SELECTIVE REASONING
WITH our senses about to be stormed by the NCAA Tournament, just four things are a certainty:
1) We will see the same commercials over and over and over. Then over and over.
2) From the studio, Charles Barkley will try to come up with 25 different ways to say, “They have to rebound better.”
3) The sustaining achievement of beloved North Carolina coach Roy Williams will be spoken on TV without a mention that his keep-’em-eligible success — and UNC’s 2005 and 2009 national championships — was predicated on years of rank, systemic academic fraud including A’s scored in no-show classes.
For example, we will not be told that Williams’ 2005 star guard, Rashad McCants, made UNC’s Dean’s List — all A’s! — without attending a class.
4) No credit will be given to the schools that months ago affected NCAA Tournament inclusion and seeding.
For instance, we won’t hear about the role Texas Southern played in shaping this tournament. On Nov. 12, Texas Southern’s student-athletes were sent on a two-month, 16-game road trip in order for the school to be paid to lose at big basketball schools including Louisville, LSU, Cincinnati, TCU, Baylor and Arizona.
Texas Southern didn’t play a home game until Jan. 14.
Delaware State was paid to lose at, among other far-flung stops, Iowa, Indiana and SMU. Norfolk State was paid to lose at Purdue, Butler and Vanderbilt.
Despite real and imagined selection-committee formulas such as degree-of-difficulty schedules, sacrificial teams play a significant role in determining NCAA Tournament qualifiers and who they play/where they’re seeded — 20-11 looks and sounds a lot better than 18-13 or 17-14.
The same applies in football. Many schools became “bowl eligible” thanks to visits from paid-to-bebeaten teams.
Boston College finished the regular season 6-6, 2-6 in the ACC, but played in a bowl game thanks to a follow-the-money home mismatch win over Wagner.
So Sunday night, we encourage you to inspect the schedule of teams, especially those that just barely made it, and where they’re seeded.
If, say, Marquette makes it at 19-12, 10-8 in the Big East, consider its six pre-planned, money-made home wins vs. Houston Baptist, Howard, Western Carolina, St. Francis (Pa.), Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and IUPUI (Indiana U-Purdue U at Indianapolis).
Money can’t buy you love, but it can get you where you would love to be.