There’s March Madness in basketball here and elsewhere.
That’s a blessing for the multitude that treat the game like religion.
In the PBA, the mad scramble continues this month for teams struggling to survive the playoff race of the 12-team Philippine Cup on this, the 44th year of Asia’s first pay-for-play league.
Over in the National Basketball Association, the world’s premier hoops tournament, the cast of playoff teams is largely set. But the dash for seedings continues.
The Milwaukee Bucks are on target to snag the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors, striving for a third straight NBA championship, still have challenging games to play to secure the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with two weeks to go in the league’s 68th regular season.
Basketball fanatics expect to witness more water turning into wine stuff with MVP candidate James Harden, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, et al. shining in the playoffs.
The pro superstars will dominate, until the Final Four of the real March Madness takes over.
The men’s Division I tournament of the US National Collegiate Athletic Association, aka March Madness, is about close games and major surprises.
Even the titans of US college basketball, the likes of Duke, Kentucky and Michigan, get stunned by the unheralded—the Cinderellas—on the road to the Final Four, and the “Big Dance,” the championship game, to be hosted by Minneapolis this year.
However, the US NCAA men’s tournament has played its first weekend with no bracket-busting results. This year’s Madness has not registered any upsets.
For just the second time in March Madness history, the top three seeds in every single region advanced to the Sweet 16 and they were joined by two other No. 4 seeds.
The leading lights of local sports are paying close attention to the saga of Filipino junior cager Kai Sotto.
The 16-year old prodigy, with a tree-top height of 7-foot-2, promises salvation for PH teams on the world stage.
Kai has decided to train in Atlanta for two months while committing to the national team for the FIBA Under-19 tournament in Greece.
Make no mistake about it. Kai is hell-bent on playing in the NBA.
To assess his chances, Kai need not look farther than the current US NCAA tournament, the main feeder of talent to the NBA.
Only a handful of international recruits make it each year, including Antetokounmpo, who was drafted in 2014.