Mid-Majority Comments

One Team: Portland

As long ago as August, we began hearing about how "loaded" the field is at the 76 Classic in Anaheim. We heard about West Virginia, Minnesota, Clemson, UCLA, and even Butler. The tournament was so good...so many talented teams...and not a peep about Portland. The Pilots slapped around UCLA late last night, and will play Minnesota tonight. Win or lose, they're going to get a shot at another power conference team (West Virginia or Texas A&M) on Sunday.

Regardless of how this all plays out, I hope you're realizing how strong the WCC may be this year. Many thought Gonzaga would take a step back, but they gave Michigan State everything they could handle, and just won the Maui Invitational. San Diego has already knocked off Stanford and has a shot at winning the Great Alaska Shootout after taking down Oklahoma. Could you imagine 3 WCC teams winning the 76, Maui, and GAS? Meanwhile, St. Mary's is scoring so many points I'm starting to wonder any defense in the WCC can slow them down. There's a possibility we could be looking at a repeat of the 3-bid WCC of 2008, that is, if both Portland and San Diego cooperate this weekend.

onetouchfutbol wrote:Yes, the WCC is definitely very improved. There will be some competitive games for sure. How has USD improved so much?

up7587 wrote:Yeah, that was my thought. Is this his seventh year?

But we definitely have to give major props to the team that crashed into the general consciousness of casual fans everywhere, and that's the Portland Pilots with their performance in Anaheim. To drop UCLA and Minnesota on national TV is something that every school at our level dreams of.

When a team from the SoCon or CAA or Big West catches the attention of the tastemakers, and makes it into the Top 25 for the first time in 50 years, the Bubble descends and envelops the campus. The interview requests for players and coaches are relentless. The sports information director is pressed into action, fielding and evaluating and prioritizing requests for time. Who should get first crack, Katz or Goodman? Wait, how did they get Coach's cell number?

Fans and alumni get excited. We're good now! I can finally wear my gear out in public! Nobody asks where they were during all those lean, non-ranked years, back when the team had trouble drawing 1,000 diehards to the games. Casual adopters get on the bandwagon, punch up the website of the school bookstore, eager to get their hands on the t-shirt of the next George Mason.

Inside the compound, in the inner sanctum, it's chaos. Basketball people are some of the most routine- and process-driven people you'll ever meet. Every minute of every practice is meticulously planned out in advance, every phone call is cataloged (thanks, NCAA), and road trips require precise itineraries to get 20-plus people from one place to another. Nothing is as disruptive to a team than a sudden onslaught of cameras, microphones and famous people in expensive suits, all clamoring for a piece of you.

And when it happens, I have one piece of advice. Don't lose a game. Ever, ever again. Beyond a few regional or personality quirks to fit in a feature article, the Bubble doesn't care about who you are, or how special and unique you might be. The Bubble only has use for you if you're winning, dying or lying.

When you finally do drop a game, you'll be questioned. You'll be labelled a fluke. The top-dog competition will be disparaged, questioned themselves, and the Bubble will move on. You'll be replaced in the Top 25 by a fourth-place Big 12 team, or Vanderbilt, or some other long-suffering mid-major who's on the upper end of the trajectory you just rode. You will be forgotten once the wins stop; it is the destiny of every small-conference school to be forgotten. Whether you're George Mason, Creighton or Davidson, you'll be forgotten. (Butler, you're next.)

Like Portland, for example. In one week, with three wins over Oregon and UCLA and Minnesota (the latter pair on ESPN), the Pilots were voted in. There were soft-focus features, SportsCenter spotlights, and finally poll votes. Portland spent its first week in the Top 25 in a half-century by losing to Portland State and Idaho.

I've only spoken to Eric Reveno once, and that was for a standard preview article. Even if I knew him better, I'm sure he wouldn't go on record about the disruption to the team's routine that Top 25 status brought. And he doesn't have to, because the results speak for themselves. If you saw any of those two losses, you'll see a defense that was a mere shadow of the lockdown effort that held Minnesota and UCLA to 33 percent shooting. The Vikings and Vandals shot better than 50 percent both nights. It was almost as if the Pilots weren't properly prepared for the games.

Portland is still a very good team; I love watching the Pilots play. Once they recover from the shock of being Bubbl'd, they'll be fine. When the upsets come again, I'm sure they'll have their priorities in order.

Because the poll doesn't determine who gets into the NCAA Tournament, and never did. The Top 25 has nothing to do with the Sweet 16 or the Elite 8. It's only as important as you allow it to be.

Gonzaga is removed from the [mid-major] wins-and-losses tabulation altogether, because no other small-conference school has unlimited access to the cable airwaves like it does. (For the record, the program spent $11 million on athletics in 2008, and $2.5 million -- almost a quarter of its budget -- on the basketball team.)