The calendar’s best sporting event is upon us, which seems a good time to point out that we should enjoy it while it lasts in its present form because the Big Hats appear to be considering ways to alter the experience and to further enrich the few.
We speak, of course, of the NCAA basketball tournament.
The NCAAs are three weeks of the best that college basketball offers, with intriguing matchups and compelling performances and buzzer-beaters, with just enough upsets and unlikely teams to mask how tilted the overall field is toward the privileged. I’ve whipped that dead nag previously, so I’ll go light in this installment.
Going forward, the changes being contemplated are in the name of progress, evolution, and governance. Squint and those components might read like “money.”
The tournament’s current format has been in place since 1985, when the field expanded to 64 teams. A 65th team and play-in game were added in 2001. Three more teams and the “First Four” concept in 2011 gave us the present 68-team field – 32 conference champions, 36 at-large invitations.
Discussion about expanding the tournament to 96 teams has been around for more than a decade, a truly terrible idea that I’m convinced will come eventually. It embodies the questionable notion that “if some is good, more is better.” An expanded field would provide at least an extra week of programming and content, which means larger payouts from TV networks.
The primary reason I think an expanded field is coming has more to do with football than basketball. Football-fueled expansion and realignment has created 16- and 18-team mega-conferences, with no telling what sort of consolidation might occur in the next several years. Those leagues and schools are going to expect (read: demand) the same NCAA Tournament participation percentages in the new landscape. In other words, four or five or six teams from a historic 10- or 12-team league will become seven or eight or nine teams from oversized collections.
For reference, in the past decade more than 81 percent of at-large bids to the NCAA field have gone to the Power Six conferences (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, and the soon-to-be late, lamented Pac-12). Add the recent ascendant and multi-bid Mountain West Conference, and the remaining 25 leagues might be fighting for scraps.
In addition, what might NCAA governance look like in the future? Will there even be an NCAA? The power football conferences, bolstered by gajillions in TV money, are doing their own thing. What passed for NCAA leadership has been all but neutered as the organization flails about trying to get a handle on athlete empowerment. Who and what might administer the basketball tournament?
ESPN snoop Pete Thamel recently posted a piece that said talks are ongoing about a possible 80-team hoops tournament. Plenty of people are quoted in the piece calling the NCAA Tournament a “treasure” and hoping to preserve it in something resembling its present form, that the model shouldn’t simply be blown up and re-created simply because a new power structure is in place.
Yet SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, a smart fellow who can step into a leadership vacuum when he sees it, might have given away the goal within the penthouse boardroom: “Nothing remains static. I think we have to think about the dynamics around Division I and the tournament.” He pointed out UCLA’s recent run from First Four to Final Four and Syracuse’s run to the Sweet 16 from a play-in appearance and said, “That just tells you that the bandwidth inside the top 50 is highly competitive. We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers (from lower-rated leagues), and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of expansion.”
There you have it. The NCAA Tournament not as (relatively) inclusive reward for a season’s accomplishment, but an additional exposure for the membership’s elite brands. Kinda makes you wish for something more pure and less mercenary, like an Apple stock buyback or a Silicon Valley IPO.
Our man at the beach has been holding out on us, something we realized when we saw his Selleckian visage behind Cherokee Parks during a rebroadcast of the 1992 East Regional Final. So we gave him an assignment. As always, he delivered.
March has long been a favorite month, and not just for the blanket of pollen that coats outdoor surfaces and plays havoc with people’s sinuses. The NCAA Tournament annually provides three weeks of compelling theater – upsets, great games, last-second shots, interesting characters, excuses to couch surf for entire days.
Fairbank P.I.
In my previous life as a sportswriter in Newport News, Va., I covered dozens of tournament games. I was reminded how fortunate I was over the weekend when, absent live games due to our current and coming misery, CBS wisely scratched the collective tournament itch and aired past NCAA games. On Saturday, the network showed the 1982 and ’83 championship games (no matter how many times I watch, it still boggles my mind that N.C. State beat Houston) and the 1992 East Region final between Duke and Kentucky.
Former comrade David Teel and I covered Duke-Kentucky. He sent a text message during the re-broadcast with a screenshot of a younger me on press row, behind the Duke bench, proving that I really was there. Given the talent, stakes and level of play, it’s the best game I personally witnessed in 33 years in the biz, and it’s in the discussion for best game ever. Unfortunately, I have few vivid memories of that day. I chalk it up to a small mental hard drive, time and distance, and a thousand other games and moments clogging my head. I needed a more efficient, weighted mental filing system, one that allowed me to retain Duke-Kentucky and to delete much of the Chuck Swenson era at William and Mary.
