The Beginning Of The End: Championship Game Follow Up

(How the hell did this happen?)

Due to popular demand (and the guilt I have for never finishing what I start), I'm closing out this blog with 5 columns. This brief recap of the Championship Game and the Tournament in general is the 1st of these final posts. I thank everyone for reading and contributing to this elaborate project. My thoughts and ideas only go so far...it was the encouragement, suggestions, and comments from all of you that really helped take this NCAA Tournament Blog to another level. (Annie...I have no idea what Bill Self was trying to prove with that red/white/blue striped tie. But it wasn't as bad as Roy Williams wearing that gaudy Kansas sticker/button (?) in the stands. What's The Matter With Kansas?!?!? Indeed.)

As for the Championship Game:

I don't take much away from this game. Maybe it's because I didn't have a chance to win money in any of my NCAA pools. Maybe it's because the game represented not only the end of the tournament, but the end of this blog. Maybe it's because a match-up between North Carolina and UCLA would have been a lot more engaging and "sexier". Or maybe it's because the Championship Game of the Final Four is always (on some level) going to be a letdown. We won't make the argument now for which weekend of the tournament is "better", but the first two weekends of March Madness are hands-down the most interesting and captivating weekends of the event. I claim that Thursday and Friday of the first weekend are the best two days in sports for the entire year. The Final Four and Title game can't help not living up to the hype and expectations that are unfairly thrust upon them. March Madness is marketed and publicized as an event that spans weeks. Interest peaks nationally between Selection Sunday and the following Sunday. By that time the teams have been reduced from 65 to 16. After that, the interest just isn't at the initial level. Is there any other sporting event that peaks at the beginning of said event? None that I can think of. This is what the NCAA Tournament has going against it. I'll probably only ever be truly excited about a Championship game for 3 reasons:

1. I have a vested interest in the game. Meaning that I have a pool and/or certain amount of money that I could personally win/lose on the game.
2. My home team, or a team I am personally involved with on some level, is playing in the Championship game. This would include (but not be limited to) Pittsburgh, Iowa, Davidson, and Notre Dame.
3. If the match-up in the Championship game was amazing. I don't mean good...I don't mean great...I mean outstanding. Even though Memphis and Kansas were both #1 seeds...and even though the game ended up being decent...the match-up was not outstanding. There wasn't a lot of star-power and the coaches were trying to overcome hurdles and preconceived notions rather than assert their genius and dominance.

Other than those three reasons...I'll probably never be excited or thrilled about an NCAA Championship game. That doesn't mean that I won't watch. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciated the sport. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate and give much credit to the winner. And that DEFINITELY doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the structure of the Tournament (see NCAA Football). It simply means that I personally love the first two weekends of March Madness the most. After that...almost anything feels like a let-down.

As for the Championship Game (haven't I done this before?):

Chalmers hit a game-tying three pointer that Kansas never should have been in position to make. Coach Calipari out-dressed Coach Self. Memphis missed some free-throws (surprise). John Calipari was seconds away from winning his first Championship. Bill Self was seconds away from not winning his first Championship. Billy Packer called yet another Championship game (CBS...PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS). We had an overtime title game, but it really didn't feel like it and wasn't very exciting as the entire Memphis squad was exhausted. Kansas won a National Championship without Roy Williams. Bill Self found himself in the unlikely position of cutting the nets down. John Calipari still remains a Clarion University alumni. And...perhaps most perplexing...I missed one shining moment because I was on the phone or cooking or cleaning up something.

So that was that. Good enough game I suppose. They really need to let Gus Johnson call the Final Four next year. I swear...Billy Packer must have some incriminating pictures of someone at CBS. So we may be stuck with him for another 35 years. I must give credit where credit is due. Congrats to the Kansas Jayhawks and Bill Self. I doubted your abilities and you all proved me wrong. I'll have to find other ways of making fun of you and demeaning you next year.

