Yep, I'm still rooting for the UCLA Bruins and the darling of college basketball, the George Mason Patriots.
I heard the end of the latter's game, but didn't know how their play had managed to pull it off until I read the sports coverage, today.
The press reports of GMU campus excitement after the OT victory brings back a fond memory or 2 of similar experiences...
Meanwhile, I don't think badly of Florida or LSU, it's just that I'm more familiar with the other 2 schools (although not necessarily a great deal about their basketball programs). Indeed, Florida or Louisiana State U. may win the crown.
I haven't been much of a college basketball fan in recent years, as I've said before, but I have to be somewhat critical of the way that UCLA's dynasty seems to be noted by sports commentary. You get impression that some people seem to think that since UCLA once won 10 or 11 NCAA basketball championships, the current team is part of that tradition.
Give me a break! The fabled coach during the dynasty, John Wooden, retired about 30 years ago! The UCLA teams since then have had their ups and downs.
College basketball has changed over those 30 years.
And maybe what GMU's astonishing performance is suggesting is a need to develop other measures for rating teams. How can we measure motivation, cohesion, and adaptiveness? Is there a way to create reliable ratings of these factors that can aid in bracket predictions? Or, perhaps some of these measures might be better suited for continuous updating during a game. I'd like to see broadcast commentary by sports psychologists during and inbetween play.
Posted by raacluse at March 27, 2006 06:51 PM