It was also a reminder of a time when newspapers had actual staffs and travel budgets. Long before I arrived and through the 1980s, ‘90s and even early 2000s, the Daily Press routinely sent reporters to multiple NCAA Tournament sites. In 1988, my former boss sent me to Lincoln, Neb., where N.C. State was the No. 3 seed. Yes, Raleigh is three hours from Newport News and no, we didn’t cover State regularly. But we considered ourselves an ACC paper, and conference and Wolfpack types were happy to grant us credentials. Different times. Anyway, N.C. State was upset in the first round, so I was stuck in Nebraska with no upcoming game of interest. I asked the boss what to do. He said, can you get to Hartford, Conn.? Number 13 seed Richmond had just upset defending champ Indiana and would face Georgia Tech. Pre-cellphone and Internet, I found a flight, arranged credentials with Richmond and CAA folks, found a hotel room in Hartford, flew out early the next morning and arrived that afternoon, scooted to the arena and cobbled together a couple of stories. The next day I watched Dick Tarrant’s Spiders upset a Georgia Tech team with future pros Dennis Scott, Brian Oliver, Tom Hammonds and Duane Ferrell to reach the Sweet 16.
Speaking of Richmond, my NCAA good fortune extends into history. I covered Richmond’s win against Syracuse in College Park, Md., in 1991, the first time a 15 seed beat a 2. Guard Curtis Blair scored 18 for the Spiders, and 6-5 grinder Terry Connolly had 14 points and seven rebounds against an Orange front line with Billy Owens, LeRon Ellis and Dave Johnson. I covered three of the first four 15 vs. 2 upsets. In 1997, I was in the building in Pittsburgh when Coppin State of the MEAC bounced No. 2 South Carolina. I was there to cover Old Dominion, which narrowly lost to New Mexico in the first round, and the Coppin game was a happy coincidence. Two years prior, I was in Albany, N.Y., and watched the No. 14 Monarchs outlast No. 3 Villanova 89-81 in three overtimes behind Petey Sessoms’ 35 points.
But the damnedest, sweetest, most compelling tournament appearance I saw was in 2001. Hampton University’s experience in Boise, Idaho was equal parts sporting event and cultural phenomenon. A contingent of 70-some people from a Historically Black College and University connected with and was embraced by a mostly lily-white population that didn’t know they existed one week earlier, in ways that are difficult to describe.
The Pirates, in just their sixth season as a Division I program, breezed through the MEAC and were the No. 15 seed in the West Region. Now, the eight-team sub-region was peculiar to begin with, as the NCAA sent Maryland (No. 3), Georgetown (No. 10), George Mason (No. 14), Georgia State (No. 11, coached by Lefty Driesell) and Hampton to Idaho, along with Iowa State, Wisconsin and Arkansas. Seedings even gave us a Maryland-George Mason first-round game 2,000 miles from their respective nearby campuses. Out-of-the-way as it was, Boise was a cool town that welcomed the tournament and everyone involved.
Iowa State-Hampton was the last game of the day. The crowd in Boise was already amped from the first three games – featuring upsets Georgetown over Arkansas and Georgia State over Wisconsin – that were decided by a total of six points. Hampton U.’s pep band, The Force, and its cheerleaders were an immediate jolt, with their funk, bounce and energy. As the Pirates went toe-to-toe with the Big 12 champs, the players, crowd and band all seemed to feed off each other. The last 30 minutes were an HU home game, only louder and at a bigger venue. When Jamaal Tinsley’s driving shot at the buzzer rolled off the rim and Hampton had hung on 58-57, the roar was deafening. Coach Steve Merfeld raced across the court in ecstasy and was picked up from behind and lifted in the air by David Johnson, arms and legs joyfully extended, in a scene that the NCAA still runs in tournament promos.
Over the next 36 hours, the Pirates were local celebrities. People approached them on the street to chat them up and tell them how much they enjoyed watching and hearing them. The local minor-league hockey team, the Idaho Steelheads, asked the pep band if it would perform at the next night’s home game. They didn’t have to ask twice. The Force rocked the arena, introducing funk to hockey fans and hockey to band members.
Steelheads coach John Olver told the Boise paper, “They really added to the atmosphere. I’m really glad they don’t play here every night, or the hockey game would become the second attraction.”
Hampton’s ride ended the next day against Georgetown, but again the crowd was all in with the Pirates and their band. No one who was there will forget.
Throwing it back to the days when we celebrated March Madness with Peeps. And not the Peeps Oreo kind.
