Every fan of college basketball can take a breath. With North Carolina and the Connecticut women proving themselves more than worthy of championship status earlier this week, the '08-'09 season has finally come to a close. This also ends what I believe, annually, to be the most enticing postseason in all of American sports.
Problem is, the entire focus wasn't on the NCAA tournament. Now, you may expect me to rant and rave about the Postseason NIT. Not even close. I actually enjoy the NIT, which was the original national championship tournament. The matchup between Stephen Curry's Davidson team and Patty Mills' Saint Mary's squad doesn't happen if not for the NIT.
But there is a more recent trend brewing in men's college basketball ... the growth of tournament play. In the early months of the season, these tourneys are great. They give us contests between top-tier programs and chances for mid/small majors to prove themselves against their big brothers.
Unfortunately, this trend has also seeped its way into March. Last year, the first annual College Basketball Invitational was introduced into the late season frenzy of tournament play. The competition was said to give even more people a chance to play in the postseason. Participants varied from the 22-9 Houston Cougars to 13-18 Cincinnati. Seven of the 16 teams were three games over .500 or worse going into the tournament. Tourney champ Tulsa had to outlast Bradley, who was 17-15 before the first tip.
This season's version should have raised even more eyebrows. The field had better records overall, but three teams that stood out were 16-16 Wichita State, 16-17 Saint John's, and 13-17 Oregon State. Your winner ... those 13-17 Beavers from Corvallis, OR (who finished with an 18-18 record).
Listen, I'm a fan of OSU's head coach Craig Robinson. Other than being President Barack Obama's brother-in-law, the man coached Brown University to the 2008 CBI. Then, he headed west and completely turned a team that went 0-fer in the Pac-10 last season and got them seven conference wins. But really? Oregon State finishes 13-17 and ends up winning a postseason tournament title?
Now, I wish I could end the story there and call it good, but that ain't the case. Enter CollegeInsider.com, who figured they could stage their own shindig. The CIT (CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament) had its inaugural run last month. This 16-team field didn't represent any of the major conferences, but at least all of these squads had winning records.
Old Dominion beat Bradley (the poor Braves can't win a postseason tourney) in the final. Thus, yet another team gets to find joy in obtaining a piece of hardware.
You know, with so many people celebrating titles (include Penn State and their NIT victory), there seems to be a feeling of déjà vu. I have felt this before, at some time or other. I got it. I felt this about three months ago ... during bowl season. Ick.
That's right. I said it. The focus of college basketball has now been splintered. While most people will continue on the real run to the championship, others will be able to follow their schools and alma maters in some other kind of postseason event. If my teams from Missouri and Iowa State were a part of it, I'd more than likely do the same thing.
I watched parts of the Tigers' Alamo Bowl win back in late December. I followed the Cyclones' bowl appearances a few years back. But with more bowls sprouting up year by year, even the thought of playing past Thanksgiving has lost its allure. Sites host more than one game. Places like Boise, Albuquerque, and Birmingham are lackluster destinations. And the biggest message of all is that the lesser bowls credit mediocrity over everything else. Where else in sports can you have a representation of 6-6 vs. 7-5 for a "prestigious" trophy?
Now, it seems to be creeping into college basketball. To be honest, it's even worse. What bowl game would ever bring in a 5-7 or 3-9 team to represent its sponsorship? Not even Notre Dame could pull off that kind of magic. And while there are those that argue that sub-.500 teams make the NCAAs, the validation is that they earned their spot through beating good teams, not by getting an invitation.
I might be a little bit overanxious about this whole development. One of my buddies is a huge fan of the tradition of the bowls, saying that multiple teams get to end their seasons with a win. That's all well and good in the spirit of sportsmanship, but Madness isn't about giving everybody their turn on the court. It's about surviving six games against the best competition.
But who knows? Maybe there are those out there with a dream ... a dream of winning a title and screaming that wonderful phrase of redemption and validation.
"We're number 98."
"We're number 114."
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