Interesting, or maybe not, how the NCAA mens basketball field arrived at their Final Four.
Duke was the #1 seed in their region going in.
Ditto for Wisconsin.
Kentucky was/is the overall Numero Uno.
And then there's Michigan State. What's a lowly #7 seed doing associating with such lofty company? Don't these commoners know their place? The utter nerve of this riff-raff that would dare to show up at the grand ball. Harumph!
MSU certainly has their ugly duckling side. Every time they played somebody good earlier in the year -- they got beat. Notre Dame, Duke, Kansas. All losses. They even got trashed in their own house by Texas Southern. TEXAS SOUTHERN!
The Spartans didn't exactly overwhelm Big Ten conference foes either. They went down at the hands of Nebraska, Illinois, and Minnesota, hardly powerhouses. Even cross-state arch rival Michigan took them to overtime -- and Michigan's terrible. The Maize and Blue didn't even qualify for the NIT also-ran tournament. Oh my.
MSU didn't win the Big 10 regular season title, nor the conference championship and, at one point, there were doubts they would make it into the NCAA tournament at all.
On top of all that, they're atrocious at the free throw line.
But then March came around and that month seems to have a magical effect on Tom Izzo and his crew. They morph into something that becomes scary once the tournament starts.
Consider the gauntlet they survived on the way to the Final Four. Georgia, Virginia, Oklahoma, and Louisville. All very good teams. At least a couple downright outstanding. But when push came to shove, Izzo's brutes outwilled them all. They--just--don't--give--up. Stepchildren can be like that sometimes. Stubborn little brats many want to see receive the Adrian Peterson treatment, but the Spartans have a knack of getting in the last lick themselves in tough tournament games.
Izzo is no stranger to this territory. He and his teams over the years have made it to 6 Final Fours before, including once winning it all.
Up next the Spartans get Duke, who handily defeated them earlier in the year. This will be Coach K's 12th Final Four, tieing him with the legendary John Wooden for the most of all time. And he's got 4 national championships under his belt. Quite the pedigree indeed.
So can the Spartan serfs rise up once again and depose the blue-blooded archdukes of Durham?
Maybe. Should be a helluva game. Nevertheless, it's a pretty sure bet we won't hear any comments from Coach K this week about letting them eat cake. That didn't work out so well for Marie Antoinette. Riling up the commoners sometimes has a way of coming back to be a royal pain in the neck. Ahem.
On the flip side is the Wisconsin -- Kentucky match-up, equally interesting. Can the Wildcats finish running the table to become only the second team since Bobby Knight's Indiana Hoosiers to go undefeated way back in 1976? Maybe.
The Cats are long and deep, but they've had a few close calls against good teams. Wisconsin should give them another stern test. The Badgers have only lost one game in the last two and a half months themselves. It will be a contrast in styles. Kentucky is freaky tall and fast, and will put on a dunkathon if allowed. Wisconsin is tough, disciplined, plays hard-nosed defense, and features players with more college experience. Plus, they have arguably the best all-around big man in the country in Frank Kaminsky.
Regardless, at least one #1 seed will be playing in the finals on Monday night, and possibly two.
Or could the hoi polloi from East Lansing crash yet another party and wind up cutting down the nets?
Know what's really interesting? Consider what happened just last year.
Connecticut wound up winning the national championship -- as a #7 seed -- the same as MSU is right now.
Food for thought.......
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