Without fail, my father mentions every year that one of his favorite days is when the clock springs forward, and we all get an extra hour of daylight. Of course, being a big basketball fan – yes, of Kentucky, please forgive him –Selection Sunday was right up there with his favorite 24 hours on the calendar.
In 2022, with both happening simultaneously, he must be thrilled, and I don't blame him. Something is uplifting about it getting dark later, filling out a bracket, trying to figure out which 12 seed will ultimately pull off the upset against a No. 5 seed and the promise of the next three weeks being incredible.
For the longest time, this wasn't a day that Auburn fans looked forward to that much. The Tigers went 18 years in between March Madness appearances. There were some memorable runs from schools that everyone except their next opponent got behind in that span. I remember finding out where Davidson was due to the magic of Stephen Curry. George Mason gripped the nation's heart with its run to the Final Four in 2006. Loyola Chicago, whose business school was a block from my apartment in Chicago, made Sister Jean famous in 2018.
Growing up, I got to witness many great moments for my family. My dad, who gave me the gene of crying at any emotional moment, sobbed after Kentucky beat Duke in the 1998 Elite Eight. The Wildcats went on to win the national title, their second in three years.
One year, after he missed the bracket revealing due to going to church, I ruined the surprise of who Kentucky was playing (Old Dominion) before he could watch the replay by asking if we were going to order pizza from Old Dominoe's that night. I'm sure the shock of me being a smart-aleck is not that great.
The tournament also meant another thing: my great-uncle Jim Bob doing his Drunkman Bracket Contest each year. I looked forward to filling out my bracket every year, imagining the thousands of dollars I would win because I picked Arkansas Little-Rock to go to the Elite Eight, and no one else didn't. When my dad brought out the red highlighter for that one, I was just a tad disappointed.
Still, Auburn was missing out on the fun. Jeff Lebo had the Tigers on the cusp of a bid to the tournament in 2009, but a loss to Tennessee in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament cost that team a trip. When Auburn broke through in 2018, it was with a team that was limping in as injuries completely depleted the roster, running entirely out of steam in the second-round loss to Clemson.
We all know what happened in 2019 and that fantastic voyage. To be fair, my family all seemed to take Auburn's win over Kentucky well.
Unfortunately, we will never know what the 2020 team that had just caught some major momentum was capable of doing before COVID-19 came along.
Under Bruce Pearl, March has become fun again for Auburn fans everywhere. With Auburn earning a No. 2 seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and a regular-season SEC title already in hand, the expectations for this team despite the early exit in the conference tournament are high. That's precisely where expectations should be. Pearl would expect nothing less.
It's going to be a rough road for Jabari Smith, Walker Kessler and company to reach the goal of the Final Four that everyone, including Pearl and the players, has set for this team. In the same bracket as Kansas, Wisconsin, Providence and Iowa, the Tigers face a gauntlet of teams capable of winning it all. And, let's not forget, when it comes to March, a hot underdog team can get the best of anyone on any given day.
Now begins, in my opinion, the best three weeks of the year. Days get longer, the weather, despite a 24-hour cold snap, gets warmer, and a hint of a promising spring and summer lingers in the air. With the madness comes major upsets, buzzer-beaters, close games that will have you glued to the television and unknown players becoming stars overnight.
It's great to have Auburn back in the mix of this great event. For so long, Tigers fans could only latch onto a team that wasn't their own. Pearl changed that in a hurry.
So, fill out your brackets, enjoy the sunlight for an extra hour and get ready for what makes college basketball so great. I know my dad will.
