Ramon Sessions was in the Tourney last season with Nevada, helping the Wolfpack to a First Round win over Creighton. (Getty)

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March 21, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- Some arrive at the realization beforehand.

Others have their eyes opened in their first training camp.

The rest figure it out once they have experienced it live.

Most, if not all, National Basketball Association players recognize, though, that night-in and night-out, they are competing with and against the best players in the world.

And few of them would trade places with anyone else.

Every year at about this time, though, many NBA veterans and rookies alike cannot help but turn back their clocks and remember the thrills and agonies they experienced as participants in "March Madness," otherwise known as the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Ramon Sessions has been enjoying the good life as a rookie guard in the NBA since Feb. 1 after being summoned by the Milwaukee Bucks from the Tulsa 66ers of the National Basketball Development League.

Sessions, selected by the Bucks out of the University of Nevada with the 56th pick in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft, is grateful for his opportunity, but he won't forget where he came from, either.

Before Sessions left Nevada, he helped fortify a program that emerged into national prominence as an NCAA bracket buster shortly before he arrived in Reno.

Sessions played in the NCAA tourney in each of his three seasons with the Wolf Pack, twice advancing past the first round. And he doesn't believe there's another sporting event that can hold a candle to it.

“I don’t see any at all," he said. "In that tournament, it's one game and you’re done. You’ve got the Cinderellas, which we were called, the mid-majors playing against the big schools. It was unbelievable.”

Desmond Mason ranks as one of Milwaukee's most experienced pros, but he remembers the impression the NCAA tourney made on him during his days at Oklahoma State University.

“The intensity level is so much higher (than it is during the regular season)," Mason said. "The good thing is the teams you play usually haven’t played you in conference play. You can throw in a trick play or a little twist late in the game that they don’t know about.

"And it’s fun to just play somebody else instead of the same players you face year-in and year-out.”

Bucks guard Royal Ivey will not forget the rush he experienced during his NCAA stints with the University of Texas Longhorns.

“Oh, it’s everything it's cracked up to be," he said of the tournament. "You see 60 or 70 thousand fans screaming and jumping up and down.

"The college fans are the best fans, hands-down … the hecklers, the guys with the paint on their bodies. It’s just a great environment. I miss it, but you’ve got to move on.”

Bucks center Dan Gadzuric, a native of Holland, was still relatively new to the United States during his freshman year at UCLA. He was eagerly anticipating his first NCAA tourney experience, but was in for a letdown.

"I was injured and couldn't play," Gadzuric said. "We got knocked off in the first round, so that wasn't so good."

Fortunately for Gadzuric, opportunity knocked again and he answered.

He and the Bruins reached the Sweet 16 in each of the next three seasons. In his senior year, he staged one of the most dominant performances in the 2002 tourney, collecting 26 points and 13 rebounds as UCLA won a 105-101 thriller over Cincinnati.

"My favorite memories are the fans and the hype." Gadzuric said. "The intensity level definitely goes up, and there's a lot of hype."

Another Buck made a big splash in his very first NCAA tourney appearance.

Guard Mo Williams tells his story.

“My first NCAA Tournament game. I had 33 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as a freshman and we won the game (Williams’ Alabama team defeated Florida Atlantic)," he said. "That’s the best memory I have. It was beautiful. You can’t trade it. It’s like the playoffs of the NBA.”

Sessions, a diehard NCAA tourney fan as a youngster, won't forget his first brush with "March Madness," either.

"My first year," Sessions said. "I was thinking, ‘Man, last year I was at home filling out a bracket!' It just felt so different. If you love basketball, it’s a big thing. It’s what everybody does.

“I remember my first NCAA Tournament points came on a dunk, on a fast break against Texas. Just being in that tournament, playing against great guys. ... My freshman year, I got a chance to play against Deron Williams and Illinois. It’s a great experience, and a great tournament.”

Continue reading. Check out Part II of Truman's "Rides of March" series!