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ANNOUNCEMENTS Bill Childers reminded everyone that the NCAA Watch Party to benefit United Way of Portage County would be held at Ray’s Place from Noon to 6 pm on Thursday, March 16. Rotary Happy Hour will be held from 4 to 6 pm in conjunction with the United Way event. Chas Madonio announced that he will speak about his book, “Bars, Bands, and Rock ‘n Roll” on Monday March 20 at the Stow/ Monroe Falls Library beginning at 7 pm. Books will be available for purchase. Reservations are required. Carol Crimi asked that application for grants from the Rotary Foundation be submitted to her by March 28. Todd Kamenash explained how brackets for the NCAA will work. Purple brackets are for the Women’s Tournament and white for Men’s. If you don’t want to fill out your own bracket, he will make it easy by doing it for you. “Some form of integrity,” he promised crossing his fingers, “will be employed.” PROGRAM Todd Kamenash introduced our annual Bracket Buster speakers, himself, a guy from Cockeysville, New York, and the esteemed Laing Kennedy, former KSU Athletic Director and expert in all things NCAA. Laing went first. He congratulated the Kent State Men’s team for winning the MAC tournament and securing a place in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, even though their 13th seed likely should have been an 11 or 10. He began his talk by mentioning advice he gave to current Athletic Director, Randale Richmond, that is, go to the tournament and have fun with our remarkable players He noted that there is no better national stage to show off our university than this tournament. Laing briefly discussed recent changes that affect college athletics. The Transfer Portal allows student athletes to transfer schools at any time, and new rules that mean student athletes now have the right to make money from the use of their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). These changes put more pressure on coaches to constantly look for opportunities to enhance their teams. Recruiting never stops. Sports gambling, which has come to Ohio, will be a billion dollar business that unfortunately opens up opportunities for cheating, such as point shaving. Laing continued with tips for completing your Bracket. Teams who win tournaments are likely seeded 1 or 2. Don’t pick a seed below #8, unless it’s KSU. If you pick the favorite team in Round 1, you’re likely to have a good score. He also noted that no one has ever had a perfect bracket; the odds of perfection are 9 followed by 18 zeroes to 1. So, for Round 1, put your heart aside and pick the favorite. For Round 2, look at which team has played well lately. Laing’s picks for the Final Four Women’s are South Carolina over Maryland, Indiana over LSU, UConn over Virginia Tech, and Iowa over Stanford. Laing picks South Carolina to win. His picks for Men’s Final Four are Alabama over Arizona, Marquette over Purdue, Kansas over UCLA, and Texas over Houston. He thinks Kansas has an excellent chance of winning the Tournament. Most importantly, Laing picks KSU over Indiana. Todd’s advice was to pick positive teams, bet low, and don’t bet often. He picks Maryland to win the Women’s Tournament and KSU to win the Men’s. RESPONSE Nithya Venkataraman offered thanks to our speakers noting that she knows little about basketball, but likes to gamble a lot.
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President Dave called the meeting to order at 12:20. Our patriotic song was our National Anthem led by David Dix, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation by Tom Larkin. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day and the NCAA Tournament, the club sang “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” and “The KSU Fight Song.” 
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