The Sad Truth

I heard it was college basketball season.

Am I wrong?

Isn’t this the time of year when we cherish the upsets, the stunning victories, the effort?Yet, we have somehow failed to care about these upsets. We would rather the big boy win. For how often do we get to see a team run the table?

But why should I root for Illinois? But why should I root for a team that has not lost, while poor (I mean that monetarily as well) Savannah State is 0-26? But why should I root for a team that has nobody on it that I know, I don’t like, and I don’t care about?

And yet I find myself rooting for them so that they can run the table, at least until they run into one of my teams in March?

And onto Savannah State, who lost again in a game they were never really in. Other than a surprise 3-game winning streak near the end of last season, they are oh-for-forty. And other than that surprise 3-game winning streak near the end of last season, they have won one game against Division 1 opponents the last 2 years, a 1-point squeaker against Eastern Illinois. And the year before they went 2-23. This year? 0-26 and counting.

Two more to go.

But now I find myself rooting against this team, and they are made up of a lot of walk-ons. So what if they are not the smartest kids or the best kids (and so what if the coaches son played last year despite not even being enrolled at the university, causing them to forfeit their four wins against Division 1 teams), they still go to class (or so I’m told) and practice hard for that change?

And I will root against them in their final two games.

I don’t like Florida A&M that much, I just want to see history.

And that is what it all comes down to. That is the sad truth of college basketball.

It has nothing to do with upsets and thrillers and star players and great coaching. No, that was two years ago. Now it all has to do with records. Grinnel averaging 128.1 points per game and Illinois having a 1.90 Assist-to-Turnover ratio.

And that last stat is only four years old.

It was created so that another record could be broken.

The three-point line enabled Troy State to score 200 points in a game. The addition of a shot clock allowed the creation of the Princeton scheme, which leads to just-as-low scoring games.

Every type of record you can think of has been broken or approached thanks to rule changes because that grabs our attention. A team being undefeated and running the table grabs our attention. A Division III team averaging the electoral votes of Texas, New York and California per game is worthy of a time slot. But Southern Illinois-Illinois State is not?

The other problem I have with college basketball is the fact that these smaller programs are being talked about more by ESPN and CBS and the online sites, yet they still lack the respect due to them in exposure. Vermont has two of the better players in the country and I won’t see them until the America East final. But experts will talk about them. Seton Hall needs a miracle to be NIT-eligible. But if I want to watch them, the only problem is making sure they have a game that night.

How am I supposed to root for the upset, the stunning victory, the effort? How am I supposed to celebrate the records the NCAA wants me to care about? How am I supposed to root for the history of an 0-28 season if the team is never on?

The NCAA has created a conglomeration of conferences, teams, and players, a smorgasborg of statistics and records, and yet I don’t care.

I have fallen into the trap.

In the bottom of my heart I want Savannah State to win at least one of their final two games.

In the bottom of my heart I want Florida A&M to beat Illinois in the first round of the NCAA tournament, even though they lost to Savannah State.

In the bottom of my heart I want someone to score 80 points on Princeton and hold North Carolina to 43.

But if a record can be broken, I am forced to root for that record. The networks of the NCAA have brainwashed me to expect the records and cheer for them.

I don’t want to, but i will. It is a sad truth, but that is the way it goes.

Savannah State, sorry. I hope you lose your final two games. I may not even know your uniform colors, but I hope for a loss.

But hey, at least people are writing about you because you are going to set a record and will write about you for years to come. Nobody will write about Old Dominion next year, unless they too do something original.

Nah.

Originality is surpassing the previous standard. For once can we not be original?

Go Savannah State. Go whoever is playing Illinois. Go away ESPN, you’ll just ruin it for everybody.