Top 5 Craziest Final Fours Ever

Last year, when Northern Iowa took out Kansas in the second round of the tourney, it forced me to revisit the top 10 upsets in NCAA tourney history. I'm not sure who I take off that list, but I have to include VCU's run very near the top, particularly as nobody was more beat upon than VCU heading into the tourney: they had to play a 'play in' game, they were likely the 68th and last team selected for the tournament and every talking head within ear-shot of a microphone cried foul, opining that VCU didn't deserve the last bid, they generally sucked and so on; then they went out and beat Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas.

If VCU is a complete fall over and get the smelling salts kind of shock, the return of last year's runner-up Butler is less of a shock. Still the Bulldogs were an 8 seed (which pretty much tells you where the selection committee thought they'd end up) and Butler is the only team from a mid-major to play into the Final Four in back to back years since the 1990 and 1991 UNLV teams (since the tourney expanded to 64, that is.) Pretty impressive on Butler's part, no?

If 2008 was the most predictable, chalk Final Four of all time, with four No. 1 seeds meeting (yawn, big, big yawn), 2011 is the antidote to the chalk. If you think this is the nuttiest Final Four ever, you would be right.

What Final Fours fill out the remaining Top 5 Most unlikely? To determine that, I've used the very scientific method of relying on my prodigious memory plus google, and starting with the Bird-Magic Final Four (1979).

1. 2011 -- UConn (3), Kentucky (4), Butler (8) and VCU (12*). There has never been a year like this, not even one that comes close. To have two mid-major teams in the Final Four is stunning. Most years, we don't even get one. But to have the Colonial Athletic Conference and and the Horizon League represented makes this THE most unlikely Final Four of All-Time. By a ton, in fact. VCU, a 12* seed (don't you think that a 12 seed that had to 'play in' deserves an asterisk?) and Butler, an 8 seed, have outlasted all four No. 1 seeds, all four No. 2 seeds and all but one of the No. 3 seeds. No way on God's green earth did anybody see that coming. You have to go the whole way back to 1980 to find a Final Four sans a single No. 1 seed (bear in mind, that was when the tourney field was only 48 teams.) Amazing. 31 straight years with at least one No. 1 seed in the Final Four.


2. 2006 -- LSU (4), UCLA (2) George Mason (11), and Florida (3). I still marvel at George Mason's run to the Final Four. There's always an upset in every tournament, but for GM to run through the field to the Final Four ... well, we hadn't seen anything like it in a long time. And I didn't expect that we'd see anything like it for many years to come. Plus, in 2006, we had no clue how good that Florida team was yet.


3. 1980 -- Iowa (5), Louisville (2), Purdue (6), and UCLA (8). Okay, this is a collection of household names (Iowa less so, unless you're counting football and wrestling), but notice the complete lack of No. 1 seeds. 1980 was the last time we had a Final Four notable for the absence of 1 seeds.

4. 1979 -- Indiana State (1), Depaul (2), Michigan State (2), Penn (9). From a field of 40. Yeah, yeah. Indiana State was a 1 seed, but really, this is way before expanded cable and light-years before the internet. Had anybody outside of Terre Haute seen Indiana State play prior to the tournament? Penn was in the Final Four? Penn? As in the University of Pennsylvania of the Ivy League. Yup. Bird. Magic. Everybody paid attention. Nobody saw this coming, but it fixated a nation. And we haven't stopped watching since.

5. 1985 -- Georgetown (1), St. John's (1), Villanova (8) and Memphis State (2). I went back and forth on this one (plus the two bonuses below.) Two No. 1 seeds? Power conference? But, what are the odds that one conference would send three teams to the Final Four? It hasn't been done since. Then there is the whole giant upset of Georgetown. In fact, I think that I penciled them into my bracket as the winner of the whole thing back on Valentine's Day, 1985, that's how good they were. So, for the unlikely upset, plus the Big Beast having three teams advance, I'm including this as No. 5 on the list.

