Thursday, April 2, 2015

Back To Reality

So yesterday TigerBlog brought out a little April Fool's humor.

At least he hoped it was humorous. And that you believed it, at least for a little while.

The key is to say something and hope that people will believe it simply because it's right there in front of them and so why wouldn't it be true? It's only when you step back and think about it logically that it becomes apparent that it's a joke.

It has to be something like changing the school colors, something that anyone rationally knows isn't going to happen but seems so perfectly plausible when you're reading it. 

It can't be something too over-the-top or ridiculous. It has to find the right balance, just ludicrous enough but not bashing anyone over the head with it. And it has to be presented in a business-as-usual format.

Maybe TB succeeded. Maybe he didn't.

He had fun with it. And hey, wouldn't the league be better off as the Big Ivy?

Okay, so back to things that are actually true.

Here's one - TigerBlog is still annoyed about the seeding of Princeton women's basketball team in the NCAA tournament.

Yeah, yeah, let it go already.

It's just that if you didn't notice it, the top four seeds all advanced to the Final Four on the women's side. On the men's side, for that matter, three of the four top seeds all advanced.

Only Villanova's men let you down.

Anyway, that means that top seeds are 16-0 on the women's side and 13-1 on the men's side, or 29-1 overall.

Let's stay with the men for a second and then get back to the women.

TigerBlog is in the office pool here - NO MONEY IS INVOLVED AT ALL, JUST BRAGGING RIGHTS. TB picked Duke to beat Kentucky in the final, with Wisconsin also in the Final Four. He also had Virginia, so he wasn't completely right.

Anyway, if you had to ask him right now, he'd stay with his pick, for the same reason. Actually there are two reasons.

First, if anyone figures to beat a 39-0 team in the championship game, it figures to be Duke. Maybe TB just remembers watching the Blue Devils take out the last unbeaten in the Final Four - UNLV back in the 1991 semifinals. It just seems like something Duke would do.

Plus, if Duke has to win the NCAA title, then at least TB will be able to say he picked it correctly before the tournament started.

He'd love to see Wisconsin get it done, but that's asking a lot. Beat the 38-0 team and then Duke (TB gives Michigan State no chance in that one).

Okay, back at the women.

Princeton was the eighth seed in its region and had to play the top-seed Maryland in the second round. Okay, Princeton - 31-0 after winning its NCAA opener against Green Bay - wasn't going to beat Maryland and get to the Final Four.

But the Sweet 16? That would have been awesome. And Princeton would have had a legitimate chance to get there at almost any other seed. Hey, an 11 would have been better than an eight.

The worst part was having to play Maryland at Maryland, as opposed to, if Princeton could have gotten there, on a neutral court. And at 30-0 for the regular season, TigerBlog though that Princeton had earned the right to play at home for two rounds.

Again, what tortures TigerBlog the most when it comes to NCAA seedings, regardless of sport, is that the committees hide behind selection criteria to avoid having to be accountable for making subjective decisions. There's more to all of this besides the numbers.

Did Princeton play the best schedule? No. Did Princeton schedule to be 30-0? Not at all. Princeton played a very strong schedule, with nine top 100 wins.

And comparing Princeton's schedule to that of a team in a power conference isn't just, something the committee didn't acknowledge.

TigerBlog would have respected the committee for saying "hey, our job is to watch women's basketball all season and evaluate the teams. We watched Princeton, and even though that's a 30-0 team, in our view, it's a team that is properly slotted as an eighth seed because that's where we think they belong."

But nobody ever said that.


Instead, the committee hid behind strength of schedule and then gave Princeton and eight and an impossible task in the second round, against a team that then beat Duke and Tennessee by 10 points each on a neutral court.

How much was the home court worth? At least five points? Maryland beat Princeton by 15.

And that's the last TB will say about that.

But not about the women's basketball season and how much fun it was.

Actually, he doesn't have to say much.

He can just tell you to click HERE to see Part I of the Princeton athletics' video recap of the team's NCAA tournament trip.

You can see for yourself.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes! to every comment about the women's seeding and I will add this: the committee had two opportunities (Green Bay and Princeton) to set up potentially engaging story lines that might have brought more viewers to the women's tournament for possibly two rounds, maybe three.

Archie said...

archie agrees with TigerBlog on a lot of things, including Duke beating Kentucky in the final. Archie was fooled by yesterday's column and was momentarily infuriated.