Get Herald RSSWell, it was great for the first week or so, but after that, I gotta say, it kind of sucked. No, I'm not talking about that pizza in your fridge. I'm talking, of course, about the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Sure, the action in the first two rounds was fantastic, truly worthy of the phrase "March Madness." The first several days of games provided a slew of bracket-busting upsets and close finishes.
Two 12 seeds (Villanova and Western Kentucky) and two 13 seeds (Siena and the University of San Diego) pulled off first-round upsets, giving us an unprecedented two 12-vs.-13 matchups in the second round. Western Kentucky guard Ty Rogers' game-winning desperation shot from 26 feet with three defenders in his face and no time left on the clock, which propelled his Hilltoppers over heavily favored fifth-seeded Drake in the first round, gave us one of those classic tournament moments where everyone in the room jumps up and screams. It also gave us, thankfully, a few more days of the Hilltoppers' big red amorphous blob of a mascot, known, oddly enough, as Big Red. Siena's complete domination of fourth-seeded Vanderbilt in the first round was an even bigger surprise.
And then there was Davidson. The 10th-seeded Wildcats, led by middle-school student look-alike and point machine Stephen Curry, came out of nowhere to stun Georgetown in the second round and dominate Wisconsin in the third. Hailing from a school with an enrollment of just 1,700 students, the Wildcats put up a hell of a fight against top-seeded and eventual tournament winner Kansas in the Midwest regional final, falling one poorly executed final play short of becoming 2007's George Mason and advancing to the Final Four.
Even when the close games didn't end in upsets, they often provided great finishes. A number of top seeds survived scares in the early rounds. Top-seeded UCLA barely escaped with a 51-49 win over Texas A&M in the second round. Memphis, another number one seed, eked out a win against Mississippi State in their second round matchup. Second-seeded Duke needed some last-second heroics from Gerald Henderson to edge 15th-seeded Belmont in the first round, narrowly avoiding what would have been one of the most monumental upsets in tournament history. But sure enough, Coach K's boys came through for all us Duke haters, losing in classic Blue Devil fashion in the second round to West Virginia.
But other than a few great games and thrilling upsets, this year's tourney was mostly a snoozefest, boring game after boring game after boring game. I thought I was watching the NBA playoffs for a while there. Most of the games, in both the early and the late rounds, were essentially decided by halftime, with a 10-plus point differential separating the teams once the final buzzer had sounded. In the later rounds, where we expect to see close games between great teams, we saw hardly any. Just two of the 12 Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games were decided by fewer than 10 points. Yawn. A number of games between powerhouse schools that had the potential to be epic - Louisville-Tennessee and Stanford-Texas, for instance - weren't even close.
And this year's tournament was awfully chalky as well. In the East region, only the top four seeds survived the first two rounds, and in the South, the top three seeds and the fifth seed made it to the Sweet 16. And then there's the whole matter of all four number one seeds advancing to the Final Four - the first time in tournament history that's happened. At least with the four "best" teams playing during the last weekend, we could expect to be treated to some great games. But again, that's exactly what we didn't get. Tournament favorite North Carolina turned into a cellar-dwelling ACC team in its national semifinal, falling in embarrassing fashion to Kansas, 84-66, and UCLA lost by 15 to a suddenly hot-from-the-free-throw-line Memphis squad.
The tourney's one saving grace this year, for me at least, was Monday night's thrilling championship game, in which Kansas mounted a furious comeback in the final two minutes against Memphis, whose inability to sink free throws finally caught up to the Tigers. Kansas's win continued my string of finishing just out of the money in my dad's office pool. This year wasn't a total loss, however, as my third-place finish at least won me $150 to donate to the charity of my choice. Any suggestions?
Alex Mazerov '10 owes your agility 20 bucks. He would pay you, if only your agility was a charity.
