[Leica] Not cricket

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Apr 6, 2009, at 1:08 PM, Nathan wrote:

> They are talking about an obscure American sport that is not  
> cricket ;-)

Definitely not cricket. "March Madness" is an affliction that hits US  
basketball fans every spring. The champions and runners up of each  
major college association play each other in an elimination  
tournament. Sixty four teams start, one finishes. To win, a team must  
defeat every opponent. That's six straight wins against comparably  
skilled teams. It is similar to the UEFA Champions soccer playoff  
except that the basketball event is compressed into a few weeks rather  
than half a year. By the end of the event, basketball fans are virtual  
lunatics, watching favored teams triumph or fall. Loyalties are  
transferred from team to team as the contest continues, culminating in  
the final playoff. The final teams pitted against each other are  
Michigan State, from economically depressed Detroit and North  
Carolina. The Carolina team is technically superior. In a game last  
December it beat Michigan State by 36 points. But the Michigan team  
seems to have high motivation on its side and carries the hope of its  
community. A classic sports matchup, sort of David and Goliath like.

My comment that UM hates MS refers to the fact that the state of  
Michigan has two major colleges, the University of Michigan, a semi  
elite college in the affluent city of Ann Arbor, and Michigan State, a  
more working class oriented college in the grungy city of Detroit.  
They have been athletic rivals for as long as I can remember. Still  
both come from Michigan, which in the strange logic of the March  
Madness, makes fans favor them over North Carolina. The odds are  
against them though.

Larry Z