2008 NCAA Tournament Upsets

There is nothing more emblematic of NCAA March Mania/Mayhem/Madness than the bracket and filling it out. And there is nothing that writers love more than these four days when they get to make crazy and outrageous claims with very little consequence. "West Virgina in the Final Four?" Sure, why not. "Belmont upsetting Duke?" Anything's possible in March!

By next Monday, we all get to speak with impunity for all of our bonehead picks and predictions. I'm not really sure how this is fair, but I'm taking advantage of it anyway. Here are some of my thoughts for the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

North Carolina is very good. But so is Kansas, UCLA, Memphis, Tennessee, Texas, Duke and Georgetown. As all of the controversy stirred on Sunday with Bobby Knight and Jay Bilas claiming that it was unfair to put teams into the NCAA Tournament that can't win a national championship(a la South Alabama), writers all across the country began to express their outrage and defend the mid-majors with the power of their keyboards.

The Boston Globe's Bob Ryan claimed that the fight for the National Championship was not nearly as intriguing as the coming-out parties of the country's smaller schools in the tournament's first weekend. The Star-Ledger's Tom Luicci also commented on the numbers of schools from the Big Six conferences taking up undue amounts of spots in a Tournament that purportedly represents the best basketball in the country.

But, of course the NCAA Tournament represents the best basketball in the country, says Jay Bilas. That basketball is only played in the Big Six conferences anyway, he argues. Mid-major programs need to stop asking for more and be thankful for what you have...hey, look we even matched you up against your mid-major brethren so that at least some of you can win first round games!

But by Monday afternoon, the political power hour is over. Virginia Tech and Arizona State have been shipped off to the NIT and the country's 10th best team was given a 7 seed. Now we all have to deal with it. So here are some of my picks for the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

"Sleeper or SLEEPER"

When we throw around the term of sleeper, I think of two different types of teams. On the one hand, you have a very low seeded team that could knock off someone in the first round with a bit of luck and completely throw off a bracket before getting dropped in the round of 32 or 16. On the other hand, you have a solid team that was not given enough credit in its seeding and has a very viable chance to make an Elite Eight or Final Four run. Teams from the first camp are usually automatic bid low-majors, while the second is filled with underachieving BCS-conference schools and disrespected mid-majors.

My first category sleeper is Siena. Most Davidson folks know that Wildcat forward Steve Rossiter's brother, Ryan, is a member of the Siena Saints. The Saints are led by Edwin Ubiles and Alex Franklin, and their resume includes a major OOC victory over Stanford back in November. Vanderbilt, on the other hand, is a special case team who has built up some big wins over top programs in their funky arena in Nashville. Unfortunately for the Commodores, the St. Pete Times Forum does not have team benches lined up along the baseline. Look for Siena to pull the upset.

Bonus Upset Pick: Cornell over Stanford.

Since it's way too cliche to talk about Davidson or Butler or Drake or St. Mary's in the second category sleeper, I will throw out two schools that have certainly been noticed but probably overlooked in the grand scheme of their major conferences: Pitt and Clemson.

Both teams will be tired but very battle-tested after advancing to the Championship games of the Big East and ACC tournaments. Pitt was the first team to knock off Duke this season, but their 12/20 OT victory over the then-9th ranked Blue Devils was largely overshadowed by inconsistent play in conference. But Pitt's run in the Big East tournament capped by a huge win championship victory over Georgetown has the Panthers clicking at the right time. As long as they don't get tripped up by Oral Roberts, Pitt could step up big in a possible Sweet 16 game against Memphis in Houston.

Clemson enters the NCAA Tournament with plenty of confidence after pulling off a rare win against Duke and nearly upsetting North Carolina for their first-ever ACC title. This Clemson team is extremely athletic and if they can be disciplined with getting back after a team breaks their press and with hitting free throws (won the game against Duke, lost it against UNC), they can make a run to the Final Four.

Bonus Big Run Sleepers: Davidson, Butler, St. Mary's, Drake.

NCAA Football or NFL Development League?

Recently, there has been an incredible buzz around the Clemson football community surrounding the sub-par recruiting class that they pulled in this year. Most recently, several internet stories leaked out about the workings of the Athletic Department's Academic Review Board which oversees all recruits and informs the coaching staff whether or not the Department will accept and admit them.

Many Clemson coaches have been more than frustrated at the handicaps that his Board puts on their ability to out-recruit their regional ACC and SEC rivals. They have also claimed that several players that the Board has turned away were actually distinctive victims of such things as academically rigorous private high schools, GPA ambiguity about JUCO/prep school incomers, and economically challenging social conditions. The Board has come under great criticism for not allowing the athletic teams, especially football, reach the goals of excellence that the university has insisted on achieving.

