From Midnight Madness in November to Selection Sunday a few weeks ago, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas repeatedly stated that there are "no great teams" this season. A plethora of fans vehemently disagreed with Bilas, arguing that Bilas's statement was an insult to their respective schools.
I agreed with Bilas from the get-go; if you digest each elite team this year, you'll find multiple flaws in their systems, gaping holes that could be potentially disastrous come tourney time.
Compare present-day Kansas to last year's National Champions, North Carolina. Sheron Collins is a talented, smart point guard, leading the Jayhawks' dominance of the Big 12 this year, but Collins never had the explosive speed nor the steely confidence Ty Lawson possessed; Lawson's ability to seize control of a game is the reason the Tar Heels were the clear favorites last season. Cole Aldrich might have the look of one of the scariest Centers in the game, but has the tendency to play soft, sometimes not even demanding the ball in the post. In stark contrast, Tyler Hansbrough, with his intensity level bordering insanity, was aptly nicknamed Psycho-T by his coach, Roy Williams. Coach Williams said numerous times last year that Hansbrough is the hardest worker he has ever coached. This picture does justice to Hansbrough's intense style of play.
The 2009 Tar Heels were superior to the 2010 Jayhawks in every aspect: the Heels played harder, worked harder, had more talent, had better chemistry, had experience beyond their years, had better playmakers, and had better leaders. That is why Jay Bilas categorizes the '09 Tar Heels as a "great team."
That is also why there is no great team this year. I compared Kansas to North Carolina simply because Kansas was the consensus choice to cut down the nets this weekend. If the Jayhawks couldn't match up with the Tar Heels, then no team in this year's bracket could.
The beauty of having no great teams in a season is - more often than not - the potential of having a great tournament. Once again, Bilas nailed this right on the noggin. The first weekend saw 2-seed Villanova make a desperate rally just to force OT against 15-seed Robert Morris (a 15-seed has not defeated a 2-seed since Hampton shocked Iowa State in 2001), eventually squeaking by the Colonials, 73-70. Naturally, Nova went down in the second round to a sound Saint Mary's squad, led by big man Omar Samhan, one of the many tournament darlings this year.
Before the upset over Villanova, the 10-seed Gaels knocked out 7-seed Richmond, 80-71, making Saint Mary's one of the eight double-digit seeds to advance to the second round. Joining the Gaels in busting the nation's brackets were 10-seed Georgia Tech smothering 7-seed Oklahoma State, 64-59; 13-seed Murray State stunning 4-seed Vanderbilt at the buzzer, 66-65; 12-seed Cornell toying with 5-seed Temple, 78-65; 11-seed Washington continuing their hot streak, beating 6-seed Marquette late, 80-78; 10-seed Missouri adding to 7-seed Clemson's first round woes, 86-78; 11-seed Old Dominion staving off a fierce 6-seed Notre Dame rally, 51-50; and the upset of the first round, 14-seed Ohio (seeded 9th in their conference tournament) dominating Big East Runner-up, 3-seed Georgetown, 97-83. How does a team ranked 9th in the MAC utterly destroy a team playing for the Big East Championship? They don't call it March Madness because it's predictable; they call it March Madness because the little teams like Ohio, Cornell, Murray State, and Old Dominion defy logic and advance.
By Thursday night, I was already content with this year's tourney; I had seen more upsets in one day than I had in 2007's entire tournament. Little did I know that Thursday was merely the beginning of a beautiful three weeks. Round two brought more bracket busters, including 11-seed Washington dancing through 3-seed New Mexico to the Sweet 16, 82-64; 6-seed Xavier holding off 3-seed Pittsburgh, 71-68; the aforementioned Saint Mary's upset over 2-seed Villanova; and, what is being called the biggest upset since George Mason over UCONN in 2006, 9-seed Northern Iowa overwhelming 1-seed Kansas with their smothering defense, dethroning the overall number one seed in the tournament, 69-67. It was the first time a 1-seed failed to make it out of the first weekend since Kentucky stumbling to UAB, also a 9-seed, in 2004.
