Don’t worry non-basketballers, we’re almost through March. We’re honing in on a Champion. But while we’re waiting, may as well see what all the buzz is about. Here’s your humpday-hallway-highfive-happenings in sports this week sports. And don’t forget, when your coworker wants to know how you’re so in-the-sports-know, just tell’em… Oh,   I Read It Somewhere. Welcome to IRIS Sports!

1. The THIRD ROUND of the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament finished last Sunday. With sixteen teams remaining, the next round is affectionately called the “Sweet 16.” The survivors of the Sweet 16 advance to the “Elite 8”. I feel sorry for the second and third rounds. They should get special names too…like, “32 Kung-Fu,” or “32 Voodoo.” Second round could be, “64 Commodore” or maybe, ”64 Squares on a chessboard which is appropriate considering that scheduling a round with 64 NCAA teams is probably a little like playing a Chess Match am I right??” Or, maybe not. The games resume tomorrow night in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Syracuse, and Houston. By Sunday night, four teams will be left standing. Those four teams will travel to Indianapolis on April 4th to play in the final round, aptly called the “Far-fetched Four.” Just kidding, it’s the “Fart-Etched Four.” Just kidding it’s the “Fab Four.” Ok, ok… it’s the FINAL FOUR!

2. HEY LAAAADIES! The Women’s NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament is also happening right now. Round Three (32 Kung-Fu) finished up Monday night when Louisville became the sweetest sixteenth team to advance to the Sweet 16. What’s that you say? Women’s games are boring? Pshaw. These young women are strong, inspiring, fiery, and have mad skillzzz: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:12547688 Check out the Women’s D1 bracket HERE. Go ladies, Go!

3.  ACC Country – I grew up in Raleigh, NC in a Wolfpack family. We didn’t have professional teams around here. We had NC State, Carolina, and Duke – and you had to pick one. So as a life long Wolfpack fan, it was especially fun to watch them knock out the #1 seed in their region, Villanova. State advancing to the next round will make it an especially sweet, Sweet 16. Check them out in action: https://youtu.be/ekElFwu504E

4. Oh yeah, that other tourney… the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is happening, too. They have their Fantastical-Final-Four all set: HERE.

5. Georgia State On My Mind – My favorite personal story of the tournament so far is Georgia State’s charismatic head coach Ron Hunter and his player and son, RJ Hunter. Coach Hunter tore his achilles celebrating Georgia State’s Sun Belt Conference Championship that earned his team a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Their first NCAA Tourney game was against Baylor. The #14 seed GA State defeated #3 seed Baylor and RJ Hunter hit the winning shot at the buzzer! The coach, who was in a cast due to his achilles injury, proceeded to fall off the stool amidst the craziness of everyone celebrating the nail biting win. They lost to Xavier in the next game but not before the entire country fell in love with these two great guys. I challenge you to watch this without getting choked up…https://youtu.be/KnsmmEWjjco Somebody call Disney!!