Remarks from Mark

I’ve got a spring in my step because the time of year has arrived for college basketball’s big dance.

There was plenty of March mayhem during the early rounds of the 2021 NCAA Division I men’s tournament.

Many teams were upset by other squads they were favored to beat, which I’m sure upset the fans of the losing programs.

The Creighton Bluejays, however, defeated their first two opponents to make the sweet 16 for the first time since 1974.

I’m a fan of the Nebraska Cornhuskers first, especially because I attended and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

However, I also have a soft spot in my big red heart for Creighton University, which is located in Omaha, my hometown.

My parents, Tim and Judy, are Creighton graduates and I grew up going to Bluejays men’s games with them in downtown Omaha.

I cheer on both the Cornhuskers and the Bluejays, but when they play each other, I always bleed and wear Nebraska red.

The Cornhuskers men’s basketball team hasn’t seen much success in the intrastate rivalry in recent years, going 1-9 in its last 10 matchups against the Bluejays.

As for Creighton, it was one of four squads representing the Big East Conference in the 68-team NCAA tournament field this year.

In addition to the Bluejays, the other three Big East teams that received bids to the national championship competition were the:

-Connecticut Huskies.

-Georgetown Hoyas.

-Villanova Wildcats.

Of those four squads, only Creighton and Villanova have survived and advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament.

The fifth-seeded Bluejays held on to beat the 12th-seeded UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 63-62 Saturday afternoon in a first-round matchup.

I was a little wary of Creighton being a five-seed, which is a position that loses to at least one 12th-seeded team in the NCAA tournament almost annually.

The Bluejays were lucky to avoid a loss, though Creighton looked more dominant in its 72-58 second-round defeat of the 13th-seeded Ohio Bobcats Monday evening.

If the Bluejays had lost one of those games, either one would’ve been an upset that would’ve upset me and made me as blue as their mascot.

I picked Creighton to move on to the sweet 16 in the West Region in the majority of the brackets – which are all busted now – that I filled out this year.

I’m sure the Bluejays are flying high, but I believe their season could come crashing down against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, the NCAA tournament’s top overall seed.

Gonzaga, 28-0, is trying to become the first undefeated men’s national champion in Division I since the Indiana Hoosiers in 1976.

I’m rooting for the 22-8 Bluejays to go all of the way to the Final Four and win a national championship, which would be quite the unbelievable achievement.

Creighton will play the Bulldogs in the NCAA regional semifinals at 2:10 p.m. Sunday. The Bluejays have not played in the Sweet 16 in 47 years.

In addition to Creighton’s success, I’m just happy the NCAA tournament has bounced back this year after being canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

That may seem trivial to some people in the grand scheme of things, but college basketball has been a welcome distraction from COVID-19 news.

However, it’s been weird watching games with little to no fans attending in person this season. The NCAA tournament is allowing a limited number of fans per contest.

The games are also all being held in and around Indianapolis, Indiana, instead of having them spread out across the country like usual due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Anyway, even though all of my brackets are busted, I’d rather have that happen than the 2021 NCAA tournament getting entirely busted by COVID-19.