On Monday the calendar turns to March, and college basketball prepares to take center stage in American sports. A year after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down U.S. sports right before the Big Dance, college hoops is back and—despite plenty of postponements and pauses along the way—on track to play both the men’s and women’s tournament in 2021. After missing out on most of the traditional March college basketball experience last year, you’ll have to forgive us if we’re a little extra excited for this go-around. Here are eight things in particular we’re looking forward to:
The return of tournament basketball
It’s been a long two years since we last felt the full, magical force of March Madness.