One of the complaints being leveled at the NCAA tournament this year is the abundance of basketball bluebloods presiding over this year's Sweet 16.
Indeed, this year's tournament has favored the classic programs, as the only double-digit seed still alive is 12-seed Arizona, a program that has won a national title, and features McDonald's All-American Chase Budinger, and that could hardly be labeled a Cinderella.
Why the lack of Cinderellas? Well some are crying foul that 'Zona was included over mid-major darling St. Mary's, given their late-season slump, but other than that selection, exactly what beef do people have with the selection committee? Penn State certainly had a case to be included, but there was an equally compelling case against the Lions as well.The true reason behind the lack of Cinderellas: the mid-majors (Cleveland St. and Western Kentucky notwithstanding) didn't come to play.
The venerable John Feinstein offered many opinions on the lack of representation from the little guy in this year's tourney, one of which was to force the last two at-large teams to play in the play-in game as opposed to the lowest rated teams overall.That suggestion, in my opinion, would be counterproductive to Feinstein's desire to see small conference teams knock off the big boys.
If say, Arizona and Wisconsin had met in the play-in game as opposed to Morehead State and Alabama State, what would have been accomplished? Instead of getting a nationally televised game with the entire nation watching, both schools would have been sent immediately to be pummeled by one of the blue bloods in the first round. With the play-in game, those teams not only get the chance to win an NCAA tournament game, but they get twice as much exposure as before, exposure that Arizona and Wisconsin don't need quite as much.
ESPN's Pat Forde laments the growing divide between mid-majors and major conference teams, but Forde doesn't actually offer up any evidence for this theory, other than the fact that this year's Sweet 16 doesn't include any Cinderellas.
Back in 2006, when George Mason's Final Four run led a parade of mid-majors that made deep tournament runs, all the talk was about parity. Now, just three years later, everyone is whining about the opposite thing.
If Western Kentucky had escaped against Gonzaga on Saturday, would we have parity or would we still be consolidating power at the top?
If the lack of small schools still left dims the tournament's star for you, then it's your loss. Duke-Villanova, UNC-Gonzaga, Syracuse-Oklahoma are just some of the epic matchups awaiting us. Big-time players, big-time coaches and big-time teams.
Label me excited.
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