It's high time I said a word or two about one of sports' great events, the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament. Much is written about the company time and office supplies wasted yearly on the event. I remember fondly a time in my life when I was a member of an English department with what I now believe to be an unusual proclivity for sport: even the head of the department entered our office pool. Since then, I have had little luck finding enough basketball fans in one English department to generate a worthwhile pot.
But I still fill out a bracket each year. I'm no great visionary, tempted as I am by the cool mascot, the likeable coach, the uplifting story. After the games in the Sweet 16 round, my bracket looks as though it has been struck by vandals. I've lost three of my final four teams (Duke, Kansas, and Boston College), and I found myself last night rooting against my fourth (UConn).
It wasn't always so bad. After the first round, I felt pretty good: I had predicted Wichita State's victory (I even had them in the Sweet 16), and had predicted upsets by Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Alabama, and NC St. I also had Georgetown beating Ohio State in the second round. I hadn't picked Bradley, of course, or George Mason or Montana, and I had picked San Diego State and Utah State. But still.
But that's the beauty of the Tournament: each surprise upset is a thrill, well worth the damage done to one's bracket. The run of teams like Bradley and George Mason are, for me, the best part. Imagine if there had been a nuclear event: 16 seed Albany holding on to beat UConn in the first round. Everyone's bracket would be decimated. But how cool would the story be?
Actually, the best part of this year's tournament may be the performance of mid-major teams: not only those that advanced, like Bradley, George Mason, and Wichita, but also those that acquitted themselves with tough play, like Pacific, Northern Iowa, and Winthrop. I'd like to take those results and shove them in Billy Packer's fat face. The migration of the country's best basketball players to the pro game has left the field wide open, and I'm consistently surprised when people don't acknowledge the fact. The other relevant fact is that good, team basketball can overcome superior, undisciplined talent. (See the Bradley-KU game.) So I hope everyone can shut up about Cincinnati not making the tournament. If Cincinnati made the round of 16, would anyone care? But Bradley making it: that's a story.
