Long live the March Madness upset

The term fairytale implies fallacy; the overcoming of seemingly insurmountable odds en route to the achievement of an improbable victory over a highly favoured opponent. Few times in life does such an achievement come to fruition, with the exception of those rarest of moments where the fabled Goliath falls victim to the proverbial David, who in the face of adversity was able to flourish.

Such a cliched ‘the good guys always wins’ ending seems abundantly elusive to the vast majority of us; its likelihood more realistically scripted by an employee of the Disney corporation than to be describing a real life occurrence.

Granted some glaringly atypical, if not extraordinary, exceptions from this virtually certain principle are college basketball teams. And even they have but a short window to impose their will; that window being the month of March.

The madness that occurs during this window is unrivalled by even its professional counterpart. For here, the tournament is single elimination, win or go home, do or die. A field of 65 assembles, all in the pursuit of a common goal that only one will achieve. Some may have a chance again next year, some may not, and such uncertainty, and such pressure breeds an indescribable emotion.

In the pros players compete for money. They come to work, and they do their job. Their championship is decided over seven game series, where the better team usually advances and few uncertainties exist, there’s always next year.

But here players compete for pride. They compete to be the best. On a stage as rich in pressure as it is in reward, they compete in front of an entire continent. Businessmen call in sick, students skip classes, everyone fills out a bracket, and the underdog can never be counted out. Such is March Madness.

This year began like any other, amongst controversy. Selection Sunday brings with it an abundance of argument; teams feel they were robbed of a bid, others think they deserve higher seeds, and critics always question the warrant of at least one team for even being included.

This year that team was Arizona. Awarded a lowly 12 seed in the Midwest bracket, many were quick with queries as to why they even received a bid after losing five of their final six games to conclude the regular season.

Still after losing Hall of Fame coach Lute Olsen to retirement, and with interim bench boss Russ Pennell at the helm, the Wildcats were able to secure their 25th consecutive appearance in the tournament.

But satisfied they were not. After knocking off a favoured Utah State team in the first round, the Cats found themselves face to face with a bracket busting Cleveland State team who was able to outlast a Wake Forest squad with Final Four aspirations.

And while you may find yourself thinking, Cleveland State? There’s no challenge there. Cleveland’s not even a state. It’s a city in the state of Ohio. I remind you that that Wake Forest team was led by Jeff Teague, Al-Farouq Aminu, and James Johnson, all of whom could very well hear David Stern calling their names as first round picks come this summer.

So, a real test Cleveland State did pose, but behind three NBA talents of their own the Wildcats were up to the task. Forward Jordan Hill is Chris Bosh right down to his hair cut, Chase Budinger is a human pogo stick, and point guard Nic Wise is solidifying his place amongst the best guards in the nation.

As the final moments came to pass Arizona was able to secure the victory behind Wise’s 21 points and eight assists, Budinger was quoted as saying “We’re showing that we’re a lot better than people thought of us.”

A sentiment that was echoed by his interim coach.

“When you look at the NCAA tournament, a lot of times the teams that get hot at the right time are teams that had to struggle to get in,” said Pennell. “What’s happening now doesn’t surprise me with this team.”

And so a No. 12 seed advances to the Sweet Sixteen, a place where the next lowest remaining seed is No. 5 Purdue. Their fate lies in a meeting with the tournament’s No. 1 overall ranked team in the Louisville Cardinals. Led by former Celtics coach Rick Pitino and NBA calibre players Earl Clark, Samardo Samuels and Terrence Williams, the Cardinals are imposing to say the least.

Wise says the Wildcats “have the talent to do it”, but we shall see come Friday. The spirit of the underdog is alive and well, and an ending only Disney could script lays in the balance, anything could happen.

This is March Madness.