My Personal Final Four

Just about every hoops fan in America has filled out brackets for the NCAA tournament, which got underway Tuesday night. One of the beauties of participating in an office or on-line pool is that you don't have to know anything at all about basketball to join in the fun. Most folks just go with "the chalk," i.e., they bet on the higher seeded team for each game. I have already seen a number of "experts'" predictions in which they simply bet on the # 1 seed in each region (Syracuse in the East, Kentucky in the South, North Carolina in the Midwest and Michigan State in the West) to make it to the Final Four. But, beware! Last year that strategy did not come close to working, as the Final Four featured Virginia Commonwealth (an "11 seed"), Butler (8), Kentucky (4) and eventual champion UConn (3). It was the first Final Four not to include at least one of the top two seeds from any of the four regions.

My own Personal Final Four has a little bit of a different spin to it. It is comprised of the four teams whose coaches I could not possibly bring myself to support. In other words, they would be the last, final four I'd cheer for. Regardless of how I complete my brackets in the pool organized by my son, Michael (an investment of $10 which I could have otherwise used to buy two pints of my favorite adult beverage), I will be pulling for the opponents of these teams:

1. Kentucky, coached by John Calipari. "Coach Cal," as the media likes to call him, reminds me of Pete Carroll, the guy who was the head football coach at Southern Cal for nine years before escaping to the Seattle Seahawks in 2010 when the NCAA was about to lower the boom on his program's unethical and prohibited practices. The Trojans were handed harsh penalties, including bowl game banishment and scholarship limitations. Similarly, Calipari took two teams, UMass (in 1996) and Memphis (in 2008) to the Final Four, but those schools' appearances were vacated from the record books due to NCAA violations under Calipari's watch. That did not prevent Calipari from signing a lucrative deal (like Carroll) with Kentucky, a school obviously more obsessed with basketball than with its reputation. Calipari and his employer also have no problem recruiting high school kids to play for the Wildcats when they know those players will jump to the NBA after their freshman year. They are unaffectionately called "rent-a-year players." A recent USA Today headline labeled Calipari the "One And Done King." I thought the players were supposed to be student athletes, on a path toward graduation. Silly me.

2. Syracuse, coached by Jim Boeheim. Syracuse is currently under NCAA investigation (again!) because of rumors and reports that, for the last ten years, the Orange have had several players who tested positive for drugs. Somehow, the test results never surfaced until a few months ago. Boeheim brushes it off as if nothing happened, apparently never having heard of the saying that where there's smoke there's fire. He told the press that it would be business as usual, a double entendre if there ever was one. The alleged drug problems aren't the first scandal to hit the 'Cuse, nor is it the only time Boeheim was accused of hiding things from the NCAA. For example, after the Tournament Selection Committee gave Syracuse the relatively easy path of a # 1 seeding for this year's tournament, Syracuse declared that its starting seven foot center, Fab Melo, was ineligible. If you think Boeheim and his employer just happened to find that fact out after the seedings by the Selection Committee, you are naive. Boeheim is being sued for defamation by two former ball boys who alleged that long-time assistant Bernie Fine molested them when they were part of Boeheim's program. Boeheim called the accusers liars, then shortly thereafter threw Fine under the bus when things got hot, even though as of this writing no charges have been filed against Fine. On the Notre Dame fan website, ND Nation, basketball fans hold Boeheim in such low regard that they have instituted a principle known as "The Boeheim Exception." According to that axiom, an Irish fan is permitted to cheer for a team playing Syracuse even if a win by the Orange would benefit the Irish in the rankings. Check out this post by Kayo on ND Nation:

http://ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=faq;pid=3;d=this

3. Connecticut, coached by Jim Calhoun. UConn is yet another team which has recently run afoul of NCAA rules. Calhoun was actually suspended earlier this year for ignoring the ban on contacting high school recruits during the NCAA dead period. If you look up the word "arrogant" in the dictionary, you will see a picture of Calhoun right there. He has been disgruntled with Notre Dame for participating in the Big East Conference in all sports except football, even though ND's arrangement with that conference requires them to play a set number of football games (usually three) against Big East teams. Calhoun would have been better off complaining about Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami, all of which defected from the Big East to the ACC, plus Pitt, West Virginia and Syracuse, which are lame duck Big East members prior to their scheduled defection.

4. Duke, coached by Mike Krzyzewski. I almost chose not to include Duke on this list for the simple reason that it is nearly a cliche to write disparagingly about the Blue Devils. They are low hanging fruit when it comes to reasons to root against them: the flopping by its players after mild - - or in some cases, no - - contact, the punk attitude of several of its players like Christian Laettner and JJ Riddick, the constant and definitely unwarranted complaining to the refs by Coach K about the lack of calls the Blue Devils get from the zebras, the love affair the media (especially Dukie Vitale) has with Duke, the inordinate number of times Duke has been assigned to play tournament games in nearby Greensboro against opponents who had to travel cross-country to get there, and the atmosphere in which Krzyzewski allows the seniors to torment the underclassmen, almost in some years to the point of hazing. The topper for me, though, was the decision by Coach K not to count the last two-thirds of the disastrous 1994-95 season on his record, even though the players were recruited by him, coached by him for the first third of that season, and in the program created and overseen by him. His reason? He was recuperating from off-season back surgery and was counting on his assistant, Pete Gaudet, to run the team. Do you think Krzyzewski would have counted the last two-thirds of that season on his record if the team had made it to the Final Four? There is no doubt in my mind that the answer is yes. For a good laugh, check out this post which originally appeared on RamblingBeachCat:

http://www.1500espn.com/link/want_to_know_how_to_hate_duke_here_is_a_stepbystep_guide

Having teams not only to root for (such as your alma mater, a favorite conference representative, your bracket picks, or a decisive underdog), but also to root against, adds a whole new dimension to one's tournament watching experience. With a few exceptions, I'll be pulling for the lower seeds, you know, the teams in the dark jerseys. Everyone loves a Cinderella story. And, I will always root for the opponents of my Personal Final Four.