OK, so basketball may not be a trend, but there is something that is jumping out at me during this particular March Madness season: I am (as well as some of my other non-obsessed wannabe basketball fan friends) getting excited about basketball.

As a University of Connecticut graduate, I was bred to love the game. I painted my face with a blue and white UC, spend big bucks on UConn sports paraphernalia, and made sure to get season tickets. While I loved the energy, camaraderie and excitement about basketball, I never really loved the game.

Junior year of college I found myself at the elite eight in Arizona, which then turned into a trip to the final four in Detroit and those games were a bit closer to my heart than any regular basketball game, but still, it was just basketball.

Even after standing for hours staring at a basketball court in New York City only to watch Syracuse crush UConn by a few points, it was still just a game to me, albeit a painful one.

But now I find myself out of college with a real job and a non-collegiate lifestyle aching to watch UConn win the game tonight in a big step in the NCAA tournament. Maybe it's true that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone. But I don't just miss dressing up in blue and white and screaming the UConn chant with my fellow Huskies. I think, gulp, I miss basketball. It's a weird feeling for me, as someone who always kind of understood sports but never really strained to understand them too deeply.

I have noticed that some of my fellow college graduate friends feel the same way about their alma maters' sporting events. In that spirit, I want to encourage those who may not be die-hard sports fans to turn on their televisions and try to understand what an alley-oop is.

You can start by tuning in at 7 p.m. tonight to watch UConn beat San Diego.

U C O N N! UCONN! UCONN! UCONN!