He had left his cell phone in his car, so while his teammates were calling friends and family and checking text messages in the hallway inside Manley Field House Sunday night, Kristof Ongenaet stood and watched in awe at the giddiness this whole NCAA Tournament thing inspired. He relaxed in such blissful ignorance; it was hard not to envy him when he started asking the questions.

‘I don’t really know 100 percent everything – what’s the third seed, the fourth seed, the fifth seed?’ said the senior forward from Belgium. ‘I’m not 100 percent sure what that means. I knew it was better to get a third seed. Maybe you can explain it later.’

While other players gleefully recounted their favorite NCAA Tournament moments, Ongenaet shrugged his shoulders and talked about the first time he ever watched a March Madness game: three years ago.

He was at Cuesta Community College in California. He flipped it on for research, trying to get a better idea of some of the teams that were recruiting him. He didn’t know what a bracket was. He didn’t know what the Final Four meant.

He didn’t know what the fuss was about – a college basketball player, in plain naivety of the billion-dollar machine that propels his sport. Amazingly, the raucous omnipresence of the NCAA Tournament found a pair of deaf ears.

‘I didn’t know about it, honestly,’ Ongenaet said. ‘I didn’t really know about college basketball. It’s kind of like, what do American people know about the Belgian League?’

Ongenaet still doesn’t completely understand the seeding, which is why he cheered tentatively at head coach Jim Boeheim’s house when the announcement came out that Syracuse would be a No. 3 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. He did it just to go along with the crowd, he said.

The crowd understood all the implications of a seeding (or a snubbing) – after all, it is ingrained in the American sports fan’s mind with clock-like accuracy. Tourney madness has grown synonymous with March.

The players, weary-eyed and sleep-deprived from their New York City trip, still revealed flashy smiles when accessing their feelings about realizing one of their childhood dreams, an opportunity they’ve missed out on, an opportunity the Syracuse community simmered over the last two years. Meanwhile, on the roster is a 6-foot-8 reminder that the Tournament frenzy is not as universal as it seems.

In Belgium, any American basketball is referred to the NBA, which occasionally had games broadcasted on out-there channels at obscure hours that would reach Ongenaet’s home in Ghent, Belgium. Before coming to the U.S., Ongenaet estimated he had watched 10 American basketball games in his life.

He began to read up on college basketball, though, via the Internet as a senior in high school, as he got ready to head overseas to play for Cuesta. Unlike most basketball prospects – who choose schools often solely based on whether they’re national title contenders – Ongenaet hardly had any reason to consider an NCAA Tournament resume when he decided on attending Syracuse.

‘I was just looking to play Division I, and the NCAA Tournament would be just a bonus,’ Ongenaet said. ‘That’s why I came to Syracuse University – to get that bonus.’

And so, fittingly, he found SU, perhaps the capital of March Madness frustration. Like his confusion over the seeding this year, he may have likewise been puzzled last year when the Orange was left off the ballot entirely. Why should the NIT translate to failure?

Ongenaet admits he has had a fast and full education here at Syracuse, opening his eyes more fully to the monster that engulfs a nation once the calendar flips to March. In time, he thinks, more Belgians won’t be left out either.

Friends and family in Ghent got to witness Ongenaet’s nine-point performance (and horrific fall) in the Big East championship game last Saturday night, thanks to a video feed online. Ongenaet said he thinks some Belgian television networks will be able to swing a deal to get broadcasts of Syracuse’s Tourney games, if SU reaches the Sweet 16.

Which means Ongenaet really has come a long way, considering a few years ago he wouldn’t have known what the Sweet 16 meant. Now he’s immersed in it. Now he’s just beginning to get what the fuss is all about.

As his teammates struggle to grip the phantasmal expectations from their own childhood Tourney memories, one player tiptoes into the NCAA Tournament simply in search of some experiences (and a few definitions).

Zach Schonbrun is the sports columnist for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Wednesday. He can be reached at zsschonb@syr.edu.

Published on March 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm