The Bench Jockeys

Although I typically root for the underdog, I can’t help but feel that VCU’s appearance in this year’s Final Four is rather ill-timed as it relates to the future of The Tournament.  Shaka Smart’s team is gritty and as one of the last four teams invited to the field of 68, they have shown what a streaky, mid-major team can do to a bracket during March Madness.  But VCU’s “Cinderella” status is not a result of expansion; rather, it is a consequence of the selection committees’ myopic vision that major conferences are deserving of an inordinate number of invitations to the dance.  Schools like Butler and VCU are pushed down the totem pole to 8 and 11 seeds and are deemed “upstarts” instead of recognized as legitimate programs capable of beating the squads from the major conferences like the Big East, Big Ten and SEC.   

So why did the Big East rack up 16% of the 2011 bids?   Read more »

The ACC has 3 teams remaining in the Sweet 16 from its original 4 entries (Duke, UNC, Florida State, and Clemson).  Meanwhile, the media bandwagon’s newly crowned Belles of the Ball – the Big East – on the other hand, have been absymal with 9 of its 11 teams knocked out by the end of the 3rd round.  The only remaining Big East teams are UConn and Marquette – which will need to exhume coaching legend Al McGuire  and his 1977 National Championship mojo to beat the Tar Heels on March 25th.

This is an example of a perfect subject for our category called, The Quick Hook.  We get in, we make our point and we get out.  Just like Czechoslovakia (or Wisconsin).