On Monday night, a national champion in men’s college basketball will be crowned, with either Houston or Florida walking away from the Alamodome in San Antonio with an accomplishment that will permanently etch them into the sport’s record books and lore.
What will follow the game is a comfortably familiar routine.
Players and coaches will gather on a stage and be handed an NCAA championship trophy. Confetti will fall from the rafters. “One Shining Moment” will play on the stadium jumbotrons, with Luther Vandross’ smooth and sultry voice echoing throughout the venue.
Embedded within those festivities is a tradition that’s synonymous with the conclusion of March Madness — the members of the winning team climbing one by one up a ladder and cutting off a piece of the net from one of the baskets on the court where they just won a championship.
After decades of seeing teams snip at the nylon, it has become an accepted ritual, one of the quirks of an event unlike any in American sports. But how did it first get started?
Heading into tonight’s NCAA Tournament championship game matchup between Houston and Florida, here’s a closer look at the origins of celebratory net-cutting:
Why do teams cut down the nets in March Madness?
While there’s some murkiness to the exact origins of net-cutting, it’s generally believed to have started at the high school level in the basketball ...
