For sports fanatics, March 15 was the long awaited start of March Madness.

I counted down the days along with them because that’s when I had the sports journalist’s dream of watching the Madness and working for the NCAA.

Three very long days — I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say it felt like 12-hour days — interviewing eight teams over six games.

It was crazy, in a good way, and I learned so much just by being in Intrust Bank Arena.

The actual atmosphere is something I don’t think I could accurately describe.

During both of the Kansas games there were moments when the place erupted in cheers, and I couldn’t help but smile. It’s a total sports nerd thing to say, I know.

And sitting by the Seton Hall and Houston bands just made you want to start chanting with them. It was mind control, I swear.

Whether a Michigan fan or not, when Jordan Poole made that game-winning three against Houston, I guarantee so many were jumping up and down screaming.

Now I experienced so many things crammed into three days I get winded talking about it.

*The first rule of media is, you do not fangirl as media.

(Fight club reference, get it?)

It was stated, maybe even threatened multiple times, to not be biased toward any team. That was fine with me, even though I’ll be at KU in the fall.

But even if you didn’t know any of the teams, coaches or players, just walking down the hall with them still felt surreal, especially next to Penn’s 7-foot-3 Mark Jackson.

*Second, be smart and make sure you’re first through the door when the locker rooms open.

It’s like having every option you could dream of walking into a donut shop early in the morning.

Derby senior Haley Smith was the luckiest of us all. She just walked up to Kansas’ Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Devonte Graham and interviewed them before all the TV media came in like a stampede.

*Third, big-time media will run you over and interrupt your interviews, but be persistent.

No matter how big the locker room is, tiny as Penn’s or huge like Michigan’s, you get shoved and trapped by giant men holding huge cameras.

*Fourth, being in high school — and four of us were girls — you’ve got to act like you belong there and know what you’re talking about. Then the players will talk to you, no problem.

On a side note, if you call a player by the wrong name it might become a little awkward. (sorry Marcus Garrett.) Just apologize and move on.

It boosted my confidence that the guys wouldn’t ignore me, but the exception was interviewing teams that lost.

Going into team’s locker rooms after a loss was depressing because as Derby junior Brett Jones nicely said, “we all felt like vultures going in there.”

Overall, I learned that you have to fend for yourself around other media, you’ll never be fully prepared walking into a locker room, I’ve never been so stressed transcribing interviews before, walking around all access I felt kind of famous and and always eat when the buffet is open.

Oh, and shout out to the all coaches and managers in the locker rooms, who could tell we had no clue who was who and pointed out players — you’re the real ones.

I’ve also realized this past week I’ve been rooting for the players I interviewed.

Selfishly I feel like they’re my friends now and I want both Michigan and KU to win the national championship.