In the once-sacrosanct biosphere of American sports, hope seldom springs more eternal and universal than in these few days on the annual calendar. That's particularly so in an Olympic year, with the dreams attached to so many U.S. trials typically scheduled in the next few months.
Front and center, on this Sunday in the world we had taken for granted, the NCAA Tournament compels us with the bracket reveals that we instantly process for the inevitable captivating upsets.
Negated, now, by the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis.
Beware the ides of March, Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar.
But what about the idleness of March?
The pining for what's missing will extend across the land, but we've got a fine glimpse of the sorts of stuff those dreams are made of right here.
On one end is the Kansas men's basketball team, ranked No. 1 in the nation and brimming with the talent and coaching and mojo that converted a season of wild circumstances into one of enormous postseason promise. Instead ...
"This is going to be a vacant championship," coach Bill Self told The Star's Gary Bedore.
On another end of what makes these tournaments special, the Kansas City Roos women's basketball team was on the cusp of playing in the tourney for the first time after claiming the first conference title (now in the Western Athletic Conference) for either the men's or women's teams since UMKC joined Division I 33 years ago and began conference affiliations in 1994-95.
When the WAC canceled its tournament, the Roos on Thursday were awarded the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament ... only to have the joy be fleeting when the NCAA canceled its tournament hours later.
But the spirit of this time of year in sports extends well beyond the tournaments, too.
It's second nature to many of us to revel in the abiding annual senses of rebirth and renewal of spring training. All the more so when the local club is invigorated by new ownership and management as the Royals are.
Every NFL team, including your Super Bowl-champion Chiefs, surely is soon to improve through free agency and the draft _ which the league has masterfully molded into a major event on the April sports calendar. The NBA and NHL playoffs perennially are mere weeks away, and so is the Masters Tournament, the so-called "tradition unlike any other."
At least for the foreseeable next few weeks, though, we'll be reckoning with a state of disruption unlike any other.
One with frightening ramifications in the very real world outside sports.
But even as the pandemic sprawls wider, even in a time of cynicism about what sports have become, let's not overlook something sustaining that sports is providing even now:
The powerful example in willingly shutting down for the greater good, radical and influential measures that reveal a story in itself about their wider powers and capacity to make a positive difference.
