It's about 30 minutes before Davidson and Maryland play the first game of Thursday's NCAA basketball tournament. No matter where you watch the games today - at work, at home, in a restaurant or bar, at the HSBC Center here in Buffalo - it will be a thrill. It's a bigger thrill if your team is in the field and you travel to watch them. You have so much more to win and, of course, to lose. Maryland is on the HSBC court first. Nobody cheers. Davidson runs out 57 minutes before tip-off, and fans in Sections 117 and 118 stand and clap and cheer. "Boring!" a Maryland fan yells when Davidson's Max Paulhus Gosselin drives for Davidson's first warm-up basket and lays the ball up instead of slamming it down. A Davidson fan sees me order a turkey burger in the concourse concession line and asks, "Dining with the proletariats?" No way. I'm bringing it back to the press room. Since it's turkey, I know it will be safe. The Davidson fans I talk to and listen to are happy and enthusiastic and nervous and utterly alive. If you're a fan of the sport and the tournament, how else can you feel? Nobody has devised a better way to end a season, and I can't imagine they ever will.
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