Well, with an introduction like that, I’m sure I’m going to fail to live up to anyone’s expectations. But that’s okay. Richard’s invited my here not just for March Madness, but for all whatever topic springs to my mind, but I am going to stick to basketball for the short term.
I firmly believe that March Madness is the greatest annual sporting event. And not just the NCAA tournament, which is great, but Championship Week as well. Sometimes, ESPN has a habit of creating marketing gimmicks out of nothing (such as Rivalry Week), but Championship Week is simply one of the greatest things the network has ever done. It gives a chance for schools which would never have a chance to play before a national TV audience get some exposure. The teams win out, the network wins out, and the fans win out by getting to see even more basketball.
The greatest thing about March Madness is the fact there are 336 teams in Division I basketball, and every single one of them has a chance to win the title. The winners of the conference tournaments earn automatic bids to the NCAA tournament which means that 331 teams went into the season knowing their fate would be decided by what happens on the court (the five independents are pretty much screwed). This is in stark contrast to the inequitable BCS system used in football.
The BCS is riddled with problems, which I won’t detail right now, but chief among them is that almost half of Division I teams go into the season with absolutely no chance of winning the title. The have nots can not win the title even if they win all of their games, and are left to content themselves on moral victories like Boise St. Since the BCS formula punishes losses more than poor scheduling, there is no incentive for the teams into the big conferences to ever schedule the teams from the weaker conferences. And we are left with a system in which the rich get rich and the poor get poorer.
Not so in basketball. Sure, there is a huge gap in quality between the ACC (ranked #1 in conference RPI) and the SWAC (ranked last), but no team in the SWAC can complain that things weren’t decided on the court. Their champion will earn a bid to the tournament just like anyone else. Sure, there’s no at-large opportunity available, but there is still opportunity. The system is weighted in favor of the big schools, but not to the exclusion of the small schools. NCAA basketball is a true meritocracy.
There will be no debate about the polls or if this team could have beaten that team. Sure, the 35th at-large team will complain that they were better than the 34th at-large team which gobbled up the very last bid to the field, but the committee usually does a top notch job of selecting teams. And it’s hard for the 35th team to complain they have been denied a title shot. If your team gets left out of the field, there is a simple answer to your complaints they got jobbed out of an at-large bid: the team should have won their conference.
Championship Week is all about that. This is their one shot at the field, as it is highly unlikely the loser of the tournament will get an at-large bid. The whole season comes down to one game. And, unlike the big schools, at the little schools the players really are student-athletes. They aren’t going to the NBA. Winning the conference tournament and going to the Big Dance really is the highlight of their entire athletic careers. They just want to make it to the field. The winners of these games will get in the hard way, they will earn it.
That’s why you should watch these championship games of conferences you’ve never heard of. Because this really is what the NCAA aspires to be. This is amateur sports at its very best.
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6 comments:
well, small quibble. The bottom four teams in the Big East aren't invited to the Big East tournament, so they have no shot at the Big Dance.
Which I think is a travesty, since it does detract from the notion that no matter what happens in the regular season, you always have a shot through the conference tourney. (The Ivy League is an exception, since they are the only conference to my knowledge that does not have a postseason tournament.)
But the point remains and you'll see pretty much every year some team in a small conference that's under .500 for whatever reason (injuries, team chemistry problems, etc.) get hot at the right time and come from nowhere to make it to the Big Dance, albeit straight to the Play-in game,
The greatest time by far of the sports year where nearly anything can and does happen.
Since this is an LSU blog and basketball is the theme of the day, I want to talk about Senior Day. Seniors are becoming endangered species in college basketball. LSU had one today, Darnell Lazare.
Lazare isn't one of our greats; he didn't start a lot of games or score a lot of points, but I hope he's not a guy who is quickly forgotten.
In his first season he got a little playing time and showed that he could learn and fit in. By his second year he was a reliable contributor. Last season he was a starter for a while until Tyrus Thomas figured out how to play and just demanded the PT. Lazare could have been a bitter guy, but he wasn't. He just kept playing well and playing for the team. As a senior, he had several very productive games in addition to his standard decent stats. Really, I can't see why Brady didn't start Lazare more.
In addition to my affection for a selfless, hard-working, blue-collar team player, there is one more special thing about Lazare I need to mention. He was never a stupid player. I can't recall him making utterly dumbass plays. Ever see Tack Minor or Garett Temple jack up a ridiculous 3? Ever see Ben Voogd attempt to dribble? You get my point. Not making dumb mistakes IS a big deal when you think of all the turnovers, fast breaks, and momentum swings they cause.
Three cheers for Darnell Lazare!
Oh, yeah, it's nice to see the ladies beat the snot out of Tennessee! 2 seed locked up.
Actually, one whole conference is excluded from the party: the Union Conference receives zero automatic bids. There's only six teams, so it does not meet the qualifying rules for qualifying for a bid.
And Big East teams are at least excluded from their tourney based on merit.
do you mean the United Basketball Conference?
Thanks for your help. I love March Madness, but honestly I don't pay that much attention during the season. I enter the post season anew, like a newborn chick, totally ignorant of the ways of that particular college basketball season, outside of a working knowledge of SEC basketball.
I did mean the United. First post, and I'm already making errors.
They only have six members so they don't qualify for a bid.
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