Post March Madness

I designed this fake blog to be about the NBA Finals.    But even though the Finals have not started yet, occasionally things come up that I want to comment on. 

Last spring, it was my super-daughter’s soccer season during her senior year in high school.  As  readers of this fake blog may remember, there was much Sad Water at the end of her season, but we learned that Sad Water is a good thing.  Teams shed Sad Water when they care.

This year, just before the start of the NBA playoffs, I have some thoughts about our past March Madness.  Every March Madness, I remember that of the 68 teams that start the NCAA tournament, 67 of those teams shed Sad Water after their final game.  Most painful are the games where the loss happened after a mistake – a missed shot at the buzzer, a silly turnover, a bad foul, a questionable call.

This year, however, there were many games in which both teams played great ball down the stretch, but one team had to lose.  Wichita State played a great game – and lost to an under-seeded Kentucky team.  Michigan played a great game – and lost to that same Kentucky team. Arizona played a great game – and lost to an excellent Wisconsin team. (That was the one game that ended on a questionable call.) That Wisconsin team made it to the Final Four for the first time in decades, and lost to that same Kentucky team, which then lost to a “no-one outside Connecticut even had them going to the Elite Eight” UConn team in the first 7 vs. 8 Final Game ever. 

Amazingly, UConn went 10 for 10 from the free-throw line in the final game.  I assume 100% from the line is a record that won’t be broken.  Kentucky went 13 for 24 – proving that great free throw line defense wins championships.

These games were a great example of what it means to be an athlete.  Sometimes you play as well as you can, but you lose when the ball bounces the wrong way, not because you did something wrong.  Much as fans want to blame players, coaches and referees for a loss, sometimes the coin lands the wrong way.  As Pete Gent, former pro football player, wrote in North Dallas Forty, speaking for all athletes:

“My fate is determined by meticulous planning and heedless happenstance, ingenious strategies and wild swings of the pendulum.  I flip for both sides of the coin and get the edge.

Every day I confront unlimited contradictions with limited skills.  I must succeed, though failure is inevitable.  I keep on, each day expecting victory in the face of insurmountable problems, ever-increasing humiliations.  I accept pain, fear, defeat as due.  I do not expect any luck but bad and know that if gods or spirits exist, they are arrayed against me.  But each time I’m beaten down I get up and start over, reinforced only by my ignorance.

I refuse to quit the hopeless battle against chaos and darkness.  My commitment is to life and man’s place in an endless war with death.  I never quit and will die heard.

I am an athlete.  It’s my curse, my hope, my dream, my nightmare … my excuse.”

Other thought about 2014 March Madness:

OFFENSIVE REBOUND PERCENTAGE: This March Madness had a stat I have never seen before.  As past readers know, one of my favorite secret stats is the percentage of rebounds a team gets back after its own misses.  An average NBA team will get about 30% of its misses back.  So if a team shoots 30 for 70 in a game, and gets 10 offensive rebounds, that would be 25% (10 out of 40).  Not too bad, not great.  I assume the same 30% average is appropriate for an NCAA tournament game between relatively equal teams.  Like Kentucky vs. Michigan, for instance.

However, in that game, Kentucky was 31 for 58 from the floor:  53.4%, including 7 for 11 from 3.  Kentucky had 27 missed shots, and got 17 offensive rebounds – 63%.   Michigan got only 10 defensive rebounds, which must be some sort of a record. Amazingly, Michigan only lost by 3.

JAKE, from STATE FARM:   One problem with a sporting event that goes on for a while, like March Madness or the NBA Finals, is watching the same commercial over and over again.  Like the commercial with Jake, from State Farm.  For one thing, nothing about the commercial makes me think State Farm is a good insurance company.  More importantly, why is the husband calling “Jake from State Farm” at 3 in the morning?  No wonder his shrew of a wife is suspicious.

ONE and DONE:   Wouldn’t you think that the guys deciding to go to the NBA after only one year in college would be the ones dominating at the college level?  “This game is too easy for me, I need to be challenged by the very best, not these kids”.  Zach Levine from UCLA announced he was turning pro after scoring a total of 9 points in his last 5 college games.  The consensus best high school senior since Lebron was Andrew Wiggins, who spent his freshman year at Kansas.  Wiggins announced he was turning pro after leading his team to a 60 – 57 defeat to 10 seed Stanford in the second round of the tournament.  Wiggins went 1 for 6 from the floor in that game.  He had more fouls (3) than baskets.  And he had the same number of turnovers as points (4).  Go to the NBA young man! 

BRACKETS:  My bracket was as bad as everyone else’s. But everyone does a bracket – even though most of us, me included, don’t know very much about most of the teams.  A guy on SportsonEarth.com (Jeb Lund) described it well: “With the exception of the Olympics, March Madness brackets might be the greatest intersection of popular involvement and ignorance in sports”. 

Not that being an “expert” helps.  No expert I saw had both Kentucky and UConn in the finals, let alone the Final Four.   Even the great Nate Silver, applying his statistical genius to his bracket, had Louisville as team with the best odds to win. 

Defending champ Louisville was yet another team that lost to Kentucky.  Not to overwhelm you with quotes – but the one from Louisville star Russ Smith after his team lost (and his career ended after four great years, including a crown) was a classic, and classy:

“At the end of the day, this was a loss.  I just empathize with the fans.  I wish I could’ve given them the win.  I’m so sorry.  But for me, we lost to a great team.  And I have great respect for them…. 

I’m just glad that I have a lot of respect around the state, and people respect my craft and my body of work.  I love my teammates.  I’m glad to have gotten to play a part in their lives, from my teammates to managers to trainers to new freshmen.  I’m glad I’ve gotten to meet all the people I’ve met.  And I’m glad to have Coach Pitino in my life.  He’s helped shape me into a man.  Without him in my life I’d be upset right now off crying or yelling or making excuses.  But I am in front of you now, manning up.”

As an ex-coach at a school where my players stayed four years and built relationships with teammates, managers, trainers and coaches, I just love that.  Russ Smith is talking about what the One and Dones miss out on:  Four years with a program, and a coach, and all that goes with that.  Maturity.  Russ Smith learned enough in his four years to thank the managers and trainers, who never get thanked. 

Good for you Russ Smith.  That was the highlight of March Madness for me.