It’s not just the N.C.A.A basketball tournaments that are back. So is the joy — and the heartache — of winning or bombing in a bracket pool every March, a shared experience taking on new appreciation in an era of coronavirus lockdowns.
It has been two years since the last men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, two years since Americans have had the shared experience of diving into bracket pools with friends, family members and work colleagues. And so this year it seems people are taking them a bit more seriously — or simply relishing the opportunity to agonize over them at all.