March Madness

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you’ve noticed the buzz surrounding the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. For the first time this season, 68 teams participated in the games, an expansion from the 64 last year. Even if you have no rooting interest in the tournament, you should watch for the upsets and Cinderella teams. Cinderellas are teams that come out of the blue and win games that no one expected them to. It’s too early to know who the Cinderellas are this year, but there were already a few upsets today. Morehead State, a small school in Kentucky and a #13 seed, edged #4 Louisville by a point. Louisville was considered to be a legitimate Elite Eight contender. Looking at the bracket, Morehead State now faces #12 seed Richmond, who upset #5 seed Vanderbilt. The real test would likely come against #1 seed Kansas, who were shocked by #9 seed Northern Iowa last year.

In last year’s tournament Butler, a #5 seed from the mid-major Horizon League, made it all the way to the championship game against Duke. Butler had so many compelling storylines throughout the tournament. The Final Four was held in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, just a few miles from their campus. As they started to advance further in the tournament, people compared their run to that of Hickory’s improbable run to the Indiana state championship in the legendary basketball movie Hoosiers. What pushed the excitement over the top was the fact that they were playing Duke, universally considered the most hated team in college basketball. Unfortunately, Butler’s half-court heave to win the game rolled off of the rim and Duke was crowned the champion. But there’s always next year, and that’s what makes the tournament so compelling. You never know which team is going to win a few games and make some noise.

As for the championship contenders, Ohio State, Duke and Kansas (all #1 seeds) don’t have a lot of weaknesses. The advantage of having such as high seed is you’re playing teams that are seeded in the middle of the pack. Theoretically, this should make the path to the Final Four easier, but if you’re not prepared these teams are easily capable of beating you. You have to come to play everyday or you’re going to get sent home. It’s not like the NBA playoffs where you get up to 7 games to determine who belongs in the next round. The stakes are so much higher here and that’s what makes it so exciting.

I’ve been hearing people talking about a BCS in college basketball. Although they’re just trying to get people riled up, I want to share my thoughts on this. Frankly, it sounds like an irrational disaster. First of all, you would have computers using superficial criteria to determine who the two best teams are. They would immediately matchup in the championship game, eliminating the opportunity for any upsets and Cinderellas in the tournament. The other deserving teams would be relegated to meaningless games, denied the opportunity to compete for a championship. The great thing about the current system is that your regular season results don’t mean anything. You can have 10 loses and make a deep run in the tournament. The BCS would take all of the excitement out of the tournament, eliminating the competition that keeps us on the edge of our seats. Be sure to watch Illinois’ game against UNLV on Friday. No one expects us to go very far, but there’s a reason why it’s called March Madness.

Where do You Want to Sit?

Any sports fan knows that the location of your seat is critical to your enjoyment of the game. Every major league baseball stadium has nosebleed seats, the joke being you’re so high up that you get nosebleeds. The players look like tiny ants on the enormous field, and it’s nearly impossible to follow the action. In football, I’m often forced to watch the Jumbotron when the ball is on the east end of the field, since my seats are in the Horseshoe on the west side. It’s no wonder that seats at the 50-yard line are considered to be the ideal spot to watch a game. When you’re sitting all the way up in C-section at the Assembly Hall, so much of the game is lost to you. You see people shooting and rebounding, but you miss so much. It truly is a completely different game when you’re close to the floor. You can hear what the players are saying, and you can see plays coming before they even happen. The art in the strategy of the game is much more apparent, and you realize how incredibly gifted these athletes are. They’re so fluid that they make the game look effortless.  Many people don’t realize what it takes to be a successful basketball team. You can’t just dribble the ball down the court and expect to win games. Teams have dozens of carefully timed set plays that require players to be in sync with one another. On offense, you set and receive screens and you’re in constant motion. On defense you have to lockdown on your opponents, constantly denying them the ball and impeding their progress towards the basket.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to sit in the sixth row of A-section for the game against Iowa. Normally, these tickets are unavailable, as they are only sold to the wealthy donors that support the University. However, there were tickets available there for several reasons: 1. Iowa, historically a football school, currently sits in 10^th place (2^nd to last in the Big Ten Conference) 2. Our basketball team has struggled mightily this year. After starting the season ranked out #16 in the nation, we’re currently unranked and just inside the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. It was surprising to me that tickets here cost only $6 more than tickets in C-section. Even though Iowa has a pitiful basketball team, I jumped at the opportunity to go to the game. I even recorded the game and saw a fuzzy shot of myself on TV!

Ticket prices for sporting events are very frustrating. If you want to attend a professional sporting event, especially the NFL, you could easily get into the $75-$100 range for just one ticket. The nice thing about sitting in the Horseshoe is that tickets cost around only $12 per game, even when we’re playing Ohio State. The University’s strategy (for basketball at least) is to make tickets pretty cheap for the students, and charge more money for everyone else. The advent of StubHub and other online ticket brokers helped make some seats more affordable, but regardless of that, tickets are generally very expensive for the general public. If we’re trying to create an intimidating atmosphere in the Assembly, we simply have to let students take over the A-section. I know that these donors give tens of thousands of dollars every year, but it’s frustrating watching other college basketball games on TV where they’re able to create an electric atmosphere by having students in lower level seats. Unfortunately, money trumps all in college athletics, so I can’t see them moving the students. I realize that tickets to games are already expensive, but just once I encourage you to splurge on some seats closer to the action. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Below you’ll find photos and video from the game against Iowa. For comparison, I'll add an shot that I took from my seat at the Final Four last year. The photo isn't zoomed in. Sorry, the video quality isn't very good.