« The NBA Does Or Does Not Scare Whitey: A (Surprisingly) Reasoned Debate | Home | Cross-Promotion, Ho! (Or, What To Read When You’re Not Reading Sports.) »
The CAA: Quit Being Surprised, America.
By Jay Busbee | March 16, 2007
Let’s face it — any team short of the Aryan Nation Master Racers that defeats Duke is going to bask in national acclaim. So when Virginia Commonwealth University, an under-the-national-radar school in Richmond, Virginia that counts among its alumni our mom, knocked off the Blue Devils yesterday with a sweetly dramatic dagger to the heart, America cheered…but sports commentators writhed in predictable fits of David-Beats-Goliath hackery. You’d think they would’ve remembered last year — you know, when fellow Colonial Athletic Association squad George Mason went to the Final Four and all — but noooooo. (USA Today’s NCAA reporter actually wrote today that VCU stands for “Very Courageous Upset.” Eww.)
Enough. Can we please knock off the golly-gee-you-gotta-love-these-kids’-heart nonsense? Can we please roll the term “Cinderella” up in a carpet and throw it off a Jersey bridge? Can we set up a separate, special-access audio channel for every crotchety old announcer that trots out horribly inappropriate clichés, like “He’s going to the bench for a blow” or “You’ve gotta love that kid’s stroke”?
(Oh, and while we’re at it, can we stop it with the whole farce that people care as much about the women’s NCAA as the men’s? Yes, we’re all in favor of women’s sports, yes, we’re all for equal opportunities. We do have a daughter. But do you know one person who fills out a women’s bracket? Really? You’re lying.)
Anyway, VCU might not see Sunday; Pitt has both the high scorers and the clampdown D to send the Rams back to Ol’ Virginny pronto. But let’s stop the patronizing of the mid-majors and mini-majors and minors and other niblet conferences. (Another corollary to that argument is to stop allowing certain schools to cruise on past glories…Duke was a bubble team at best, and no way were they deserving of a 6 seed.)
Today, it’s on to our personal favorite teams, Virginia and Memphis. They’re headed for an Elite-Eight South Conference showdown; we can only hope they’ll both make it so far.
Topics: NCAA, Basketball |
March 17th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Go Al Qaeda All Stars! Beat Dook!
March 18th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Hear, hear, my brother! If the major schools would stoop to schedule the CAA, they’d get beat often enough for it to hurt… which is exactly why they don’t schedule them.