After a upset-filled NCAA Tournament, the Final Four leaves something to be desired

SCOTT JACOBS

Funny isn’t it?  That the year in which the NCAA Tournament seemed chalk full of so much mediocrity and so little superiority that upsets reigned supreme.  Funny isn’t it?  That the year Duke seeed like a questionable one seed, they end up as the only top seed to make it out alive and into Indianapolis.

Funny isn’t it?  That the week both West Virginia and Michigan State lose critical components of their team, not only do they win their Sweet Sixteen games, but they advance all the way to the Final Four.

Butler is going home to Indianapolis.  It should be a fantastic story.  A mid-major makes it to Indy, riding the longest win streak in the nation (the UConn women don’t count in this instance), including a pair of impressive W’s over Syracuse and Kansas State.  But Butler isn’t fun.  They play rugged, hard nose defense, they hold teams under 60 points, and they do just enough to win games over premier opposition.  Their coach looks like he’s 16.  It just doesn’t feel, well real.

But then again, neither does much of this tournament.  Georgetown bowed out to Ohio setting off a flurry of upsets that led to one of the stranger, rather unappealing Final Fours in some time.

If Michigan State is supposed to be Goliath to Butler’s David, well, I’m just not buying it.  Michigan State has gotten luckier than any team in recent memory the way their region shaped up.  This is not to take away anything from Tom Izzo and the coaching job he has done with a team that by all accounts shouldn’t be here (I don’t care if they were ranked in the preseason top 5).  But c’mon.  Michigan State’s best win in this tournament came over Maryland.  To say the stars have aligned for MSU would be a bit of an understatement.  Northern Iowa stunned the college basketball universe when they knocked out Kansas, who in 10 games, would probably beat Northern Iowa at least 8 times.  But that’s the horror and that’s the design of the NCAA Tourney, a beautiful system that doesn’t always do its job.

Entertainment wise, it’s hard to beat the tourney, but in a year like this one where so few teams held strong all year, to watch the dominators knocked out by the second and third tiers eventually became a little disheartening.  In avoding Kansas, Michigan State got a 9 seed.  Then more luck came their way when a good, not great Vols team held on to shut down the great Evan Turner and Ohio State.  Instead of getting the 2 seed, State found themselves taking on Tennessee (huh, what?) in a game that was neck and neck.

But Michigan State was actually one of those teams you needed.  Hell, Tennessee in the Final Four?  Maybe a few years ago when they were a two seed and lit up scoreboards like the Harlem Globetrotters.  But not this team.

What Butler did was remarkable, but they also caught a break when Xavier and Kansas State decided to play undoubtedly the best game of the tourney, a nail biting, back and forth double overtime 101-96 masterpiece that left the Wildcats dead tired.  Could Butler have won in regular conditions?  Very possible.  But K-State put everything it had on the court against Xavier, and just wasn’t the same team in the Elite Eight, dominant Butler defense or not.

West Virginia and Duke where the two Final Four teams I actually got right.  Despite my hatred of Bob Huggins and his stupid WVU jumpsuit that he wears, the truth is, West Virginia could have very easily been a number one seed.  Kentucky was young and inexperienced, and the Moutaineers took advantage.  Not a shocker there.  Duke wasn’t mind blowingly awesome in their route to Indy, but they were arguably the most consistent.  But this just doesn’t feel like those Duke bully teams of years past.  Teams that you want to hate.  Probably because this Duke team is kinda likable, with no dynamic superstar and no aura of awesomeness that those other Dukie teams in the past had.

So that leaves us with the hometown kids (Butler), the miracle child (Michigan State), the rugged, hard nosed bullies (West Virginia) and Duke (do they really need a  label?)

It doesn’t exactly have the look and feel of last year’s Final Four, which featured North Carolina, UConn, Villanova, and Michigan State, all teams that dominated in the regular season.

But change is never accepted that easily, so maybe this Final Four will be exactly what we need.

Or maybe we’ll end up with a championship game of Butler versus West Virginia.

Come to think of it, the way this tournament has been shaping up, what would be another pair of upsets?

My money is on West Virginia.  Because I can, that’s why.

Photo: Getty

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