NCAA April Magic in Arizona

The Forrest Four-Cast: April 3, 2017

For each of the last four years, my 17-year-old son and I have attended the NCAA Final Four weekend in different cities in the US. The tradition started in Dallas (2014), then Indianapolis (2015), on to Houston (2016) and this year’s stop in Glendale, just outside of Phoenix.

Tonight’s season-ending game matches the Goliath-like North Carolina Tar Heels against the David-esque Gonzaga Bulldogs. Although he lives in the Pacific Northwest (Portland), Luke is pulling for the Atlantic Coast Conference representative. Meanwhile, I’m throwing my allegiance to the small private school from Spokane.

I generally think that college basketball is best watched in smaller arena-type locations (as opposed to 80,000-seat football stadiums), But when the championship game lives up to the hype, the size of the venue doesn’t really matter. Last year’s final at NRG Stadium (pictured above) with the long buzzer-beater by Villanova’s Kris Jenkins was probably the most dramatic game that I have ever attended in person.

In 2018, the Final Four is scheduled to return to the Lone Star State. But the NCAA’s commitment to the Alamodome in San Antonio (March 31-April 2) could change if Texas lawmakers pass SB6. Let’s hope that efforts to defeat this discriminatory legislation are successful.

Hugh Forrest tries to write four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts generally cover technology-related trends. When not attempting to wordsmith or meditating, he serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW in Austin.