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Predictions For Monday's Championship Game

I'm not sure what the point is in picking this game...but I've "picked" every game since the sweet sixteen on this blog, so I have to follow the bit through until the end. My gut says to go with Memphis, but then I remember that Kansas was up 40-12 on North Carolina at one point on Saturday night. Again, I'm torn. Let's just throw something out there and see what happens.

Memphis over Kansas

• If it came down to the coaches, I would have never thought twice. John Calipari wins this contest hands-down. Graduates of Clarion University will not be denied. Memphis has bounced UCLA, Texas, and Michigan State over their last three games...and thrashed them all pretty well. This is Coach Calipari's time. I have absolutely no confidence in Bill Self. When they showed him on hands and knees in total relief after the win against Davidson, I knew this guy was more lucky than good. Self is already counting the days (and the money he'll get) until he goes back to Oklahoma State to coach his alma mater.
• Kansas has a tendency to turn the ball over and take bad shots. They turned the ball over 19 times against North Carolina and took a bunch of terrible shots against Davidson. The Jayhawks won't be able to get away with either of those things against an athletic Memphis squad that thrives on fast breaks and their transition game.
• Should Memphis win, my friend John's lovely fiancee, Jill, would win my NCAA pool. I also believe that she would win this championship over Chaz. A very intriguing and interesting sequence of events indeed.
• Memphis is still the position to play the (absurd) "nobody believes in us" card. If they win the title, I can't wait for the post-game interviews when the coaches and players all claim that they were never respected all season long. Please...oh please...would just one journalist or announcer point out to the Memphis coaches and players that they had one loss all season long!
• Derrick Rose has been the best point guard throughout this NCAA Tournament. I have ranted and raved that having great guard play is essential to winning the Big Dance. I'm sticking by my (not too radical or insightful) convictions. The Tigers will be your 2008 National Champions.
• Confidence in this pick: 7.6

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Bringing Together Davidson & Holy Cross

From Bill Simmons' mailbag this past week, a question and (sort of) answer that draws a correlation between Davidson & Holy Cross. Phil and Chaz, this blog and this NCAA Tournament has come full-circle.

Q: So, Davidson is a small liberal arts school with an excellent academic reputation that just made the Elite Eight? Oh and they have free laundry, and their trustees paid for everyone to go to the tournament games? Holy Cross has no excuse now, the precedent has been set. We need to get it together. -- Jon, Worcester, Mass.

• Simmons: Don't get me started. Hey, I'm glad you brought up Davidson. More than a few readers asked why I haven't been writing about college basketball as much this year. Here's the answer: As long as the NBA is running on all cylinders -- and really, it hasn't happened in 15 years -- I don't see why anyone would watch college over pro unless they had a favorite college team (which I don't, thanks to Holy Cross fading into obscurity). Of all the guys we watched in the tournament this year, maybe eight of them could step into an NBA rotation right away, and only two of them (Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley) could start for a decent team. Personally, I'd rather watch basketball played passionately at the highest possible level; the NBA hasn't been this good since the watershed 1992-93 season and the competitiveness of its games has just been absolutely remarkable. I remember the days when maybe 10 regular-season games per year would stand out; now we're getting four or five a week, and that's not even an exaggeration.
  With that said ...
  Nothing in sports can match what happened Friday and Sunday: An underdog school (Davidson) with a Jimmy Chitwood-type hero (Stephen Curry) toppling one high seed and coming within one possession of making the Final Four, and if that's not enough, Gus Johnson was announcing both games and ready to have an on-air seizure if Davidson had scored on the final play to beat Kansas. Of all the sports (college or pro), March Madness is the only time when you can hop on a bandwagon and not feel guilty about it -- whether it's Belmont trying to topple Duke, Davidson trying to make the Final Four, or whatever -- and it's the only time when an athlete can completely alter his destiny in the span of 10 days. For example, Curry wasn't even considered a first-round pick before the tournament started; now he'd probably crack the top-15 if he came out (which he won't), and if that's not enough, we'll always remember him as the kid with the gorgeous jumper who did the Chitwood impression.
  Anyway, I'm not down on college hoops this year -- the Davidson run was incredible theater, and we're headed for one of the greatest Final Fours of my lifetime. Just know that, overall, the NBA product was markedly better as a whole this season unless you had a college team you loved.

