With the NCAA basketball tournament now in mid-madness, these early observations.
* Cinderella scenarios are fun; they are also as inevitable as they are intriguing. But one reason why there are low-seed long shots and high-seed favorites is entry requirements, eligibility standards and definition of “student athlete.” The graduation rate for basketball players at the University of Maryland, for example, is 8 per cent. At Wofford, it’s 100 per cent. The rules are decidedly different for those ostensibly vying for the same goal. This week’s “Sweet 16” pairing matched Cornell’s Ivy Leaguers with Kentucky’s mercenaries.
Interestingly, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is backing a proposal to ban (men’s) teams from the postseason if their graduation rates are below 40 percent. Were that to actually apply this season, the ineligibles — besides Maryland — would have included, among others: California (20 percent),Washington (29 percent), Tennessee (30 percent), Kentucky (31 percent), Baylor (36 percent), Missouri (36 percent), Clemson (37 percent), Georgia Tech (38 percent) and Louisville (38 percent). The two Florida teams who made the field of 64, Florida State and Florida, came in at 80 percent and 60 percent, respectively.
Every tournament has its share of controversial omissions, typically high-profile schools from power conferences such as the Big East or the Atlantic Coast. Here is the appropriate response: If you have proven during the season that you are the fifth, sixth or seventh best team in your conference, what are you doing playing for a national championship? Win something. Either your conference or your conference’s own postseason tourney. Quibble all you want about the Lehighs and the Vermonts, but at least they won their way on to “The Big Dance” floor. And good luck in the NIT.
*Texas Rangers’ manager Ron Washington, 57, has now admitted that he failed a Major League Baseball test for cocaine last season. He said it was “stupid” and “shameful,” but that it only happened “once.” Talk about awful timing. The one time Washington tries cocaine, he gets nailed.