Lastly, the 3rd week the Final Four teams are left standing. During the progression most fans create their own brackets, or track updated movements by using their own March Madness bracket board. If interested, click here to get a copy of the printable bracket shown.
What makes this so crazy? If the speed of teams dropping like flies don't make one dizzy the calculation of which team makes it to the next bracket might. Teams competing are divided by 32 teams that are a shoo-in for winning their respective conferences. The other 36 teams? Are "invited" by the NCAA Selection Committee.

The NCAA will broadcast what teams are playing who on the well-known Selection Sunday (this year it is March 13th) where the highest seed teams play the lowest seed teams. This continues, stirring up the pot, until insanity breaks and upsets ensues. The craziness finally hits the all-time high of the four semifinals to two semifinals that eventually play the National Championship.
The most odd fact out of all of this is that due to March Madness, statistics show the month of March is the less productive month of the year. Coworkers spend more time around the water cooler looking at brackets and placing bets.

Basketball season is wrapping up. Which means our own high school teams are playing their version of playoffs. With that said we wanted to highlight some of the local teams within their divisions.
Division I, Region 1: Findlay played against Perrysburg last night and Perrysburg (62-43) advances to play Lima Senior March 5, 2pm at Millbury Lake HS.

Division II, Region 6: Shawnee played against Napoleon Wednesday and Napoleon (59-44) advances to play Memorial March 5, 7pm at Ohio Northern University.
Division III, Region 10: Liberty Benton played against Ottawa-Glandorf last night and Ottawa=Glandorf (63-32) advances to play Wayne Trace March 5, 2pm at Lima Senior HS.
Division IV, Region 14: Gibsonburg played against Old Fort Tuesday and Old Fort (54-38) advances to play Calvert today, 7pm at Liberty Benton HS.
Not forgetting our local Girls Basketball:
Division IV, Region 14: Toledo Christian Girls team made it all the way to Regional Finals playing against New Knoxville March 5, 7pm at Elida HS.
We want to wish all the local high schools the best of luck advancing and enjoy the rest of the Basketball season!
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