The End of the Dance
George Mason is out of the NC double-A championship tournament. They had a great run, and I’m sorry that they don’t get to bring home the trophy. One of the players says that they changed the face of college basketball, and I only wish he were right. They may have made the point that five guys who play together and love to compete can beat guys who are worrying most about their highlights tapes and NBA contracts. What they didn’t touch was the governance of college basketball, the NC double-A. (By the way, the NCAA insists that broadcasters say “N-C-A-A” instead of NC double-A, and they’re the ones who insist that players be called “student-athletes,” even those who, like Chris McCray, don’t go to class.)
In Saturday’s game, there was room for complaint from George Mason fans. Early in the game, Ginger started complaining that the commentators were talking about Florida as if they were the only team on the court. That got worse. Then even the broadcasters began pointing out that there might well be questions about some of the officiating. I thought the second foul actually called on Noah was really about his fourth, and it was almost criminal that Tony Skinn got called for a blocking foul when he had clearly set up and taken a charge in a situation that might have slowed Florida down a bit. Jim Larranaga says that Mason didn’t use because of officiating, but I’d say that officiating certainly wasn’t even-handed, and that’s a problem.
At the end of the game, Ginger commented that the NC double-A had gotten the outcome they wanted. And there’s reason to believe that. After all, when the tournament brackets were announced three weeks ago today, some fairly respectable commentators, such as Billy Packer and Dick Vitale, started talking about how George Mason didn’t belong in the tournament. It was arguably good for the credibility of the tournament that George Mason beat Michigan State, and it probably didn’t hurt that they beat North Carolina. That indicated that the selection committee really hadn’t erred; a case could be made for that George Mason was the Cinderella team—the one that really belonged. The credibility of the selection committee and the selection process was preserved.
But sports in the United States in the twenty-first century have taken some hits. Too many spectacular performances have been powered by steroids. Those of us who thought that it was dirty of Ford Frick to put an asterisk after Roger Maris’ single-season home run record now wonder what present-day records should carry an indication that the recordholder was artificially enhanced. The integrity of the competition must be preserved, and that means that a near-interloper like George Mason can’t win the National Championship. There would be questions about games being fixed. There would be questions about whether the players were trained illegally. It’s much easier to make sure that the Cinderella team doesn’t win the biggest game—that the magic carpet ride ends before the last dance.
Think of the marketing problems if George Mason wins. Think of the J. J. Redick jerseys that have to be sold at a loss. Think of the Carolina and Connecticut tee-shirts that nobody wants. Think of the recruiting problems. Guys who were committed to Duke might want to rethink. The whole college basketball world might be thrown into disarray. It wouldn’t just be a case of an upstart out-of-nowhere school winning; George Mason played a totally different kind of basketball in which being a MdDonald’s High School All-American doesn’t matter and in which the superstar doesn’t matter. So George Mason was a threat, and George Mason had to go.
To their credit, the Patriots and their coaches walked off the court with their heads high, proud of what they had accomplished, and not crushed by what they had not accomplished. And maybe the NC double-A didn’t do anything to orchestrate the outcome. But now that sports is about business and entertainment and only peripherally about competition, the powers that be were surely comfortable with this outcome.
In Saturday’s game, there was room for complaint from George Mason fans. Early in the game, Ginger started complaining that the commentators were talking about Florida as if they were the only team on the court. That got worse. Then even the broadcasters began pointing out that there might well be questions about some of the officiating. I thought the second foul actually called on Noah was really about his fourth, and it was almost criminal that Tony Skinn got called for a blocking foul when he had clearly set up and taken a charge in a situation that might have slowed Florida down a bit. Jim Larranaga says that Mason didn’t use because of officiating, but I’d say that officiating certainly wasn’t even-handed, and that’s a problem.
At the end of the game, Ginger commented that the NC double-A had gotten the outcome they wanted. And there’s reason to believe that. After all, when the tournament brackets were announced three weeks ago today, some fairly respectable commentators, such as Billy Packer and Dick Vitale, started talking about how George Mason didn’t belong in the tournament. It was arguably good for the credibility of the tournament that George Mason beat Michigan State, and it probably didn’t hurt that they beat North Carolina. That indicated that the selection committee really hadn’t erred; a case could be made for that George Mason was the Cinderella team—the one that really belonged. The credibility of the selection committee and the selection process was preserved.
But sports in the United States in the twenty-first century have taken some hits. Too many spectacular performances have been powered by steroids. Those of us who thought that it was dirty of Ford Frick to put an asterisk after Roger Maris’ single-season home run record now wonder what present-day records should carry an indication that the recordholder was artificially enhanced. The integrity of the competition must be preserved, and that means that a near-interloper like George Mason can’t win the National Championship. There would be questions about games being fixed. There would be questions about whether the players were trained illegally. It’s much easier to make sure that the Cinderella team doesn’t win the biggest game—that the magic carpet ride ends before the last dance.
Think of the marketing problems if George Mason wins. Think of the J. J. Redick jerseys that have to be sold at a loss. Think of the Carolina and Connecticut tee-shirts that nobody wants. Think of the recruiting problems. Guys who were committed to Duke might want to rethink. The whole college basketball world might be thrown into disarray. It wouldn’t just be a case of an upstart out-of-nowhere school winning; George Mason played a totally different kind of basketball in which being a MdDonald’s High School All-American doesn’t matter and in which the superstar doesn’t matter. So George Mason was a threat, and George Mason had to go.
To their credit, the Patriots and their coaches walked off the court with their heads high, proud of what they had accomplished, and not crushed by what they had not accomplished. And maybe the NC double-A didn’t do anything to orchestrate the outcome. But now that sports is about business and entertainment and only peripherally about competition, the powers that be were surely comfortable with this outcome.
posted by amsterdr at 4:06 PM
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