Takeaways from the 2022 March Madness Tournaments
The more things change the more things stay the same.
1. The Last Dance- Part Deux
We all knew at the very beginning of the tournament that Coach K’s final tournament was going to the biggest storyline of the tournament. However, there were two moments that threatened for that to be upstaged. One more moment was somewhat expected but was always going to be short-lived. The other moment was completely unexpected (more on both later). But as we have gotten down to the Final Four, the storyline has re-emerged with Duke, North Carolina, Villanova, and Kansas as the last 4 teams remaining. A storyline that seems to be straight out of a Hollywood script. To win a championship in his final year, his team must be his school in-state rival (UNC) and defeat the winningest men’s college program (Kansas) or one of the heir apparent as one of the premier coaches/programs in the country (Jay Wright and Villanova. There are plenty stories that will discuss Coach K’s legacy. From his changing of recruitment strategies from 4-year players to one and done to his impact on men’s college basketball but this story and this tournament is about the last hurrah.
It makes you ask the question, why do we love the final run of the act? Part of it is the fear of missing out, we know that we may not see this again. The other part is that their career arc sparks a large segment of our lives; it helps defines us and marks moment. Even if the tournament (and men’s college basketball) seems to have lost some of its spark to some, important basketball luminaries like Coach K bring you back to big moments in college basketball history. Duke v. Michigan, Duke v. UNLV, Duke v. Kentucky, these are huge games that made not only make huge basketball impacts, they make huge cultural impacts. In short, why do we love the long haulers- because it makes for a good story and they are the story tellers and carriers.
2a. Tom Brady is Back
Interrupting Selection Sunday was Tom Brady announcing his return to the NFL. The thought that one of the GOATs would decide to hang it up when they a) had a great season and b) did not win the championship surprised many. It wasn’t the fairy tale ending that his fans wanted nor the falling off the cliff that his detractors wanted. All in All, everybody was left wanting for more. Now the speculation continues, here is a sample of all the questions.
Does he still have it? Did he want a new coach? Did he not like being in the limelight?
The fact that we are just in April and this took over the news cycle tells you what we have in store for the NFL season.
2b. Tiger is Back
Right around the Final Four we began hearing news that another GOAT was planning on making a comeback. This comeback is more improbable than the 45 year-old All-Pro Quarterback. Tiger Woods is not only competing at 46 years old with golfers have his age but he is competing a year after being involved in car crash that caused him to break both of his legs. It’s nothing short of amazing that he can walk again let alone play competitive golf. Sports fans not just golf fans watched on Thursday- Sunday to see Tiger make the cut and compete on the golf course at the highest level, a sight that some thought they will never see again.
The fact that both of these stories overshadowed parts of the March Madness is not an indictment of declining popularity in college basketball, it’s a testament how GOATs will always garner attention no matter the time of the year or expectations.
3. The Great Women’s Tournament, The Impact of NIL, and what to do to increase viewership
Two of the biggest misconceptions about women college basketball is it is inferior product to men’s game and that the Name & Image Legislation would only benefit the men college basketball players and football players who are expected to be 1st round draft picks.
These things could not be farther from the truth. 4 of the top 5 players with the highest NIL value are women.
“I cannot tell you how many times we heard: ‘Women will get nothing. Women will be on the back burner,’ ” said Corey Staniscia, director of external affairs at Dreamfield, an NIL engagement platform. “Everything that the naysayers said, none of it has held true.”
Staniscia also argued that NIL may be the largest emerging market in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of athletes as potential clients across the country. Some recent examples include Aliyah Boston (South Carolina) has a NIL deal with Bose and Haley Jones (Stanford) has a deal with Beats by Dre. This doesn’t even mentioned the potential of women athletes creating their own brands.
Also, it can not be understated that the Women’s Tournament was awesome. From Jackson State almost becoming the first SWAC team to win a game in the tournament against an in-state competitor in LSU to Creighton winning a nail biter against sharpshooter Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Uconn surprisingly playing the role of the underdog against the consensus #1 University of South Carolina.
With South Carolina blitzing Uconn early, the Gamecocks defeated the Huskies 64–49. With South Carolina winning 2 titles in 5 years and Uconn not winning a title since 2016, there will be more anticipation next year to see if South Carolina has truly overthrown Uconn as the premier women’s college basketball program. With Paige Bueckers, Zia Cooke, and Azzi Fudd all expected to come back next year, it is possible that these two teams may meet again and with 4.85 million viewers of the championship (the highest since 2014) the women’s game is in a great place. This is not just the case at the highest level as this tournament saw more double digits upsets than the previous 2 years. This is a sign and a result of more girls have the opportunity to play sports which is creating more competition and parity at the highest levels (collegiate and professional).
“People talk about how there isn’t any parity in women’s basketball… This is March Madness…“It’s awesome for mid-majors, because it’s great basketball. Yes, Power 5 conferences like the SEC, the Big Ten, they’re great teams… But you’re seeing it. Like, there is awesome basketball at the mid-majors, and I’m loving it.”
