三月為何“瘋狂”？

College basketball’s signature tournament has reached its peak: The Final Four is on Saturday, setting up the championship game on Monday. Here’s our full coverage.

大學籃球的標志性賽事達到了高潮：最后一輪是在周六，冠軍賽定在了周一。這里是我們的完整報道。

The N.C.A.A. tournament, also known as the Big Dance, is among the most cherished rites of American sports. About 350 colleges and universities field a team in the top division, compared with 65 in football. At the end of the regular season, 68 teams move on to a knockout tournament.

被稱為“勁舞”(Big Dance)的NCAA(國家大學體育協會)籃球聯賽是美國體壇最受重視的比賽之一。約有350所學院及大學組織球隊參加一級聯盟的比賽，而大學橄欖球賽事只有65所大學參加。常規(guī)賽季結束后，會有68支球隊繼續(xù)參加淘汰賽。

The first men’s tournament was held in 1939, and for more than a decade only eight teams were invited. The women’s tourney started in 1982. The moniker “March Madness” became part of pop vernacular in the mid-1980s, stemming from the David-versus-Goliath upsets that always shock players, coaches, fans and bookmakers.

它的第一場男子賽事是在1939年舉行的，在十幾年的時間里，只有八個球隊受到了邀請。女子賽事在1982年開始舉辦。由于球員、教練、球迷和賭球莊家們常常被比賽中意外的以弱勝強震驚，“瘋狂三月”(March Madness)的叫法成為了1980年代中期流行用語的一部分。

The odds of picking a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Even so, it’s almost a duty of U.S. citizenship to fill out a tournament bracket. (Last year, ESPN.com reported that some 70 million brackets were filled out and a total of $10.4 billion was wagered.)

猜對結果的幾率是百萬的三次冪乘以9.2分之一。即便如此，填寫預估結果簡直就像是一項公民義務一樣。(去年，ESPN.com報道美國人填寫了約7000萬份預估結果，賭注高達104億美元。)

The survivors this year are Michigan, Kansas, Villanova and Loyola-Chicago, a team that entered as a 300-to-1 underdog and wasn’t even supposed to win its first game.

今年的四強隊伍是密歇根(Michigan)、堪薩斯(Kansas)、維拉諾瓦(Villanova)和芝加哥洛約拉大學(Loyola-Chicago)。芝加哥洛約拉大學原本不被看好，是一支賠率為300:1的弱隊，大家本來以為它第一場球就會輸。

March Madness indeed.

確實是個“瘋狂三月”。