Monday, March 17, 2008
Greenberg's gripes grasp at wrong straws
Aaron McFarling
Recent columns
Let's start by addressing what the solution is not.
The solution is not expanding the field. When Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg argued on ESPN on Sunday night that 65 teams are not enough, he reached very deep into the satchel of the jilted. And he's wrong on this one. The NCAA tournament is one of the nation's best sporting events for a reason. You need it more than it needs you.
The solution is not getting rid of the RPI. Greenberg tried that one on TV, too. It smacked of sour grapes.
The solution is not complaining or comparing or criticizing or crying or any other "C" word that seems so tempting when your team is left out of the NCAA tournament.
Here's the solution: Win more.
That's it. Win more. Make your free throws down the stretch against Clemson. Hit one more shot than Butler did in overtime. Run some more clock in crunch time at Wake Forest. Hang on to a defensive rebound against North Carolina and turn a moral victory into something tangible, something the committee cannot ignore. Find a way to solve N.C. State, one of the ACC's most woeful teams.
Win more. Then you're in.
The Hokies are among the most dangerous teams in the country right now. Really, they are. They're playing with confidence, poise and pride. But they weren't in November, and they weren't in December, and they weren't in January. Those months count, too.
So when the committee made its choice to leave Tech out, nobody should have been shocked. Least of all Greenberg, who's as plugged in as anybody to the college basketball world and knew how close they were to the edge.
The quote we heard from Greenberg more often than any this season was this one: "My guys are so young, they don't know any better." But boy, are they learning. They've learned how to trust each other, how to hold each other accountable. They've learned how to compete with some of the top teams in the league and the nation.
And on Sunday, they learned something else. They learned about disappointment, about the fine line between jumping out of your chair on CBS or shaking your head in private. And Greenberg, for all the great things he's done for Tech and those players, did those guys a disservice with his response on ESPN. He played the victim card. He implied it was somebody else's fault -- the committee, the system, the whistle-happy referees.
Uh-uh. The truth is, the Hokies did plenty this year, but they didn't do enough. And you know what? That's OK. Anyone who's watched this program develop under Greenberg has to be thrilled about where it's heading. They'll be back in the NCAAs soon enough.
In the meantime, they'll tip it Wednesday night against Morgan State in the NIT.
Another chance at the real solution.
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So Bob Knight not only wants to expand the field to 128, but he wants to get rid of automatic bids, too. Not sure if he was sipping "New Coke" when he dreamed this one up, but you'd think a guy with more than 900 career wins and three national championships would have a better appreciation for the beauty of the tournament.
Word is Knight also hates bubble gum, candy and dogs that fetch the newspaper. But you know the old saying: "If it ain't broke, keep throwing chairs at it until it is."
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I'd like to take a moment to brag about correctly picking the finalists (Florida and Ohio State) in last year's Selection Sunday column, and also pat myself on the back for taking the Gators to win it all. Then I'd like to congratulate the 75 million other people who had those same obvious selections. Take a bow with me, Chalk Nation.
But this year, we're going wacky on you. Wisconsin -- a team that wasn't even picked to finish in the preseason top three in the Big Ten -- will win it all. Two reasons for this. One, they haven't lost since Feb. 9. Two, they have the top-ranked scoring defense in the country.
No. 2 on that scoring-defense list? Stephen F. Austin.
Expand the bracket to 300 and those boys'll show you something, too.
