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March 17, 2006
Gonzaga Theory
NCAAsports.com - The Official Site for NCAA Sports
Basketball rant, ignore it if you don't care...
First day of the NCAA tournament, and Gonzaga, seeded third, almost lost to 14th seeded Xavier; Nevada, which a few years ago beat a highly favored Gonzaga team and had been a chic pick to make it to the second weekend, lost to Montana.
I wasn't particularly surprised (though I actually did pick Nevada to go to the second weekend). I have a theory that these teams -- the highly-rated teams from small conferences -- aren't going to do well in the tournament because they're playing teams that are basically like them. They do well against teams from big conferences because those teams aren't like them. A big conference team, even a mediocre one, is probably more athletic than Nevada or Gonzaga, but less experienced and doesn't work as well together. A team like Montana, however, is basically similar to Nevada, only not quite as good. But the mid-major powers are used to winning on experience and guile and not against a team that is their equal in those areas, and can't adjust to using their advantage -- which in this situation is athleticism. Nevada would have been better off as an eight or nine seed playing a mediocre big-conference team like Marquette or Kentucky.
Posted by Mac Thomason at March 17, 2006 01:05 PM
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