By Zach Mentz
It’s that time of year again. The NCAA basketball tournament is well underway and the entire nation is completely captivated. Brackets are being shredded, money being lost, and tears are being shed (in severe cases).
The madness began this year on Sunday, March 14th. College basketball teams and their fans all over the nation waited anxiously for their tournament fate to be decided on what is now known as “Selection Sunday.” Some bubbles were burst and some prayers were answered. Traditional powerhouses such as Connecticut and North Carolina were left out of the tournament while in the meantime lesser known teams such as Murray State and St. Marys made the field of sixty five with automatic bids by winning their respective conferences.
Yes that’s right. In case you did not know, the NCAA tournament fields sixty five teams each year to compete for the national championship. That is a boatload of basketball to be played and makes for even more opportunities for players to become heroes and history to be written.
If sixty five teams are not enough, how many teams deserve to get in? 96? 128? Or how about we let every team in and have a huge free for all for the national championship?
My response: Leave the tournament alone! There are those who argue that the NCAA tournament is not big enough and that it needs to be expanded. Excuse me, but how is sixty five teams not enough? Of the 65 spots in your bracket, 31 are automatically assigned to conference champions, leaving 34 spots for "at large" teams to be selected based on their performance throughout the course of the season.
Now there are 347 teams in D1 college basketball, so some argue that only 65 of those 347 teams making the tournament (just under 20%) is not nearly enough. The MLB lets 27% of teams in postseason and they are constantly criticized for needing to add teams to postseason play. So to some people, less than 20% of teams getting in to the NCAA basketball tournament just doesn’t sound right. To me though, it sounds just right.
The month of March in the world of sports is already dedicated to the NCAA tournament, thus the term “March Madness.” I have absolutely no problem with the way the tournament is currently set up and I have never thought anything needed to be changed. I don’t ever remember sitting in front of the television thinking to myself “This tournament needs an overhaul.” Sixty five teams are plenty to let compete for a national championship. If you can’t prove over the course of the regular season that you are one of the most deserving sixty five teams in the nation, then realistically you probably don’t have a chance at winning the national championship anyways. And that is the goal after all, isn’t it?
. The NCAA tournament may not be perfect, but it definitely is not broken either. The goal of the tournament is to make sure that the best team wins the national championship year in and year out, and I think it is fair to say that that has consistently happened time and time again. Too often in America we try to fix things that don’t need fixing. Until the NCAA tournament loses popularity and no one decides to watch it (which will not happen anytime soon), lets hold off on shaking things up. Bottom line: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
USA Hockey sets new precedent
By Zach Mentz
For one Sunday here in the United States, America was a hockey nation. Hockey, which has always been the ugly brother to football, baseball, and basketball in America, compelled a nation and brought us together as a country, if even for only one day.
While the USA did not win the gold medal in the 2010 winter Olympics at Vancouver, they did win the silver medal. Team USA also had the entire country of Canada on their heels when USA’s Zach Parise forced overtime with a goal with less than thirty seconds to play against Canada in the gold medal game.
America has never been known as a “hockey country”, and in all honesty never will be. America has only won two gold medals in hockey, the first time in 1960 and the most recent gold medal came in 1980, the year of the “Miracle on Ice.” Since the first gold medal winning in 1960, America only has a total of five medals won in ice hockey in the winter Olympics.
The USA finished in eight place four years ago at the winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Expectations have never been high for the USA in ice hockey at the Olympics due to past results and our inability to compete in international play. My point is, finishing with a silver medal and a five and one record, including a 5-3 romping over Canada in the preliminaries, is much more than anyone expected before the games began.
At the beginning of the tournament, team USA was not considered by many, if anyone, to be considered a favorite to medal in the Olympics. With that being said, it is bedazzling to think that team USA could take Canada, a country that is known across the globe as a hockey country, into overtime in the gold medal game and narrowly lose by only a score of 3-2.
Of course the USA players are going to be disappointed in themselves with the loss. They wanted the goal medal, not the silver medal. The loss to team Canada in the gold medal game was their only loss of the Olympics and couldn’t have come at a worse time. It is a loss that will stick with these players for the rest of their lives. A gold medal would have been unbelievable achievement, but finishing second to team Canada in a nail biter is nothing to be ashamed of. It seems as if the silver medal has become last place and the bronze medal now feels like second place. A silver medal in any competition is an impressive accomplishment, but when you come as close to gold as the USA hockey team did, silver doesn’t quite cut it. But for a country that keeps hockey on the backburner when it comes to sports, does the success team USA had this winter at the 2010 winter Olympics set the table for future US teams?
Perhaps the United States will now be considered a legitimate contender when it comes to international competition. Maybe the USA can begin to creep in to the conversation when talking about legitimate contenders in international play. Compared to other traditional powerhouse such as Canada, Russia, and Sweden, the USA has always been considered inferior. Maybe though this 2010 Olympic USA hockey team has changed all of that. Only time will tell whether or not future USA squads can feed off of this years impressive run.
For one Sunday here in the United States, America was a hockey nation. Hockey, which has always been the ugly brother to football, baseball, and basketball in America, compelled a nation and brought us together as a country, if even for only one day.
While the USA did not win the gold medal in the 2010 winter Olympics at Vancouver, they did win the silver medal. Team USA also had the entire country of Canada on their heels when USA’s Zach Parise forced overtime with a goal with less than thirty seconds to play against Canada in the gold medal game.
America has never been known as a “hockey country”, and in all honesty never will be. America has only won two gold medals in hockey, the first time in 1960 and the most recent gold medal came in 1980, the year of the “Miracle on Ice.” Since the first gold medal winning in 1960, America only has a total of five medals won in ice hockey in the winter Olympics.
The USA finished in eight place four years ago at the winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Expectations have never been high for the USA in ice hockey at the Olympics due to past results and our inability to compete in international play. My point is, finishing with a silver medal and a five and one record, including a 5-3 romping over Canada in the preliminaries, is much more than anyone expected before the games began.
At the beginning of the tournament, team USA was not considered by many, if anyone, to be considered a favorite to medal in the Olympics. With that being said, it is bedazzling to think that team USA could take Canada, a country that is known across the globe as a hockey country, into overtime in the gold medal game and narrowly lose by only a score of 3-2.
Of course the USA players are going to be disappointed in themselves with the loss. They wanted the goal medal, not the silver medal. The loss to team Canada in the gold medal game was their only loss of the Olympics and couldn’t have come at a worse time. It is a loss that will stick with these players for the rest of their lives. A gold medal would have been unbelievable achievement, but finishing second to team Canada in a nail biter is nothing to be ashamed of. It seems as if the silver medal has become last place and the bronze medal now feels like second place. A silver medal in any competition is an impressive accomplishment, but when you come as close to gold as the USA hockey team did, silver doesn’t quite cut it. But for a country that keeps hockey on the backburner when it comes to sports, does the success team USA had this winter at the 2010 winter Olympics set the table for future US teams?
Perhaps the United States will now be considered a legitimate contender when it comes to international competition. Maybe the USA can begin to creep in to the conversation when talking about legitimate contenders in international play. Compared to other traditional powerhouse such as Canada, Russia, and Sweden, the USA has always been considered inferior. Maybe though this 2010 Olympic USA hockey team has changed all of that. Only time will tell whether or not future USA squads can feed off of this years impressive run.
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