LARNED — March Madness?  Yes, and it is a whole lot more than just a basketball tournament.
Beware The Ides of March.
There are a lot more crazy things happening than just the rememberance that Julius Caesar was asassinated in 44 BC. 
Ah, if only William Shakespeare were alive today to write plays about the events of our mad, mad March, 2014!
I wonder what kind of play William would write about Bruce Pearl?
Pearl is the new basketball coach at Auburn University who just last week proclaimed, “I’m Baack.”
What Pearl is back from is a six-year stint as Tennessee’s coach that landed him in near purgatory after being convicted of  unethical conduct for lying to NCAA investigators in 2010 for recruiting violations.
He was also found to have interfered with the NCAA’s investigation.
All of this cost him his job at Tennessee as he was slapped with a three-year show-cause penalty.
All of this did not deter ESPN and other television networks from putting Pearl on the air as one of their resident “experts.”
Neither has it deterred a victory-starved Auburn from placing winning above cheating.
Ah, the Ides of March.
How is it that the five freshmen of the University of Kentucky chose March to start being a basketball team instead of a bunch of high school scoring machines? 
What is it about the madness of March that turned this bunch into a cohesive, ball-sharing team at just the right time to destroy the dreams of all Wichita State Shockers fans? 
Beware the Ides of March!
Our Boys in Blue chose the last day of March to play their first baseball game of a promise-filled 2014 season.
A season, unlike so many over the past 20 years, that is filled with hope, high expectations.
We are told that FINALLY, the rebuilding project (this took longer than the building of the Great Wall of China!) is complete and the Kansas City Royals are ready to compete for a playoff spot.
Alas as March ended, we were, once again, reminded of past miseries of the Royals as they, once again, lost their season opener, 4-3 to Detroit.
It was a game that they coulda/shoulda won.
Sound familiar?
OH CANADA!
Are we going to have to start playing the Canadian National Anthem before the NCAA tournament basketball games? 
The March Madness games has shown us that hockey IS NOT the only sport the youngsters from the North Country know how to play.
Of course, all of us are familiar with the two Wiggins boys playing at Kansas and Wichita State, but did you know that during this years’ version of March Madness, 33 Canadians — on 19 teams — laced up their sneakers?
Kansas lost to Stanford in the second round.
Could it be because Stanford had two players from Canada and Kansas had only one? 
OH CANADA!
Keeping on an international tangent here, March took us to Australia for the opening of the Major League Baseball season. 
The Dodgers and the Diamondbacks went “down under” in an attempt to “globalize” Major League Baseball.
The two games were played at historic Sydney Cricket Ground stadium. 
Did the players suffer from “jet lag?”
Who cares Mate?
It was a Jolly Good time!
Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson noted that he spent his 1985 honeymoon in Sydney.
Gibson said, “We looked forward to coming here. We’re looking for new fans.”
After the performance of the D-Backs over the past few seasons, I can see why they are looking for new fans. 
Why not go somewhere that nobody knows about you?
Madness. Pure madness.

Charles Tabler is a contributing writer from Larned.