Words by Don Barton Jr.
With the selections about to come out and the hopes of every player getting raised to the sky. This is why they wanted to play college basketball for the chance to play in the tourney and make that run. On the other hand with most mid-major conference champs winning their tournaments as well this is making for a bigger bubble. The smaller the bubble the more Cinderella candidates. A Cinderella is a team that people do not know where they are located or name any of the players.
The bigger bubble is not for the third best team from the summit or Horizon leagues its for the middle of the road teams from the BCS conferences like Mississippi States, Notre Dame, and Connecticut. Assuming that those final spots will go to teams from the power conferences and that since they made the tournament they have a better team, it raises the question what does it take to become a Cinderella. These teams from the power conferences play each other all year and help raise their “resume” to a respectable level (i.e. Big East and Big 12). They will be stealing slots from team that could be this years Cinderella. Is it strictly seeding, conference, historical exposure, or some combination of all three?
If we look at just a seeding issue then you can get a slanted view of who the Cinderellas should be. No, team from a BCS Conference can be a Cinderella because the ones that make the tourney recruit on a national level. That type of recruiting allows you to get exposed to a deeper pool of players that the mid-majors do not have the finical ability to reach. With the bigger bubble this year we are going to see more BCS conference teams receive at large bids. Therefore they cannot be Cinderellas because they have better talent player for player.
Considering that LSU is the highest seed to ever make the final four and that was as an 11 seed (1986) the next best is Villanova was an 8 seed (1985) and they beat a Patrick Ewing lead Georgetown team in the finals.
The historical exposure is the next major factor because better players want to play for teams that have more exposure. I’m not talking about local programming either and ruling out the teams that have guys that are only looking to the next level. We have to look at the 2nd tier teams in the country like Butler and Gonzaga.
Their success is what knocks them out of the Cinderella running because they get a National exposure that no one else in their conference gets both during the regular season and even more so during March. Teams like Butler and Gonzaga have had enough success that they have played themselves into a position with expectations. Look at Texas this year they were ranked number 1 at one point then started a free fall. They cannot be a Cinderella regardless of seeding because they A) have the talent B) expectation to win.
When people go to fill out their brackets a Cinderella has to be team that people do not have any expectations for. Like Davidson or George Mason teams that have no history of success and truly came out of no where to have the most success their schools have ever seen. The LSU and Villanova teams Were able to build on their success and maintain some of the success they had. Because, of their ability to maintain the success they had they lost the title of Cinderella and had a certain level of expectations from their fans. True Fans never want their team to become a Cinderella again since that would mean that they have lowered their expectations of what success is.
For example, Hoosier fans and haters will never take the glass slipper and call themselves Cinderellas, but for teams like Butler and Gonzaga who have had a ton of recent success never want to slide back to the that level of being called a Cinderella. They have reached and sustained a certain level and their fans will never want the back slide. For those of you looking to fill out your bracket this year and look for this years George Mason or Davidson good luck because sadly their will probably not be one or even worse no one that can be considered one.
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