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Predictions For Saturday's Final Four Games

Only three more games left to predict! Things are very chalky right now...thank goodness you have me here to sort things out. Will there be any rhyme or reason to this? Absolutely not.

North Carolina over Kansas

• It is totally gutless and spineless to pick the number one overall seed to advance to the championship game. Seeing how having "guts" didn't get me anywhere in any of my pools... here you go.
• As much as part of me wants to pick Kansas here, North Carolina has been on a mission filled with ass-kicking and destruction during this tournament. Plus...Kansas has defeated a #16, a #8, a #12, and a #10 seed to reach the Final Four. Not gonna go with the Jayhawks here.
• Bill Self...the jokes have been too frequent. But this blog will miss you. I will miss you. And this tournament will miss you after the game tomorrow.
• Jim Nantz and Billy Packer will rig the game if necessary to sing the praises of Tyler Hansbrough for one more day.
• Kansas cannot defeat two teams from the state of North Carolina in a row. It's impossible. Not going to happen.
• Confidence in this pick: 8.1

Memphis over UCLA

• This pick goes against many things I previously stated in this blog. But with their last two games, John Calipari and his Memphis squad have me convinced.
• The Tigers had a much tougher road to the Final Four than the Bruins and still won their games more decisively and impressively than UCLA. Plus...Memphis can't disappoint and underwhelm every year? Can they?
• Doesn't the team that feels the most "disrespected" always end up winning the big games now? Look at the NY Giants in the Super Bowl & Ohio State in the NIT. The whole "Us against the World" mentality is a good card to play. It's kind of a moronic card to play when a team is 37-1, but what place does logic and reason have here anyway?
• John Calipari is from Western PA and remains the pride of Clarion University. Ben Howland helped Pitt rejuvenate their hoops program. I'm torn here. But I have to pick someone, and I think that in the end, Memphis will be too quick and too athletic.
• Confidence in this pick: 6.3

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March Madness Grab Bag (In April)

Before the college basketball season is over, and before this blog comes to an end, we need to discuss a few things my friends.

• Did every one see former Marquette coach Tom Crean (above) at the press conference where accepted the head coaching position at Indiana? Talk about fake-and-bake. Has anyone over the age of 40 EVER been more shamelessly (fake) tan than Crean? (not including George Hamilton, of course) Check out the photo gallery from the press conference. I believe that Coach Crean actually becomes more tan as the conference goes on. On a related note...I apologize for saying that Jay Wright might fake-and-bake. I have no proof of that. Although I do think he may bronze himself now and then.
• What's creepy about this article on Billy Packer isn't that he's unsure of how many more Final Four's he'll announce with CBS...it's a toss-up between the fact that he approached 123 women (seemingly without reason) and the fact that he asked these 123 women if they would vote for Hillary Clinton. Read that paragraph, then please, read it again. "He randomly approached 123 women recently - without introducing himself". Wow. That's funny and cring-worthy for about 50 reasons. Not the least of which is the idea that it would somehow matter if Billy Packer told a random women that he was, in fact, Billy Packer. MR. PACKER...PLEASE...FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND NOBLE...STOP APPROACHING RANDOM WOMEN AND STOP ANNOUNCING COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAMES!
• I never found a place to work in this editorial about the NCAA Tournament and office pools, so I'm cramming it in here now. Morrissey defends the point I had very early on in this blog that the NCAA Tournament is communal, it's our national get-together. People who normally don't have any involvement with sports or each other, can fill out a bracket and chip in 5 dollars that makes them part of a collective madness. I still say that March Madness is (overall) bigger and more transcendent than the Super Bowl, as more people are personally involved with March Madness (through identifying with a college or university and by filling out a bracket) than are personally involved with the Super Bowl.
• Who would win the Fashionable 4 with these four coaches left in the bracket? Annie...I'm looking forward to your thoughts on this one. After literally minutes of research...here is how I think these coaches would finish with regard to fashion sense and overall style: 1) John Calipari, 2) Roy Williams, 3) Bill Self (could have been #2, but he gets his suits dirty after constantly dropping to the court during close games), 4) Ben Howland (yikes!).
• The Good Guys Don't Always Win, It Was Cool Hanging With The White Lobster, & Stephen Curry going on the Conan O'Brien show.
  

