By BRENDAN HALL
March Madness is often consumed by talk of the powerhouses; Duke, Pittsburgh, Kansas, Ohio State, and the best teams from the top conferences usually garner most of the appeal and expectation of the NCAA tournament. However, this year the “little guy” has come to play and is reminding everyone what the word “madness” really means.
In the beginning, much of the talk was about the significant drop in talent after the top two or three seeds in each conference; most of the bottom seeds weren’t given a shot to make any significant run. People across the nation were placing all number one seeds in the final four, almost sure that the lower seeds would be knocked out early, but they were wrong.
Now four double-digit seeds are in the Sweet Sixteen: #10 Florida State, #11 Virginia Commonwealth, #11 Marquette and #12 Richmond. Each team has had dominant performances against some of the top teams in the tournament; for example, VCU beat 6-seed Georgetown by 22 and 2-seed Notre Dame by 18 after winning the play-in game against USC by 13.
Few predicted so many teams seeded this low to be in the Sweet Sixteen, let alone to get there so dominantly, easily handling teams many predicted to win the tournament, including a high-seeded Irish school a certain sportswriter picked. Even though people’s brackets are in shambles, it makes for an outstanding tournament. Everyone love watching an upset, and when it happens two or three times everyday it does wonders for college basketball.
Also, now that every game is broadcast on one of four networks and each game is also viewable with a free iPhone app, people anywhere and everywhere are able to tune in and experience college basketball in its rime. With last-second finish after finish, the tournament has never been more enjoyable to watch.
So, congratulations to college basketball and to the small schools that the committee gave a chance, because both are taking advantage of any opportunity they come across, and to the fans’ benefit.