Remember, this is a Jayhawk squad that was a very good team, but not a great team. And they were the TOP SEED in the tournament. And 42.7% of the 4.8 Million brackets entered in ESPN's Tournament Challenge declared Kansas the victor. I even picked Kansas to dance all the way to the National Championship, eventually falling to West Virginia. So, naturally, the very-good-but-not-great top seed couldn't survive the Missouri Valley Champs.
In four short days, March became Mad again. Not one region included all four of its top seeds, and only one - the South Region - involved three of the top four (1-Duke, 3-Baylor and 4-Purdue). In most years, the fun stops after the first weekend and the chalk begins to take over the tourney. Luckily for us, this isn't most years. No Great Team was the smartest thing Bilas has ever said, and he says a lot of smart things.
While 12-seed Cornell couldn't keep up with 1-seed Kentucky (losing 62-45) and 9-seed Northern Iowa came up short against 5-seed Michigan State (falling 59-52), there were two upsets that shocked the Nation almost as much as Northern Iowa: 2-seed Ohio State, with Kansas out of the picture, was the new favorite to cruise through the Midwest Region. So what does Ohio State do? They step up for the fans and allow 6-seed Tennessee sneak away with the win, 76-73.
The big winner was 5-seed Butler's defensive dominance over 1-seed Syracuse, eventually icing the game with clutch free throws, 63-59. The talk all year had been about the Orange's wicked 2-3 zone and how nobody could beat it. Like so many teams in the tourney, Butler proved the experts wrong, hitting virtually every perimeter shot, which subsiquently crippled Jim Boeheim's work of art. The Bulldogs also proved their in-your-face man-to-man defense is a force to be reckoned with.
With two 1-seeds being sent home early, the Elite Eight was set up to be surprisingly intriguing. The Midwest Region was guaranteed to have, at best, a 5-seed as a Final Four participant. Butler was just one win away from being the first team since UCLA in 1962 to play the Final Four in their hometown. The East Region played host to the top two seeds in the region in Kentucky and West Virginia, but neither school had been to the Final Four in the last decade, with the Mountaineers absent since 1959. 3-seed Baylor was playing a virtual home game against 1-seed Duke in the South Region in Houston, with the Bears having returned to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1951 and the Blue Devils back in the Regional Final for the first time since 2004, which, for Duke, is almost as serious a drought as Baylor's extended absence.
As most of you know, when it comes to sports, I'm about as unlucky as a person can get. That's why Saturday turned out to be one of the most special sports days of my short life. Not only did Butler complete their dream of playing at home in the biggest stage, but West Virginia also found a way to take down mighty Kentucky with an impenetrable defense. For those of you who don't know, the Mountaineers are considered my third favorite college basketball team, with Butler sitting pretty as my sixth favorite team. To see both win - to pull off upsets, really - in the same day was one of the most satisfying experiences I can recall. It was a perfect sports day in the World of Cheyne Heiny.
With the Final Four set, I can easily say this is the best tournament, from start to finish, that I have ever witnessed. I also find that painfully ironic if Duke were to cut down the nets next Monday. As an avid Tar Heel fan, how can I possibly say the best March Madness in the history of March Madnesses ended with my archrival hoisting the boring, yet beautiful, NCAA Plaque? That just goes to show you how Mad this March has been. It also seems fitting to me that a Duke boy (Bilas) called this five months ago.
Here's Jay Bilas's take on the Final Four:
Here's Andy Katz's Final Four Primer:
You can't have March Madness without Dickie V, right? Here's his Players to Watch:
I'll have more on the Final Four teams, but for now, congratulations to Michigan State, Butler, Duke and West Virginia for their outstanding seasons and for winning their respective regions.
Its been mad for sure
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