More interesting about this recent controversy has been the dialogue and conversation amongst larger fan groups, and how some of these issues relates to the interaction between the Davidson Athletic Department and its admission office.

Throughout the entire week, blogs, radio talk shows, and message boards have less than delicately phrased the question as such: Do we aim for academic mediocrity with the chance of keeping a handful of athletes above a 3.0 GPA, or do we stop being paranoid stuffy pricks and go for a National Championship?

For many fans of the program, they see such academic restraints as being totally irrelevant and ridiculous for a school with the size and national athletic notoriety of Clemson. They don't want to be compared to the "stuffy know-it-alls" from Duke and are insulted that the administration is apparently attempting to do such a thing.

This blog helped to break the story in a way that exhibited more deliberation and precision than most talk shows. He seems to understand the difference between discarding all academic integrity and locking our doors to all that knock. He notes the ways in which the University can still admit particular athletes that can help strengthen the school's top moneymaker, football, while not letting every single recruit into the school's student body.

However, as the article progresses, one can't help but ask the question of this writer and of all the affirmative comments to his page: are college sports really just the minor leagues? If Clemson has fans that are actually envious of Alabama's situation and hateful towards NCAA compliance officers, what is the point of keeping up the charade? The athletic department should just go ahead and pay the 80 players what they are worth and stop taking taxpayers money to be pretending to provide them with a "scholarship."

It is remarkable to me how far gone this entire situation has progressed while no one has stood up to say that perhaps it is a good thing to weed out student-athletes who would not try or succeed in the classroom. Perhaps academics isn't just the hidden treasure of snobby, white kids that go to Duke or Davidson. What would happen if we encouraged the NCAA's crackdown on schools like Alabama or UGA or USC? What if we actually supported Clemson's decision to weed out recruits and force the coaching staff to build their team off of a new form of student-athlete. All of these writers claim that big schools like Clemson will turn into the patsies of the Dukes of the world who just "go through the motions on Saturday." I feel insulted that it is implied that students who work hard in the classroom and are naturally smart can do no more on the athletic field than go through the motions.

I am not ignorant, however, of the fact that schools like Duke, Davidson, Harvard, etc. do not sport football powerhouses. That is because a successful football program requires large recruiting classes, oogles of money, and support. Smart schools cannot find 85 4.0 kids that can also run a 4.5 40. That is not because they aren't out there. It is merely a law of averages and probability. It has nothing to do with smart people being athletically untalented.

Which brings me to Davidson's case. The school is currently more swept up in external pressure on the Admissions office to provide the basketball program with a few breaks. They believe that the basketball program is one of the school's greatest PR assets and that it should use the program to generate interest, success and money. The Admissions department and the wider faculty at Davidson have been very suspectful at loosening boundaries for academic exception, largely because of the happenings at schools like Clemson and Alabama. They refuse to allow basketball recruits to announce their decisions outside of the normal admissions calendar and rarely provide any widespread PR support of Davidson athletics outside of its quaintness ("ooh, smart people try hard in the classroom and on the court").

I think that much can be learned from both of these instances, schools like Clemson should maintain the Academic Review Board while examining character and contextual profiles to find out whether a potential recruits' academic struggles emanate from a source outside of his control. Clemson fans, however, should make more conscious efforts to realize the true beauty of the student-athlete, instead of disregarding the ideal out of cynical spite and ignorance.

Davidson should continue to remember the remarkable nature of its student-athletes and be more receptive to their needs for success while at the school. Admissions should allow the smart, honorable basketball recruits to publicly announce early, and the administration should put its full support behind the institution that attracts more attention to Davidson than anything else: Men's basketball. The school's academic reputation and standards for every one of its students will not be compromised by allowing Coach McKillop and the AD a larger budget and by creating the media support and infrastructure necessary to carry a team continually into the national spotlight and the NCAA tournament.

College athletics do not have to be minor league sports. And even if they have become minor league sports, we don't have to accept that this was a far-gone conclusion. We also don't need to be making high school seniors into prospective businessmen. At least let them enjoy the game itself for just a little bit longer. Don't take away the fun from the kids. Not yet.

UPDATE: Here are several articles written in SC papers that are addressing this issue: Post and Courier and The State.

Out of town

I will be out of town for the next few days as we travel up to see Clemson take on Kentucky in the Music City Bowl. I will be attending Saturday's game against Western Michigan so there will be no previews or in-game notes this time. Look for some recap and thoughts on Sunday night.