Inside the underground March Madness of the Manager Games

29 March، 2023

20 1 minute read

[ad_1]

Sam Young had been up before 6 a.m. all week, rebounding for Iowa State players and setting up for the Cyclones’ practices. He was putting in yet another 70-hour work week as Iowa State’s head student basketball manager — coming on top of his full class load.

But Young’s turn on the court came late that Friday. With a postmidnight tipoff, he and Iowa State’s other managers defeated Texas’ managers inside Hilton Coliseum in a key showdown of the Manager Games. It’s a league with the motto “Sometimes they let the managers play,” though sometimes they let ringers like former No. 1 overall NBA pick Greg Oden play, too.

The problem for Young and the other managers that night was that their cars had been covered in snow during the game. So together, using ice scrapers, they spent another hour clearing a path from one of the cars to a nearby main road to escape. That gave them only a couple of hours to sleep before they had to return later that morning for the actual Iowa State-Texas game.

“Sleep is secondary for managers,” Young said. “But we have so much fun. … sacrificing to put the team in a good position. … creating so many relationships. … learning how to be a hard-working person. I definitely think there’s a correlation between being a manager and then having success later in life.”

This week, the Manager Games will crown its annual champion, capping a tournament that started with a 64-team bracket. Fan voting determined the first three rounds. But in Houston, on Friday and Saturday, preceding the real Final Four, the last eight teams remaining in the Manager Games Championship will compete on the court with bragging rights and a trophy on the line. It’s a chance for the students — who are the indispensable glue of every college basketball program — to have their own shining moment.