They call it March Madness for a reason. The atmosphere is pure pandemonium. It’s that magical time of the year when college basketball teams from all over the country that you’ve barely heard of begin punching their tickets for the big dance.
Teams like Belmont, Loyola Maryland and Creighton are popping champagne and dreaming about NCAA basketball glory of the highest form.
Boston University was in precisely that position last year – 21-13, America East champions and heading for college basketball’s big stage.
However, the Terriers ran into a first-round buzz saw known more formally as the Kansas Jayhawks. Big time mismatch.
We could talk about the talent disparity between Kansas and BU basketball all day, but more interesting to me on this day are the journeys that these mid-major schools go through in a given season.
Take last year’s Cleveland State team, for example. The Cleveland State Vikings won their first 12 games and ended the regular season 24-7, 13-5 in the Horizon League.
Knocked out of the Horizon League tournament by Butler, Cleveland State handed its resume to the NCAA tournament selection committee with a cumulative record of 26-8 and a trip to the semifinals of its conference’s championship.
Mind you, that Butler team that knocked them out would go on to win the Horizon League tournament and advance to the finals of the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season.
Regardless, the Vikings were not invited to dance with the popular schools.
Cleveland State was 26-8, ranked No. 42 in RPI and played in the same conference as a proven national championship contender; but even so Cleveland State plays in a mid-major conference and didn’t have a “signature win,” as the selection committee likes to say.
So, no dice for the Vikings.
At the same time those Vikings were at home, barely touching their dinner, telling mom and dad that the popular kids were mean to them again, Alabama State was joining the field of 68.
Alabama State? They went 17-17 playing in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The SWAC. Can you even name another team from the SWAC? I don’t blame you. Say “SWAC” out loud and try not to chuckle. It even sounds goofy. But the point is, the Alabama State Hornets could not have made the NCAA tournament any other way besides winning the SWAC tournament.
They started the season 1-8! They had 24-plus point losses to Iowa State, Northern Arizona and Arkansas State.
The lone win in the team’s first nine games came against something called Kennesaw State.
With all that said, the Hornets made the big show, and no one can take that away from them.
That is the gift and the curse of being in a mid-major basketball conference. A team can win a couple games at the end of the season against watered-down opponents and make the NCAA tournament. However, as we saw with Cleveland State, a team can also fall into the vicious cycle of needing to win its conference tournament or bust.
This is the very cycle BU is engulfed in. If the goal for mid-major teams is to earn an NCAA tournament bid – and it should be – then the regular season as a whole loses a degree of meaning.
On Nov. 13, the Terriers lost to Texas 82-46 (ouch). So, on Nov. 13, BU’s season became ‘win the America East tournament or bust’ – in terms of making the NCAA tournament.
If you play in America East and lose any type of significant out-of-conference clash, you can kiss an at-large bid goodbye.
Sure seeding matters, but in the case of America East everyone makes the tournament, and you’ll have to beat a couple top seeds if you’re going to win it anyways.
Heck, Binghamton was 1-28 this season and still got to play for the conference title.
And what happens even if you manage to take the tournament crown?
Everyone loves the idea of March Madness – David toppling Goliath – but at risk of raining on the parade, the madness is a bit overhyped. All those “crazy upsets, bro” don’t really happen all that often.
BU was a 16-seed last year. The record of 16 seeds all-time vs. one seeds? Are you sitting down?
It’s 0-108.
But – but . . . 15 seeds beat 2 seeds all the time . . . don’t they? Remain seated.
15 seeds are 4-104 all-time vs. 2 seeds.
Yes, it’s not easy being a mid-major. You first must get quality, out-of-conference teams to play you. Then, you have to hope they don’t wax the floor with you.
Once they do, all you can do is look ahead to that all-important conference tournament and hope you win.
And if you do, you’re lucky enough to become a snack for a first or second-seeded great white shark in the first round. We’re gonna need a bigger conference.
Yes, come to think of it . . . I’d say madness is the perfect way to describe it.
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