On ESPN.com, 5.9 million NCAA March Madness brackets were filled out. A grand total of two of them had the correct Final Four teams. I am responsible for one of them. No, I'm not, but it'd be really cool if I were. In fact, that's one of the only cool things I can think of that can possibly happen during March Madness.
March Madness might be the most overhyped playoff event in sports. Some marketing guru somewhere came up with the idea of getting people who don't normally care at all about college basketball all fired up about a bunch of teams they've never heard of before. "OH MY GOD, RICHMOND BEAT MOREHEAD STATE?!?!? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!" Dude, you've never heard of Morehead before. Why are you yelling at me about it?
I prefer my basketball skilled, passionate and more athletic. What's that you say? NBA players don't care and don't give it their all on a nightly basis? Maybe not all of them, to be sure. But you think about what it must have taken, the effort involved, for Tim Duncan to mold himself into the best power forward of all time. Or for Kevin Garnett to finally get the ring he so desired in his 13th season. Or for LeBron James to leave high school and almost immediately transform himself into an international superstar. If you think these guys are riding on talent alone you are sadly mistaken.
Now, one thing I will give the NCAA Tourney is that it does give me a glimpse of who I will have the pleasure of watching professionally the next season. For example, Carmelo in 2003. Yes, it was an incredible run leading Syracuse to the championship as a freshman, but if he can team up with Amar'e to lead the Knicks to the promised land, that will forever trump his college exploits. I got to see Chris Paul in his Wake Forest days, Derrick Rose at Memphis, Kevin Durant at Texas and others. Great years by all, but I prefer to watch these stars dominate at the highest level of competition, rather than against a bunch of scrubs who have little or no future in the sport. Sorry, Kemba, watching you clown on Bucknell isn't exactly my cup of tea.
All of this isn't to say there aren't entertaining moments in every tourney, i.e. listening to Gus Johnson every time he announces anything. I mean, who doesn't pay attention when he's yelling and screaming like he's watching the apocalypse? There are typically a couple of good storylines each year as well, but my initial reaction is to ignore these due to general skepticism about March Madness as a whole, even if they can be compelling. Gordon Hayward and Butler last year, George Mason back in 2006, Adam Morrison crying after Gonzaga's loss to UCLA are just a few, and others pop up occasionally. But consider these against Celtics−Lakers, Kobe−LeBron, Duncan−Garnett, Rose−Paul−Williams, and there is no comparison. The NBA will win every time for debate and intrigue.
Yesterday, Carmelo Anthony declared that the Knicks' matchup against the Magic was a "must−win" game. This phrase gets thrown around a little too much, but when a star player this late in the season declares a game to be of a certain magnitude, you always turn it on at least for a few minutes to see if he'll back up his words. In this case, that was the right call as he went off for 39 and 10, leading his team to victory in overtime. He did it with style and grace from all over the floor, hitting an array of shots that college players can only dream of attempting.
Think Jimmer could do that? I wouldn't count on it.
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