For me, the sporting world doesn’t get any better than this weekend. Part of it has to do with baseball’s opening day on Monday. As far as I’m concerned, opening day should be considered a national holiday and no one should be required to attend school or work. But baseball is only part of the magic of this weekend.
Saturday and Monday mark the culmination of NCAA Tournament excitement. Three weeks of white-knuckle, win-or-go-home, intense basketball will come to a close on Monday night. Oklahoma, Maryland, Kansas or Indiana will leave Atlanta as National Champions. Once again this year the tournament did not disappoint.
If you’ve already torn your bracket into shreds, don’t worry too much. You’re not alone. I would be willing to bet there aren’t many people left with all Final Four teams remaining. This year’s tournament has definitely had its share of upsets and close calls, blow outs and buzzer beaters and, of course, heroes and goats.
A great season can be marred with a single free throw, as Duke’s Jason Williams found out. Duke finished 34-4 and won the ACC Tournament, yet this season could be considered a disappointment for the Blue Devils because they did not make it back to the Final Four to defend their championship. Williams came back to college for another year, even though he could have been the number one pick in last year’s NBA draft.
He had a spectacular season. He was the catalyst behind Duke’s incredible regular season; he will no doubt be voted the NCAA’s Player of the Year. But his season ended in tears and disappointment because he missed a game tying free throw. Ah well, such is life.
The University of Kansas’s head coach, Roy Williams, is one of the greatest coaches in the game today. Before he is done, he may be one of the greatest coaches ever. He holds the best winning percentage among active coaches-he has won around eight out of every 10 games he has coached. He has averaged 28 wins a season the past six seasons. Twenty-eight wins. I don’t know if SLU has had 28 wins in the last two years combined. Yet Williams doesn’t get the respect he deserves because of his inability to win in the tournament. His reputation isn’t that of a great coach, but of a great coach who chokes when it matters.
That is what this tournament can do. Forget the past five months. Forget all the wins, forget all the statistics. If you can’t get it done in March, you get no respect.
Look at the Missouri Tigers. Remember way back in early December when they came in and narrowly beat SLU? That happened to be the last high point for their regular season. They played bad. They lost. They stumbled into the tournament, barely making it in as a No. 12 seed. Critics called the season a major disappointment, the press was ripping Quin Snyder, questioning everything from his coaching ability to his choice of hair gel. Suddenly, the Tigers win three games in the tournament and everything is forgiven. Snyder is called a genius. Everyone again raves about his hairstyle. The Missouri Tigers went from a team having a terribly disappointing season to a great team in three games.
That is what the tournament can do. Two or three great games and all of a sudden you’re a great team.
Teams like Southern Illinois, Creighton and UNC-Wilmington found out how great it feels to pull off the upset.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I’d say two of my favorite memories from this tournament were the game-winning 3-pointer for Creighton and watching the Wilmington bench go crazy when they beat a heavily favored USC team.
It all comes to an end this weekend. By Monday night we will know who the best team in the land really is. It could be Kansas, giving Williams his first title and finally silencing his critics. It could be Maryland, who is looking to erase the pain of last year’s Final Four, when they squandered a 22-point lead to Duke.
It could be Oklahoma, who may have slipped under the radar as the best team you haven’t seen play yet. Or it could be Indiana, a team no one outside of Bloomington, Ind. thought had any chance to make it this far.
Who do I think will end up as the champion? Going into the tournament I thought we would see a match-up between the two ACC heavyweights, but with only four teams left, I think it’s the Big XII that will end up shining, with Kansas beating Oklahoma.
No matter how it plays out, expect to be entertained this weekend. There will be heroes, there will be chokes and there could be upsets. Most importantly, there will be great basketball.
