ALLEN FIELD HOUSE - HOME OF MODERN DAY COLLEGE BASKETBALL

How else could you explain the NCAA selection committee’s decision to give Duke a Wall Street-sized Bracket Bailout when establishing the other #1 seeds’ Road to the Final Four? 

After all, Dick “Dookey V” Vitale, as he is known in many circles, is a shamelessly biased shill for Duke, and CBS’s favorite “color man” for college basketball.  I can just hear Vitale’s phone conversation with the NCAA Selection Committee setting Duke’s easy wade through the South bracket to the Final Four.  It was fait accompli.  Besides, according to him and much of the East Coast media and sports writers, that sixty miles between Durham (Duke’s home town) and Chapel Hill, North Carolina (North Carolina’s home town) is the center of the college basketball universe.

OK, seriously now. 

Kansas is the #1 team in the country, and the top #1 seed in the tournament; that entitles them to play in the “softest” bracket – starting with the weakest seed (#64).  They earned that right.  That is the standard operating procedure for any sports tournament – unless, of course, you have an agenda.  Dan Guerrero, Chairman of the NCAA Selection Committee, gave the lamest excuse when it came to the rationalizing placement of the Top #2 seed, Ohio State, as well as an over-laden bevy of talented teams in Kansas’ bracket:  he said it was a “procedure” decision.  Guerrero and his shameless NCAA peers’ transparent bias for Duke is made even more apparent by the fact that the 64th position (the weakest seed) is being decided in a game tonite.  Guess who the winner of that game plays?  That’s right!  Duke.  WTF?

Maybe it’s jealousy and irreverant contempt for college basketball’s Midwest roots.  Never mind that Kansas University and Allen Field House is the center of the college basketball universe.  Duke and North Carolina basketball are not even in existence but for the legacy of Kansas University, where the Father of Basketball, James Naismith first brought his newly-developed game into the limelight near the turn of the 20th Century. 

Moreover, you have the revered and deeply feared Allen Fieldhouse - opposing players and coaches hate playing there because of it’s unprecedented college basketball history and the deafening crowd noise – the place which gave birth to modern college basketball; as in the likes of Adolph Rupp (Kentucky), Dean Smith (North Carolina), and “Phog” Allen  - the namesake of the field house – who coached both of them.  Legend even has it that Allen and many other old ghosts like Wilt Chamberlain haunt opposing teams who step into “The Phog” – where the longest current home-game winning streak is held.

As for the opinon of the national sportswriters and baskeball analysts who seem to think this whole deal was rigged – here is just a few snippets of their condemnation of this apparent bias:

 Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated (SI.com) said “For reasons known only to the 10 people in that room, the selection committee tapped Kansas its No. 1 overall seed, placed it in the Midwest, then inexplicably stuck it with the most loaded field of any region, hands down.”

Mike DeCourcy’s piece for Sporting New’s College Basketball segment’s headline reads “NCAA gives Duke cupcake draw in South Region“, and he was also quoted in NBC’ Sports’ “Beyond the Arc”, stating that ”The Devils couldn’t have gotten a greater gift from the committee if the entire tournament were moved to Cameron Indoor Stadium.”  He was referring to the Duke Blue Devils and their home-court.

 But nationally syndicated sports writer Jason Whitlock just cut right to the heart of the matter:  Duke is television ratings gold, and the NCAA is in the process of negotiating a new TV contract for its prized tournament . . . [t]he NCAA needs another bump.”   That would be spelled M$O$N$E$Y.

Moreover, the inevitable expansion to a 96 team field for the National Championship tournament has to be a dream come true for the NCAA and Duke.   Duke head coach Mike Krzysewski said in a recent interview, he supports the expansion.  Of course he does.  And so does CBS – or whatever network buys the future television rights.  Every year, the NCAA Committee can put even more cupcake teams in Duke’s bracket, and load the higher seeded teams with a truckload of the more difficult teams.  Thereby significantly  increasing the probability that Duke makes it the finals.

The bottom line for the NCAA’s March Madness is “the bottom line”.

As for the NCAA Committee, here is hoping the most famous ghost of college baskeball comes back to haunt all of you . . .

Pay Heed . . . Beware of “The Phog”.