Let there be Madness!!!
The state tournament is here; I hope you're ready.
02/23/2026
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE – Old timers will remember singer Andy Williams and his famous Christmas song “It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

ABV begs to differ.

Today begins the best time of the year when it comes to high school sports, specifically boy's basketball.

The state basketball tournament.

Even though there was one game played on Saturday, everyone else gets started either Monday or Wednesday.

It's Beethoven's Fifth, it's the Mona Lisa, it's Citizen Kane.

It's like the Tina Turner song; it's “Simply the Best.

The quest, the journey, reaching for the brass ring.

All of the games played, the practices held, the hard work over the summer, all culminate into the best three weeks of the calendar year.

Regional's, sectional's, super-sectional's and then the state finals.

It's the ultimate goal.

In the next three weeks the good teams that have gathered all of the accolades will feel the added pressure and the teams not expected to last long will have nothing to lose.

The state tournament, known to the world as March Madness, begins for nearly all of the members of the Illinois High School Association.

As history has shown us, no one is a lock to get to the state finals.

NO ONE.

Many hearts will be broken in the next three weeks.

All it takes is one off night, one bad game, one nervous mistake and the dream of reaching the Final Four will be gone in a fleeting moment in time.

“I close my eyes, only for a moment and the moment's gone.”

The line from the Kansas song “Dust in the Wind” fits this tournament to a tee.

There will be bus rides home with joy or sadness; success or failure.

Fanatics in the stands hanging on every play, every blown whistle, every tick of the clock.

It's the essence of sports, it's what makes it so special.

The best team doesn't always win, but the team that plays the best on the given night will.

I will borrow a phrase from my youth when watching ABC's Wide World of Sports.

“The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”

It's why the people gather to watch the games, listen to the radio, view online or watch websites like mine for scores and updates.

(CONTINUED)

It's part of our fabric.

It's the sport that I fell in love with as a child watching the broadcasts of the state finals.

If you were lucky in grade school, the teacher would wheel in the old black and white TV into the room, fitted with a rabbit ear antenna, to pick up the local station who would drop all other programming to bring high school basketball to the masses around the state.

In sixth grade I watched Ridgway and Brent Browning beat Petersburg PORTA in a Friday afternoon quarterfinal.

It was March of 1973.

As a seventh grader I got to watch a game that pitted eventual Class A state champion Lawrenceville and Cerro Gordo.

The contest was a classic that went to double-overtime with the Indians coming out on top.

This was March of 1974.

The state basketball tournament was Must See TV way before Seinfeld and the Thursday night NBC lineup.

Trying to tell young people about how big the IHSA basketball tournament used to be is like trying to explain how important The Beatles were to the world of music.

No matter what I say, unless you were there to experience it, you will never quite understand.

Although going to four classes took some of the bloom off of the rose, it is still a special time for all of the players participating and the media covering it.

It's a membership that I'm proud of.

As for the format of the tournament, four teams in each of the four classes will reach the State Farm Center and there will be at least 700 other teams that wished they had.

Each of the players, coaches, cheerleaders, parents, and fans of the teams and this sport itself, will never forget the memories that will be made in the next 21-days.

So best of luck to everyone playing this week.

My advice it to bring some tissue with you, either for wiping away tears of joy or tears of sorrow.

Let the Madness begin.