The Mirage That Was The 2010 NCAA Tournament And How Duke Ruined It All

Starting quite early in the college basketball season I began to get the feeling that it was a horrible abnormality. At first I dismissed the notion because, living in Chapel Hill I was exposed to this phenomenon in much the same way as someone standing next to the sun would experience heat. It was a nightmarish season for the Tar Heels, who went from winning a national championship to nearly plummeting to the basement of an especially weak ACC (Miami saved them from that). Making matters worse was how Duke ran through their schedule for the most part; more on that later.

But then teams began to noticeably drop like flies. The obvious example of this is Texas, who's collapse can't be described in words. Heading into their game against KSU on 1/18 they were the top team in the nation and Damion James was (at least to me) the clearcut #1 option for player of the year. They finished the year with a first round exit in the NCAA tournament that they only qualified for in the first half of the year. Texas was hardly alone, though, as there were many other teams that had dismal seasons. UConn comes to mind; they should've had the best backcourt in the country but Jerome Dyson and Kemba Walker never came to play at the same time, and the team never met anyone's expectations.

As the tournament drew near, it became very evident how wide open this championship run was going to be. I wasn't thrilled about that (competition is about finding out who is the BEST, not the LUCKIEST), but I can't deny that I was definitely excited about the mystery of what was on the horizon. For much of the first weekend I never lost the feeling that the entire regular season gave me that led me to dismiss it as a bad joke, but ultimately the first five rounds did nothing to disappoint. Tons of buzzer-beaters, upsets and all-around intrigue, including mid-major Butler reaching the final to play Duke. But as cynical (translation: realistic) as I've been, I couldn't help but get caught up in all the excitement. I was sure Butler would win that game, down to the last Greg Zoubek trip to the FT line and subsequent near-buzzer-beater by Gordan Hayward.

And when that shot didn't fall I came crashing back down to Earth (just look at that picture at the top, on the NikeBasketball website minutes after the game ended). We were treated to a hell of a game; Duke wasn't getting their usual lion's share of the calls and obviously the game came down to the wire. But with Duke getting the victory this terrible joke of a college basketball season concluded with the most bitterly anti-climactic end to the year, the likes of which I don't think I have ever seen. I'm just going to leave it at that, because I could go on for days about how shitty this year was and how Duke is the least deserving champion in the history of sports, but I don't want to dwell on the negative. Instead, let's recognize what has quietly been one of the best NBA seasons (probably the best season) since Jordan left Chicago for good, and enjoy what is shaping up to be the best playoffs in that same time span. More on that in a later post, coming soon.