Since the clock struck midnight a couple weeks ago, marking the start of St. Patrick’s Day — and the moment when Notre Dame outlasted Rutgers in double overtime, sending its coach, Mike Brey, in search of some celebratory Irish whiskey — the madness of the N.C.A.A. tournament has returned this March.
It had been a minute.
The tournament was canceled two years ago at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and last year it was so muted — sparse crowds, all the games in a single hub stripped of pageantry, players isolated from families, and fears that the N.