May The Best Man Win?

The big advantage college basketball holds over its football brethren – it’s ace in the hole, if you will – is of course March Madness.  College basketball can boast that, because of its NCAA Tournament, it crowns a true national champion, not one based on polls and computer rankings.  They can boast that the best team in the nation is identified and given the championship.  But is this really true?

This year, more than any other, the question needs to be asked: Does the NCAA Tournament determine the best basketball team in the nation?  While it is a wonderful and exciting development to have Butler and Virginia Commonwealth in the Final Four, are they truly among the four best teams in college basketball this season, or are they just the hottest teams or the luckiest teams or the teams who matched up against its tournament opponents the best thus far?  Butler has lost nine games this season, including one at home to lowly Evansville plus five games in the Horizon League (including becoming one of Youngstown State’s only nine victories all season).  VCU, meanwhile, has lost a whopping 11 games this season and didn’t win its conference’s (Colonial) regular season title (they came fourth) or its postseason championship.  

The other side of the bracket is better, but not by much.  Kentucky has eight losses on its ledger, lost three out of four to start off February and was the third-best team in the Southeastern Conference during the regular season.  Its opponent, Connecticut, has lost nine games including four out of five to finish off the regular season.  They ended up the ninth-best team in the Big East this regular season. 

So if we end up with a NCAA Championship game between UConn and VCU, are we to believe that the nine-best team in the Big East or the fourth-best team in the CAA is the best college basketball team of the year?  Probably not, but part of the madness (and fun) of the sudden-death format of the NCAA Tournament is that anything can happen – especially this year.