The NCAA Tournament has been better, but that doesn’t mean anything else beats it | Commentary
Had Santa Clara made a couple more plays against Duke, had Otega Oweh not made the shot of his life, had High Point not been Darius Acuff’d down the stretch, people would be saying the NCAA Tournament is as good as it’s ever been.
They’d be wrong. But they’d be saying it because everything has to be a referendum on the soul of this event now.
Men’s college basketball loyalists want to seize on any glimpse of the era before player compensation and movement – the most volatile, upset-heavy era, the 2010s – as evidence that nothing has really changed. People who hate what college sports has become cite favorites and high seeds and big brands dominating another first weekend and declare deaths of Cinderella and the charm of this event.
Both wrong. It’s not complicated. The NCAA Tournament is not at its best right now, at least not in the first weekend. But the NCAA Tournament is still the best of American sports. The soul is intact. Cinderella is in witness protection, not dead. Future resurfacings will happen.
Everyone realizes college athletics has more seismic changes ahead, right?
So while it’s more than fair to side-eye someone who’s complaining about content devoted to sweeping NCAA Tournament judgments while adding to that content, I must ask if it’s possible for us to just enjoy this thing. The charm of March Madness may be in the Google search of the school you’ve never heard of that’s now playing in the Sweet 16, but the soul has always been the people and the way the conditions of this tournament affect them.
More of them who are equipped to make an impact in March play for high-major schools now, and that’s not as fun. But it’s the same people. It’s the same feeling. It’s the same compelling stories.
They’ve just done what most would have done in a similar situation and maximized compensation for their talent and hard work.
Jim Valvano scrambling around the court looking for someone to hug after NC State’s impossible win over Houston in 1983 would be just as indelible if he were coaching any other team, from Iona to North Carolina. Walter Clayton Jr. played at Iona, by the way, and the sports universe is better for having experienced his run at Florida a year ago.
Also, look, I loved every minute of the George Mason run of 2006. But I’ve thought more than once or twice about that UConn team and that Florida team meeting in the Final Four instead. The cheeky upstart phase of this tournament is important and diminished, but the part where we get excited about the best teams deciding things among themselves is intact.
Just a year ago in San Antonio, Houston took part in two ultimate holy miracle/gut punch games. Won one, lost the next. We’ve seen plenty of Final Fours that would have loved to have just one game like that. The concentration of talent at the top played out in unfortunate ways in the first weekend, but it’s probably going to work out well for the basketball to come.
And if you think this thing has lost its soul, you’re too preoccupied with the suits. Please come with me to a courtside seat Saturday night at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center. The ear-endangering crowd cheering Nebraska against Vanderbilt. The emotion. The physicality. The high-level basketball, from players on both teams who were mostly not coveted high school prospects.
It will go down as a classic. The sight of Tyler Tanner’s half-court-plus shot popping in and out will be the prevailing memory. A strong second for me will be tapping away at a recap as Tanner was escorted off the court by teammates, crying into his hands – while on the other side of the court, Nebraska’s Rienk Mast and Berke Buyuktuncel were jumping up and down in a shared embrace with longtime Nebraska radio announcer Kent Pavelka.
Thrilling and gutting. Same as it ever was. And it leaves Fred Hoiberg’s Cornhuskers as a second-weekend story worthy of our attention. We’ve got super teams – Arizona, Duke and Michigan. We’ve got superstars – Acuff, Yaxel Lendeborg, Cameron Boozer, Zuby Ejiofor.
We’ve got Tom Izzo, Rick Pitino and Rick Barnes, still getting it done in their 70s. We’ve got John Calipari throwing subtle little jabs at Kentucky every chance he gets.
And by the way, we don’t have Kentucky, Kansas or North Carolina. That’s a lot of brand power left at home, if you’re into that kind of thing. If so, you must have loved Iowa bouncing No. 1 seed Florida on Sunday in the biggest shocker so far, ensuring we won’t have a repeat of all top seeds in the Final Four.
It’s been better. It could be better. It still beats anything else. All this energy spent judging it would be better saved for arguing against expanding it.