NCAA Tournament, Title Game: Why I'm Rooting for Connecticut

Screw the Big Least. Funny how all the east coast commentators wet themselves about how many teams they got in the tourney (new record!) without mentioning how the conference keeps expanding. What are they now — 17 teams?

UConn excels at recruiting stud big men and have had a number of quality to star guards enter their program. IMO the two most important positions to recruit in college basketball are point guard and center, and Barnes has unfortunately struggled to consistently recruit elite players at these positions on a consistent basis. Thankfully we have Kabongo coming in and Ridley the next year if he pans out.

And UConn winning wouldn’t make me feel any better about losing to them at home in overtime. They made two total fluke threes (one didn’t even beat the shot clock but there was no review for whatever reason), and we were totally annihilated on the glass. Just being able to win that game alone probably would’ve given us a boost in seeding.

The thought of Dickie V’s et. al. Big East blathering makes my tummy hurt. That, and the fact that Butler is my (current, though temporary) hometown team makes me root for the Bulldogs.

Really, I don’t know that Texas needs UConn to win for some kind of validation. The consensus seems to be that Texas is a good team, and much better than last year. That same consensus seems to say that the Horns got screwed…both by the seeding committee and by the officiating. (Oh, and UT got screwed against UConn in Austin too. Kemba’s weird 3-point heave was late.)

Anyway, I’ll be at a local sports television viewing establishment this evening. And as the game starts locally at 9:23, please don’t post anything good too early tomorrow…

Even though I agree about the ridiculousness of the “Big East is overrated” theme, I just hate UConn so much. Hopefully this is Butler’s year for redemption.

but I’m rooting for UConn tonight and it’s largely because I’m a fan of Kemba Walker.

Sue me.

you lost me at:

“The committee slotted teams and awarded bids three weeks ago based on what each team had accomplished all season, not based on what they thought they could accomplish in the tournament.”

I’ve been saying for weeks that tourney success neither proves nor invalidates season long resumes and perceptions of teams or conferences. You cannot say with any more accuracy that the No. 1 seeds were all overrated because none of them reached the Final Four, than you can say that Virginia Commonwealth definitely deserved to be in the tournament because they did reach Houston. Neither makes any sense.

This is why I maintain that the NCAA tournament winner is not actually a national champion—and really, just as much a MNC as the BCS winner is.

Lamb looks like he will be something special. All the pro scouts have been drooling over him with his combination of heigh, length for a 2 guard. He kind of has that wiry frame that kobe had coming out of highschool, although i wouldn’t say he will end up being as good as kobe. He just reminds me of him. Also I love kemba. The combination of his sweet crossover, and the huge heart and toughness he plays with. He plays the game the way it is meant to be played. He has probably been my favourite player to watch since durant and before that melo.
As for the big east- i’m leaning on agreeing with you. People can really only make the argument that nova and maybe marquette did not deserve to be there. All the others had solid resumes. It’s not the big east schools fault that every sports writer and media outlet keep selling this conference as the be all end all of college basketball.

I usually do agree with most of your perspectives and arguments, but none of your reasons do it for me personally. Fortunately, we’re talking about who we are rooting for and not something more objective that houses a deep, stingy, personal pain.

Butler for me, and it is not even close. Not so much for the underdog story that it isn’t, or even for redemption from last year. In closely watching these two teams for the last couple months, I simply respect the Butler program too much not to root for them. Yes, it’s Brad Stevens; yes, it’s the small Indy school of < 5k students; it’s Matt Howard, a stand-up guy; it’s the very lack of gleaming future pros you mentioned that also has me pulling for them more. When my dog isn’t in the hunt, I look to the intangibles, the story lines, team cohesion, leadership, etc. Without letting an ESPN All Access special tug at your heart strings, Butler winning is what this tournament is about for me. I have no personal beef with UConn, but absolutely nothing compels me to root for them over the Bulldogs.

I bet Jim Tressel is rooting for UConn tonight.

Arguments about whose conference is the “best” are a waste of time. It’s about each team and its journey. Using your logic, I would have to pull for SEC teams in big fb games – not gonna happen. I have to pull for a school that takes a chance on a guy who took a chance and left a corporate job to do what his heart (and his fiancé) told him he should do before it was too late. I have to pull for a team whose players have paid the price and stayed their whole four years - and not just because that was their only option. And come on, it’s still David vs Goliath until a small school actually wins it all.

Just wondering, AW, were you pulling for the big city team in the movie “Hoosiers?” Interesting footnote that the final game in that movie was filmed in Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Other intangibles: UConn is further north (always a consideration for me).