Upsets are great early in the tournament. Everyone loves a Cinderella. Plucky underdogs are fun, especially when those plucky underdogs are Oral Roberts and not Oregon State or UCLA. You’re soulless if you’re not rooting for the little guy in a sport when the big dogs have everything.
That said, once we get past the Sweet 16, once we get to the Elite Eight and the Final Four, I’m off the cute stories.
When we get to the biggest stage in college basketball, I want the big dogs. I want the best matchups. I want to see the juggernauts face off. That’s what I root for, and that’s what we got on Monday night.
The first half of the Final Four was set in Lucas Oil Stadium tonight, as Baylor knocked off Arkansas and Houston outlasted Oregon State to set up a battle between the two best programs in the State of Texas to play for the right to try and win a national title.
And good lord, is this going to be a battle on Saturday.
I’m not sure there is anyone in the country that has played harder, or tougher, or more physical than these two teams. Both of them love to pressure the ball. Both of them love to try and force turnovers. Neither of them mind if a basketball game turns into a rugby match; they like it that way. Neither of them would mind if the officials took the night off and the players were allowed to call their own fouls.
But we’ll get to all of that.
We have plenty of time to preview these games in the coming week.
What I do want to say first is this: Outside of pulling for the best possible basketball to be played in the Final Four, the other thing that I root for is the best storyline. What will be interesting and fun to write about? What story will I be able to spend multiple days thinking and writing and talking about without getting sick of it? Where have I done some pre-reporting that can be used to get that one nugget that will make my story the best story to read during Final Four week?
And on Monday night, we got two utterly incredible storylines that will become the major talking points over the next seven days.
1. DON’T CALL IT A REBUILDING JOB
Scott Drew didn’t rebuild shit in Waco.
He built something where there was no foundation. This is the first time that Baylor has made a Final Four since 1950. They hadn’t won a league title in men’s basketball in 71 years until this year. When Scott Drew took over the program, the entire roster was transferring out because the former head coach was caught on tape trying to convince his staff to lie about a player who was murdered by a teammate, to slander his name and call him a drug dealer to hide the cash payments that he — Dave Bliss — was giving out.
Disgusting.
That’s what Drew walked into, and while it wasn’t always easy and it took 17 years to do, he’s turned the Bears into a juggernaut in the conference. They are the healthiest program in America. They’re keeping players for three or four years. They have pros on their roster. They’re recruiting five-stars and cleaning up in the transfer market. They are turning assistant coaches into head coaches. There’s no reason to believe that things are going to slow down in Waco, even when they lose so many key pieces this offseason.
It’s not the greatest build in the history of college basketball — UConn has won four titles, Arizona has won one, Gonzaga is probably going to win one this year — but it ain’t that far behind.
And it helps that everyone involved with the program is just so easy to root for. These are good, likeable kids that play their balls off. Scott Drew is endlessly positive. The coaching staff is currently, and has been during Scott’s tenure, made of guys of a similar ilk. What’s not to like?
I’ll say this as well: The way that last season ended ruined a lot of dreams. Dayton fans will never get to experience a tournament run with Obi Toppin. San Diego State fans will never know if they could have put something magical together. There are half a dozen other sob stories in the same vein, and Baylor was certainly one of them. I don’t think that this is the peak for Baylor, but this really could be the peak for Baylor. This group is special. It may never be matched, and while they lost last season, it is nice to see those same kids get a chance to live out their CBB dreams this year.
2. KELVIN’S RETURN TO INDIANA
The irony is definitely not lost on me.
On the same day that Indiana introduced their fourth different head coach since Sampson and the Hoosiers parted ways back in 2008, Kelvin and his Houston Cougars advanced to their first Final Four since Hakeem Olajuwon still spelled his named Akeem.
Now, the reason that Sampson’s career at Indiana went up in flames is somewhat controversial.
On the one hand, he once again got caught breaking the same NCAA rule that he broke at Oklahoma. He was hit with a five-year show-cause penalty, and he had to spend those five years sitting on an NBA bench, trying to make it work as an assistant in the pros before he could return to college.
Those violations are part of the reason why the Indiana basketball program is stuck in a perpetual rebuild. Sampson — or maybe Dan Dakich, depending on who you ask — drove it into the ground. It took Tom Crean four years just to get them back to a level of respectability.
On the other hand, the rule that Sampson was caught breaking was that he made too many phone calls and sent too many texts.
Which, you know, LMFAOOOOOOOO
Kelvin Sampson was turned into a villain and Indiana basketball was turned into a dumpster fire because the NCAA was worried about recruits not having unlimited plans.
That will never not be funny and ridiculous to me.
Either way, Sampson is back with a team that (I’ll say it) has a chance to win the national title, and he’s doing it all in the state where he brought down the flagship sports program.
Maybe it’s a good thing that fans are limited in the arenas right now.