Honorable Mention: 1983 -- Houston (1), Louisville (1), Georgia (4), N.C. State (6). (from a field of 52.) I'm including this because Houston Phi Slamma Jamma was, indeed, a power team, but not from a power conference. Then, you consider the amazing upset in the final by Jimmy V's N.C. State team, and I had to include 1983.

Honorable Mention. 1991 - UNC (1), Kansas (2), Duke (2), and UNLV (1). I thought I should mention this Final Four because this is ONLY other time (since the tourney expanded to 64 teams) that a team from a mid-major conference made it through to the Final Four two years in a row. I know that UNLV was a powerhouse and I know that a Final Four rounded out by UNC, Duke, an Kansas is hardly a line up of obscure underdogs, but Tarkanian's Runnin' Rebs deserve at least a cursory nod.

Putting the Pitt Loss to Butler in Perspective

For Pitt fans, we've been here before -- bounced from the tournament. Bitterly. Devastatingly. Even prematurely, some would say.

Every year, there's a reason, some phenom who decides to explode on the scene at the exact moment he takes the court against Pitt, or a bad match up, or just dumb luck. There's always a reason, isn't there?

Let's take a stroll through the last decade of painful losses.

2002: As a 3 seed, Pitt made it to the Sweet 16, beating 14-seed Central Connecticut State and 6th-seeded Cal along the way before going down to Kent State (10 seed.)

Reason: A Golden Flash player named Antonio Gates. Maybe you've heard of him. He's gone on to be the fame and fortune in the NFL as a tight end for the San Diego Chargers and has been selected to the Pro Bowl seven times.

2003: As a 2 seed, Pitt made it to the Sweet 16, beating 15th seed Wagner and 7th seed Indiana, before losing to 3rd seed Marquette, by a score of 77-74.

Reason: D-Wade. Was named the Midwest Regional Outstanding Player after compiling 51 points, 14 boards and 15 assists in two games -- taking out Pitt, then Kain'tuck.

2004: As a 3 seed, Pitt made it to the Sweet 16, beating Central Fla. (14) and Wisconsin (6) before losing to Oklahoma State, 63-51.

Reason: Okla. St. was smoking hot coming into this game, having won 19 of their last 20.

2005: Pitt (9 seed) lost a depressing game to Pacific in the first round, 79-71.

Reason: Who cares, really?

2006: Pitt won their first round game versus a D-Wade-less Marquette, then dropped in the 2nd round to Bradley (out of the Missouri Valley Conference)

Reason: Two Braves went completely bananas in this game, as Patrick O'Bryant had 28 points and 7 rebounds, while Marcellus Sommerville added 18 points and 6 boards. To think, this was supposed to be the Panthers' bounce-back year.

2007: Pitt earned a 3-seed and advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to UCLA.

Reason: UCLA did advance to the Final Four. And they proved to be a much tougher team. Probably Ben Howland's best team.

2008: Lost in the second round to Michigan State.

Reason: There's never really any shame in losing to Tom Izzo's Michigan State program. When the game was on the line, Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas took over, putting on a late shooting-and-ballhandling show. Of note: This win over Pitt gave Spartie five wins in five NCAA tournament games against Big East teams, which tied the longest winning streak against Big East teams in NCAA tournament play, set by Duke (won five straight against the Big East from 1990 to 1992.)

2009: Lost in the Elite 8 on a last second bucket by Villanova's Scottie Reynolds.

Reason: They were one great play away from going to OT and possibly advancing to the Final Four, when Reynolds made the best, most clutch play of the night. Still, this loss was a move in the right direction -- as Pitt finally got past the Sweet 16. Still, it was disappointing, given that this was probably Pitt's best team ever, and certainly the best team in the Jamie Dixon era. This one hurt. A lot.

2010: Lost in the 2nd round to Xavier.

Reason: This was a team figuring out who they were in the absence of Dejuan Blair, Sam Young and Levance Fields.

