三月为何“疯狂”？

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.

大学篮球的标志性赛事达到了高潮：最后一轮是在周六，冠军赛定在了周一。这里是我们的完整报道。

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.

被称为“劲舞”(Big Dance)的NCAA(国家大学体育协会)篮球联赛是美国体坛最受重视的比赛之一。约有350所学院及大学组织球队参加一级联盟的比赛，而大学橄榄球赛事只有65所大学参加。常规赛季结束后，会有68支球队继续参加淘汰赛。

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.

它的第一场男子赛事是在1939年举行的，在十几年的时间里，只有八个球队受到了邀请。女子赛事在1982年开始举办。由于球员、教练、球迷和赌球庄家们常常被比赛中意外的以弱胜强震惊，“疯狂三月”(March Madness)的叫法成为了1980年代中期流行用语的一部分。

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.)

猜对结果的几率是百万的三次幂乘以9.2分之一。即便如此，填写预估结果简直就像是一项公民义务一样。(去年，ESPN.com报道美国人填写了约7000万份预估结果，赌注高达104亿美元。)

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.

今年的四强队伍是密歇根(Michigan)、堪萨斯(Kansas)、维拉诺瓦(Villanova)和芝加哥洛约拉大学(Loyola-Chicago)。芝加哥洛约拉大学原本不被看好，是一支赔率为300:1的弱队，大家本来以为它第一场球就会输。

March Madness indeed.

确实是个“疯狂三月”。