NCAA tournament full of usual thrills, spills

Congratulations, University of Maryland Terrapins, for an incredible college basketball season capped by winning the national championship.

No, not everyone was cheering for Maryland, but certainly any team that emerged victorious from that rough-and-tumble, edge-of-your-seat event we call the NCAA tournament deserves our admiration and praise.

All the teams deserve our respect for working hard enough to get to the tournament, including nearby Southern Illinois University. Many basketball fans in this area are supporters of the University of Missouri and the University of Kentucky. Both teams represented their schools and their admirers well in this year's tournament, which was full of surprises, upsets and disappointments.

And thank you, University of Kansas and University of Oklahoma, for making it to the Final Four and giving us semi-final games that were full of excitement from start to finish.

In short, this year's tournament was just like every year when March Madness rolls around.

And don't forget the women of the tournament.

As well as the men played in their finals, neither Maryland nor the University of Indiana could boast what the University of Connecticut women could: a perfect season capped by the national title.

It will be tough for sports fans to move ahead after weeks of top-rate basketball on television.

Thankfully, Monday was opening day for the Cardinals.

Can the Masters be far behind?