Rendell: A couple of misfires from college basketball
AS MUCH AS I love college basketball, I have to admit the sport committed two intentional fouls recently, one here in Philadelphia and one nationally.
AS MUCH AS I love college basketball, I have to admit the sport committed two intentional fouls recently, one here in Philadelphia and one nationally.
The culprit in Philadelphia was my alma mater, Penn. The university decided to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the Palestra, the longest continuously operating college basketball arena in the nation. They chose a game in which the Quakers played their archrival, the Princeton Tigers. They picked the right game for the celebration, but there was only one problem. There was no celebration, despite the fact it had been promoted. Fans received a piece of "birthday" cake as they entered, and the public address announcer mentioned it before the game, but nothing at halftime.
As I sat down in my regular seat, I noticed Vincent Ross, Timmy Smith, Boonie Salters and Tony Price sitting together in the front row. I was sure they were going to be recognized at halftime for being part of the 1978-79 Penn team that went to the Final Four. How surprised would the current crop of Penn students and any fan under 40 have been to hear that this group of Quakers did just that, defeating Iona, third-ranked North Carolina, 10th-ranked Syracuse and St. John's to get there. Imagine the shock if the 1970-71 Quakers were honored for going 29-0 to become the third-ranked team in the nation, only to lose in the regional final, 90-47, to a Villanova team they had beaten three years in a row.
The Palestra deserved a much bigger fete. When it is mentioned on national TV, it is almost always referred to as the "Cathedral of College Basketball." Basketball legends across the country have great reverence for the Palestra. Among them is Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who agreed to move a Big Ten game against Penn State to the Palestra, because coaching there was on his bucket list. When San Antonio came to play the 76ers, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich arranged to hold a shootaround at the Palestra so his players could see what he described as the best gymnasium in the country.
Not only is the Palestra a great place to play basketball, but Penn has done a great job of paying homage to its great history, making the venue part-basketball museum. Various exhibits throughout its halls don't depict only Penn's history, but all of the Big 5 action that took place there. Given the Palestra's historic status, I think fans deserved a far grander celebration. Penn missed an opportunity to make that night truly memorable.
The second foul was committed by the NCAA. For some inexplicable reason, the NCAA decided to emulate its approach to the college football playoff system by having its selection committee put out ratings of the top 16 teams midway through the season, to give fans some insight into which teams likely will be selected as the top teams for the NCAA Tournament. I believe the NCAA made a mistake trying to replicate the football system for its basketball tournament.
First of all, March Madness couldn't get any more popular, and it doesn't need any gimmicks to increase its audience. Second, the rankings included only the top 16 of the 68 participants, and the real fun for fans is trying to figure out who will be the last four or five teams selected and who will be the four or five teams that just missed out – fairly or unfairly.
Truthfully, the 16 teams ranked by the NCAA will all be in the tournament, and whether they are seeded first, second, third or fourth has little bearing on whether they will become the champion. Additionally, when the rankings came out, the teams still had another five or six games on their schedule, as well as their conference tournaments, so the rankings are meaningless with so many games left to be played.
Consider that since the rankings were published, these teams have lost six games total, rendering the rankings even more meaningless. Virginia suffered losses to Virginia Tech and Duke this week, making it hard to justify its No. 10 ranking. Butler, the 13th-ranked team, lost to a weak Providence team. Many commentators opined on the day the ranking came out that the Bulldogs did not deserve to be one of the top 16 seeds. Florida State, which received a sixth seed, celebrated by getting steamrolled by Notre Dame that night. Lastly, the Baylor Bears, ranked third and given a No. 1 seed, were beaten at home by a marginal Texas Tech team.
So in sum, the NCAA took a good idea for football and tried to copy it for basketball. The early returns are in, and it appears to be a total waste of time. Notwithstanding this, I can't wait to fill out multiple brackets and become one of millions of Americans participating in March Madness.
The Rendells have had good success in office pools, winning a few times in the past 20 years. Our biggest achievement, however, was when our dog Woofie finished higher in one pool than the celebrated sports savant, Angelo Cataldi. Woofie ate nothing but steak for the next week!
@GovEdRendell