April 7th, Tuesday/ PHEW! The NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament is finally over and, man, what a ride! The University of North Carolina took the top prize by beating the crap out of Michigan State and all is right with the world. Well... Not really.
For whatever reason, there is a lot of drama attached to the tournament. Maybe there is a general concensus that the games are not enough to create the kind of anticipation the NCAA tournament committee thinks is necessary to make the games a success. Here is what goes into building the tourney: First, the college basketball season has to start. The Division I members are the only division that is deemed important, according to who is in charge of making that determination.(All of the other divisions in college basketball have a tournament!) However, Division I gets all the play!/ There is a pre-conference schedule, a conference schedule, a post season conference tournament, and then the BIG ONE... THE NCAA DIVISION I TOURNAMENT! Taa daaaaaa...
Now the fun starts. First it has to be determined who is going to play in the tournament. There is a set mumbo-jumbo criteria the teams have to follow to be selected. If they meet said criteria, the committee selects the teams. Then there are the brackets. The brackets place the teams in the order of games that are to be played. The drama that goes along with that is stifling. There are the favorites, the bubble teams, the conference winners, the selected teams, the seeds, who gets what seed, what region each team is going to, the 4 regions, who has an advantage who is at a disadvantage, who belongs, who does not belong, what is fair, what is not fair, blah...blah... yap...yap...
Then there is the mystery of the seeding. There is a (dubbed) "Cinderella" team. That is a team that will go deep into the tournament surpassing everyone's expectations. There is the dreaded 12-5 seeding. That's the bracket selection where a #12 seed will beat a #5 seed. How that happens I have no idea. There are the #1 seeds, who are supposed to be better than everybody else. Which brings me to the favorites... Which team is supposed to win? Who the hell knows? It's a tournament! All things being equal, it's a crap shoot. Really?
Okay, all of that being said, it turns out that Michigan State makes it to the finals to play UNC. Michigan State, a #2 seed played Louisville, a #1 seed and beat them to get to the Final 4. Then they beat UCONN, another #1 seed to get to the championship game to play Mighty Carolina who was the preseason pick to win it all! Nice setup!
THEN... Some spin doctor decided to add extra pressure on Michigan State... Michigan State was mandated to save America! That's right! They were told that they were the cloud with the silver lining that would make the people of Michigan feel better in spite of the failing economy, in general, and the crumbling car industry, in particular! Never mind that Carolina was steam rolling over everybody in the tournament and that should be Michigan State's focus. Save the world boys from something you had nothing to do with creating! Help people forget the dire straights they are in for a few days through your representation. HELP!!!
So, here we are... The day after... Carolina gutted Michigan State like a fish! It was surreal to watch the Spartans forget everything they knew how to do and suffer through 40 minutes of pain! Why not just go to the dentist and have all of your teeth pulled out? (Without gas or the needle!)And then... and then... Wake up the next day, look out of your window and realize that the state of Michigan is no better off than it was the day before, you played the worst game of your life on the biggest stage of your life and be recognized as a failure, just like the economy has failed the people you were mandated to represent! DAMN life ain't fair!
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