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It’s as much a March tradition as the ever-popular 12-5 upset. After an NCAA Tournament win, great stories emerge, tales of personal triumph in the face of adversity, winning for more than the players on the court or the fans in the stands.
But why wait until Thursday to hear about them? Here are five story lines to follow on the opening weekend:
Golden opportunities
Kent State should change its nickname from the Golden Flashes to the Second Chances. Coach Rob Senderoff served a 30-month show-cause penalty for NCAA recruiting violations as an assistant at Indiana in 2008, and star forward Jimmy Hall was one of four Hofstra men’s basketball players arrested and charged with felony burglary after admitting to stealing more than $10,000 worth of laptop computers, iPads and other items from fellow students in November 2012.
Together, they led Kent State, the 14 seed in the South facing No. 3 UCLA on Friday in Sacramento, Calf., to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008. Hall, a Brooklyn native who attended junior college at ASA in Brooklyn after the Hofstra incident, was one of the best mid-major big men in the nation this year, averaging 18.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists while shooting 52 percent from the field.
5 for Flyers
Bravo, NCAA selection committee. Whether done intentionally or not, sending Dayton, the seventh seed in the South, to Indianapolis was a stroke of genius. It’s just a two-hour drive from the Fort Wayne, Ind., home of former center Steve McElvene, who tragically passed away last May after he collapsed and couldn’t be resuscitated. He died of an enlarged heart at the age of 20. McElvene’s mom, Jenell Shoals, reportedly will attend the Flyers’ opener against No. 10 Wichita State on Friday.
Dayton honored McElvene before their season opener, and the Flyers wore a “5,” McElvene’s number, above their hearts on their jerseys this season. They can pay further tribute to him with a few wins this weekend.
Persevering Bulldogs
Tragedy upon tragedy has struck the Butler basketball team. Two popular former players — Andrew Smith and Joel Cornette — died eight months apart in January and August last year, respectively. Cornette died from from coronary atherosclerosis at the age of 35, and Smith died at just 25 from cancer. Bulldogs basketball analyst Emerson Kampen’s 8-month-old son died of a severe neurological disorder less than a month after Smith’s death.
With so much to play for, the Bulldogs were one of the big surprises of the season, finishing second in the Big East after being picked sixth. They are the fourth seed in the South Region, where they will open with No. 13 Winthrop on Thursday in Milwaukee.
Family affairs
Get ready to hear about the Drew, Pitino and Miller families. The Millers and Drews will have a pair of brothers — Bryce (Baylor) and Scott Drew (Vanderbilt) and Archie (Dayton) and Sean Miller (Arizona) — coaching in the NCAA Tournament. Fortunately for the respective parents of the families, the odds are enormously long they will face one another. Baylor and Vanderbilt are in different regions, and Arizona and Dayton are on opposite sides of the bracket.
The Pitinos are a first, the first father (Rick, top) and son (Richard, bottom) duo both coaching in the dance the same year. Like the Drews, the Pitinos could only face one another if they both made the Final Four, though with Louisville (Rick’s team) a No. 2 seed in the Midwest and Minnesota (Richard’s) a No. 5 in the South, it isn’t an impossibility.
He’s Daum good
He’s the best player in the country nobody knows about, a dynamite-shooting big man who had to redshirt at South Dakota State as a freshman because he wasn’t good enough. Meet Mike Daum (left), the secondleading scorer in the nation at 25.3 points per game. The 6-foot-9, 245-pound sophomore led the 16th-seeded Jackrabbits to the Summit League crown with memorable a 37-point, 12-rebound masterpiece, South Dakota State’s second straight NCAA Tournament bid, and he will have to replicate that performance against Gonzaga, the top seed in the West, for SDSU to stay in the game. —