March madness.

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time for the NCAA basketball tournament.

Back in the Olden Days, when I was in college at Rice, it seemed unlikely I’d ever see Rice playing in the NCAA tournament. After all, while I was there, they won 14 games. Total. In four years. And half of them came in one year. And most years since then, they have not especially distinguished themselves on the basketball court. (They did get a mention in Sports Illustrated around 1980, when they had a ten-point play scored against them – and this was in the days before the 3-point line.)

So it’s with some amazement to me that this year, they’re playing in the NCAA tournament. Well, okay, it’s the women’s team in the NCAA, earning an automatic spot by virtue of winning the WAC tournament. And there was no women’s team at Rice when I was there.

And even more amazement that the men’s team is also playing in a post-season tournament, the NIT.

It turns out that the men have played in the NIT in four previous years, as well – 1943, 1991, 1993, and 2004 – and in the NCAA, back in 1942. And the women previously played in the NCAA tournament in 2000. But this is the first year they’ve both played in post-season invitational tournaments.

Update: True to Rice men’s basketball tradition, they lost in the first round this year. But the women’s team is still alive.