Over the past several months I'm sure you've all seen the Bud Light commercials with their slogan, "Here we go..." It signals the beginning of a good time. But could also signal the beginning of something special. I think this NCAA tournament is turning out to be something special. You have the "feel good story" in BYU. You have one region with 3 of the 4 remaining teams as double digit seeds and the #1 seed a team with a history of choking. You have 2 teams from the city of Richmond VA in the sweet 16. There are plenty of storylines in this years tournament. Yet certain analysts would like for you to think the field of competition is deminishing. I addressed this issue the other night, but failed to mention the most important issue. When talking about NCAA athletes we forget the most important part of that title. They are STUDENT athletes. They are given something that many people would love to have. Whether it be basketball, football, baseball these athletes are basically given a free education because of their gifts or talents. When they leave school early to play professionally most of them give up on something more important that many people would cherish. They take for granted something that others would give anything for. They use the school to improve their draft stock. In these arguments they state how bad the "one and done" rule is. They want these college athletes to play for more than just one season. While the concept is right, they never talk about the most important part. They never mention anything about the person's education. They never say he should stay to get an education. They want them to stay so they can improve ratings. That's the bottom line in this. They care more about ratings than a young man or woman's education. I would cherish the opportunity to get a free education, but I've accepted that I don't have the opportunity as well as many other working class people. It's just disgusting that such a great gift is used and taken for granted.
Switching gears, back to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament. All season long the talk has been concentrated on the "Big 3" conferences. The Big 10, Big XII, and mostly the Big East has dominated the discussions. Most of the top 5 teams throughout the season have been from those 3 conferences. With all the talk about these three conferences the Sweet 16 should consist of at least 75 %, meaning 12 of the 16 teams should consist of the "Big 3" and the precious Big East getting 6 to 8 of those teams. All season long we heard about how dominating the Big East was. They got a record 11 teams into the tournament. Of these 11 teams, only 2 remain still, and those two finished in the bottom half of the conference. 2 of the 16 teams still playing probably wouldn't have even made the field if it were still 65 teams. Marquette was supposedly one of the last teams in, and we all know VCU wouldn't have made the field of 65. After the first weekend of the tournament we learned that maybe the selection committee isn't as stupid as we all thought. The Big East probably did deserve to have 11 teams in the field, but the tournament, as it usually does, exploits the weaknesses of these power conferences. When the tournament comes around we separate the men from the boys. This year is no exception. I said coming into this tournament to watch out for teams outside of the "Big 3". Meaning, watch out for teams like Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Kentucky. All 4 of those are still playing. The Big 3 has 5 teams remaining in the field of 16. That's just of 25%. The Big XII has 1, Big Ten and Big East with 2 each. Those 5 teams are hardly being talked about coming into this weekend. We've talked all season about the Pac 10, SEC, and ACC as being "Mid-Major" to the other half of the Power 6. Yet these conferences consist of more teams in the Sweet 16 with 6 teams. Then you have the remaining 5 teams coming from "Mid Major" conferences. Richmond and Butler are debatable, but they might not have been included in the field without their run in their conference tournaments. I don't see how anyone can claim the NCAA tournament is on a downhill slide when it's still one of the biggest sporting events in our country.
ESPN calls itself "The worldwide leader in sports." I think that title is not deserved. ESPN should be embarrased. If my team were playing in the NIT, or if I were a women's college basketball fan, I would be FURIOUS with them. I was very mad with ESPN over the fact that they only broadcasted a total of 3 Big XII tournament games, yet didn't miss a single game of the Big East tournament. They always criticezed CBS' coverage of the NCAA tournament with only one network. That is probably more jealousy than anything, but how can they claim this? They have 5 networks, 6 if you include ABC. They have the rights to the NIT and the NCAA Women's basketball tournament. Tuesday night there were 4 teams playing at one time, and only 2 games on TV. Of the 3 quarterfinal matches of the NIT last night, they only showed 2. They have practically unlimited resources, and there is not reason at all they can't show every game of the women's tournament and men's NIT. But hey, we would have missed the opportunity to watch a rebroadcast of the 1988 Championship game between Kansas and Oklahoma. We might miss something if they put a game on ESPN News over Sportscenter. It's unfair, but the women's tournament always takes a back door to the men's tournament. But ESPN just makes it worse. It's hard enough for these women to get some face time, and ESPN just slaps them in the face.
I want to give a shout out to a team that wasn't included in the field of 68. There are a few Mid Major conferences that are better than average. Conference USA put 2 teams in the field. The CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) Mountain West and Atlantic 10 put 3 teams each in. The Missouri Valley is a conference that could claim discrimination. Indiana State finished 3rd in the regular season standings, below Missouri State and Wichita State. Missouri State won the regular season conference title outright over Wichita State, yet neither of these teams got in. The regular season champs of the above mentioned conferences did not win the conference tournament, yet got in for their regular season accomplishments. The selection committee said they wanted to reward the "entire body of work." You don't get a more entire body of work then winning the regular season conference title. So, what's left for those two teams? There is no shame in playing in the NIT. For teams like Virginia Tech, Boston College, Colorado, and Alabama it's like a slap in the face. And they often play like it. Teams like that often feel they are too good for the NIT and shouldn't be there and forget to show up. St Mary's lost their first game. But, for teams like Wichita State, Missouri State, Cleveland State, Kent State this is like the NCAA tournament. They embrace it and play hard. Kent State took Colorado to the very end the other night. Wichita State was given a 4 seed. They have probably had a tougher road to the NIT final 4 than the other three teams. They beat a hot Nebraska team, Virginia Tech, and another hot team in College of Charleston. The NIT Final 4 consists of Alabama v Colorado, and Washington State v Wichita State. I've always like Wichita State. I watched Mark Turgeon succeed at something many of his predecessors failed in doing in building Wichita State into a perennial contender for the Missouri Valley Conference title. I enjoyed watching them make a run deep into the NCAA tournament. When Turgeon left for greener pastures many, myself included wondered what would become of what Turgeon built. WSU went out and hired Greg Marshall, and he stepped in and hasn't missed a beat. They were contenders for the Mo Valley title down to the final game against MSU. I am happy for Greg Marshall and Wichita State's success and I will be rooting for them next week in NYC. They, along with Colorado will be playing in one of the most famous sports venues in America next week. How great would it be to have a Colorado v Wichita State NIT final?? I think it would be pretty great and I will be rooting for that next week. GO SHOCKERS!!
No comments:
Post a Comment