Last week, while many of you were likely getting some sun and partying hard in climates far friendlier than Iowa’s, I and a handful of other students remained on campus, where we were granted a sunny, 60-degree Thursday only to have it followed by a mid-March snow Friday.

In addition to this, the dining halls and cafés were closed, the gym shut its doors at 8 p.m. and — thank goodness — parking enforcement was out in full force, hitting its monthly quotas by targeting people like me, who naively thought a carless campus would offer safe spaces.

But lest I commit an entire column bellyaching, I’ve got to admit that last week wasn’t all bad. You see, the wacky weather of Thursday and Friday was accompanied by the one great thing, aside from Spring Break, this month brings: March Madness. That’s right, the single-elimination tournament that begins with 65 teams and after a great deal of drama ends with one, began last week.

Millions of Americans become excited when March Madness hits due to the countless office, school and other tournament “pools,” in which participants pony up a few bucks, fill out “brackets” with their predicted outcomes of all 64 games, and, if successful, profit from their prognostications — the FBI recently estimated that more than $2.5 billion would be wagered worldwide on this year’s tournament. Indeed, a 2009 Microsoft/MSN survey found that 45 percent of American adults participate in at least one pool, and each March brings stories reporting the tournament’s negative effect on workplace productivity. The Chicago-based firm Gray & Christmas put this year’s figure at $1.8 billion in unproductive wages, and there’s no telling how much less productive the tournament makes college students across the country.

I admit, after winning a month’s worth of rent last year, much of my own excitement was built on the hope of reaping a financial reward again. Yet a week later, it’s clear that I’m out of the running, as I’m sure many of you are, too.

Ten teams that were not expected to win a game — that is, teams that were lower-seeded than their opponents  — beat opponents they were not supposed to beat. This actually isn’t all that strange — upsets are far from rare in the tournament — but one game stood out: the second game played by the University of Northern Iowa.

You see, as a nine seed, UNI, the only team from Iowa that made the tournament, was given virtually no chance to beat the University of Kansas, the tournament’s overall top seed.

They did, however, pulling off the biggest upset in tournament history and doing it in storybook fashion thanks to Ali Farokhmanesh, the 5-foot-11-inch senior guard. With 38 seconds left and his team up 63–62, he chose to disregard logic, which would suggest he try to run some time off of the clock, and instead inexplicably took — and made — a picturesque 3-pointer that sealed the Panthers’ win and is now being referred to as another of sports’ many “shots heard ’round the world.”

At first, my heart — and I’m guessing those of many of you who partook in a pool this year — sank. I’d picked Kansas to win the whole thing, and I can’t deny that “[Expletive] Farokhmanesh!” didn’t come out of my mouth.

After a few minutes of reflection, however, I had a change of heart. Regardless of the fact that UNI’s win meant a loss for my bank account, I had to appreciate the team’s victory — and you have to, too.

Even if you hate basketball, know nothing about Northern Iowa and lost your chance at winning big money thanks to them, you simply have to cheer them on.

As the David that defeated the tournament’s greatest Goliath, they’ve tapped into Americans’ love of the underdog. This love, first formed in the American psyche when 13 colonies banded together and scored the biggest upset in history by defeating Great Britain, is just plain natural. So whatever your personal interest in the tournament, watch UNI take on basketball powerhouse Michigan State Friday night and see if the underdog story goes on.

And while I’m telling you all what to watch on your weekend, I’d be remiss not to put in a plug for the ISU women’s basketball team, which moved on to the Sweet Sixteen of its tournament with a 60–56 win over Green Bay on Tuesday night. While they were far from an underdog in that game or the win before it, they are now.

At 11 a.m. Sunday, the No. 16 Cyclones will take on the University of Connecticut, the women’s tournament’s top overall seed. UConn has rattled off 74 straight wins, shellacked Temple to the tune of a 90–36 score Tuesday and likely isn’t too worried about the Cyclones.

But as this column hopefully shows, March Madness is awesome, because crazy things can happen, especially when teams from Iowa are involved. Go Cyclones!

Steve Adams is a graduate student in journalism and mass communication from Annapolis, Md.