My View

Topsy-turvy

By RICHARD A. ROSS

TAMPA, FL — Biff, bang, boom, kapow.

Some of the mighty fell in this past weekend’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament in shockers that informed us, once again, about several universal truths.

Trying to predict what will happen is, at best, a crapshoot.

Life is full of surprises that humble us and remind us that we are subject to unforeseen forces over which we have virtually no control.

Sometimes, the little guy does win and, sometimes, giants are felled by those of stronger will and resolve who are not sidetracked by other people’s lack of faith or by the litany of reasons why their quest is doomed to fail.

Somehow, little 10th-seeded Davidson of the Southern Conference, fielding a team from a student body of 1,700, dispatched two-seeded Georgetown with an enrollment of more than 13,000 and sent the mighty Hoyas home. This followed Davidson’s comeback win over number-seven Gonzaga. In both games, guard Stephen Curry came on strong in the second half. He scored 25 of his 30 points against Georgetown in the second half to help overcome a 17-point deficit and give his team its second tournament win since 1969. Davidson’s first win since the year of Woodstock and Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon came two days prior in this year’s tourney opener when Curry buried 30 of his 40 points in the second half against the Zags.

It was a fitting end to a weekend that saw two-seeded Duke and four-seeded Connecticut sent packing by 13th-seeded San Diego and seventh-seeded West Virginia respectively.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Many had picked Georgetown, the jewel of the Big East, to reach the Final Four. Some thought they would win it all. Others maintained that Duke or Connecticut would find a way to return to the top of the national heap, a place far from unfamiliar to both.

There will always be those who present their opinions about what will happen as the gospel truth, spoken with an arrogance born of their positions of stature in the media. Even more disturbing is how easily such pundits can convince other people that they know best what will occur and why.

Granting credence to such bankrupt guidance can lead to misery. We live in a nation immersed in a costly war, sold authoritatively to its populace with the help of a compliant media, by dint of a slick package of lies. Its daily toll in human lives and the ravaging of our economy reminds us how vital it is to not be led astray by the voices of others we have exalted into positions of prominence and authority.

This March, the nation saw New York’s governor step down in disgrace and, in what some might see as the far less significant realm of sports, some teams previously anointed as powerhouses sent home by what pundits told us were teams likely to be the next lambs led to the slaughter.

How the mighty have fallen.

I’ve turned off sports radio shows. I’m sick of the self-informed banter churned out by its most popular icons who espouse their opinions with a smug arrogance. I am equally disenchanted by sportswriters who use the print media to try an augment their own sense of importance. One minute they pontificate why certain people’s bracket predictions are most laudable, and the next day they rip them up when their soothsayers’ foresight proves to be as flawed as most others.

The NCAA tournament also reveals another verity: “All that glitters is not gold.”

College basketball was once one of the last bastions of unadulterated sports. But with the millions of dollars poured in by advertisers and the media, it’s become a big business, just like professional sports. The best players use college as a stepping stone to the pros; some only staying a year to boost their value in the next year’s draft. Their presence in school has little or nothing to do with education.

The big schools monitor the ranks of high school standouts, some eyeing kids as young as seventh graders as future prospects. The reward for the schools recruiting the best of the talent pool is a potential NCAA tournament bid worth loads of dollars in TV endorsements. The further you go, the more money your school receives. The rich get richer and the little guy has to play with what’s left.

How sweet it is when that little guy topples the kingpin.

I used to love the NCAA tournament and on weekends like this last one I remember why. Eleventh-seeded San Diego dispatched fourth-seeded Connecticut, known best for its immense front line and tournament pedigree. In an earlier game, 12th-seeded Western Kentucky sent fifth-seeded Drake packing, while down in Washington, DC, storied Duke, a two seed and one of America’s favorites, which had narrowly dodged a bullet by avoiding a defeat against 15-seeded Belmont, was sent home by seventh-seeded West Virginia in the second round. Twelfth-seeded Villanova upended number-five Clemson, another team some felt was Final-Four bound. Of strong local interest was Siena, with Kingston grad Tay Fisher, which overcame its 13th-seeded position to erase fourth-seeded Vanderbilt. Villanova ended Siena’s run, but that win over Vanderbilt will ring on in the Saints’ history.

Had number-one seeded UCLA not been bailed out by the late heroics of Darren Collison, who gave his Bruins the lead over Texas A&M with nine and a half seconds remaining, most people’s brackets would have been in the shredder. But then again, many probably already were.

As the tournament of 64 is down now to the sweet 16, it is true that all four number-one seeds are still alive and could survive to the Final Four. But this year’s run has already yielded enough upsets to make the pundit poobahs look foolish.

In the stark light of the bright morning, if you take the time to really look, the emperor really isn’t wearing any clothes and is bared for all to see. The truth is being spoken if you can only hear it.

It’s a topsy-turvy world and none of us really knows which end will be up tomorrow.