By Noah Falck:
March brings the best college basketball teams in the country together for one of the most exciting sporting events of the year, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. This year some of those basketball teams (Syracuse, Ohio State, University of Connecticut and Villanova along with Saint Joseph’s, Dayton, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Western Michigan) will start their tournament journey right here in downtown Buffalo*.
Buffalonians are excited the NCAA has selected their city to host part of March Madness. You can feel an extra current of electricity running through the air – especially for basketball fans such as myself. 18,000 people are expected to come in from outside of Western New York to watch some hoops at the First Niagara Center this Thursday, March 20th & Saturday, March 22nd.
For some sports fans, the NCAA Tournament is the holy grail of sporting events, filled with history making moments, David & Goliath matchups, and the future stars of the NBA. This is a tournament that has built basketball legends, and I love that Buffalo is playing host to some of today’s college basketball greats and their die-hard fans.
*This will be the sixth time that the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC )has hosted an NCAA championship at the First Niagara Center including five NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship events and the Frozen Four in 2003. A total of 53 cities put in bids to host NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship events and 25 cities were awarded for the 2014-2015 sites.