Twelve years ago we had a similar situation, with 3-seed UCONN (eventual winner), 4-seed Kentucky, 8-seed Butler and 11-seed VCU in the Final Four - the first one without a Top-2 seed (this year obviously now the first without a Top-3 seed). I had a little bit of a meltdown that time, sensing that while it as was all fun and games watching top seeds go down (though ironically, not many top seeds were bounced the first weekend) it left us with crummy matchups. That revealed itself to be true when UCONN beat Butler 53-41 in probably the single worst big time college basketball game ever. It was pretty clear to me then that while March is about upsets, by the time the calendar turns to April, and you reach the Final Four, you want the top/better teams alive.
I'll say this with caution that I've since abandoned this stance. It might be that we haven't had the same level of dominant teams as I grew up with - biggest factor may be the one-and-dones have either had less success or more increasingly chosen the G-League path. It might be that I've come to realize as the years gone on that the quality of play between the 1-seeds and the 8-seeds really isn't that much - both are far worse and more annoying to watch than any NBA team. But really, what I think has happened is I've just gotten older, and part of that is connecting to the upsets more.
Watching Princeton beat Arizona was mesmerizing. Despite watching the game with a group of friends where one of them went to Purdue and is a die-hard Purdue fan, watching a 16-seed from a little school in northern New Jersey win was amazing. Watching Creighton and San Diego State, two mid-level seeds and frisky mid-majors fight for either's first shot at a Final Four was amazing, even if the way the game ended was a bit sour.
The actual basketball itself is always going to be messy, whether its top seeds or random mid majors. There's always going to be annoying slow and inane offense, and floor-slapping defense in lieu of actual great defense, and most glaringly some awful coaching decisions and the like. But that is what you sit through to get rewarded with some amazing human moments.
The fans of these schools, the bands playing away. The spotlight put on weird schools and weird places, adn random coaches toiling away at random places. All of it is what makes this tournament special, but as I grew older that aspect has started to connect with me more. Did I vociferously cheer for Kansas and Bill Self winning their second title last year? Sure I did. But I was also fully fine to see them tossed aside by Arkansas this year.
The central point of this realization was either the Creighton vs. San Diego State game, or maybe even more markedly the FAU vs. Kansas State game, where we saw a mid-major that is really better than its seeding (something akin to the 2010 Butler team that was stupidly a 5-seed despite being ranked in the Top-10 in the final poll) beat a team trying to make its first final four after a few near misses, this time with a new coach, a new look and some incredible players. My dad watched the game with me, and asked me when Markquis Nowell was going off in the Garden if Nowell would play in the pros. I tried to explain to him that no, this little 5'8" guy who was a three-star recruit wouild almost certainly not play in teh pros. But that makes it better - watching him swag his way through deep threes and great passes in teh sports' msot famous floor. That is the tournament.
This may all seem silly if we get treated to a UCONN v. Butler type final (ironically, maybe featuring UCONN once again!), but I truly think it is about aging, about buying into the stories of these boys attempting to do something on a stage they never will see again. It helps that I'm a good 10+ years older than them now, not compatriots as I was ten years back. I can enjoy the moments of success, of failures, of March madness that the tournament brings and brought in full force this time aroudn.
