Gary Seymour, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
As an estimated $10 billion was being bet on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, there was the usual throng of experts on hand providing valuable insight to help the wagering masses navigate their bracket sheets.
Before last weekend’s games, the experts were wise. After the games, they were wise. In between, they were otherwise.
Among the intellectual titans breaking down the pregame analyses was ESPN, which assured the sports world that not a single team from the Big Ten would advance beyond the first weekend.
Sure enough, no Big Ten team did – except for Wisconsin, Purdue and Michigan. Those three pushed through, which was three times as many as the vaunted Atlantic Coast Conference, and as many teams as any other conference has still playing. Hold the eulogies for the downtrodden Big Ten.
In knocking off defending national champion Villanova, the No. 8-seeded Badgers were the only team to eliminate a No. 1 seed at this point of the tournament, and in doing so, also became the only team to have advanced to four consecutive Sweet 16s.
Twenty-twenty hindsight was a valuable commodity for those explaining Wisconsin’s dazzling second-round win in the East Regional, when the conversation suddenly turned to the NCAA’s lousy job of seeding the field.
Why was this one seeded so high? Why was that one so low? It all became crystal clear after the fact.
The truth is that pre-tournament seeding has always been a subjective thing, even with the byzantine Rating Percentage Index used to determine teams’ overall standing. The RPI is subjective because it takes into account each team’s strength of schedule, which is partly determined by where teams are ranked, which is entirely decided by human opinion.
Regardless of seeding – as Villanova could affirm last year and this year – winning the tournament is the difficult but easily explained task of beating everyone who shows up, whomever and wherever.
It was eyesight, and not hindsight, at issue in the other complaint after the first weekend of play.
The Big Ten might have had another team advancing after having knocked off a No. 1 seed but for an unforgivable non-call that squelched a Northwestern comeback against Gonzaga.
Northwestern had cut a 22-point deficit to five late in the second half when an attempted layup that would have cut it to three was blocked by a Gonzaga defender – whose hand came up through the rim to block it.
That’s goaltending, but none of the refs saw the defender’s hand coming up through the cylinder. Fair enough, but it’s also goaltending if a defender even touches the net while a shot is on the way. Half of the net was fluffed up over the top of the rim on the fateful “block.”
How all the three supposed top-notch refs managed to swallow their whistles on a call that could have been made by Blind Melon Chitlin was a puzzling stroke of bad luck for Northwestern, and for the Big Ten. Each conference receives money from the NCAA for every non-championship game its teams play in the tournament.
It made a strong argument for replay challenges on goaltending, but on the whole the Big Ten made out all right – especially the school from Madison. After two rounds, the Badgers’ story was the most impressive of the lot.
Battling back from seven points down in the second half, Wisconsin played great defense against the defending champs, looking every bit like the better team and one capable of beating anyone left in the field. Next up is Friday night’s game against Florida at Madison Square Garden.
A few short weeks ago, this scene wasn’t feasible given the late-season slump that the Badgers endured. Therein lies the beauty of new life in the NCAA postseason.
The only worrying takeaway from the Villanova game was their making just 7 of 16 foul shots. Winning teams hit their freebies, a basketball fact of life of which even the non-experts are aware.