Move over midterms, make way for Madness
2) George Mason is not this year's George Mason.
Most of us remember the then 11th-seeded George Mason's magical run to the final four in 2006. That was a truly fantastic feat in its own right, but the GMU Patriots, who are automatically in this year's NCAA tournament as the winner of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, will not have a repeat of that magic.
In fact, I'm convinced that that no team will be this year's George Mason. The reason for this lies in the NBA rule change, which affected college hoops starting the season after GMU's Final Four run, which forced the phenoms set to go straight from high school to the NBA to spend at least one year in college. Most of these players are now at powerhouse, big name basketball schools including Memphis, Oklahoma, Duke, Gonzaga, Indiana and UCLA. These schools will all make the NCAA tournament, and frontloading at these schools makes the odds of making a deep tourney run for a school like GMU, Siena or Austin Peay, two other automatic bids with likely low seeds, that much smaller.
3) Superstars = Superflops
It may seem easy to think that the top player in the nation could lead his team to the title. But recently, that has been proven false. With the exception of 2001, when Shane Battier led Duke to the title, the team of the winner of the Naismith Award for the nation's college player of the year has not taken home the championship trophy since 1992. In fact, in the 15 tournaments since 1992, the team of the Naismith winner has only made the championship game once and only made the final four two other times. While this year the player of the year award is up in the air, with Kansas State's Michael Beasley, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and UCLA's Kevin Love being the frontrunners, it may be a safe bet for now to not have any of those three teams winning it all.
4) Screw the Ivy League.
Many students at Hopkins do not necessarily like the Ivy League, for reasons which I don't need to explain. Each year the Ivy League's regular season champion gets an automatic bid to March Madness.
Most of us remember the then 11th-seeded George Mason's magical run to the final four in 2006. That was a truly fantastic feat in its own right, but the GMU Patriots, who are automatically in this year's NCAA tournament as the winner of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, will not have a repeat of that magic.
In fact, I'm convinced that that no team will be this year's George Mason. The reason for this lies in the NBA rule change, which affected college hoops starting the season after GMU's Final Four run, which forced the phenoms set to go straight from high school to the NBA to spend at least one year in college. Most of these players are now at powerhouse, big name basketball schools including Memphis, Oklahoma, Duke, Gonzaga, Indiana and UCLA. These schools will all make the NCAA tournament, and frontloading at these schools makes the odds of making a deep tourney run for a school like GMU, Siena or Austin Peay, two other automatic bids with likely low seeds, that much smaller.
3) Superstars = Superflops
It may seem easy to think that the top player in the nation could lead his team to the title. But recently, that has been proven false. With the exception of 2001, when Shane Battier led Duke to the title, the team of the winner of the Naismith Award for the nation's college player of the year has not taken home the championship trophy since 1992. In fact, in the 15 tournaments since 1992, the team of the Naismith winner has only made the championship game once and only made the final four two other times. While this year the player of the year award is up in the air, with Kansas State's Michael Beasley, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and UCLA's Kevin Love being the frontrunners, it may be a safe bet for now to not have any of those three teams winning it all.
4) Screw the Ivy League.
Many students at Hopkins do not necessarily like the Ivy League, for reasons which I don't need to explain. Each year the Ivy League's regular season champion gets an automatic bid to March Madness.
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