Wild college season continues
Upsets, close calls bode well for March Madness
Like most college basketball junkies, I spent the weekend watching dozens of games, flipping back and forth between varying upsets to see which, if any, teams would emerge as elite.
And yet again we were tricked into thinking there were elite teams.
Each program that had been dubbed elite — or at least elite enough to separate itself from the rest of the pack — lost at least once this past week with Villanova, Virginia and Purdue (twice) all falling. But what’s wrong with that anyway?
At one point Saturday, an analyst complained about a lack of consistency in college men’s basketball this season, suggesting the game has been made worse with a lack of standout teams. This is ridiculous.
First, we are likely on the brink of one of the most chaotic NCAA tournaments in memory. No team, or seed, will be safe. There’s a good chance we’ll get Cinderellas galore. Isn’t that why everyone loves March Madness in the first place?
Second, college basketball’s biggest problem is that outside of the die-hard fans, most don’t pay attention until March. Who cares about the regular season, they say. It’s hard to argue with them, especially when the favored team is always blowing out the group looking to pull off an upset. What’s more, top teams that slip up during a random week won’t often fall dramatically off seed lines, which lessens the blow of an upset.
Bottom line: Chaos in December, January and February will lessen the noise from those critics. We should all be rooting for “inconsistency” across the board (so long as you’re not coaching a college basketball team, at least. In that case, I understand why you’d be frustrated with an up-and-down effort.)
Third, another plus in so much craziness across college basketball — especially the Power Five — is the debate that comes with it.
On Sunday, the NCAA selection committee released its top 16 seeds as of this point in the season. The top four were what you’d expect: Virginia, Villanova, Xavier and Purdue.
Below them were several headscratching questions. How is Kansas a No. 2 after multiple home losses? What’s up with Duke being ahead of North Carolina, despite UNC having more Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 wins and four wins over the top 16, including Duke? How is Arizona considered the top team in the West over Gonzaga considering this weekend Arizona dropped a home game to unranked UCLA while the Zags blew out ranked Saint Mary’s on the Gaels’ home floor? What does Texas Tech, which is likely to win the Big 12, have to do to move up the seed line? And is Michigan State really a three seed?!
See, this is way more fun to argue about given all the upsets in college basketball this season.
A lack of consistency also makes bubble teams that much more interesting to follow. Take Washington, for example. The Pac-12 is having a rough season, with only one team (Arizona) coming even close to living up to its preseason expectations. Then here come the Huskies, who won nine games last season and have a new coach in Mike Hopkins, a longtime Syracuse assistant.
Washington beat Arizona at the buzzer last week and has wins at Kansas and at home against Southern California. Last week, the Huskies were an obvious NCAA tournament team. This week, after laying an egg at Oregon on Thursday (they scored 40 points, its fewest since 1991) and losing on a buzzer-beater in double overtime at Oregon State on Saturday, who knows if they’re a lock? They’ll have to play themselves in, like almost everyone else, which makes each game more intriguing.
On Friday, I visited with Hopkins in Corvallis and asked if this was a good year for his guys to sneak into the tournament, given that in such a weird season anything seems possible.
His response, which he gave with a laugh: “I think college basketball is weird every year.”
I’m more than OK with that. You should be, too.