Since nobody cares about your tournament pool, or mine, here's our one-time-only open thread for talking about our picks.
For what it's worth, Virginia, Michigan, Duke, and Villanova are heading to San Antonio, and UVA is winning it all. Which will make those preppy fuckers even more insufferable.
You've almost made it, boys and girls. One more day to go in the first weekend of the tournament, and I know we're all feeling a little bit melancholy. Except for Danimal, who's been wearing the green in Savannah for the past few days, and might not remember his own name. It's Danimal.
But we're here for you. A little pick me up to get you ready.
Chuck Berry passed away yesterday, and while his personal legacy is a bit justifiably tarnished, his musical influence is undeniable. In a terrific 2016 New York Times Magazine piece, Chuck Klosterman argues that, "Chuck Berry may very well become the artist society selects when rock music is retroactively reconsidered by the grandchildren of your grandchildren."
I think Przemek Karnowski is my favorite player in the tournament, with Deonte Burton a close second. In the big Pole's honor, here's cut by Riverside, the Krakow Post's selection as the Best Polish Rock Band of 2015.
The on-court action hasn't been all that mad yet, so we fully expect today to be bonkers. And if it's not, all the better for the pool I filled out solely based on KenPom ratings. Go Zags! We're in the business of slapping together barely related musings this week, so here's a little more.
Both this fine blog and Sentence of Dave have posted about the legendary Tuareg band Tinariwen in the past few weeks. I'll be damned if you can't hear their influence in the first part of this excellent, multi-faceted (and wicked chill) new single from English indie group Alt-J.
Run the Jewels rolled into DC last month for a couple of shows at Echostage. While they were in our little town, they played one of the cooler NPR Tiny Desk Concert sets I've seen (and there have been some amazing Tiny Desk shows - you could do worse than spend an evening sipping a beverage of your choice and binge-watching on YouTube). The chemistry between Killer Mike and El-P is amazing in such a small space - their ad-libbing is effortless. Make sure you watch to the very end for a message from Mike.
As always, this is but a vehicle for your commenting genius. Go get 'em, champ.
On the best sports day of the year, our traditional* filler post, complete with my earliest/best childhood NCAA Tournament memory. I even remember the Bryant Gumbel cut-in:
*It's not, but I'm ticked I didn't think about it earlier. Go Seahawks.
I recall being aware of bits and pieces of NCAA Tournaments as a kid. The hype for the 1979 Indiana State/Michigan State game was hard to miss, for sure, but that final wasn't much of a game, and I don't recall anything about it. I have vague memories of reading about Kentucky's 1978 win over Duke in the final, but I couldn't tell you if I saw any of that game.
My first real memory of the tournament came in 1981. I saw this one live, or at least 33 years of lapsed recall lets me think I did. It was my very first dose of madness.
Let's be safe out there today, ladies and gentlemen.
We're in the middle of the greatest basketball week of the greatest basketball month of the year. There is no debating this. Sure, the quality of play may get better during the NCAA Tournament's second weekend but there's really nothing like the quantity, drama and excitement provided by the first four days of the NCAA Tournament. As sports fans, we love the games, the upsets and the buzzer beaters. Oh the buzzer beaters.
Well, I'm here to rain on the buzzer beating parade a bit. Buzzer beaters aren't always great. With the jubilation that comes from a buzzer beating shot also comes despair. The despair of a team on the edge of victory who suddenly, improbably has that victory snatched from them on what quite often is a lucky shot. I can speak to this...because I lost two games during my high school career on highly improbable buzzer beaters.
The first occurred during my senior year. We were playing one of the better teams in our conference on the road. I scored my career high and knocked down two free throws with 6 seconds left to put us up by two. We were right on the edge of securing a major victory in what had been a seemingly cursed season (our best player tore his ACL for the second time during the summer and our second best player died in a car accident). Yet, it was not to be. Our opponent (Cocoa High) had one last possession. And on that last possession a player who had been scoreless all game long received a pass at just beyond half court, took two dribbles and flung a 25 footer. Bang. His three pointer was good. The crowd went nuts and rushed the floor. My teammates and I walked off with another loss in a season that quite often went from bad to worse.
