SACRAMENTO — At its best, March isn’t about madness so much as pure, unbridled joy.
It stirs with the highly anticipated first peek at the men’s and women’s N.C.A.A. tournament brackets, then crescendoes with the unexpected emergence of giant-killers — this year, Fairleigh Dickinson, Princeton and Furman slaying the men’s powerhouses Purdue, Arizona and Virginia. Once again, underdog-induced chaos wins the day.
For those who both play and love college basketball, March becomes one long blur of adrenaline, punctuated by exuberant nights and fitful sleeps.
When Fairleigh Dickinson knocked out Purdue on Friday night, 63-58, it was only the second time in the history of the men’s tournament that a No. 16 seed ousted a No. 1. Suddenly, the other No. 16 seed to pull the rug out — the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which beat Virginia in 2018 — had company. It was the third stunning tournament development in roughly 24 hours.
If F.D.U. played Purdue 100 times, the Boilermakers would “probably beat us 99 times,” Coach Tobin Anderson said. “Play them 100 times, we have one win. But tonight’s the one.”
For the sport and its devotees, those single nights can last a lifetime.
“This is one of the few things in life where they told me how good it was and,…
