Too many top teams spoil ‘Madness’
Its landscape-once thorny, jagged and teeming with feral packs of mid-majors-has calmed and plateaued considerably over the past few years, to the point where a blue-blooded two-seed (Michigan State) or three-seed (Villanova) reaching the Final Four is deemed a sizable surprise. (This despite the fact that Tom Izzo and Pittsburgh wrote the book on bracket-busting-the former by overachieving; the latter, under. More on the former later.)
The 12-seeds are still capable of winning a game or two-as evident by Arizona, Western Kentucky and Wisconsin’s performances this year-but they don’t get past the Sweet 16. The number of at-large mid-majors has plummeted since 2004, from 12 then to only four this year. And the only true Cinderella we’ve had since George Mason’s impossible Final Four run in 2006 was Davidson last year, and she was a 10-seed led by one of the best players in the country (Stephen Curry). All of the above has turned the blockbuster phrase “March Madness” into a lackluster paradox.
But not all of the tournament’s reversals have been for the worse.
To those of you mourning the death-or at least, absence-of unpredictability, I’d like to present you with the following (navy and) silver lining.
Duke sucks.
Okay, Duke doesn’t suck. But since their 2001 championship, they have marched past the Sweet 16 only once (in 2004). That makes them less Elite than Xavier.
Last year, Duke went down in the second round. The year before that, it was the first. This year-purportedly playing with a chip on their shoulders-they beat 15-seed and tourney virgin Binghamton, scraped by seventh-seeded Texas and then got blown out by Villanova (77-54). I’d picked them to win the game, but I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as Duke’s newfound postseason mediocrity dawned on me.
It’s become their inglorious MO: Play well in the regular season, dominate the ACC tourney (they’ve won eight of the past 11 titles) and flame out in the big dance. Once the music hits, these Blue Devils become wallflowers-then they wilt. They are the Anti-Cinderella: With most of the country rooting against them but begrudgingly expecting them to win a few games, Duke underachieves; simultaneously elating the masses and-through their bracket damage-giving people one more reason to hate them.
Of course, the rationale persistently preached by Duke fans (and Yankees fans, and Notre Dame’s-none of whom have any recent championships to brag about) is that everyone hates them because they’re great. They are the class of college basketball and especially the ACC; they have the best coach and the best players; they always win, and that’s why everyone roots against them-because Duke is Goliath, and everyone else is David.
The only problem with that argument is that it’s utterly, undeniably false.
Duke isn’t even the best team in the suddenly very shallow ACC-that would be their arch-nemesis, North Carolina which won the national title in 2005, reached the Elite Eight in 2007, reached the Final Four last year and seems poised to cut down the nets again this year.
Consequently, one could make the argument that Mike Krzyzewski isn’t even the best coach in his conference, let alone the country. Since he took the reins at UNC, Roy Williams has proven himself to be, at the very least, a superior recruiter of talent-particularly big men-so that even when his teams “underachieve,” they still reach the Elite Eight. It’s hard to argue with that kind of success.
That being said, the real competition for the Best Coach Award is T to the Izzo, the man who has sent every single senior he’s ever coached at Michigan State to the Final Four. For those keeping track, that’s five of the past 11. For those not keeping track, that’s absurd.
All of the sudden, the man who had hovered under the radar, in the shadow of names like Krzyzewski, Williams, Pitino and Knight, is being called The Coach of His Generation. While those other guys are stripping down to their boxers and filming corny Guitar Hero commercials, Izzo is winning ballgames-the ones that matter and despite a near-annual dearth of big-time talent at his disposal.
At the moment, at least, it’s very hard to argue that he is the best coach in the country.
So if Izzo is the best coach, and if UNC is the best team, where does that leave the Blue Devils?
The same place they’ve been for seven of the past eight years-flopping onto their couches, watching the Final Four on television and wondering why everyone hates them so much.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 3 2009. Filed under Opinion.
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