College basketball is having its most exciting season. Ever.

Once again parity is the overriding theme. There is so much parity this season that over 20 teams could conceivably win the national championship.

This season college basketball has seen exciting upsets both in conference and out of conference. Consider:

•            Nineteen top five teams have lost to unranked opponents.

•            The fourth ranked Michigan Wolverines lost this week to lowly Penn State who was previously 0-14 in the Big Ten conference.

•            Earlier in the season, Ivy League Columbia University defeated Villanova University. Villanova followed up this embarrassing loss by defeating the fifth ranked Louisville Cardinals who were considered favorites to win the national championship after returning most of their team that reached the Final 4 last season.

•            Louisville then played in the game of the year against Notre Dame which was a five overtime thriller resulting in a Notre Dame win.

•            The top ranked Indiana Hoosiers lost to Minnesota last week, which was the seventh time the top ranked team lost this season. Indiana’s loss resulted in Gonzaga’s ascension in the ranks to the number one ranked team in the country for the first time in school history.

The excitement never stops! And don’t forget the women! Has there ever been a more dominant player than Baylor’s  Britney Griener? Griener scored 50 points on Monday

My fandom for college basketball extends for fifteen years. I played college basketball at Middlebury College. In my senior season, we won the conference tournament against Division III powerhouse Amherst College. It was an unbelievable feeling defeating our conference rival in the championship, a team my recruiting class had never previously beaten.

The intensity definitely increases in the NCAA tournament. The excitement on campus rises. This year’s tournament should feature many close games and many upsets.

The tournament begins in less than 3 weeks and once again the field is wide open.

Don’t be surprised if a 16 seed defeats a one seed for the first time in tournament history?

Don’t be surprised if you tear your March madness bracket to pieces on the first day of what promises to be one of the best tournaments. Ever.

The 85th Academy awards are approaching and once again, no black directors will leave the show with a victory in the best director category. No black directors are nominated for best director. Since the Oscars began in 1928, not one black director has won the director’s most prestigious individual award.
Oscar Micheaux was the first prolific black filmmaker. He started making films in 1919 and directed over forty films before his death in 1951. He never received an Oscar nomination but his legacy is secure as an inspiration to future filmmakers. He dealt with unimaginable racism and obstacles getting his films produced and distributed. Micheaux’s film “Within our Gates” which was released in 1919 is the last surviving film made by an African-American. The the lack of success from the Oscars 85 years ago is still prevalent in modern times.
John Singleton “Boyz n the Hood” in 1991 and Lee Daniels “Precious” in 2009 are the only black directors to receive nominations for best director. Singleton was the first black director nominated for the award. “Precious” won multiple Oscars in 2009, but Daniels lost to Kathryn Bigelow who became the first woman to win best director for her film “The Hurt Locker.” In an a recent interview with The Root, Daniels was asked if he expected to be nominated for his upcoming film “The Butler.” Daniels said, “ I think about bringing truth to the screen and entertainment to the audiences, and anything else is really icing on the cake. Because if I do a movie to get an Oscar, it’s silly. It doesn’t work like that.” “The Butler” will be released later this year.
Successful filmmakers such as Spike Lee, Tyler Perry,and Keenan Ivory Wayans have not received best director nominations. Lee, Perry, and Wayans have achieved tremendous success with many of their films at the box office but have been shutout in terms of receiving accolades from their peers. Lee’s classic film “ Do the Right Thing” was nominated for best original screenplay in 1989, but failed to receive a best director nomination.
Similarly, the lack of success for black actors was evident for many years. Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win best actor in a leading role at the 36th Academy Awards in 1963. After Poitier’s victory, thirty-eight more years passed before another (Denzel Washington) black actor would win the most prestigious award for an actor at the Oscars. The good news is that four black actors have won best actor in a leading role (Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker , Halle Berry) in the last eleven years. White actors and filmmakers have dominated the Oscars for 85 years, but this recent success suggests black actors are finally getting the recognition they deserve. At this year’s Oscars, Denzel Washington is nominated for best actor in a leading role for the phenomenal job he did playing William Whitaker in “Flight.” Quvzenzhane Wallis’s excellence portraying Hushpuppy in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress in a leading role. She is the youngest actress to earn a nomination for the award. The recognition for black actors at the Oscars is still minimal, but at least progress is being made. Meanwhile, we will have to wait until the 2014 Oscars to see if a black director can finally break through and end the drought.
Quentin Tarantino’s controversial film “Django Unchained” that sets during slavery received a nomination for best picture. Ironically, Spike Lee and Lee Daniels have publicly expressed their frustrations and disapproval of Tarantino’s work on this film. The “D” in “Django” may be silent but so is the presence of black directors in the best director category at the Oscars.