S P O R T S & C L U B S

• The Sporting News, by Patrick Mesa, MBA1

The Sporting View:
March Madness Promises Big Surprises from Little Folks

by Patrick Mesa, MBA1

Welcome back from Spring Break. I hope everyone had a somewhat relaxing time, forgetting a little about the job search, MAP, class work--anything scholastic. But now that you are back, there is work to be done.

That's right. It's time to fill out the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sheet. This activity, possibly more than the swallows returning to Capistrano, is the sign that Spring is upon us.

Spring. New Life. The Second Season.

We are all faced with that freshly photocopied bracket of 64 college teams who are all trying to be champ. We all look at it, scrutinize it, and create a strategy, deciphering what we believe to be the answer key to the most rewarding fill-in-the-blanks test one can take.

The glory of the exercise is that we are all invariably wrong. Perhaps nothing in sports tells us more about the greater uncertainty of life than the NCAA tournament. The tournament kicks off with the most unpredictable, most exciting, most glorious 96 hours in sports. The first weekend of the NCAA tournament.

Starting this Thursday, 64 teams will take the floor. Between Thursday afternoon and Sunday night, 48 games will be played. Out of the 64 teams that started on Thursday, only 16 will be left standing on Sunday night. 48 seasons will end in 96 hours. And no one can tell you which 48.

This weekend has given some of the most talked-about games and most unforgettable moments in college basketball history. Ask people about the best college basketball games of our lifetime and you will get the stock answers of the Villanova--Georgetown or N.C. State--Houston title games, the Duke--Kentucky Regional Final in 1992, or even the U-M--Seton Hall final in 1989 or the U-M--North Carolina title game that Chris Webber will never forget. These are all great games. The first two are remembered for the David-Goliath quality they portrayed.

However, for true battles of mismatched opponents, look no further than round one. After all, N.C. State and Villanova are both colleges from major conferences who have been in big games before.

The game I remember the most, and the one that keeps me rooted to my couch year after year hoping for a repeat, happened just weeks before the Wolverines cut down the nets in 1989. In the East Region, No. 1 seeded Georgetown was looking to return to the Final Four led by coach John Thompson and rookie center phenom Alonzo Mourning.

The mighty Hoyas drew the perennial 16 seed in the East, the Ivy League champions. That year the Ivy kings were from Princeton University, led by Yoda look-alike Pete Carril. It was to be the kind of game that ESPN would show for a few minutes until it got too out of hand, then would cut over to a more competitive game.

Well, to start a tradition that has flourished among the lowest seeds ever since, Princeton would not go gently into that good night. The Tigers used their excruciatingly painful slow-down offense and pesky zone mixed in with a heaping dose of backdoor passes to build a 29-21 halftime lead. ESPN never got a chance to cut away.

Georgetown did rally, behind Mourning, who even though he was a 55% free-throw shooter, nailed 5 of 6 down the stretch and blocked Bob Scrabis's last-second shot (some contend Scrabis was fouled)--and the Hoyas escaped with a well-earned 50-49 victory. The game took its toll, however, as the Hoyas were gone two games later.

This game was important for several reasons. Princeton and Carril have become a symbol of hope for lessern known programs.

Citing the lack of competitiveness from the smaller conferences, the NCAA at the time was considering a motion eliminating automatic bids for champs from these conferences. After the Princeton-Georgetown game, the idea was scrapped.

From a fan's perspective, it kept the NCAA tournament honest. It prevented the pattern leading toward a tournament featuring only big conference teams. It left room for the little guy, which has led to the unpredictability of the draw, and the excitement of the opening rounds. Since that game, here are a few of the first round highlights. The next season, No. 14 seed Princeton almost did it again, this time falling at the end to the eventually Final-Four--bound Arkansas: 68-64. In that same year, No. 16 seed Murray State, led by Popeye Jones, did Princeton one better, by hitting a last-second three-pointer to push No. 1 seed Michigan State into overtime.

In 1991, Dick Tarrant's Richmond Spiders upset the Syracuse Orangemen in the first round of the tournament. In 1994, Penn finally ended years of Ivy frustration by demolishing Big Eight champ Nebraska. In that same tournament, Santa Clara became the first 15 seed ever to advance, beating Arizona.

Last year, No.1 seed Purdue barely escaped the first round before falling to Georgia in the second round. Last year's tournament also had tiny Drexel upset Conference USA power Memphis in the first round.

And to come full circle, defending champ UCLA fell victim to Carril and his Princeton team's backdoor cuts, losing on a backdoor lay-up with under 4 seconds to play. It was Carril's last season as a college coach.

His legacy will surely be the idea that on that first weekend of the tournament, it doesn't matter what conference you come from or how many scholarship athletes you have or how many championships you've won, advancement is not a birthright. You have to earn it, because in March it all begins anew. Everyone comes to the party on equal footing.

The little team will take the floor against the powerhouse and will reflect back on those that have gone before, and that team will think that maybe, just maybe, they can do something that people will remember for years to come. In 40 minutes of five-on-five, anything can happen.

Who knows, with this year's top 25 being among the most unpredictable in recent memory, maybe a 16 seed goes a step further than Carril's Tigers could. Maybe this is the year a No. 16 beats a No. 1 in the first round. It is that possibility, that hope, that makes March Madness the most exciting event in all of sports.

So go ahead and fill out your bracket. Brag to your friends when you predict that one upset, and marvel at the five you missed. But most importantly, just sit back, relax, and root for the little guy. He just might surprise you.