Local Universities Get Hyped Up For The Big Dance
By Anita Oh
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's that time of year again to fill our those brackets and it seem nothing brings out the school spirit quite like the tournament and businesses are gearing up too.
Go Owls, Cats and Hawks! Temple, Villanova and St. Joseph's are all headed to the Big Dance.
School pride is in full force at the three schools as colleges across the nation get set for the race to the title.
"I have faith in my school and team that we'll pull through," said Benjamin Thomas, a sophomore at Temple.
"We'll definitely be watching and will definitely have guys sneaking into their phones to check the score and stuff," said Brian Lau, a baseball player at St. Joe's. "I hope my coach doesn't see that."
Of the three teams, Villanova is the highest ranked with a number two seed in the South Region.
Amid the excitement, there's a hint of disappointment. None of the Philadelphia teams made it in the East Regional bracket, which means they won't get a chance to play on home turf.
Regardless, some students are going to make the trip to root on their school. "New York is close," said Villanova freshman, Margaret Lindenburg. "It's not Spokane, W.A. like some other people are playing, so it'll be good."
As student hype up, University bookstores are gearing up.
"We had two shirts created for March Madness and put it out 15-20 minutes after the announcement so we saw a spike in business," said Jim Hanley of Temple University Bookstores.
