| Krieger: Hold on, there's method to my Madness
The NCAA men's basketball tournament hit a legal snag Monday when Madness filed suit in linguistic court to have its name removed from tournament coverage.
"Where's the Madness?" Madness asked while demanding that the phrase "March Madness" be replaced on official NCAA materials with "March Anxiety."
This was bound to happen. When you have a commuter school go to the Final Four despite playing the preliminary rounds in glass slippers, as George Mason University did last year, what do you do for an encore?
The big surprise so far this year is Southern Cal. There's a Cinderella for you. Who knew Southern Cal had varsity sports?
You may counter with Butler and Southern Illinois, the remaining midmajors, but these guys haven't qualified. Not yet. Southern Illinois will play a higher-seeded team for the first time Thursday when the Salukis play Kansas. Butler's big upset so far as a No. 5 seed is beating Maryland, a No. 4.
Now, if the Bulldogs manage to beat Florida on Friday, or the Salukis beat Kansas, the Madness will, indeed, be back in the March. But that's not the way to bet. Not this year.
In fact, they could have played the first two rounds in the West Regional on paper and come out with the same result. All four top seeds made it through. Virginia Commonwealth was the only upset winner in the first round, and if you'd been paying any attention to Duke, you didn't think it was much of an upset. VCU could have been Cinderella, but Pitt took care of that.
Not one double-digit seed remains in the tournament. In fact, the lowest remaining seed is UNLV, a No. 7. The selection committee seems to have gotten the bracket almost exactly right.
But here's the thing: We don't want the selection committee to get it right. We want to criticize it for all the selection injustices in the week leading up to the tournament, then we want to be proven right by heartwarming stories such as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2005, not to mention the other University of Wisconsin this year, the only No. 2 seed taken down.
Mostly, we're getting a tiresome confirmation of existing rankings. All four No. 1 seeds made it through, three No. 2s and three No. 3s. Three of the four days of tournament play were routine. The best men's basketball game of the month so far is the Phoenix Suns' double-overtime victory at Dallas.
To make matters worse, one of the rare top seeds to be eliminated had the most compelling player in the tournament. If there's one guy this tournament needs, it's willowy Texas freshman Kevin Durant.
Instead, Kevin Durant's brief, required dalliance with higher education is presumed to be over because he will turn 19 this year and is therefore eligible for the NBA draft. Danny Ainge of the Boston Celtics was fined just for sitting next to his mom at the Big 12 tournament, so paranoid is the NBA of the perception that it is encouraging kids to leave school.
But, of course, it is. The league's decision to split the baby with the players union and establish a 19-year-old age limit left colleges in a tough spot, guaranteeing that a group of talented basketball players would turn them into the NBA's green room for one year each.
"Quite frankly, I'd rather have it the way it was than the way it is," Duke's Mike Krzyzewski said last year after returning from the World Championship. "Or have it two years in college. But I'm OK with the way it was because then nobody has to go through this thing of, 'Hey, I think I want to go to school,' when they really don't."
The kids are caught in the middle. Kevin Durant clearly developed a sincere attachment to his Texas teammates. But now that he's NBA eligible and projected as the first or second pick in the June draft, he will be advised that it is a financial no- brainer to take the money and run.
Frankly, that's about the most dramatic thing that's happened so far, and it's not even on the court.
Oh, there was Ohio State's Greg Oden, the other top pick in the draft if he comes out, shoving an Xavier player to the floor and fouling out as the top-seeded Buckeyes imploded against the ninth-seeded Musketeers in what would have been the most compelling upset of the tournament.
The referees decided it was not flagrant, which meant Xavier did not get the ball after its free throws, which gave Ohio State the opportunity to tie the game on a desperation three, then win in overtime.
It's been that kind of tournament for the top seeds. About the only thing that can save it is Bruce Pearl painting his chest orange again, as he did to join the student section and support the Tennessee women's team earlier this season. After his team puts Ohio State out of its misery, of course.
Now, that would be some Madness.
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