I got a Facebook message the other day telling me to add the official NCAA Tournament Bracket application in anticipation of the return of tourney pools next month. Even though there's still about four weeks between now and the tip-off to March Madness, it's good to know others out there share my excitement for the tourney this early.
The NCAA Tournament means agonizing over making your picks, clearing your schedule the first Thursday and Friday to take in a full day of exciting games and, in the end, losing the pool you entered to the person who knows the least about college basketball.
It also includes watching in amazement as a team you have never heard of goes on to win a game or two against apparently superior teams from major conferences. These "mid-major" schools (I know that term is frowned upon, but it's just so easy to use) are good for a few upsets every year and trying to figure out where they will occur within the brackets is one of the best parts about picking winners of each game. This year, the impact of these teams on the tourney is greater than ever.
Let me back up for a second. I have mentioned George Mason's 2006 trip to the Final Four in this column a number of times. I thoroughly enjoyed the run because my grandfather was a season ticket-holder from the mid-'90s until last season, and he would take me and my brothers to the games.
As a result, and despite my allegiance to Virginia athletics, there is a soft spot in my heart for the Patriots and Colonial Athletic Association basketball. I witnessed firsthand, week in and week out for years a conference that had some talented players and teams, but was considered no more than a one-bid league. If you wanted to get to the Big Dance, you had to win the CAA Tournament at the end of the year. That was just the way it was.
At least until 2006, when the CAA received an at-large bid for the first time in 20 years with Mason's invitation to the field of 65. Just getting into the tournament was a great feat for a CAA team; getting to the Final Four was astronomical. A commuter school familiar to D.C. metro area residents and few others became a household name nationally as fans were captivated by one of the best underdog stories ever.
It's not like mid-major teams haven't made good runs in the tournament prior to 2006. They have. Every year there is a Cinderella or two that gains a million fans for a week before shrinking back into obscurity when they honorably bow out of the tourney. The difference with Mason is that before heading back to Fairfax, they made it all the way to college basketball's Holy Grail. There's no going back to obscurity after something like that.
Off the top of my head I rattled off Valparaiso, Gonzaga, Kent State and Butler as teams that have become almost synonymous with mid-major Sweet 16 runs thanks to their accomplishments in the last decade of the tourney. Each of these teams, and about a dozen more since 1998, have had inspiring tournament showings that left them among the last 16 standing.
Most of these schools came out of nowhere to win those games and their successes added to the allure of March Madness. What these teams achieved was great, but still, none of them were able to get past the Sweet 16. When Mason did, it changed the college basketball landscape, redefining the very notion of what mid-major conference teams could do and raising their ceilings to a whole new level.
Since 2006, mid-major schools receive a lot more respect from the first game in November through the last one for the title. Years ago, a 24-2 Butler team or a 23-3 Drake team may have received consideration votes, but it would be crazy to think they would actually be nationally ranked. That is precisely the situation we have now. Butler is No. 8 in the AP poll and has been ranked since the first week of the season. Xavier (which took Virginia behind the woodshed with a 38-point blowout Jan. 3) is No. 10. Drake checks in at No. 16, and Saint Mary's is No. 23 in the nation.
While these teams all possess great records, their resumes each leave something to be desired. Butler and Drake have yet to beat a ranked team this year (though they will each get the chance when they face off in ESPN's BracketBuster this weekend). Xavier has some bad losses to mediocre Miami (Ohio) and Temple teams and while Saint Mary's did hand Drake one of its three losses, the Gaels have little else to brag about in terms of high-quality wins.
I am not trying to discredit these teams or take away from their accomplishments. The point I am trying to make is that while these teams deserve the recognition and rankings they have received, in the past they wouldn't have gotten it. Thanks in large part to Mason's run to the Final Four, the top teams from mid-major conferences are now included in the polls, talked about more regularly and expected to make significant impacts on the NCAA Tournament as equals, not as Cinderellas. That's why even casual college basketball fans now know about teams like Drake and Saint Mary's.
There are only a couple more weeks until the tournament begins, and the field should have considerably more mid-major teams than in the past. Maybe with all these good teams that non-college basketball fans haven't heard of, I can ride the mid-majors to a Facebook pool victory this year.
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