Champions Always Remain

The ones responsible for seeding chose the favorites to reach the Final Four as: Ohio State, Kansas, Duke and Pittsburgh. The talking heads concurred in full black-sharpie lock-step and even the message board zealots fell right in line.

What has been spit out the other side? Only the greatest sum of seeds to reach the Final Four. Ever. Before this year, the highest total sum of overall seeds to reach the Final Four was 22 (2000). This season the total is a miraculous and unprecedented 26.

The highest seed remaining in this year’s Final Four are the star-fueled Connecticut Huskies. Kemba Walker is unquestionably the one name still residing that singularly holds the most on his shoulders. His average of 26.8 points, 6.8 assists and only 2.5 turnovers per game in the tournament have been beyond instrumental in Connecticut advancing to its fourth Final Four since 1999 and its third in the past eight seasons.

The Huskies face off against the Kentucky Wildcats in one of the two national semi-final contests. These two teams have a combined total seed of seven. This would conventionally be somewhat of a laughable and unpredicted national semi-final in any other year.

The other semi-final then couldn’t have a total seed of more than three or four right? Try 19. Nineteen.

Considering this, the Connecticut versus Kentucky battle matches the two new favorites to win it all, and could very well be the de-facto national final. Then again, the unpredictable has been the outstanding theme in this year’s tournament, which will make what will be the ‘David versus Goliath’ national final all that much more intriguing.

Last year’s Cinderella, the Butler Bulldogs, return to the now charted waters of the Final Four, yet still are sporting an unlikely 8-seed. They are ironically matched up against this year’s Cinderella, the 11th-seeded VCU Rams.

The only other two occasions an 11th-seeded team reached the Final Four were in 2006, when George Mason University pulled off the feat, and in 1986 when the LSU Tigers achieved the improbable. The fact that this 11-seed anomaly has now occurred twice in the past five years, when it has only happened once before in past decades, speaks to the overall parody being seen in today’s college game.

When asked before their game versus Kansas on Sunday, VCU coach Shaka Smart remarked, “It’s kind of like the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber,”’ setting up a popular line from the gap-toothed dunce played by Jim Carrey. “‘So you’re saying we’ve got a chance?”’

The two most recent 11th-seeded schools to reach the Final Four both hail from the unheralded Colonial Athletic Association. And just as George Mason toppled championship favorite Connecticut to reach the Final Four in 2006, VCU knocked off the last 1-seed standing this season, Kansas.

What may be most unfathomable about VCU reaching the Final Four, is that all the pundits made the selection committee their own personal dartboard on Selection Sunday when VCU was chosen to the field of 68. They spewed ad nauseam over this injustice. For all the shots Eugene Smith, the head of the selection committee took, he must be smiling and snickering now.

Go ahead and eat your crow ‘Dukie-V’ and Jay Bilas. I’m standing table-side with a long, white napkin folded over my forearm, holding a bottle of hot sauce in front of your faces. The ‘yapping catch-phrase clown’ and the ‘smug know-it-all’ ended up with mouths full of excrement in the end, which also puts a smile on my face and leads me to snicker, as well as it should everyone else paying attention.

Shots conceived in hindsight aside, what is ultimately taken from all of this? Talent and the number of ‘recruiting stars’ only goes so far. The team concept: a belief in a system as well as an overall process, now reigns. Take notes coaches and scouts.  Why pursue the hype of the ‘one-and-done’ NBA lottery pick when you can recruit solid pieces that will grow over years in your hardwood garden.

I think it’s safe to say that standard deviation in college basketball is now being tested, which is an exciting occurrence. What has been discovered is that college basketball offers something unique from what the professional game presents. The underdog can actually win in this post-season.  Regularly. Basketball purists should revel in this current status of the amateur circuit.

Despite what unfolds from the madness, one March keynote seems to annually endure – regardless of seed or stature, champions who have earned their place will always remain and will ultimately have their shot to win it all.