- Carla Berube, Head Coach (Princeton University)
4. Shaheen Holloway & St. Peters: Coming home and Moving On
In most seasons, this would have been far and away the best story of the tournament. A 15th seeded team in the tournament that went 14–6 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference defeated University of Kentucky, Murray State, and Purdue on its way to the Elite 8 is the stuff of Disney’s movies. Before this story, the only time I remember seeing the Peacocks as a sports mascot is the fictional University of Los Angeles in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
A team that is tough minded defensively, doesn’t turn the ball over, makes its free throws and doesn’t quit easily made this team a fan favorite of everybody except those trying to win their bracket pools.
College sports fans all suspected what the ending was going to be. With Kevin Willard taking the job at the University of Maryland, it became obvious that Shaheen Holloway, the confident head basketball of St,. Peter’s, was going to take the job at his alma mater, Seton Hall. At Seton Hall he lead the Pirates to a sweet 16 appearance as their starting point guard. It’s a decision that absolutely no one can blame him for as many people would see that position as their dream job. However, as coaches like Scott Frost can attest to, going home doesn’t know always guarantee immediate success or meeting that what can be unrealistic expectations on the fan base.
What is a welcome difference from similar decisions of previous coaches, is the players can make the same type of decisions for the careers due to the transfer portal and the aforementioned Name, Image, and Likeness Legislation. Doug Ebert ,Daryl Banks and Matthew Lee have entered their name into the transfer portal with Doug Ebert making the decision to transfer to Bryant University. While this may ruin the chance of a repeat to the St. Peter’s story, it does make it more likely that we will hear the people who made up this story for years to come.
5. The Duality of the Commercials
With all the controversy of Snoop Dogg performing at the Super Bowl, one of the most surprising things to me throughout the entire tournament is that I did not hear any complaints about the Corona commercial.
The Corona commercial was a well-thought out, nuanced commercial where former collegiate stars Vince Carter (University of North Carolina, Sue Bird (University of Connecticut), Devin Booker (University of Kentucky) and Christian Lateener (Duke University) talked about their teams’ legacies, successes, and failures through their school colors all ranging in different shades of blue. The commercial ends where Snoop says “Live your Best Life in Any Color” while wearing blue. Maybe I missed it but there seemed to be a much bigger deal about him and others (Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, 50 Cent and Mary J. Blige) performing at the Super Bowl.
This doesn’t even get into the fact that a beer commercial was constantly aired at a NCAA event where the majority of their student athletes are below the legal limit.
There were other commercials that could have lead viewers to skeptical. One was the Buick commercial titled “See Her Majesty” where on a black screen, text was written to explain some of the greatest moments in women collegiate history alongside audio of the event. What was missing were the visuals.
This message was clear. Women sports do not get their just view as far as coverage but isn’t NCAA and March Madness a big part of the problem. The Men’s Tournament begins earlier (at the peak of fans interest), airs some of their premier games on CBS, and still gets the line share of the coverage. It’s hard to know what came be done to fix the issue (even though a combined tournament that staggers men’s and women’s game could be a start) but it’s clear that the NCAA bears part of the blame and by having Buick air the commercial is keen to the NCAA telling on themselves.
Finally, you have the famed NCAA commercial where 99% of the athletes go pro in things other than sport. An excellent message for both athletes, parents and fans that reminds them that a college education is the ultimate goal for the vast majority of their athletes but it highlights one of their biggest flaws which was the delay of allowing athletes to profit off their athletic abilities while in school.
If the vast majority of athletes are not going to play professional and this is the biggest audience that they will play for, shouldn’t this be the time for them to use a stepping stone for their careers?
It’s an issue that the NCAA has fixed but took them entirely too long.
6. “Spurtabilty” lead to Rock Chalk Jayhawk (First Quarter- USC, First Half- Kansas)
The championship games and most of the games in general was decided by runs. For the women’s game it was the first half where South Carolina got out to be a big first quarter lead while Kansas lead a furious second half comeback to beat 8th seeded North Carolina to prevent the Carolinas from sweeping the tournament. Bonus points for the perceived show of sportsmanship by Kansas after North Carolina’s Armando Bacot reinjured his ankle late in the title game. These games typically ebbed and flowed due to momentum which is more pronounced due to the 3 point shot and the single elimination tournament format. This makes for one of the greatest things about March Madness: expected unpredictability.
Honorable Mention 1: The NBA Lottery Picks
Not since 2012 has an NBA superstar(Anthony Davis) won a NCAA championship. While Jaden Ivey, Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith and Paolo Banchero all played well for the respective tournaments, it seems more likely that the top prospects game translates better to the pros than in college due to more open style of play.
Honorable Mention 2: Jaden Ivey and Niele Ivey
Watching a mom watching her son play is always cool. Watching the mom watch her son play while her team is also playing in the tournament is even better. Now imagine if the NCAA had both men and women games at the same venues. Marketing Gold.
