Inside the underground March Madness of the Manager Games

Sam Young had been up before 6 a.m. all week, rebounding for Iowa State players and setting up for the Cyclones' practices. He was putting in yet another 70-hour work week as Iowa State's head student basketball manager -- coming on top of his full class load.

But Young's turn on the court came late that Friday. With a postmidnight tipoff, he and Iowa State's other managers defeated Texas' managers inside Hilton Coliseum in a key showdown of the Manager Games. It's a league with the motto "Sometimes they let the managers play," though sometimes they let ringers like former No. 1 overall NBA pick Greg Oden play, too.

The problem for Young and the other managers that night was that their cars…