UA freshman Lauri Markkanen has played in plenty of tournaments for his native Finland, but usually those are the FIBA ones that involve pool play and then a championship round.
He’s learned that there is only a championship round in the NCAA Tournament.
“I’ve been in tournaments where you have to win to advance,” he said. “But nothing like (that) it can end on the first day with a loss.”
That’s why they call it March Madness, of course. Once he started becoming interested in playing college basketball in the States, Markkanen said, he tuned into some tourney games over the previous two seasons.
Just not on regular Finnish television. That isn’t happening, at least yet.
“What’s the app called where you can watch the game later?” Markkanen asked. “I might have watched a couple of games on that.”