I’ve adored basketball since I was in middle school, whether it was playing with friends at the park or watching the NBA. However, college basketball just never excited me. It could be because there were just so many teams that I couldn’t pick a favorite or that my favorite college players would only play 1 or 2 years for a team, then get drafted to the NBA. To be fair though, I’ve barely watched college basketball and that’s something I’m looking to change. So here are three things I’m going to try to get into college basketball.

I’m going to start with picking a team. Having a team to watch and support is a good way to get into any sport. When I started watching the NBA, I’ve always loved my hometown team, the Chicago Bulls mainly because of Derrick Rose. I’ve been watching them for years now whether they’ve been good or bad. Although I don’t have a favorite player to support this year or a preferred school, I look to support local teams so probably Loyola or University of Illinois. A school that a parent went to could also be a team that you can try to support. 

Next, I’d make a March Madness bracket. One thing I thought was cool about college basketball was March Madness. I would watch highlights but never full games and I will say, a lot of those highlights were close to NBA level plays. However, I wouldn’t really care about who won March Madness because I wouldn’t have a team to root for.

 Now that I will have a team to support, making a bracket would be a lot more fun and watching cool highlights from them would be much more meaningful to me. Making a bracket would also make watching full games more exciting, seeing if the teams I chose win or lose.

Lastly, I’d start actually watching college basketball games and not just highlights. When I first started watching NBA games, they seemed really boring to me. It would be long games with turnovers, timeouts, breaks, and a lot of missed shots. As someone who used to watch only highlights, I was expecting most plays to be highlights, but obviously, that’s not true. 

After watching a lot of games, I came to realize that highlights aren’t the only fun part. Seeing a team play together and have fun was also what made me really like the NBA. So while just watching games might seem obvious, it really isn’t. Getting to know how your team plays and seeing their chemistry grow can only be done with seeing them play entire games and not just highlights.

In conclusion, if you want to start getting into college basketball, use these three tips. First, find a team to support and to watch. Next, make a march madness bracket. March Madness is the biggest college basketball event, and making a bracket can make watching it much more exciting. Lastly, just start watching games in general. Maybe next year I will be mad at the winner of the NCAA Championship.