2011: Do we have to relive this second round loss to Butler?

Reason: Facing Butler which should never have had a seed as low as 8 with four starters returning from last year's Butler team. Plus Shelvin Mack going bananas and hitting 7 of 12 three-point shots. Plus Matt Howard flopping like an Italian futbol player. Plus Pitt's shot clock violation. And their sheer stupidity. That about sums that up, right?

I had this wonderful principal in high school -- Sister Regina Clare. She used to tell us that there was a world of difference between an excuse and a reason. But I wonder, if I could ask her now, if even valid reasons cannot turn into excuses when they are heaped upon each other, layer after layer, over and over again?

Sure, there's really no shame in losing to Dwyane Wade. Or losing to last year's finalist, a team that came within 2-points of knocking off Duke.

And in a vacuum, either of those loses is perfectly acceptable to all but the most rabid Pitt fans, no?

But at some point, if you want to actually be deserving of elite status, actually be deserving of a 1-seed in the tourney, don't you have to win one of those games every once in a while? Not all of them. Just one or two of them. Because elite teams do sometimes win these kinds of games. Elite teams sometimes rise up and pull off the big win in the toughest setting.

After a while, don't legit reasons take on another shape and morph into excuses?

None of which is to say that I'm ready to make crazy changes at Pitt, like firing coach Dixon or something else equally extreme. But ... Dixon et al do have to examine some things this off-season. There are chinks in the armor that simply have to be mended. Pitt was badly out-coached by Jim Calhoun in the Big East tournament, and other weaknesses were painfully apparent against Butler, such as Pitt's inability to adjust to and/or cool off a hot 3-point shooter. Frankly, that's something that has been a problem for the Panthers over the years. So there are things for Dixon and his staff to work on, starting today; areas that they simply have to improve upon. Have. To.

Meanwhile, the NCAA men's basketball selection committee should cease and desist from ever conferring a No. 1 seed upon Pitt until the Panthers actually win one of these things tough games in March, because I'm sure the white hairs at the committee are just as sick of seeing this as Pitt fans are:

Big 12 Conference Raids

From True/Slant on June 13, 2010:

Big 12 Conference Going Down Like a 98 Pound Weakling.

I grew up on comic books. On the back page of most of these comics there was always a cheesy ad. I remember this ad because it dominated my early childhood. It was the Charles Atlas ad featuring a 98-pound weakling being bullied on a beach. Through the miraculous Charles Atlas system, that same 98-pound weakling is transformed into the “Hero of the Beach,” whereupon he vanquishes the bullies and, of course, gets the girls. (Okay, there were also the ubiquitous Sea Monkey ads on the backs of comics that nobody of a certain age can forget, for if you ordered them, what arrived via snail mail was a packet of dried up salted shrimps that never did anything. I viewed it as an early lesson in caveat emptor.)

But this week, I found myself thinking about because I was wondering just when the Big 12 Conference turned into a 98-pound weakling? The Big 10 and Pac-10 moseyed on into America’s breadbasket (and beef basket) like that bully on the beach and kicked sand in the eyes of the Big 12. They cherry-picked them at will, and these raids are likely just the opening salvo.

If you haven’t been paying attention, here’s what’s happened so far.

Colorado is leaving the Big 12 (reducing it to 11 teams) to join the Pac-10, which would make it, unofficially, the Pac-11 (although admittedly that doesn’t have the same sweet ring as the Pac-10.)

Meanwhile, Nebraska is leaving the Big 12 (which departure makes the Big 12 unofficially the big 10.) The Cornhuskers headed to the official Big 10 conference (comprised of 11 teams) which, with the addition of Big Red, would make it a 12 team conference, although not The Big 12. Got it? Great. Moving on, then.

