Perennial powers on the one hand, bloodthirsty underdogs on the other. Let's go.
Image by Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT
1. The Sweet 16 is the most objectively perfect part of the college basketball season. If you disagree with this, then you do not appreciate what makes college basketball college basketball; you may enjoy the sport as much as anyone, you might be cheering harder for your team than is medically advisable, but you dont truly understand why the sport captivates so many people.
2. Because of the nature of playing eight games in two days, one night is bound to be better than the other. Last night's slate had some appeal — Arizona and Ohio State, Syracuse and Indiana, elite programs all, plus Marquette and Miami, major-conference strivers. The night was hampered, however, by having Wichita State and La Salle, two quality underdogs, play each other. Tonight's schedule is clearly the superior of the two.
3. Duke vs. Michigan State is the basketball equivalent of Rip Torn striking Norman Mailer with a hammer. There's a real kinship between these schools, born of being constant presences in the deepest reaches of the tournament. And, despite or because of this kinship, there is also a hatred both vicious and cerebral, the kind of dislike that can only come from immense respect. Mike Krzyzewski and Tom Izzo know Mike Krzyzewskis and Tom Izzos when they see them, and the recognition of themselves in each other just makes the killer instinct even fiercer.
Image by Nhat V. Meyer/San Jose Mercury News/MCT
4. Human beings thrive on the sense of feeling underrated. It motivates them to correct what appears a cosmic imbalance in the world; it creates a vacuum of space that must be filled either by the underrated party proving its worth or by the underrating becoming the rule. In the NCAA tournament, every good team has to feel like it's underrated, except for the No. 1 overall seed, i.e., Louisville, which has to believe that no alternative reality is even possible. But some squads achieve this reality more poignantly than others. This year, it's Oregon, a team that won the Pac-12 tournament — in name, if not in respect, one of the major conference-postseason contests — yet was given a mid-major at-large-esque No. 12 seed. So far, Oregon has played like the legitimate team it is and not the cast-off it was branded by the selection committee, and, running up against Louisville, the question of motivation vs. ability will be answered in very concrete terms: one of these teams will move, one of them will not.
5. College basketball teams are often filled with players you've never heard of, because there are approximately 95,000 Division I teams in the country. Michigan is not this kind of team. Michigan has a national player of the year candidate in Trey Burke, two NBA sons in Tim Hardaway Jr. and Glenn Robinson III, and a vaunted recruit in Mitch McGary. Michigan has name-brand players, who you'd be interested to hear about even if they didn't make the tournament. It's a miracle one of the Jordan kids isn't on this team.