Let’s stop the March Madness hating. Right now. Sure, it’s cool to say that it’s pointless, mindless and rather silly. But what did the Greeks say at the first Olympics? At least these athletes keep their naughty bits hidden. Or maybe they got their bits snipped. “Vas Madness!,” one proclaimed.

So for the first time since grade school, I filled out a bracket and harassed a few of you to join me. You know that I’m the farthest thing from a sports junkie, leaning heavily toward some sort of archetypal lord of the nerds.  But I do love the tension inherent in sports, moments of key focus that you just can’t replicate with regularity anywhere else. When millions of eyes are on one guy jumping a foot in the air and arcing the ball 20 feet, that’s brilliant human machinery in action.

Unfortunately, any semblance of surprise has been eliminated this year by the Sweet Sixteen round. The New York Times makes mention of this fact. Part of why I did so well in my bracket at first was my nonsensical pickings of Dayton, Cleveland State and Wisconsin. But there’s still fun in watching two titans battle to the end, a show of basketball nonpareil.

Thus, I gleefully watch snippets of the tournament and enjoy seeing America’s collected attention at full force once again. This wild world wide web thing sure makes that a difficult thing to accomplish anymore. And we need a break from some of this financial mess, don’t we?

And besides, I like seeing “Ranked 7675 of all players” on my nytimes.com bracket. Go Oklahoma! (sorry, Kansas.)