March Madness: Badgers Win to finish off Round 1 !!!

March Madness: it's just a magical time of the year. My early memories are the fondest. In high school the brackets were passed around and mine was folded into my Sports Illustrated for the next three weeks. My sophomore year I went up to Madison with some upper classmen to watch the high school basketball tournament, but we still got our share of the NCAA games.

And the pools are still as fun as ever. Even as I seem to miss most of the Badgers' basketball season, the tournament brings me right back up to speed.

The Badgers this year don't even deserve to win their first round game, but #5 Florida State (fresh off a win over #1 UNC) couldn't put the Badgers away. The game Friday night went to overtime before Trevon Hughes and Bohannon pulled it out for Bucky! What an exciting night.

I hate to root against the Big Ten, but at the same time Sienna was playing Ohio State. My interest here is a side bet I have at work:

• over under (8): number of lower seeded teams that will beat higher seeded teams in the first two rounds

I took the over, and when Wisconsin won and Sienna took OSU to 2 overtimes and pulled it out, I had my 9 wins for under-seeded teams. Another victory for Hans.

What a great weekend so far. One of my favorite shows to listen to is Dan Patrick. He has an assistant named Paulie who made a veteran move this weekend to ensure maximum basketball exposure: He bought his wife and her friend manicures for Saturday afternoon so he could go watch the game. As he said it, she smiled and said "have fun at the bar with the guys" and his Saturday was set. He was still working on viewing strategy for the Sunday games.

What I'm Reading

Leaders are readers. I can't even begin to talk about how much I wish I had time to read. It really takes discipline. And like so many people I talk with, I'm into about six different books. But the best one I'm reading (my focus at the moment) is 7 Habits for Highly Effective People.

I was actually first introduced to the teen version of this when I was taking some high school health students through it. I was amazed at how practical and effective it was for this age group. And I'd always had a copy of the original, but never got around to reading it.

Currently I'm on the third habit:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Vision
• Habit 3: Put First Things First: Principles of Integrity & Execution

It's always good to return to the basics - personal leadership and discipline.