Currently, the Big 12, the original one, now with 10 teams mostly in the square states, is treading water, trying to withstand these raids and not simply disappear into the diaspora. The teams which remain (and yes, we’re talking about teams here because the actual colleges ceased to factor in these types of equations quite a while ago) are: Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Texas.) Nothing personal, but in this kind of power grab, many of those teams are at the mercy of the bigger, more powerful players. Kansas has one of the very best basketball programs in the country, but these maneuvers are about football and only football. And the revenue it generates, of course. Which means that Oklahoma, with it’s brand of Sooners football, is in a slightly better position than Kansas, but the prized jewel in all this, of course, is the University of Texas. Ever’thing’s bigger in Texas. Especially, and most importantly, television markets.

According to the Television Bureau of Advertising, Texas has four TV markets in the top 50, with two in the top 10 – Dallas (#5) and Houston (#10). With all those eyes watching the Texas Longhorns football games, Texas is the biggest prima donna in this little dance, so if Texas stays in the Big 12, the conference can make a go of it with 10 teams. Then, down the road, they can raid some other, weaker conference, of course. Or so the thinking goes. According to Sports Illustrated, the Texas Board of Regents meets this Tuesday, so the remaining nine Big 12 teams, including Oklahoma, will just have to wait.

But you didn’t seriously think the SEC was going to sit on the sidelines for this piracy party, did you? According to Orangebloods.com, which has been the go-to source on what they have cleverly dubbed “The Big 12 Missile Crisis,” Texas A & M doesn’t want to join the Pac-10, but is considering a move to the SEC. Which means that Texas might spurn the Pac-10’s advances and go to the SEC, too, because word is that Texas and Texas A & M want to keep their long-standing traditional rivalry in tact.

For the same reason, part of me almost hopes that Oklahoma follows Nebraska to the Big 10. What can I say? I’m a sucker for traditional rivalries. USC v. Notre Dame, Bama v. Auburn, Michigan v. Ohio State, Texas v. Texas A & M, and Oklahoma v. Nebraska. These games make college football vibrate with excitement.

Meanwhile, the Pac-10 still has their eyes on both Oklahoma teams, Texas and Texas Tech. Which would give them 15 teams. They likely want 16 total, so that they can have two divisions of eight teams each. Word via NBC’s College Football Talk is that if Texas A&M doesn’t accept the invite to the Pac-10, but Texas does, the Pac-10 may make overtures to Kansas. Of course, the state of Kansas doesn’t have much to offer in the way of television markets, but that would be a gem of a basketball program to add.

But if it is more television revenue the Pac-10 is after (and why would we assume otherwise), and if the Aggies tell them to take a hike, they may offer that last spot to Utah, and not Kansas, per the Deseret News. Salt Lake City has the No. 31 television market, according to TVB and the Utes, despite not playing in a BCS conference, have a solid football program.

Lost in all of this is just how the Big 12, one of the best football conferences in the country and one of the best basketball conferences (both men’s and women’s) in the country, became such an easy target. It hasn’t been reported and the inside dope on that would be some very welcome reporting. So, for now the Big 12 exists and they hope to exist in some form when the dust settles, but they may not be able to. And until Texas and A&M make up their minds, they just have to wait and pray.

In the meantime, it is becoming more and more apparent that the SEC, the Big 10 and the PAC-10 are determined to become “power conferences” before this is all over and, if they cannot achieve that through further raids of the Big 12, surely they will turn their eyes elsewhere.

All of which leads me to believe that the Big East and the ACC should start making sweet, sweet love to each other if they don’t want to become the next 98 pound weakling on the beach. Or worse yet, like those dead on arrival Sea Monkeys.


The Follow-Up at True/Slant on June 15, 2010:

Big 12 Conference Not Dead Yet, Alternately titled, the BCS conference commissioners and the boosters who love them. This story changes every 15 minutes so it’s worth updating my last post about it. I’m exhausted just following the movements.

