By Drew Hoff
Staff Writer
NCAA officials did the right thing. They decided to carry on with the NCAA basketball tournaments despite an ongoing war.
This American and Coalition campaign against the brutal regime in Iraq has brought seriousness and awareness to every person that carries pride for their nation or a concern for freedom.
War started March 19. North Carolina State versus California kicked off 48 games in four days of the NCAA tournament March 20. Saddam Hussein wished only to threaten and change the way we live. We didn’t let him.
I am in London with Pepperdine’s overseas program, so I undoubtedly have witnessed this war differently than you in America. I am surrounded by a nation that does not embrace the wisdom of their government. And I am surrounded by a nation that is not in support of America.
This has made me only love my country more. Our nation offers us the greatest of opportunities and freedoms. But most of all, our nation refuses to be stripped of these qualities that make us great. I miss that.
It is 3 a.m. in London at this moment. I have just returned to my room from watching the television. I feel more American than ever.
Not because I have been religiously keeping track of the war situation, which I have been doing, but because I just finished watching one of the greatest college basketball games of the year.
Arizona, the top seed in the tournament, just narrowly defeated ninth-seeded Gonzaga, 96-95, in a double overtime game to advance to the Sweet 16.
This game consumed my attention and even more my emotion. I was jumping up and down, cheering and screaming at the television.
I was able to completely lose myself in a game that was 6,000 miles away from me.
Gonzaga was my favorite team at the moment (an unbelievable feat for the Zags, considering I’m the biggest Waves fan there is), and I tried my hardest to will them to victory.
During the last hour of this game I didn’t think of the bombs dropping in Iraq, or about my being in London, I was just focused on good basketball.
I’m not writing this out of insensitivity to the brave men and women who are risking their lives to protect mine, but in reverence and admiration for their sacrifice.
Thousands of miles away from the country they fight to uphold our freedoms, they fight for me, so that I am able to pace back and forth in a room and forget about everything but basketball.
I know that this is just a basketball game, nothing more, nothing serious, nothing life changing. But as a viewer that is what makes this tournament beautiful, it doesn’t need to be anything more, it should never be serious, and it most certainly will not be life changing. This war is all those things.
Just as Sept. 11, 2001 changed us all, so too will this war. But Gonzaga and Arizona gave me two hours to let it go, to think of something else.
Thank you to all the courageous troops that are fighting for our freedoms, you make me fully proud to be American.
Thank you to the NCAA, you have made me feel fully American.
March 27, 2003