Last Sunday marked probably the fourth-most important Sunday of the year: Selection Sunday. On this day, thousands of collegiate basketball players discover their temporary fate, some favorable and some, not so much. Teams go through literal hell, waiting from the conclusion of their conference tournaments until that Sunday. Once the seeds roll in, all talks of who’s in and who’s out cease, and the games begin.
As the seeds are revealed (or, this year, leaked), fans simultaneously scheme out which matchups and upsets seem favorable. The 12-5 and 11-6 matchups dominate cooler talk across all of corporate America, along with the age-old question: “How is Perry Ellis still in college?” After Selection Sunday, March Madness overtakes the minds of all sports fans and dominates the lifestyle of the players.
The players get together for a watch party and, like virtually everyone else, inspect the seeding and matchups. They talk about who got cheated, who has the easiest road, etc. This menial conversation lasts only minutes—now it’s time to get to work.
After a slight break following the Big Ten Tournament, we resumed practice Monday to begin preparing for the first round game against the Panthers of Pittsburgh. We depart for Saint Louis Wednesday, practice there Thursday, and compete against Pittsburgh Friday evening.
Tournament games call for more of everything—focus, energy, intensity. But for the select few, tournament games call for brand new responsibilities. And by select few I’m talking about me. And by brand new responsibilities I’m talking, of course, about stooling.
You may ask, “What is stooling, and why is it a new responsibility?”
Stooling consists of placing the player stools during media timeouts so those in the game can receive a much needed break. During the regular season, however, this duty is done by our outstanding managers who are allowed to sit on the bench.
The NCAA, in all its glory, has its own rules for the tournament which differ slightly from the regular season. One of those rules determines the number of humans who can sit on the team bench. Managers get the short end of the stick, and are not allowed to sit on the bench during the games.
Therefore, the responsibility falls to us, the loyal walk-ons and redshirts of America, to place those stools. One mishap could be the difference between 60 seconds of rest and only 55 seconds. And during the tournament, those seconds can be crucially important to the overall team success.
My normal timeout routine of conversing with fellow bench players and looking at the JumboTron for awkward Dance Cam videos is replaced by frantically placing the stools. Not only do we need to place the stools the proper distance away from one another, we must also make sure that the players receive towels to wipe away sweat. It’s far from easy work.
So, as game time rolls around, the starters won’t be the only ones mentally and physically preparing for the tournament season. Previously a mindless break in action now turns to the most critical moment for us end-of-benchers.
With the madness beginning Thursday, there’s only one thing to say: It’s game time.