Looks like the Big 12, in the form of 10 teams, is going to survive. All this because the Texas Longhorns agreed to stay, and, thus, A&M and Oklahoma are staying. We’re not dead yet! says the Big 12. According to the USA Today, Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe will speak about the new peace, but here’s how the television money appears to break down:

"He is expected to address reports by operators of Texas fans website Orangebloods.com, which cited people familiar with the decision, and other outlets that the schools were induced to stay by projections of increased TV revenue — $20 million a year for Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma and $14 million-$17 million for the other seven Big 12 members, a substantial rise from the $8 million-$13 million distributed this year. Beebe did not return a request for comment."

Texas also is free to continue pursuing its own TV network.

Which they no doubt, will do. I wonder, if Texas does establish it’s own network – UTTV or something versus a Big 12 Network (modeled on the Big 10 Network) - how will that affect the balance of power within the Big 12?

But, for the foreseeable future (i.e., the next seven hours or so), the Big 12 conference looks like this: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Missouri and Iowa State.

I don’t expect them to sit still. Once feeding time at the zoo was announced, all the conferences got ants in their pants.

In the rest of the midwest, the Big 10 now has a dozen teams and they have said that they’re going to remain that way For at least another dozen months.

Here’s the Big 10 lineup: Michigan, Michigan State, THE Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Northwestern, Purdue and Nebraska.

Bear in mind that the Big 10 has never hidden the fact that they very much covet Notre Dame. Who knows how much longer the Golden Domers can hold out with power conferences gathering so much, well, power.

And, in the area of publicly declared lust, the Pac-10 made no secret of it’s desire to poach the Texas-Oklahoma axis from the Big 12 and has a bit of egg on it’s face now that the Big 12 retained the Texas-Oklahoma axis and has resolved to stand firm. But, with the addition Colorado (who they did manage to lure from the Big 12) the Pac-10 is sitting on 11 teams, but are probably not done maneuvering yet. For now, the Pac-10 looks like this: USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona, Arizona State, and Colorado.

It is speculated that the West Coasters will continue to try to put together at least a dozen teams, if not the super conference of 16 teams originally envisioned. Word is that the 12th potential team is Utah, currently of the Mountain West Conference, which conference just poached Boise State from the WAC conference. Of course, by the time I hit the “publish” button, no doubt there will have been even more changes.

Why the push for super conferences? Money. Championship game money. Which is to say, football championship game money. With enough teams, a conference can split into two divisions, a’la the SEC, and then have a conference championship game. That one game can mean kaboodely millions on TV revenue for a conference. The Detroit Free Press estimates that a Big 10 championship game could mean about $15 mil in revenue just for one game, which is a whole lot of motivation for ADs and conference commissioners everywhere.

Coach Speaks the Truth, World Stunned

I can't even imagine how much fun much Big East coaches meetings are. What a cast of characters, with Agnus B, C. Vivian, Geno, Harry P., Jeff Walz and on and on. Jesus they must need a mighty big room to hold those personalities. And I mean big, like Roman Collesium, big. Like Casey Hampton's lunch bag, big. I mean like Madonna's ego, big. Like, bigger than Roger Clemens' level of denial. What I'm getting at is these are coaches with huge, wildly entertaining personalities. And people wonder why I love living in a Big East city. 

Why oh why hasn't ESPN turned the Big East women's coaches into a reality show? Do I really need them to produce another show about raycin'? Hells no. I want to see these coaches and I mean all the time. Bring on the Agnus-Cam! Where's my "Day in the Life of Harry Perretta?" I'd Tivo a show that followed C. Vivian Stringer while she went shopping. (She is the best dressed coach in any sport, hands down, no question.) Sunday dinners with the Auriemma family would be television gold. How can the Worldwide Leader not see this? 

So, as though you needed more evidence that the Big East is the most entertainng conference on planet women's hoops, U.Conn coach Geno Auriemma did something shocking in his pre-game presser before the Final Four game against Stanford. He was Geno. 

http://www.truveo.com/Auriemma-On-Perception-Of-Race-In-Sports/id/3228141587

To borrow a phrase from the late, great PittGirl, perhaps the world's greatest blogger, that's CHURCH, Cousin Geno.