4/15/07: The Week In Sports

April 15, 2007

Wilt Chamberlain once said, “No one cheers for Goliath.” If that is the case, then not too many people found themselves cheering during Match Madness this year.
Millions gather for one month every year to watch underdog teams to the unthinkable and knock off higher-seeded teams the whole tournament. In this year’s 64 games there were a total of nine lower-seeded victories. The final four which featured a 13 seed team last year, had two top-seeded teams and a pair of two-seeded teams.
Last year’s miracle run by George Mason University resulted in only four people out of the hundred of thousands that enter the annual ESPN.com bracket challenge picking all four final four teams correct. This year, 41,426 people named the final four teams correct.
I’m not saying it wasn’t good basketball, but the finals had no surprises. The tournaments largest upset came when 11th seeded Virginia Commonwealth defeated sixth seeded Duke. But, was this really an upset? Duke was not the usual national threat at all this season and lost eight of their final 12 games, and 58% of the pickers on the ESPN.com challenge selected VCU over Duke.
If I maybe bias for a moment, Oregon might have made the most incredible run of the tournament after all the preseason drama around Ernie Kent’s coaching position. The Ducks in my opinion, gave eventual national champions Florida, their best challenge of the field. Oregon stayed close with the Gators despite being undersized but the game was lost in the backcourt not from the big men.
Florida showed why they are the best in the country with amazing guard play. I felt all along that Lee Humphrey was a hot or cold type of shooter and he chose the Oregon game to be hot, well very hot. Humphrey and back-court mate Taurean Green made 11 out of 21 shots from behind the arc.
The championship game saw a rematch of the BCS National Championships between Florida and Ohio State. The result was much of the same with the Gators leading by quite a bit the whole game and eventually winning in a not-so-fairytale ending. I won’t get into why the Buckeyes should not have even been in the game to start with.
I’ll just say, Greg Oden clearly got away with assault when he shoved a Xavier player to the floor in the second round with both arms extended, and caught by three CBS cameras. What happened next? Xavier misses the second of two free throws, Ohio State rebounds, pushes the ball up the floor hits a last second three to tie the game, and eventually pulls away in overtime.
The completion of March Madness means one thing for me, the completion of sports until September. This is now officially the worst time of year for any sports fans. Once the month of May ends, all we will have on the Sports Center top ten highlights are baseball plays and the occasional squirrel riding water ski’s shot.
For those in search of sports, if you are a pro fan, you still have the NBA and NHL playoffs (that’s right the NHL still exists, only if you have the Versus network). I can say that the College World Series is fun to watch and Oregon State remains in the top ten entering the final month of regular season play. There are also Spring football scrimmages in college football until May, then the first kickoff on August 30.
If you care to argue the topic, ESPN has already made public their television broadcasts of NFL and NCAA games. You think people don’t care about watching college football? Well, ESPN’s first broadcast is the first official game between Tulsa and Louisiana-Munroe. Two teams that have not had one game on the ESPN networks in three years and had a combined record of 9-16 last year.
So I apologize to my fellow sports fanatics, I can leave you with some good news, there’s only 134 days until the Little League World Series!