March Sadness
On the (various levels of the) agony of defeat
Within 48 hours, I twice found myself in the same depressing place: The locker room of a team that had just been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.
Late Friday night (technically early Saturday morning) it was Michigan’s. The Wolverines were disappointed by their Sweet 16 loss to Auburn, but they could immediately see the bigger picture.
“I think this season was definitely a success,” starting guard Rubin Jones told me. “I don't think just because you lose you're a loser at all.”
The Wolverines went 27-10 one year after finishing 8-24. They won the Big Ten Tournament. With one more win, they would have been playing a game for a spot in the Final Four. Instead, four No. 1 seeds will meet in San Antonio.
Michigan was really good this season, but not that good.
“There's a ton of emotions, especially after a tough loss in the Sweet 16, just thinking about things we could have done better,” guard Roddy Gayle Jr. said. “But I feel like in hindsight, we accomplished much more than we were expected to.”
There were some moist eyes in the locker room but mostly stunned silence.
On Sunday night, the scene in a nearby locker room in the same building had a different vibe: more tears, especially from Michigan State guard Tre Holloman, whose heavy sobs made his postgame interview incredibly difficult to watch, and more long hugs.
Michigan State had also been eliminated by Auburn, an actual game short of the Final Four. The Spartans finished 30-7 and claimed the Big Ten regular-season title along the way. There was no shame in losing to the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, but the Spartans had their sights set on San Antonio.
Expectations surely played a role in the teams’ differing responses to defeat. I wondered if school pride did as well. Michigan started four transfers in their first year with the program; two are now out of eligibility, another has entered the transfer portal, and another might leave for the NBA. They spoke highly of their time at Michigan but — to quote T Swift — that time was quite short.
Michigan and Michigan State both had nine players take the court against Auburn. Those Wolverines combined for 12 seasons at Michigan. The Spartans combined for 19, including a senior and two juniors who had been at Michigan State throughout their college careers. Granted, the one who was crying the hardest — junior Tre Holloman — entered the transfer portal yesterday.
And that leads to one of two major problems with college basketball, as this writer sees it. The first is that every player is a free agent at all times. Professional athletes regularly change teams, but the most valued players get signed to multi-year contracts. Already four Wolverines have entered the transfer portal since the season ended: one is a freshman; two will be seeking a third school. That’s not good for student-athletes, their programs, or fans.
The second issue is a much easier fix: The replay review system. If a game is close in the final two minutes, it creeps to the finish line thanks to an unlimited number of untimed reviews.
Nearly every out-of-bounds call gets dissected like security footage of a crime. To keep the analogy going, too often the wrong person is arrested. Sometimes two wrongs do make a right, like when a foul is not called but possession is awarded to the offended party. The current system has referees overturning an out-of-bounds call but not applying an obvious foul.
It’s frustrating for everyone except announcers who like reminding us that “there must be indisputable evidence” to overturn a call (which doesn’t even appear to be true!) and TV execs hoping to squeeze in an extra advertisement.
On my offseason to-do list is looking into this issue more closely to see if the NCAA plans to make any changes to the current, broken system.
To end on a positive note, how about this Final Four? They are the top four seeds and the top four teams per the most respected predictive computer metric, kenpom, both currently and before the Tournament started. The regional finals paired the top eight teams at kenpom. The four teams remaining rank among the top nine teams in the entire kenpom database, which goes back to the 1996-97 season.
In other words, the best teams have advanced in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Minimal upsets — and a small number of last-second wins — have sapped some magic from this March, but we could be in for an epic conclusion.