In North Carolina, the month of March has distinct signs of change. The days get longer, the weather gets warmer (if we’re lucky), and there’s almost a sense of magic in the air. But this magic has nothing to do with the weather. March in the Old North State means college basketball, the ACC Tournament, and March Madness. Schools and sports fans across the country indulge in the mania, but nowhere near as much as we do in North Carolina.
The easiest way to understand the state’s infatuation with college basketball is to look at its teams. Duke and UNC sit just eight miles apart, but are two of the most dominant programs in the sport’s history, with five and six national titles respectively. Not too far away are NC State and Wake Forest, programs that are shells of their former selves, but still love celebrating their rich basketball heritage. These ‘Big Four’ North Carolina teams compete alongside several other programs in the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference, and end each season competing for the coveted title of ACC Champions. Despite competing against a number of other historic programs–including Virginia, Louisville, and Syracuse–teams from North Carolina typically dominate the tournament. The ACC championship finals have featured a team from North Carolina every year except for two.
Less than a week later, brackets will be set and the NCAA (National College Athletic Association) tournament can begin. It takes a season’s worth and many times years of preparation to lead teams to the Big Dance. Only 64 of the 351 eligible schools get to compete in the single-elimination, winner-takes-all gauntlet. But whether they’re reigning champions or first-time participants in the tournament, there’s a solid chance that all their hard work goes out the window immediately. Upsets are the norm in the NCAA Tournament. As recently as last year, the top seed Purdue fell to the supposedly lowly 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson. Just because a team is loaded with All-Americans and future NBA superstars doesn’t mean they won’t lose to a team of future real estate agents. As often as elite programs like Duke and UNC have experienced success in the tournament, equally often have they fallen heartbreakingly short. Most fans would prefer to forget Duke’s loss to Lehigh in 2012 and UNC’s loss to Auburn in 2019. Call it a mathematical anomaly, madness, or magic, the NCAA tournament is chaos in its most entertaining form.
No Big Dance is complete without at least one Cinderella team. They exemplify the insanity of March Madness, repeatedly defying the odds to make a deep run in the tournament. These small and previously unheard of schools seemingly appear from nowhere to capture the imagination of millions with their incredible feats, electrifying players, and eccentric coaches. In North Carolina, the best of these teams have cemented themselves into near-mythic status. Stephen Curry’s 2008 Davidson squad and coach Jim Valvano’s 1983 NC State team are permanent fixtures in the North Carolina sporting ethos.
Naturally, a storied history comes with fervent traditions. Like college basketball fans everywhere, North Carolinians fill out their March Madness brackets each year, predicting how the field of 68 will shake out and usually picking their favorite team to win it all. Of course, filling out a bracket is somewhat of a fool’s errand; there are fewer grains of sand on Earth than possible tournament outcomes, and no one has ever come anywhere close to creating the perfect bracket. The mania is even felt in grade schools. In the past, any educator worth their North Carolina teaching license would roll a boxy TV atop a metal cart into their classroom come March, but sadly, they’ve gone extinct in the era of smartphones and streaming.
Perhaps the greatest March Madness tradition in North Carolina is reminiscing on past tournaments. For Duke and UNC fans, this means savoring the taste of recent national championships. But, no other school’s fans are any less guilty of reliving the glory days. The tales of tournaments past have been told and retold so much at this point that they’ve transcended reality and become something akin to urban legends. They’re more than just basketball games; they’re chronicles of dynastic greatness, bitter rivalries, and euphoric success. They’re lessons in perseverance, the value of hard work, and the importance of self-belief. They’re the kind of stories that make you believe in miracles.
For a state so involved in the lore of college basketball, there’s nothing quite like March in North Carolina. Time-honored traditions and a steady stream of success fuel the yearly pandemonium, but no one can really nail down what makes it special. Of course, we know it’s “March Madness,” but we still don’t really know what makes the impossible upsets happen, or how the one in a million shots keep falling. Regardless, it comes year after year, and North Carolina is more than happy to embrace the absurdity.