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Final Four Fever via The Onion

I must say...I do enjoy watching the dunking man-children. Thank you, The Onion. (click on this if you can't read it...I just spent 15 minutes trying to make it larger and clearer, but it's not in the cards)

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5 Reasons To Like This Final Four

Rationalize -- ra-tion-al-ize -- v. -- 1) To devise self-satisfying but incorrect reasons for one's thoughts or behaviors. 2) Defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning. 3) The process of blatantly lying while sounding like a complete fool

Rationalization -- ra-tion-al-i-za-tion -- n. -- 1) Lies we tell to make ourselves feel better

It's time to put on a happy face and get excited about this year's Final Four!!! Woo-hoo!!! All four #1 seeds advancing for the first time in history should be good for something...right? The past is the past. All we have now is two games on Saturday and a Championship Game on Monday. Let the rationalizing begin!!!

5 Reasons To Like This Final Four:

1. The four best teams from the regular season made this final four. The four best teams in this tournament made the final four. The four best teams in college basketball made this final four. This should make for some outstanding competition over the weekend. The winner will be the best of the best...the unquestioned King of college hoops. No BCS controversy looming here.
2. The Players: Kevin Love, Darren Collison, Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Brandon Rush, & Mario Chalmers.
3. The Coaches: Will Roy Williams cement his legacy with a second national title? Will John Calipari become known for something other than being the pride of Clarion University? Will Ben Howland make "the leap" into the pantheon of elite college coaches by winning his first title? Will Bill Self class things up and act like he's been there before? (the answer is "no", because he hasn't)
4. No Duke, No Florida, No George Mason. I find this very refreshing.
5. Since everyone's bracket has already been busted, (except for gutless losers who essentially filled out a control bracket) this Final Four can be enjoyed without the anxiety of winning or losing an office pool.

And if you cannot get excited and/or really don't care about the Final Four...there is always Major League Baseball to watch!

(audible coughs and cricket chirping)

March Madness...it's FANTASTIC!!!

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Belmont vs. Duke: A Theatrical Interpretation

As mentioned by Rudi Boyd in the comments section of the 'Top Hats' column, here is what a television station is left to do when they cannot show highlights of a game because the rest of the games haven't finished. Enjoy.

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Lamentation: March 30th, 2008

What am I supposed to do with this blog now? The magical Davidson run is over. Pitt has long been out of the Tournament. My brackets all have gone to shit. And CBS systematically removed Dell Curry from my life. Sure...we have four #1 seeds fighting it out for a national championship, which should lead to some decent basketball, but I just can't motivate myself to get excited over the whole thing. Where is the fun in making fun of announcers or questioning the fortitude of various head coaches now? Maybe it's out there...but I'm thinking that it will be difficult to find. Unless a team I was heavily invested in reached the Final Four, I think there will always be a drop-off in the overall interest in the tournament for me. The most fun and exciting time of the NCAA Tournament will always be those opening 4 days. I think the fact that those four days are so crazy, unique, and special are exactly what make them crazy, unique, and special. The vibe from that opening weekend cannot be recaptured later in the tournament, even if the Final Four was somehow outstanding. On the other hand, I don't want to let this blog end just yet. So there has to be a few columns left in me. I should have the resolve to find a unique perspective on something related to the tournament. After all...Bill Self has (somehow) found himself in the Final Four.

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