If you're a fan of mid-majors or basketball in general, it's been a great NCAA tourney so far. There've been several great games already...
Take, for example, the Xavier-Kansas St. game last night. I missed the middle half of regulation while changing my viewing location from Old Chicago to my house but got home just in time to see Xavier force an overtime despite having fallen behind with about eight minutes left. The teams stayed neck and neck through the first overtime period with Jordan Crawford hitting a purely ridiculous 35' foot 3-pointer with 4 seconds left on the clock to send the game to a second overtime. I was pulling for the mid-major, as always, but K-State took care of business (in particular Jacob Pullen and his awesome beard) and the game finished 101-96. A huge game for Crawford (32 points, but 3-12 from 3-pt range), but probably a better game for Terrell Holloway who had 26 points (on 4-6 shooting from 3-pt range, and 10-13 on FTs) and 6 assists. Big man Jason Love also turned in a double-double for the Muskateers with 11 points and 15 rebounds. For K-State Pullen (and beard) was the hero with 8-- two dagger threes and a pair of free throws-- of his 26 points coming in the 2nd overtime.
The other game I paid close attention was the Butler-Syracuse contest. I'm unabashedly a secret Butler fan... They're an obvious illustration of mid-major success, and frankly everything I want Bradley basketball to be. The school itself is quite similar. The city Butler's in (Indianapolis) is a bit bigger, with a basketball-relevant difference being that Bradley has a much richer history. Plus, they play their home games at the venerable Hinkle Fieldhouse (Hoosiers anyone?).
So whatever the situation I'd've been rooting for a an upset of Big East Syracuse (though Boeheim at least took the trouble to offer a great deal of respect to Butler in his pre-game comments)... But this'n was especially sweet for me. As it happens, my family hails from roughly "Out East." Both of my parents were born and raised in or about the coal mining town of Scranton, PA. Scranton's not so far from New York city so many of the citizens of Scranton are fans of NYC sports to varying degrees. I think Syracuse was maybe historically popular among Scrantonians (despite Scranton being heavily Irish and totally Catholic and Syracuse's historical nickname, The Orangemen, a reference to the Protestant equivalent to the Provisional IRA in "The Old Country"), but became very popular when the only notable basketball player that I know of to have come from Scranton, Gerry McNamara, had a very successful career there culminating in a NCAA Championship alongside Carmelo Anthony.
As the story goes, I happened to run into some of my Scrantonite cousins in St. Louis while my crew and I were in action for the Missouri Valley Conference Tourney Destruction Tour 2010. After the Thursday night play-in games were concluded we met these cousins and consumed a few million beers. We got back to the hotel and took in some sports center when one of the cousins opportuned to inform me that the MVC tournament didn't mean much because not one of the teams playing in the tournament would ever win an NCAA game (this despite regular sweet 16 appearances by MVC teams-- requiring at least two wins in the tournament). I let him know that I thought that was pretty typical Arrogant East Coast Bullmularkey, and then took my revenge by (most likely unfairly) bashing the crap out of Gerry McNamara and his basketball legacy. As Butler beat the crap out of Syracuse in the first half and held them off in the second for the win, I couldn't help but wonder if my cuz thought Butler was an example of a team that wouldn't win tourney games. Thanks, Butler, for validating a pointless drunken argument, and somehow proving that Gerry McNamara was nothing special. GO BULLDOGS!
Speaking of mid-major, by the bye, how the hell can Xavier be considered one? I know they're in the lowly A-10 and therefore midmajor in the minds of ESPN pundits everywhere, they've made the NCAA tournament nine out of the previous ten years (2009-2010 included), and in that period made it to the Sweet Sixteen four times, and the Elite Eight twice. I think I need to consider if Marquette is the cornerstone of my dream midwestern high-major basketball-only conference (unfortunately you'll have to hear my babble about this a lot in coming blogs), or Xavier.
We've gotten one mid-major into the Elite Eight with two left with a shot. I'll be pulling for St. Mary's to upset Baylor and of course, for MVC pride, a big Northern Iowa victory over the Kalin Lucas-less Michigan State. I think Michigan State will prove a tough opponent for the plucky Panthers of Frostbite Falls. They play a not-dissimilar style, and Tom Izzo has faced the MVC enough to know it's not a pushover conference. He's also one of the very best coaches around and far too professional to let his team come out unprepared. It should be a good game to watch, and I don't expect anything like a blowout for either team. It is hilarious to listen to various sports authorities suggesting that the way to beat UNI is to press them since Kansas gave them some trouble with pressure at the end of the game... As if no one in the MVC ever presses... As if UNLV didn't try to press UNI for pretty much the entire game. We'll have to see how it turns out, I guess.
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