Scott Shanes retweetledi
Some thoughts on the NCAA Tournament thus far: Thought this year’s first round delivered more memorable moments & shots than last year. VCU comeback was insane, High Point/Wisconsin + Kentucky/Santa Clara were incredible games.
To have 13 of 32 games be decided by 20+ & have no 13-16 seeds winning is obviously tough for the sport because the massive upset is what captivates the country. That’s back-to-back seasons for the first time ever and just the 7th time since ‘85 that seeds 1-4 went unbeaten in first round.
Now: From 2007-09, only non top 3 seed to make Elite Eight was Davidson with Steph Curry. Get this: 12 of the 15 wins by 15 seeds in NCAAT history have happened 2012 or later. We’ve had two 16s win in last eight years after it never happened. So, it’s a sharp contrast after the upsets had been as plentiful as we’ve ever seen.
But the takes on this feel a bit extreme when literal blue bloods are getting tested or beat by schools with a tenth of their budget, if that.
Of course the massive climate change and chaos was going to affect the tournament. That being said, for Siena to do what they did vs. Duke and to watch Furman/Wright St/Kennesaw and some others compete, there were some more interesting games than we saw last year at this stage.
Will we see a non high major make the second weekend? It’s possible and needed for the sport — and that’s when you really feel the madness.
All this being said, there are a couple upset candidates who lost. Because of conference tournaments, we don’t have Belmont/Yale/Liberty etc in the field. Part of the blessing and curse for some MM leagues because there’s many situations where their best team doesn’t make the dance.
College basketball is quite different (the portal chaos plays a mammoth role too) but television ratings have never been better and in a make-or-miss sport, one Oweh miss would change how one feels. Credit to him for drilling it but that’s the thrill of these games. As for mid major coaches ripping high majors for not playing them, they’re right and credit to them for trying to create change but let’s not act like this is a new issue.
Upset possible? Yes. But there’s no denying it’s harder. There are still many fun aspects to the tournament that other sports would like to duplicate and it’s even more difficult to do so.
Let’s have a Saturday.
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