On Sunday, there was a parade of sorts downtown. But it wasn't your average parade. There were no floats or people dressed up, just 3,000 kids with 3,000 basketballs dribbling their way through downtown San Antonio for the NCAA Dribble.
The event that started with the women's Final Four in 2002.
"This is my fifth Final Four. I started working on this, my first one in 1988," Final Four volunteer Randy Bear said. Bear even came up with the way to inflate the thousands of basketballs for Sunday's event.
But I waned to know who he thought would win the championship Monday night. "My bracket says Villanova," Bear said.
Some of the kiddos at the dribble had their own thoughts on who would be the champs, like Emily from Pennsylvania. "I think Michigan is going to win," she said.
But Mike from Long Island had different thoughts. "Villanova, because they won a couple of years ago and they are going to do it again."
There was even a battle between the Villanova and Michigan bands as they cheered on the dribblers.
But what did the organizers of the event think the kids would like the most? Jenny Carnes, Executive Director of the San Antonio local organizing committee for the Final Four said, "A free basketball of course and then getting into Fan Fest." We asked the kids, and each of them indeed said they were most excited about a free basketball!
Each child participating today got a free NCAA Dribble t-shirt, that free Wilson basketball, and free entry into the Fan Fest.