The Louisville Cardinals are celebrating their first NCAA basketball championship in nearly 30 years and that brings us to the culmination of a month of talk about seeds and brackets. Among Tucson foodies, another kind of madness ensues in the spring, and it’s all about the mystique and majesty of macaroni.

Shall we say Mac Madness?

As this year’s NCAA basketball tournament was getting underway, restaurateur Mike Lanz began to leverage the energy around March Madness to generate some new ideas for his menu at the Fix, 943 E. University Blvd., Suite 115, in Main Gate Square. Specializing in macaroni and cheese, the Fix already boasted 15 different varieties of mac on its menu, but Lanz was out to show how versatile the classic comfort food is. So he issued a call to elicit ideas for creative mac and cheese recipes.

After receiving many unique creations from fans, Lanz committed to prepare and serve 16 of them, and let his guests decide which was the best — and he did it all in a single-elimination bracket system similar to the NCAA tournament.

“We were all encouraged by the thought that was put into each recipe,” said Lanz, noting some of them had to be eliminated from the start due to the complexity of the recipes. “While a Poutine mac and cheese made with beef gravy, potato and cheese curds might have sounded like a winner to the person who submitted it, cheese curd management isn’t something we know a whole lot about,” he admitted.

Among the Sweet 16 finalists were a lobster Alfredo mac, bacon-jalapeno-green chili mac and a mushroom-broccoli-Sriracha mac. Product sales dictated the winner in each round, with the winners advancing to an Elite Eight and Final Four.

Going into the finals was the caprese mac, made with tomato, cream cheese, basil and mozzarella. Its opponent was the hangover mac, made with chorizo, onions and hash browns, topped with a fried egg. The two were virtually tied during the course of the championship, but in the end, the hangover was declared the winner. The guest who developed the winning recipe will now see his own hangover on the Fix’s menu every weekend.

What did Lanz find most surprising about the competition? “Many of the recipes we thought would do well really didn’t, and others that we thought would drop out after the first round ended up advancing,” he said. “This just goes to show you how unique a mac and cheese experience can be.”

Lore credits Thomas Jefferson with inventing mac and cheese, and I can only imagine his amazement in seeing how far his creation has come since he adorned his pasta with York cheddar for a White House dinner in 1802. Ironically, this could be the first time in history when the hangover preceded the celebration.

Contact Matt Russell, whose day job is CEO of Russell Public Communications, at mrussell@russellpublic.com. Russell is also the host of “On the Menu Live” that airs 4-5 p.m. Saturdays on KNST 790-AM and he does the Weekend Watch segment of the “Buckmaster Show” from noon-1 p.m. Fridays on KVOI 1030-AM.