116th Edition - 3/15/07

116 - Shakespeare's sonnet #116. Wow, hopefully that will be the last time I link to Shakespeare, I couldn't get through that whole thing.

• NCAA coverage -- I might just run continous updates throughout the next 4 amazing days ... Calling all of it 117th Edition. We'll see. Since I will be in the office until 12:45 today I have hoping to be one of the lucky ones to watch the games online.

• Special Guest

Erin Studer is a man. Most that know him call him Stu, and then after a few months on knowing him, realize in fact, his name isn't Stu, it's Erin--spelled the girl way (he's Irish). Stu runs a school out in Los Angeles, and word on the street is, he'll give you a teaching job if he likes the cut of your jib. And if you need a man to quote the speech from "Braveheart" look no further ...

Mad Marchness: 5 True Things about the NCAA Tournament

I didn’t play in high school. My official playing career in basketball ended in 8^th grade – B team. I was a guard. The highlight game of my career was on a cold January night in Spirit Lake, Iowa. The Spirit Lake Indians vs. the Emmetsburg E-Hawks. I was playing the 2 for the E-Hawks and scored four points in the closing seconds of the half (two of them off of a break away steal) to help us take the lead. I finished with a season high 8 points, 2 boards, and a technical for mouthing off to the ref while taking the ball out of bounds. For those of you who know me, the technical is no surprise, but the eight points might be. I went on in my high school career to play a little football, a little baseball, and whole lot of wrestling. My basketball career was relegated to late night games at the local park and later to the occasional pick up game in the Field House at the U of Iowa. There was a brief stint as a middle school basketball coach when I first started my teaching career, but I am sure that was because of the school’s desperation as opposed to any insight into my former middle school basketball prowess.

All that said, I have always been an avid watcher of the NCAA Tournament – a uniquely American event that celebrates democracy, parity, the little guy, and eventually some extremely well funded major basketball power house. Just makes me smile thinking about it. I can almost hear the squeak of Converse on the hardwood right now. Yes, I have been a fan of “The Tournament” for over 20 years and in that time I know these five things to be true:

1. I have never won an NCAA Tournament Bracket Pool and probably never will: It’s not that I don’t follow college basketball or don’t know the odds of a 10 seed making the Elite 8 or the fact that Indiana basketball just isn’t what it used to be. No, my brackets don’t fail because of lack of knowledge; they fail because of an excess of drama. With each passing year, with each new bracket, I create an alternate universe – a universe where David toppling Goliath isn’t just a myth but a round by round reality. I create tournament outcomes that, if they truly happened, would be the stuff of legend for generations. Sadly, the epics have yet to occur or to provide me any money in return.
Example: My final four for this year - Wisconsin, Pittsburg, OSU, and Georgetown. Finals: Wisconsin and OSU with the Badgers winning the fabulous Big Ten-homer love fest of a finale.

2. A 12 seed always beats a 5 seed:

You’ve heard this before. I’ve heard this before. It seems to happen a lot. I have no statistical evidence to support the always, yet I faithfully seek out the 12 vs. 5 upset each time I fill out a bracket. And even if it is not always true, isn’t it fabulous that year after year we get to watch a sporting event where an upset is guaranteed.
My pick: 12 seed Illinois topples 5 seed Virginia Tech. Damn my Big Ten bias!

3. Cinderella always loses.

I know this is true but ignore it habitually. There are always Cinderellas at the Big Dance. They always surprise people. No one knows who they are and there is little point in guessing (George Mason anyone? Or on a smaller more Hawkeye-centric scale Northwestern St.!). But sadly they always lose. No one lower than a five seed has ever won the tournament. Even N.C. State in their miracle march to the championship wasn’t that unheralded. So every Cinderella loses eventually, but not before utterly ruining my bracket year after year because I couldn’t guess who they’d be.
My feeble attempt to divine this year’s Cinderella: Villanova all the way to the Elite 8 before bowing out to Pitt…or wait, was Pitt the Cinderella…never mind.

4. The first weekend is the best.

This is true, though much like my first three statements, it isn’t a secret. Sixty four teams all vying for a victory, all striving to get one step closer to the National Championship. It really doesn’t matter if you are North Carolina or Holy Cross – everybody has to play a game, everybody is trying to win, and everybody knows it’s lose or go home – no exceptions. Sure, a #16 seed has never beaten a number one, but it could happen – maybe this is the year.
Most vulnerable #1 seed with the potential to make history and bow out in round one (not that I picked the upset or anything): Kansas. They got taken to the wire in the Big 12 tourney. The Big 12 isn’t that tough to begin with, and Niagara already has worked out their first game gitters. Go, Purple Eagles, Go!

5. Seeding of teams 3 and higher is irrelevant.

A #1 seed doesn’t guarantee a championship – often the opposite. Again, no one above a five has ever won. The vast majority of champions in the past ten years come from seeds 3, 2, and 1. Therefore all of this pre-tournament controversy over whether you got a 7 or 9 seed, or how a team should have been a 6 instead of a 5, is good oxygen wasted. As long as your team made it to the top 3 (even the top 4 on occasion) don’t worry. Just play your games.
Lowest seed with the biggest ego that may not make week 2: Duke. Probably lucky to be there and yet Dukies persist that a 6 seed is too low and that they are gonna play their way to the Final Four. No chance. They better focus on VCU – 11’s have beaten sixes. Happens every year!

Bonus: College Football does not need a tournament to decide its National Title.

I’m not saying that on occasion it wouldn’t be nice to have an optional “plus-one” game after the BCS to clear up confusion. But this event would be rare. Most of the time the bowl games do a more than adequate job of figuring out who was good, who was not, and who should be crowned champion. By the way, football tournament advocates, have you ever considered that the reason the B-ball tournament is exciting is that so many teams are involved (point 4) as opposed to the idea that so many teams actually have a chance to win (points 3 and 5). A Division-I college football tournament would most likely reduce post season participation from its current 32 bowl game 64 team format. Besides, have you ever noticed how the college football regular season actually matters? Can’t wait ‘till September. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy the basketball. You should too.