[Fwd: Mike DeCourcy: Swishes & Bricks: Unpredictability makes NCAA seeding inconsequential]

From: Scott Nice
Date: 01 Apr 2003 - 07:47 PM EST

Just forwarding because I really like his
last "BRICK".

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Title: SportingNews.com - College Basketball : Swishes & Bricks: Unpredictability makes NCAA seeding inconsequential

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Swishes & Bricks: Unpredictability makes NCAA seeding inconsequential

April 1, 2003 Print it

Don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to that big Kentucky-Arizona game Saturday evening. Should be a great one, even if it means the two best teams meeting in the semifinals of the Final Four, rather than the national championship game.
OK, so that's 43 words I wasted on that nonsense, which is about 43,000 fewer than most of the commentators who screeched about the NCAA Tournament selection committee's decision to place the two groups of Wildcats on the same half of the bracket and rekindled the same old nonsense about reseeding the Final Four.
The reseeding argument is misguided because it dismisses the importance of the bracket -- and the office pools it facilitated -- in the popularity of this event. All anyone needs to do to be reminded of that is look at the consternation caused by the misplacement of BYU in this year's tournament.
Last weekend's events should forever end this kind of discussion. Kentucky lost badly to Marquette. Arizona lost to Kansas by a few inches. The fact that both these teams lost demonstrated once again the unpredictability of the tournament. There is no reason the committee should concern itself with potential Final Four matchups when the likelihood of any particular game occurring that deep into the tournament is removed.
Placing Kentucky and Arizona on the same side of the bracket was inconsequential. Each was properly seeded but was unable to hold that seed. Happens every year.
SWISH
Syracuse guard Billy Edelin could have allowed himself to turn bitter given his treatment by the NCAA earlier this year: a 12-game suspension for playing in rec league games last winter, when he was not enrolled at any college. The organization has issued some unduly harsh punishments during its time, but this one contained less logic than most.
Now, whether the people who voted on that penalty like it or not, Edelin will step onto the NCAA's greatest stage Saturday evening. He waited until Jan. 18 to play his first game this season, and that one did not go well, but two weeks later he'd become an important part of the Orangemen's development.
In the tournament, Edelin has averaged 12.2 points and 3.7 assists and shot 71 percent from the free throw line. He played 30 minutes without a turnover against Oklahoma State and helped calm the Orangemen when it seemed jitters and an intense OSU defense would get them eliminated. It's safe to say if Edelin weren't with the Orangemen, they wouldn't be here.
BRICK
Indiana's road to the 2002 Final Four went through Lexington, Ky. Michigan State's last stop before the 2000 Final Four was Auburn Hills, Mich. In 1998, North Carolina played its regional finals in Greensboro, N.C.
Many times, the luck of the NCAA Tournament draw has placed teams that advanced to the Final Four close to home for regional games. Is the complaining we're hearing now simply because it's Syracuse and Texas that played close to home, and not some school we've come to expect would gain "special" treatment?
In 1992 and 1995, Kansas twice was seeded No. 1 and placed on a track through Kansas City, Mo., -- and the Jayhawks still didn't make the Final Four. The first time, they didn't even make it to KC (UTEP took them out) and the second time they fell to Virginia in the Sweet 16.
Until this tournament is played entirely in Canada, some teams are going to be closer to home than others. A truly "fair" tournament would be contested there, or entirely in empty gyms so that fans couldn't adopt the cause of the underdog. That wouldn't be much of a show, however.
SWISH
Do not underestimate how difficult it was for Kansas to achieve what it has following the loss of power forward Wayne Simien to a shoulder injury. Even with him in the rotation, the Jayhawks' lack of depth led many to question their fitness to contend for the national championship.
Even with Simien in the lineup, KU struggled terribly in a loss to Oklahoma. It appeared his re-injury in the following game, against Texas A&M, would make it terribly difficult for the Jayhawks to reach their potential as a team.
They've lost once in 10 games since, including two victories on the road and six on neutral courts. That is an amazing run. Although seniors Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich each have had moments when they carried the team, there have been significant contributions by nearly every player in the rotation, down to reserves Michael Lee and Bryant Nash. In the tournament, Nash is 8-of-11 from the field and has played 13.5 minutes per game -- all of which likely would have been consumed by Simien if he were healthy. Nash has filled the time well.
BRICK
We're only a couple days into Final Four week, and already I've seen at least one printed reference to Marquette as a mid-major. Since there'll be hundreds of media members in New Orleans this week, hopefully some will get a look at this column and learn the differences between Marquette and a mid-major.
A mid-major does not pay its coach roughly $800,000 per year.
A mid-major does not play its games in an NBA arena and fill that building with regularity, as Marquette does at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
A mid-major does not construct a $31 million practice facility, which Marquette is doing with the Al McGuire Center.
A mid-major cannot recruit players such as Travis Diener and Steve Novak, each of whom was rated among the top 50 prospects nationally in his prep graduating class.
Most certainly, a mid-major does not knock off four major-conference champions in a single season: Wisconsin (Big Ten), Wake Forest (ACC), Pittsburgh (Big East) and Kentucky (SEC). The Golden Eagles will try to make it five this weekend, when they play Kansas in the first semifinal.
Senior writer Mike DeCourcy covers college basketball for Sporting News. Email him at address@hidden.

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