SuZan Klassen

Have you chosen your partner yet for The Big Dance? I’m referring, of course, to the NCAA Championship Basketball Tournament.

Figurative language figures high this time of year.

March Madness—the season of feverish fanatic fans of college basketball. Some say the term originated in the 1980s. Others claim it began over 60 years ago. Whoever you believe and whomever you credit for the term, March Madness seems here to stay.

Part of the madness refers to the frantic pace as various college teams try for conference championships. Those championships give small schools a chance to vie for a place or gain a partner for The Big Dance and perhaps if they are a Cinderella Team, they’ll play for all the marbles.

Sports casters to coaches, pundits to players, former stars and faithful fans participate in the proliferation of alliterations and other figures of speech involved in this season of hoops hopefuls.

Here are Examples:
• Besides March Madness we have Selection Sunday, March 12th.

• Alliterative catch phrases describe various basketball plays such as:
Pick ‘n’ Pop or Share the Sugar

• Headlines have long been used to describe game outcomes. Why only this past Sunday, Wichita State Walloped Illinois State (Missouri Valley Conference Tournament).

• Poetic devices combine with players’ names—those chosen celebrities of sport for their outstanding performance, particularly if it seems their destiny to dominate the play in some way. Example? The Purdue/Northwestern game (also from this past Sunday) wherein Purdue’s Swanigan swamped Northwestern. Now of course he didn’t do it single-handedly, but you get the idea.

• College teams and mascot names match:
From the smaller lesser known (at least in certain parts of the country) Augsburg Auggies to the more well known, such as the Baylor Bears. I’m certain you can name more.

• Then there are poetic devices to describe game position on the bracket:
From Sweet Sixteen to Elite Eight
From Elite Eight to Final Four
From Final Four to the Championship match

What?

Is that it?

No memorable title to describe the most important game of all? No poetic device? No figurative language?

No praising phraseology? No pattering parlance? No charming catch phrase to christen the champion?

I feel let down.

Perhaps you have an ideal idiom.

Whether you follow your team’s progress from home or on the hunt, you too, can participate in this plethora of alliteration activity. Just for fun, see what alliteration you can create for your favorite teams, plays, or players.

Post your ideas in the comments below.

Selection Sunday is March 12th. Here’s a link where you can print off a copy of the bracket: http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/bracket-beat/march-madness-printable-ncaa-tournament-bracket

Let the games begin.

Until next time . . . Travel Light,
SuZan

© 2017 SuZan Klassen