Final Four Set - Will You Be Satisfied?

Well, we have our Final Four in college basketball. We got to this point by holding an annual 64 team tournament....a playoff, if you will. It wasn't created by a computer system based on quality wins and losses and strength of schedule. Yet why do I feel like last years college football season got it more right than this years college basketball Final Four?

At the end of the college football season, there are probably five teams that could all argue they had "the best year." The BCS system at least gives us arguably two of those top five teams in the national championship game. That's guaranteed every year. Sure, we may not be happy with the final two in the title game, but it's usually not too far off (like last season: we got Texas vs. Alabama).

When the regular college basketball season ended, if you were asked, "who are the best four teams in college basketball right now?" - how would you answer? Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Ohio State? You might throw in a team like Kansas State. What's the Final Four this year? Butler, Michigan State, West Virginia and Duke. Satisfied?

I know it's semantics, but one system gives us a "tournament champion" and the other system give us "the best team that season." If Duke basketball wins this tournament, they will have accomplished it by defeating: Arkansas-Pine Bluff, California, Purdue, Baylor, West Virginia and either Michigan State or Butler. Remember that list of the best teams this season in college basketball (Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Ohio State)? Duke didn't have to play any of those teams. Now, I understand, that's not Duke's fault and if those teams were really "the best", why didn't they get in the way of Duke's path? But my point is, we aren't guaranteed anything with the March Madness tournament. We aren't guaranteed that the top teams will meet in a 4 team playoff. In college football we are closer.

So next Monday night one team will be cutting down the nets. It could be Butler. What it won't be is "the best team in America."

One and Done Is No Favor To Anyone

He arrived at Georgia Tech with a ton of hype and fanfare. He will leave Georgia Tech without a shining moment. Derrick Favors' potential last game as a Yellow Jacket will be remembered for his first half foul trouble and frustration to get into a groove vs. Ohio State. Or will we remember any of it?

Favors was Mr. Everything in high school. He was the MVP in the McDonald's All American game and the Jordan Brand Classic. When Paul Hewitt landed this prize recruit, Georgia Tech fans saw endless possibilities for the upcoming season. 'Possibilities' should mean being an elite team in a pretty mediocre ACC conference and landing a top 5 seed in the field of 64 tournament. Once invited, you hope to advance a few rounds and make some noise. Let the Derrick Favors Era Begin! Yeah baby!

And.......era over. Boy, that was fast. Sure the dream you had of landing one of the top high school players in the country was real. The execution and accomplishments shortly thereafter was more like a nightmare.

Elite in the ACC? How does finishing in 7th place with a 7-9 record sound? NCAA Tournament seeding? Let's try a 10 seed on for size. Advancement? One single win and a fizzle in the round of 32. There is nothing sweet or elite about that.

Throughout this season, Favors showed flashes of why he would have been a first round draft pick right out of high school. Flashes wasn't enough for Georgia Tech fans. Consistency always trumps flashes -- ask John Wall or Evan Turner. Favors now has one season of college basketball under his belt and his first round draft status probably remains unchanged. Sadly, that is going to cost Georgia Tech. More than likely, Favors will leave school and enter the NBA draft.

And so the Favors era comes to an end....and what an era it was! Who could ever forget that loss in Athens vs Georgia where Favors had 8 points and 8 rebounds. Or how about that huge win in Chapel Hill vs. a really bad North Carolina team where Favors had 7 points and 4 rebounds? Finally, how about his last game! Going out with a bang! 24 minutes, 10 points! Memories I'll cherish for at least the rest of this afternoon.

So all this begs the question: if your Paul Hewitt, do you continue to go after these one-and-done NBA prospects? Has the reward been worth the risk? Is winning one game in the NCAA tournament really considered a reward? Since Hewitt starting recruiting and landing kids like Favors, Thaddeus Young and Javaris Crittenton, he hasn't had much post season success. Maybe he should take a closer look at his 2004 roster, which made it all the way to national championship game. That team consisted of upper classmen like BJ Elder, Ismail Muhammad, Will Bynum and Luke Schenscher. That team built an 'era.' This year's team, along with Derrick Favors, is already a distant memory.

For One Afternoon...

For about three hours this past Sunday afternoon it mattered. We cared. We hated. Team USA vs. Team Canada in the gold medal hockey game captivated a small portion of our nation. For those three hours we had a chance to hate our harmless neighbors to the North.

Hate Canada? That just doesn't sound right. In fact, it's not that easy to do. Aside from those three hours yesterday, why would we ever hate Canada? Because they have different bacon then we do? Because they have Steve Nash and we have........Nash Bridges?? Wasn't Canada the place Americans fled to when they wanted to avoid the draft during Vietnam?

Watching the gold medal game Sunday afternoon was more about cheering for the underdog, Team USA, then it was shouting at my television, "Canada sucks!" Had Team USA played Russia or heck, even France, perhaps our blood pressure would have been a little higher. Imagine the story lines had we faced off with the old Soviet Union on the 30 year anniversary of the Miracle on Ice. Now that's a game worth throwing the remote around the house over. As for France, well, I'm not even sure they are relevant in hockey. All the great hockey players with French names are apparently from Quebec.

Sure we missed an opportunity to have bragging rights for the next four years, but who really cares. How often do you run into a Canadian anyways? I say let them have hockey. We've got our football, basketball, baseball and really, really good bacon!