Yesterday, Elliot Harris had an interesting suggestion in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Any team that whines about being bypassed for the NCAA tournament should be declared automatically ineligible for the NIT.”
I like that kind of thinking. The problem is that there are two other irrelevant tournaments beyond the NIT for whining coaches/players/schools to play in. I don’t know which is the more prestigious of this pair, but there are sixteen teams playing in something called the Collegeinsider.com tournament and another sixteen teams playing in the College Basketball Invitational Tournament. That means a total of 129 college basketball teams continue to play games. College presidents worry about a football playoff for 8 teams that would – - according to them – - interfere with class schedules. Of course, the CBI and the Collegeinsider.com tournaments do not interfere with classes…
Please note that UNC, UCLA, UConn and Indiana are not in the NCAA field this year. Also, note that none of those coaches whined and complained. I did read that UNC will hold its first round NIT game in Carmichael Gym – - the place they used to play their games before the days of the “Dean Dome”. Back in the 1970s when UNC hosted the televised game (singular) of the week in the ACC, you would see two “flip over scoreboards” at floor level to let you know what the game score was. I wonder if they will use them in the NIT game between UNC and William and Mary.
The NCAA will relentlessly try to convince us during the tournament telecasts that these are student-athletes that we are watching. Therefore, I will play along and wonder about some of the players in the tournament and what they might be majoring in:
Derwin Kitchen (FSU) – - culinary arts major
Dallas Lauderdale (OSU) – - geography major
Nathan Walkup (Tex A&M) – - real estate management major
Brad Wanamaker (Pitt) – - retail marketing major
Zaire Taylor (Mizzou) – - geography major
JT Tiller (Mizzou) – - agriculture business major
John Flowers (WVU) – - agriculture business major
Cory Fisher (‘Nova) – - marine biology major
Myron Strong (UTEP) – - physical therapy major
Shelvin Mack (Butler) – - supermarket management major
Jamar Diggs (Wofford) – - civil engineering major
John Wall (UK) – - construction management major
Lucas O’Rear (N. Iowa) – - proctology major
Luis Colon (K-State) – - proctology major
JC Ward (ETSU) – - nursing major.
Checking the rosters for the NCAA tournament teams, I came up with these three questions:
1. Dallas Green is playing for Robert Morris. How does the ex-manager of the Phillies have college eligibility left?
2. Brady Morningstar is playing for Kansas. I wonder if he has a sister named Marjorie?
3. Bol Kong is playing for Gonzaga. I wonder if he has a brother named King?
The team in the tournament field with the best player names has to be Baylor. They can put these four guys on the floor at the same time if they want:
Quincy Acy
Tweety Carter
LaceDarius Dunn
Ekpe Udoh
Leaving those four gentlemen aside, here is my All-Tournament Team based on player names only:
Kwadso Ahelegbe N. Iowa
Omondi Amoke Cal
Phaethon Bolton Wake Forest
Blake Cushingberry Oakland
Festus Ezeli Vandy
Ali Farokhmanesh N. Iowa
Scoop Jardine Syracuse
Mezie Nwigwe Robt. Morris
Max Zhang Cal
Lots of players have interchangeable names; put their last names first and it is just as likely to be someone’s name. Some examples:
Ben Allen St Mary’s
Avery Bradley Texas
Michael Eric Temple
Keaton Grant Purdue
Devoe Joseph Minnesota
Dale Louis Cornell
Terry Martin Wofford
Ryan Reid Florida State
Carleton Scott Notre Dame
Lance Thomas Duke
Alex Tyler Cornell
The Selection Committee put the teams in the brackets such that there could be an “All-Feline Final Four”. Teams with cats as their mascots are in all four brackets – - in fact, 12 of the 65 teams are some variety of “cat”. However, disregarding felines, there cannot be an “All Large Carnivore Final Four”. There are no such teams in the Midwest; but in the other brackets, there are plenty:
Oakland Golden Grizzlies West
Florida Gators West
Cal Golden Bears South
Baylor Bears South
New Mexico Lobos East
Washington Huskies East
Montana Grizzlies East
Morgan State Bears East
It is possible to have a Final Four make up of “directional schools” or “location specific schools”. If you make this your Final Four in your bracket pool and it hits, you are a guaranteed winner:
Northern Iowa
East Tennessee State
Arkansas – Pine Bluff
North Texas
You could have a Christmas-themed final game. Only in the final game can The Big Red (Cornell) possibly play The Mean Green (North Texas). Not likely…
Finally, Greg Cote had this comment recently in the Miami Herald that ties in nicely with some of today’s observations:
“The Memphis basketball team signed a top recruit named Hippolyte Tsafack. I’ll say it again. Whatever happened to guys named Bob Smith?”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…