Welcome to a special academic-themed edition of BracketRacket, your one-stop shopping for all things NCAA on tournament game days. Ohio State fans may want to go directly to item No. 2. Everyone else begin here:
March Madness isn’t just about basketball. It’s not the only championship this month. It’s not even the only one that makes heavy use of a pool.
In case you missed it, Ohio State, with a basketball team plenty good enough to cut down the nets in New Orleans, just won the U.S. Collegiate Synchronized Swimming championship. Neither is a coincidence. Decide for yourself whether that’s a good thing.
On the one hand, if we want Olympians in minor-minor sports, they have to come from _ and train _ somewhere. And you can’t do better than Ohio State. On the other, the Buckeyes nudged out tiny University of the Incarnate Word to win, and almost-as-small Lindenwood finished a distant third. Those two, combined, probably could squeeze into the OSU cafeteria.
When we spoke to NCAA boss Mark Emmert last week, he said one of his toughest tasks was keeping the playing field level when teams that spend $5 million a year play those that spend $150 million. He’s got some good ideas, and a few will make it into his “State of the NCAA” speech on the eve of the Final Four.
Then the pages they’re printed on will be rolled up and used to light the pipes of the university presidents who control the NCAA and keep Emmert on a short leash. To save paper _ and breath _ Emmert simply should hand out the synchronized swimming results and walk out of the room.
But this really isn’t about synchronized swimming; it’s about what you saw on the court last night. After a couple of stunners Friday night, the remaining members of college basketball’s 1 percent managed to pull off their gloves, a few just in the nick of time.
Ohio State over Gonzaga. Kentucky over Iowa State. Indiana over VCU. Marquette over Murray State. Louisville over New Mexico.
Big over little, have over have-not.
That’s no coincidence, either.
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JUST BECAUSE WE CAN
Put down your pencils and go to the 1:30 mark for an a capella version of “One Shining Moment” here: https://apne.ws/yUOSdf
CBS, eat your heart out.
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CELEBRITY ALUM
Schooling wasn’t the starting point when AP golf writer Doug Ferguson stopped PGA Tour pro Brandt Snedeker (Vanderbilt `03) on the course the other day. March Madness was.
Snedeker talked up Vandy’s game against Harvard as the “Battle of the Book,” and the “Battle of the Nerds.” Mercifully, he didn’t trot out the “Harvard of the South” comparison, which is what grads from good schools in every region of the country say, even though their Harvard counterparts never, ever return the compliment. Anyway, what Snedeker said next nearly wiped the smirk off Ferguson’s face.
“I think you’d be surprised how many guys go to Vanderbilt for the right reason, They go for the education, and use athletics to get it.”
Ferguson practically worships Oklahoma, so you can guess where this was headed.
“You went for an education?”
Snedeker wasn’t kidding. “You think I went to that powerhouse just to play golf? Got a free education out of it.”
So, yes, a scholarship can be a wonderful thing. Even got a free meal on free ride myself once. A pal at Missouri who was a third-string defensive end snuck me into the Friday-night-before-a-big-game-dinner at a local hotel. Inside, 16 oz. steaks were stacked at eye level, and mashed potatoes overflowed what looked like a life raft. The coaches just winked.
Now, with so much TV dough being thrown around, everything at the big-time programs is strictly business, and players get fed as carefully as astronauts. Yet the percentage who go on to make a living in the pros hasn’t changed much. And they still don’t get paid anything close to what they’re worth.
So study hard, kids. Or take up golf.
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BRACKET-BUSTER
Instead of picks, we’re going to recap AP college basketball writer Jim O’Connell’s record so far.
But first a question. It comes from my No. 2 son, who graduated from Indiana and never ate a meal there his parents didn’t pay for: “Why do you hate the Hoosiers?”
O’Connell’s reply, selectively edited: “I picked the tournament game by game. Being such a genius I went for a rogue Final Four pick and Wichita State to win. They were gone by the time I had my first hot dog Thursday. Finished the day 9-7. Improved Friday to 10-6. I have no teams left in the South. I heard the guys at the Hall of Fame were unscrewing my name off the wall. (His plaque is inside. Really.)”
“I picked New Mexico State in the second round because a (former) assistant coach friend of mine saw them and said they were good enough to win. So I figured I would look smart if a 13 beat a 4.”
He conveniently forgot about picking VCU to beat Indiana last night, but who’s counting after this pledge: “Indiana will now be my pick in every game through Monday night in New Orleans.”
So the Hoosiers got that going for them. Which is nice.
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STAT OF THE DAY
Friday’s stunning upsets by No. 15 seeds Norfolk State and Lehigh highlighted what, by one measure, was the little guys’ biggest day ever in the NCAA tournament. The sum of the seed numbers that won Friday was 126 _ 14 higher than the previous record of 112 from March 14, 1991, the day that 15th-seeded Richmond ousted No. 2 seed Syracuse.
With both the Spartans and Mountain Hawks bidding to become the first 15 seed ever to reach the Sweet 16, STATS notes that Norfolk State faces the longer odds. Teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference are 1-93 versus the powerful SEC since the start of the 1997-98. Their only win came when Morgan State tripped Arkansas in a 2009 regular-season game. Compared to that history, Patriot League champion Lehigh’s quest against the Atlantic 10’s Xavier looks more like a current-events exam. Three Patriot League teams beat schools from the A-10 just this past season, including Lehigh’s 78-60 victory at Fordham in December. Xavier, meanwhile, had much tougher go of it against Fordham, escaping 67-59 the next month.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The Toronto Raptors.” _ Charles Barkley’s answer to TV seatmate Greg Anthony’s question “Who do you think can beat Kentucky, Chuck?”
“It goes in every time. Every time,” Indiana coach Tom Crean on whether ESPN showed too many replays of the 3-point buzzer-beater by Christian Watford that handed Kentucky its first defeat in the regular season.
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SATURDAY’S GAMES
EAST REGIONAL
Pittsburgh
Syracuse 75, Kansas State 59
Ohio State 73, Gonzaga 66
Albuquerque, N.M.
Wisconsin 60, Vanderbilt 57
SOUTH REGIONAL
Louisville, Ky.
Kentucky 87, Iowa State 71
Albuquerque, N.M.
Baylor 80, Colorado 63
Portland, Ore.
Indiana 63 VCU 61
WEST REGIONAL
Louisville, Ky.
Marquette 62, Murray State 5
Portland, Ore.
Louisville 59, New Mexico 56
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SUNDAY’S GAMES
EAST REGIONAL
At Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tenn.
Florida State (25-9) vs. Cincinnati (24-10), 30 minutes following Ohio-South Florida game
SOUTH REGIONAL
At Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, N.C.
Lehigh (27-7) vs. Xavier (22-12), 7:40 p.m.
MIDWEST REGIONAL
At Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, N.C.
North Carolina (30-5) vs. Creighton (29-5), 5:15 p.m.
At Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Georgetown (24-8) vs. N.C. State (23-12), 12:15 p.m.
At Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tenn.
Ohio (28-7) vs. South Florida (22-13), 7:10 p.m.
At CenturyLink Center, Omaha, Neb.
Kansas (28-6) vs. Purdue (22-12), 30 minutes following Norfolk St.-Florida game
WEST REGIONAL
At Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Michigan State (28-7) vs. Saint Louis (26-7), 30 minutes following Georgetown-N.C. State
At CenturyLink Center, Omaha, Neb.
Norfolk State (26-9) vs. Florida (24-10), 6:10 p.m.
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