{"id":668,"date":"2019-03-23T19:01:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T19:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/03\/23\/2019323march-madness-sweeping-through-hamden\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:34:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:34:53","slug":"2019323march-madness-sweeping-through-hamden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/03\/23\/2019323march-madness-sweeping-through-hamden\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness sweeping through Hamden"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Logan Reardon<\/p>\n

March Madness is upon us, which means brackets, food and drinks are the three most important things for a few weeks \u2013 both nationally and across Hamden.<\/p>\n

The first NCAA men\u2019s basketball tournament tipped off in 1939, but it has evolved into a bigger spectacle than its founder \u2013 Harold Olsen \u2013 ever could have imagined.<\/p>\n

The tournament has expanded from eight teams to 68 over the past 80 years. The \u201cFirst Four\u201d play-in games begin Tuesday and Wednesday night, followed by the first round on Thursday and Friday. With 16 games on both Thursday and Friday, the games are essentially non-stop from noon until after midnight. The second round is played over the weekend before teams finally get a break until the following Thursday.<\/p>\n

Throughout the country, billions of dollars in bets are placed annually during March Madness. This year, Americans bet a combined $8.5 billion \u2013 yes, billion \u2013 on the tournament, according to a report from the American Gaming Association<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Photo via Ernest Adams\/Creative Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

In Hamden, local bars must prepare for the uptick in business as the madness ensues.<\/p>\n

Side Street Bar & Grill, a Hamden hotspot known for its chicken wings and beer, is one business that adjusts in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to make sure we have enough staff members to accomodate for the people that come,\u201d said Sylvia Pinon, a Side Street employee. \u201cWe sometimes double all the servers and we have people come in earlier. We have to make sure that\u2019s OK with our staff members first and that they have availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the battle is having extra staffers, but the bar also needs to be sure it has enough food to serve all the extra mouths. In 2015, The Food Network<\/span><\/a> named chicken wings as one of the seven essential foods for March Madness viewing parties.<\/p>\n

Side Street is notorious for its wings, which makes it a prime spot in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as food goes, we do inventory every Monday, so we make sure we have enough wings and bleu cheese, because that\u2019s what we\u2019re known for,\u201d Pinon said. \u201cWe make sure we have our prep guys every morning making things fresh for us. We just try to do our best. There\u2019s only so much you can prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n

While you could easily just watch the games at home, many enjoy going to a bar like Side Street throughout the first weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just enjoy the social feel during the games because as you know some of them can get very intense and nail-biters,\u201d Quinnipiac junior Matthew Skiba said. \u201cWhen (the games are) close, the environment of the bars gets up there and I like the energy that it brings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy the energy more than if I was just sitting on my couch at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skiba is a huge fan of March Madness and is easy to find at Side Street during the tournament. <\/p>\n

\u201cI like how it\u2019s make-or-break for everyone, especially when I have competitions or am making bets with friends about certain games,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s also a bunch of upsets in this first weekend, the first 32 games, and that\u2019s exhilarating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upsets are a key part of the tournament. It\u2019s a single-game elimination tournament, meaning one bad game can end a team\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

The make-or-break aspect of the tournament makes every game a must-watch. In an anonymous poll<\/span><\/a> sent to Quinnipiac students, 27 of 50 respondents said they have watched tournament games on their laptop during class and eight said they\u2019ve even skipped class to watch the games.<\/p>\n

In the same poll, 35 of 50 respondents said they made a bracket this year, and of those 35 brackets, there were 11 different champions picked.<\/p>\n

Skiba believes Duke, led by freshman phenom Zion Williamson, is the favorite to win. Ten of the 35 brackets in the poll also picked Duke, which was the highest percentage of any team picked.<\/p>\n

Regardless of who wins, it\u2019s clear that March is predicated on madness. Between chaos at bars like Side Street to students eagerly watching games during class lectures, the NCAA Tournament has everyone\u2019s attention for the next few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s how a Hamden bar and Quinnipiac students are preparing for March Madness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden","category-quinnipiac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2211,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/2211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}