March Sanity 03/23/2009
Posted by sportretort in Sports, Uncategorized.Tags: arizona, bracketology, cinderella, Creighton, march madness, ncaa basketball, ncaa basketball tournament, st marys, sweet 16, upsets
add a comment
What has happened to March Madness? Last year, for the first time, all 4 number one seeds reached the Final Four. 
Snooze. At least it was an anomaly, right? Then we got this years tournament. After the first week of play we are down to the sweet 16. And if you picked your bracket according to form, you would have 14 of the 16 teams. For the first time ever, all the first, second and third seeds advanced to the 3rd round. Throw in two of the foruth seeds, and you have only a five seed (oooh, there’s Cinderella) and 12 seed Arizona. Yes, that Arizona. Not Arizona A&M, or Western Arizona State, But the University of Arizona. The surprise team in this field stumbled through the regular season, probably should not have even been invited, and is making their, what, 25th straight appearance in the dance? Where’s the sex appeal?
When you only invite teams from the large conferences, this is what you get. My lord, they have turned the tournament into spring training. There was more excitement in the Team USA ‘s 9th inning rally over Puerto Rico to advance to the World Baseball Classic semi-final. Where are the upsets? Where are the buzzer beaters? They are all in the NIT. The evil step sisters won this one. In inviting only 4 teams from the mid major conferences out of the 34 at large bids, the selection committee made sure Cinderella did not make it to the dance. There is no glass slipper, only limited edition, over priced Nike’s. And that STINKS.
This tournament is becoming too predictable. The games are too pedestrian. Keep it up, NCAA, and the ratings will fall. No one will watch if they know what is going to happen. This tournament got it’s moniker from the mayhem of unpredictability. Those good teams that no one has heard of. Who hasn’t heard of Arizona? The 6th and 7th place teams the Big Ten, ACC, Big East, etc., may be better than St Mary’s or Creighton, but they have no more chance of winning this thing than those small schools. And if those small teams advance there is a buzz. Imagine if the 12th seed in the sweet 16 was St Marys. That’s all anyone would be talking about. Who’s talking about Arizona? No one. Take away Cinderella and you have just another tournament. We might as well go back to a 16 team field. This tournament grew because inclusion was good. Smaller teams made a name for themselves with an early round win or two. Who cares about the 6th place Pac Ten team (‘Zona) that finished 9-10 in their conference?
Sleepless in Omaha 03/13/2009
Posted by sportretort in Sports, Uncategorized.Tags: badgers, big ten, bluejays, bracketology, Creighton, march madness, missouri valley, mountain west, mvc, mwc, ncaa basketball, new mexico, steve alford, Wisconsin
1 comment so far
There have been many sleepless nights in Omaha this week. No, we are not talking the Warren Buffett household. True, he has lost $15 Billion in net worth in the last year, but he is still #2 in the world behind that Microsoft guy. We are talking another set of numbers. 73-49. That was the loss Creighton suffered in the MVC semi-finals. There was much dispare in Bluejay land after that. But fear not. The other numbers will prove out.
The good news is that Creighton has an RPI of 41, is the MVC regular season co-champion, and was riding an 11 game winning streak going into that semi-final against Illinois State. They finished the season at 26-7, and have a 10-4 record in games played outside of Omaha. They are in. They have been in all week, no matter what you read at ESPN.com and CBSsportsline.com. And even these sites are beginning to put them in the field.
The Big Ten will not get 8 teams into the dance. Wisconsin is 18-12 with a 4-9 record against RPI top 50 teams. They must beat Ohio State today to keep hope alive. Minnesota has lost 6 of their last 10 and play Michigan State today. And Michigan may need a win against Illinois today to be secure. One of those 3 teams will not make it in.
The Mountain West with 4 teams in? I don’t think so. New Mexico’s 3 losses to teams outside the top 100 and their own RPI of 58 means that they must win the MWC tourney to grab the automatic bid. Coach Alford has a track record of such runs, having done it twice in the Big Ten while head coach at Iowa, so it may happen. If they do, say goodbye to San Diego State of the MWC. This conference will get at most 3 bids.
It has been a crazy week of conference tournaments, but so far suprisingly few teams have snatched automatic bids that would not have been at large teams anyway. This should be a wide open March Madness field. And the Bluejays will be dancing.
Caps and Clowns 02/18/2009
Posted by sportretort in Sports, Uncategorized.Tags: Creighton, mike leach, mlb, MVC Basketball, red sox, salary cap, Sports, texas tech, yankees
add a comment
Red Sox owner John Henry is calling for a salary cap again. Gee, was he outbid by the Yankees again for someone he wanted? Seems he needs the cap only when he can’t get what he wants. Never one to show fiscal restraint, he had one of the top 3 payrolls during his World Series runs. Guess it was OK to pay all that money to Manny and Becket and Ortiz and Dice K, et al. What a crock that he is for a cap when he gets outbid. I think baseball needs a cap, but leave the hypocracy behind.
If Texas Tech wnats to let Mike Leach go, tell him. Why put the new limiting clauses in his extention offer at the last minute. All money from personal speaking appearances goes to TT? Buyout/termination penalties that are way outside of bounds? I can see a stiff buyout, but termination payouts of under 20%? TT is flushing away a coach that has shown them more success in his 9 years there than they had ever known before, including 11 wins and rankings as high as #2 in the nation last year. Good luck finding a more successful coach.
Creighton is playing the best ball in the MVC, should win Arch Madness and get into the Big dance, but it should not matter. with 22 wins currently, they should be in. If they and Illinois State do not make the field in favor of second division teams in other conferences, there is a problem with the selection committee.
Sportretort's Blog 