Not the Best Thursday

Those who know me know that there are two days every year when sports make me especially crabby: the day the Marquette basketball team is knocked out of (or eliminated from making) the NCAA tournament, and the day the Atlanta Braves are eliminated from postseason contention. Thursday was as close as I've come to seeing both in the same day. As I've gotten older, I think I've gotten better at keeping sports in perspective. So, calling Thursday "the worst day ever" is pretty ridiculous. As far as being a sports fan goes, though, yesterday kind of stunk.

The greatest Brave since Hank Aaron? Maybe.

The day began with the news that Chipper Jones is retiring. The news was hardly a surprise. Chipper turns 40 this year, and he's been battling injuries for quite a while. He's been talking about retirement and the hell of getting old a lot lately, but it's still a bummer to know this will be his last season with the Braves.

I have heard the argument made that Chipper is the most valuable number one overall pick in MLB history. What that means is that he has done more for the team that drafted him than any other top overall pick. Sure, Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey, Jr., had better careers, but they split their time with franchises other than Seattle. Chipper was drafted by Atlanta, and after 22 years, he'll retire in Atlanta.

In 1990, the Braves were the laughing stock of the National League when they drafted 18-year old Larry Wayne Jones. He debuted in 1993, became a full-time Major Leaguer in 1995, and he's been tormenting the National League (especially the Mets) ever since. After 21 years, all Chipper has done: 7 All-Star appearances, a battle title, an MVP, played a key role on 11 of the Braves' 14 straight division titles, won a World Series and put together the highest OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of any third baseman in MLB history.

Even the biggest Braves hater out there would admit Chipper is among the top five third basemen and top five switch-hitters of all-time. I would say he's top three in both categories (trailing only Mike Schmidt and George Brett in the former and Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray in the latter). There has been some debate on this, but as far as I'm concerned, there is none: Chipper Jones is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The only Braves that I've seen with my own eyes that are bigger locks for Cooperstown are Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.

Crowder had an amazing run at Marquette,
but it came to a disappointing end Thursday.

So, the day started with the news that arguably the greatest Brave in my lifetime is hanging it up. The day ended with a disappointing loss by my beloved Marquette Golden Eagles. There are dozens of blogs and great perspectives on the season. I'll just sum it up by saying this: the loss was very disappointing because Marquette had a golden (no pun intended) opportunity to get back to the Final Four. The top seeds in Marquette's bracket (Michigan State and Missouri) were out, and the road to get to New Orleans was there.

Teams like Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and Kansas can always say "we'll have a good shot at the Final Four next year." Marquette can't. Seasons like this one are rare, and it will be tough to replace the production of Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom. That's 35 points per game graduating. I'm not sure where it's coming from next year, but we can break down the depth chart another day.

I think calling the season a disappointment (as some have) is a stretch. Sure, the team had some frustrating moments, but the body of work is pretty solid. Marquette finished second in the Big East (best in its seven years in the league), had the conference player of the year, beat Wisconsin in Madison and reached back-to-back Sweet 16's for the first time since Al McGuire was the coach. Marquette's run of seven consecutive NCAA tournament appearances is the longest active streak in the Big East. That's a pretty good year. As my friends at Anonymous Eagle said, though, the loss Thursday definitely kept it at "good" and prevented it from being "great."

The ironic part about my Braves/Marquette loyalties: they help me get over each other. Now that Marquette is done, I watch spring training games, draft a fantasy baseball team and look forward to the summer. When the Braves are knocked out later this year, I'll be counting down the days to Marquette Madness and the beginning of another year of college hoops.

The Big Guys' Bubble vs The Little Guys' Bubble

One bad game. That's all it takes for a regular season champion of a small league to see an entire season of work go up in smoke. It may have happened Monday night to Oral Roberts and Drexel, and it may have happened over the weekend to Iona. Those teams from traditional one-bid leagues really need to wow the selection committee to be considered for at-large bids, and I'm not sure any of them have done quite enough.

I know their fans want them to get another shot, that they get tired of seeing eight more teams from the Big East or Big Ten get in while their leagues only get one. That's why we have things like the RPI to see if the dominant teams in the small leagues measure up to the underachievers in the big leagues. While those numbers never do tell the full story, it is unfortunately all we really have to go on.

I'd like to think that ten teams from one conference is too many. As these leagues get bigger and bigger, though, maybe it's not. Even so, if a team is tenth in its own league, is it really worthy of a national title shot? Isn't that the point of letting all of these little teams in: to find out if one of them truly is special and could play with the big boys?

It's tough to tell when we get down to those last five or six teams in the field. All we can do is go by the numbers. As tired as this game may be, let's go to the blind resumes! Who do you like?

Eight of the twelve are in the field according to Joe Lunardi, and seven are in according to Jerry Palm. Which four or five would you leave out? Answers coming up in a bit.

What impresses you from the above? Do you like Teams A and B? They played impossible schedules, took some lumps but did manage to get a few quality wins.

Teams C and D also played tough schedules, but have repeatedly come up short against top-notch competition. Do they get rewarded for the tough schedules or punished for the lack of big wins?

Teams E, G, K and L  piled up a lot of wins against mediocre competition but combine for two wins against the RPI top 50. Do all of those wins give them a pass on their weak schedules, or should they be punished for never playing or beating anyone? The players can't control who they play. They can only beat the teams on their schedule, but other teams played and beat better teams.

Okay, answer time. Who did you have in and out?
A - Colorado State
B - Connecticut
C - South Florida
D - Northwestern
E - Iona
F - Texas
G - Oral Roberts
H - Xavier
I - Seton Hall
J - Washington
K - Middle Tennessee
L - Drexel

My opinion: teams with an RPI in the 30's or better with some quality wins like UConn and Colorado State need to be in. The dilemma for me is choosing between teams that never played or beat anyone great (Drexel, Middle Tennessee) and teams that had their shots at the top teams but lost almost every time (South Florida, Northwestern). I think some of the little guys like Iona should be in over the big schools that had their shots and failed over and over.

Obviously, some of these teams are going to be left out. Maybe it would be right to trim a few teams out of the huge conferences and let a few small teams in. It's a shame that teams like Oral Roberts and Drexel can have one bad loss ruin an otherwise great season while teams like Connecticut and Texas only need one good win to make up for a season of mediocrity.

Honestly, I think smaller leagues should do away with conference tournaments and give their bids to the regular season champion like the Ivy League does. The idea of having a conference tournament to allow other teams to steal a bid really only benefits the bigger conferences. It punishes the champions and devalues the regular season in smaller leagues.

All the little guys can do right now is hope the other bubble teams have bad first-round conference tournament losses, the kind of ugly losses that make the committee say, "Forget these guys. They've had their shot. Let's look elsewhere."

The committee has shown some more love to mid-major conferences lately. UAB and VCU surprisingly got in last year, and VCU made a historic run to the Final Four. Their run came just five years after fellow CAA team George Mason surprisingly got in and also made a Final Four run.

Letting small teams in can be fun, but let's not forget one big problem with limiting the number of bids to the big conferences: they have a lot of good teams, many of which would probably coast to a Summit League or MAAC championship. Do you remember who finished ninth in the Big East last season?