"March Madness" is the annual tournament for the championship of U.S. "college basketball," i.e. a big competition among basketball teams representing universities. (There is also professional basketball, the "NBA" or "National Basketball Association," but the "college game" is about equally popular. The same is true with American football.) This is an elimination tournament in which fans fill out "brackets" like this one, trying to guess (or bet on) who will win each round and which teams will end up playing which other teams. President Obama, who plays basketball himself, is a big fan and always prepares a bracket, although apparently his bracket this year didn't do so well
As I write this, the "Sweet Sixteen" (a quarter-final round among 16 teams), the "Elite Eight" (a semifinal round among the 8 winners of those games), and the "Final Four" (a final round among the winners of those), have already been played, and the championship game among the last two remaining teams is due to begin at about 3:30 a.m. our time. I don't plan to be watching and wouldn't expect you to be, but here's why I bring this up: the reaction of one coach whose team lost in an earlier round. It was very typical of America's "Bible Belt," and also indicative of the almost religious devotion that sports inspire in some (large) parts of America, including Indiana (the state I was born in and where I attended university myself, as it happens). So far, there's no word on whether the winning team was somehow getting help from Satan or not.
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