Somehow, that's not the most heartbreaking loss of my high school career. That would come one year earlier against our biggest rival (Greg's alma mater). These two school were separated by only a few miles so most of the kids knew each other. And this year, both teams were really good. In fact, both teams were ranked in the state during various times throughout the year (in Florida's two highest classifications at the time)and this game would determine the conference leader. The game was a tightly contested game played in our home gym. Both teams traded the lead back and forth. Until our starting point guard (I was more of a two guard as a junior) hit a three to put us up one with just over a second left. What followed is something that is still burned into my memory almost twenty years later. Our opponent inbounded the ball to their point guard (who I went to junior high with) who took one dribble and then jumped off of one foot from in between the free throw line and three point line as he launched a shot from 75-80 feet from his basket. You can guess what happened next. The ball was in the air forever. At least that's what it felt like. And when it came down, it hit nothing but the bottom of the net. If it wasn't a miracle, it's the closest I've ever seen. Since both schools were located so close to one another, there were plenty of opposing fans at our gym. They rushed the floor and mobbed their team. All I saw was a see of green (their main color) rushing the floor. I was on the court at the time of the shot and simply fell backwards as it went through the net. Fans rushed past me, one of my teammates came over to help me up. It was the worst I've ever felt on a basketball court. As a 17 year old, I thought it was the worst I'd ever feel. Our team struggled to ever recover. We lost the next two games and later lost one of our best players to an ACL tear. We were truly never the same after that heartbreaking loss. I'll never forget it.
As if that wasn't bad enough, I woke up the next morning to find out that the play had made it on to Good Morning America and was also named CNN's 'Play of the Day'. My aunt who lived in Japan called my Mom to say she had seen my high school on CNN. Of course, my Mom had to explain to her that my team wasn't the one who won the game. I tried to stay home from school the next day. I literally didn't want to talk to, or see anybody. Of course, time heals all wounds. Well, mostly. I still haven't forgotten seeing that prayer being answered. And I doubt I ever will.
OK folks, looks like we need some filler today, so pasted below is the game action for tonight's Sweet Sixteen match-ups...with a special peeps photo as well.
Wisconsin (4) vs. Syracuse (1), 7:15 p.m. ET, CBS
Many people expected Cuse to lose before the Round of 16, and they almost did become the first #1 seed to fall to a #16 seed. Alas, they survived UNC-Asheville and beat down Kansas State in the second half to advance and face the Badgers. Is this the game Fab Melo's absence kills them? Will Rakeem Festivus step up in Melo's absence? Will Jim Boeheim continue to be a curmudgeonly asshole? (wait, we know the answer to that one already) On another note, I think Wisconsin's Jordan Taylor has been enrolled since 1997.
Louisville (4) vs. Michigan State (1), 7:47 p.m. ET, TBS
rob's boy Draymond Green is having a special tournament already, and you have to like Tom Izzo's club in this matchup, mainly because it's fun to root against Rick Pitino and those Colonel Sander's suits of his. Lousiville center Gorgui Dieng has a great name, even if his game doesn't always match up to the name.
Cincinnati (6) vs. Ohio State (2), 9:45 p.m. ET, CBS
Yancy Gates will punch you in the face. Hell, this whole Bearcats team has no problem throwing haymakers for Lollipop Guild member Mick Cronin. This Ohio State team is not nearly as good as last year's squad, but as long as Sullinger gets some offensive help from William Buford (another Jess Settles Team member) and Aaron Craft the Buckeyes should win.
Florida (7) vs. Marquette (3), 10:17 p.m. ET, TBS
Mark's team has had a cakewalk to the Sweet Sixteen, pummeling those uptight UVA douchebags and then throttling one-hit-wonder Norfolk State. Bradley Beal has averaged 14 points and 10 boards in the two games, which has to be bittersweet for Mark since his strong performance means he'll be headed to the NBA next season. Marquette's Jae Crowder, the Big East Player of the Year, looks like a girl. Their other star, Darius Johnson-Odom, has a porn star's name.
Sorry to push down rob's "Picking Up Butch" post, but the 2012 NCAA Tournament has now begun, and I figured we needed an open thread to rant and rave about today's games. Please feel free to continuing trashing Rick Reilly in the comments, though, as that is always fun. For today's filler pics, I went back to an oldie but goodie theme...
Consider this a forum for day 3 comedy rhombii, and a place to show some love for hoops-related mid-90's music for which no real videos appear to be available on YooToob. Guru had a heart attack and fell into a coma a few weeks ago, so show some love for Gang Starr even if the video is visually weak.
Special thanks to ODU, Murray State, Ohio, BYU AND Florida, Robert Morris, Wake and St. Mary's for making yesterday the best Day 1 of a NCAA Tournament that I can ever remember.
Now if we can only get Day 2 to be half as exciting we're golden...
I hate to bump down another terrific podcast, but it's the first day of the Dance, and you all need to be excited. I believe Mark has a post on the way, but just in case he doesn't, why don't you watch these tourney buzzer beaters and get fired up:
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