It is the time the tom-toms beat loudest, knocking out incessant tunes that celebrate the underdog. It is the time Cinderella, broken nails and all, is showered with attention. It is the time that teams with nicknames known only to their fans are suddenly on everyone’s lips.
It is the time for hope, for outsized dreams, for imaginations that are boundless and aspirations that soar and finally settle in the clouds. But most of all, it is the time of hype, endless hype, incessant hype that in the end is little more than blather.
That is the reality, no matter the sweetness of the stories celebrating Bucknell, Belmont, Monmouth, Montana, Albany and South Alabama. They may produce some merriment along the way, as the 14th-seeded Bison (that’s Bucknell, because it is that time of the year) did last March when it upset third-seeded Kansas.
But when the NCAA tournament train pulls into Indianapolis for the Final Four, none of them will be on it. By then they will have been consigned to the memory bank, which is where kids of the moment always land, and the only passengers on it will be the usual suspects.
That is the most relevant fact to remember, no matter the controversy the NCAA selection committee created. It always arises the morning after, and it was inevitable this year when it chose two teams from the Colonial Athletic Association and four from the Missouri Valley.
There can be no argument over its choice of Duke as the top seed or with the Blue Devils being followed in order by Connecticut, Villanova and Memphis. The Big Ten received its expected six bids, Michigan long out of consideration after its late swoon, and the expanded Big East got a record-setting eight, including Marquette as a seventh seed.
But it did not include Cincinnati, which was spurned after getting upset by Syracuse in the opening round of the Big East tournament.
The Bearcats, who opened the season in turmoil after the firing of Bob Huggins, clearly overachieved, ending 19-11 overall and 8-8 in the Big East. Those credentials appeared solid enough for an invitation, yet the committee ignored them while giving at-large bids to George Mason of the Colonial and Bradley, Northern Iowa and Wichita State of the Valley.
“I think the new path we had to go down was to evaluate a number of schools from those types of conferences and contrast them with teams from the supposed power conferences,” selection committee Chairman Craig Littlepage said Sunday night. “What we found out about midmajors and power conferences, in listening to conference-monitoring reports, in listening to coaches and athletic directors, is there’s great basketball being played across the country. We feel the teams we evaluated had very good seasons and that the results will be seen in the coming weeks.”
The results of their evalutions handed the Valley as many bids as the Atlantic Coast, the Big 12 and the Pac-10, which was controversial enough. But even more controversial was the presence of George Mason, whose non-conference schedule included not one tournament team.
“I think we put together a solid and diverse field,” Littlepage said. But solid is an adjective best fit for the abs, and diversity is more welcome on a menu. The more appropriate choice would have been Cincinnati, which constantly faced tournament teams even as it slugged its way to a .500 record in the Big East.
Even a quick study shows that three weeks from now, no one will be talking about the Patriots (George Mason) or the Braves (Bradley), the Panthers (Northern Iowa) or the Shockers (Wichita State). History virtually screams that they and all the other dreamers will be gone, and only the familiar names will remain.
They are the ones that have long dominated the back end of this tournament, which has evolved into the private playpen of the six major conferences. They have provided every national champion since 1981, and Louisville, which won in 1980 as a member of the late Metro Conference, is now in the Big East.
They have provided 22 of the 24 teams that have reached the Final Fours in this century. And the exceptions–Marquette in 2003 and Louisville last year, both from Conference USA–were hardly clad in rags. The Golden Eagles, also now in the Big East, were blessed with the wondrous skills of Dwyane Wade, and the Cardinals had long been part of the game’s royalty.
Even this century’s regional finals have been largely the province of the Big Six. Louisville made it last year, top-ranked St. Joseph’s the year before, Marquette in 2003 and John Chaney’s Temple Owls in 2001. Joining them were Tulsa in 2000, Kent State in 2002 and Xavier in 2004, and they could well be considered dreamers who did well. But then look what happened to them: Illinois hired Bill Self away from the Golden Hurricane, Arkansas hired Stan Heath away from the Golden Flashes and Ohio State hired Thad Matta away from the Musketeers.
That alone shows the protective nature of the Big Six, who have accounted for 41 of the 48 regional finalists in this century.
So those tom-toms? Close your ears. And Cinderella? Don’t fall for her. And those obscure nicknames? Really, no reason to learn them.
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Those schools are invited only to graze at the hors d’oeuvres table. But never are they good enough to partake in the final feast.
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