YO BRO IT’S ME LITTY

This article about how to do a road trip to the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament was first published on my friend Jared’s website Sports Power Weekends. Check it out to plan your next power sports road trip.
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I’m bracket surfing with the fam to Washington DC on Thursday for the first (oops, I mean second) round of the NCAA Tournament at the Verizon Center. This is an annual family tradition for the Littyhoopsters. Pick a city. Watch basketball. Seems simple, right? Not quite, my novice Bracketeer.

Here’s Littyhoops guide to KILLING IT at the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

First, for those non-fanatics, here’s the deal. The opening rounds of the NCAA Basketball tournament is played in eight different cities each year. Each region hosts eight teams. There are four games (doubleheader in the day and night) the first day and then all of the winners play in a second round doubleheader two days later.

1. Pick Your City
There are two different schools of thought on how to pick the right city. You can plan your trip months before Selection Sunday. In the case of my dad, he starts planning the next trip on the travel home from the current one. This is a great way to visit different cities and arenas and lock down travel and hotel accommodations. Our crew has been to Chicago, Philadelphia, Tampa, Providence, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Worcester and Long Island. The big issue here is that you don’t know what schools you will see play until they are announced just a few days before.

The other method is to follow your favorite school or alma mater wherever they are sent to play. For this strategy to work, your school has to actually make the tournament each year. Fans travel in packs with each other and try to out-dominate the rooting sections of other schools with weird chants and cheers. Until this year if I employed this strategy with the Johnnies or even Michigan this article might be about the NIT (NIT = not killing it)….(continue here)

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That’s it for the free preview. Click on over to Sports Power Weekends to read the rest and be sure to send Jared an e-mail (jadacoop [at] gmail.com) whenever you’re ready to plan your next trip.