Each quadrennial, soccer’s World Cup gives you a Group of Death.
College basketball’s South Regional, coming this week to Philips Arena, presents you now with the Group of Life’s Little Surprises.
Doesn’t that sound so much nicer?
Fully one half of the most modest regional bracket ever – the Birkenstock sandal of regional brackets – will be made up of teams that were supposed to serve as game, dare we say quaint, opponents and dissipate into the ether by now. In the south, we look at teams like Loyola-Chicago and Nevada and reflexively say, “Aw, bless their hearts.”
But these are nobody’s sparring partners. They may think the one-and-done is just another name for a paper plate, but don’t underestimate them.
There is so much to learn about our visitors, and so little time to do it.
We’ve got one team – Loyola-Chicago – whose most famous member is its 98-year-old team chaplain, Sister Jean. When Adidas comes sniffing around looking to sign her to a big orthopedic shoe deal, then we’ll know the sport has completely lost its way.
And the other – Nevada – was the last place where Mark Fox had any NCAA Tournament success, so, we should have figured it capable of surprising deeds.
Who knew that these two would be the mother of all fodder?
These teams have come to Atlanta to rip up your bracket right in front of your face.
A third, Kansas State, has skated on the distant horizon of our perception, if only because it is from non-Lawrence, Kansas. KSU is really good, it’s just that the rest of the world outside its corn maze is a little slow catching onto that truth.
Let us celebrate what has become of the Atlanta Regional.
Every coaching cliché that proceeds a seemingly hopeless match-up – “That’s why the play the game,” “On any given (fill in the day),” “They put their shorts on one leg at a time, just like us,” – has been given a spit shine by certain members of the South Regional, and made new again. Unpredictability is sports’ most valuable commodity, and this part of the bracket has provided more than its quota.
We have not been left with the most glamorous of options, but no one said it would be easy being the sentinel of a possible new democratic age in college basketball. At least we can pretend as much for a few days more.
It is the arrival of teams like Loyola-Chicago and Nevada that separates college basketball from the near certainties of college football, where anything other than Alabama causes sea levels to rise. Sometimes it’s good not to follow a script.
As for Kentucky, its role is equally clear this week in Atlanta.
Wildcat Nation, you are here to fill seats and streets. Much pressure rests with your famous travelling party to make up for any tourist-dollar shortfalls that may come with having smaller, less-experienced fan bases in this event.
For a couple days here, we need to court Big Blue like its Amazon, because, frankly, I just don’t know what the other three teams will bring.
Therefore, Kentucky, come early, stay late, turn those pockets inside-out. Hold nothing back, because to assume that you are going to breeze through this region and on to San Antonio could be the same mistake that others before you have made.
Spend freely. Because these new stadiums and improved arenas don’t build themselves, you know.
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