Michael Giberson
Coyote Blog asks, “Where is Cinderella?”
The first two rounds of the NCAA basketball championship have been played (round three is underway as I type), and nowhere to be seen is a surprise team like last year’s George Mason University.
The best answer I have seen is that of Phil Sheridan, in The Philadelphia Inquirer: Mid-majors that roar are winnowed out. While normally I’m not much for conspiracy theories, when the conspiracy fits with the interests of television and the dominant sports conferences … well, that’s a powerful aligning of interests.
Want to know what happened to Cinderella? I’d put the wicked stepsisters at the top of the list of suspects.
Maybe no Cinderellas, but the first four games of round 3 have been highly competitive, and I’m hopeful that will continue.
Remember we paid a price for George Mason’s run last year. Sure, it was a lot of fun. But it ended up contributing to a HORRIBLE final four. There was no way they could repeat what they did against UConn, essentially playing at home and getting an incredible 3-point hotstreak, but still barely surviving overtime. Florida-UConn would have been a classic matchup.