Columnist Dean Juipe: Best teams aren’t playing for NCAA title

Dean Juipe

Monday, March 31, 2003 | 11:25 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

This is not how I remember college and being a collegian.

Back then, if someone gave you something, you took it.

If they offered to make your life easier and asked nothing in return, you accepted it.

If they wanted to hand you something on a platter, you grabbed it.

But apparently that's not the way things are done today. At least not if the men's side of the NCAA tournament is any indication.

What is it with college guys these days? Don't they take handouts? Have freebies been banned?

Is the easy road verboten?

I'm searching for an apt psychological term to describe what has happened through the tournament's first two-plus weeks, but I'm afraid no such description exists. Perhaps it's the Law of Diminishing Expectations: As the challenge perceptively subsides, the ability to meet that challenge is reduced proportionately.

"Riddle me this," Frank Gorshin might say. "When is a Final Four not a Final Four?"

The answer: "When three of the participants aren't really Bat(tle) tested."

I admit it, I'm disappointed.

Three of the four No. 1 seeds are out and what once looked to be a Final Four showdown loaded with big guns has been reduced to a flare up between kids with water pistols. A tournament that was once primed to showcase four of the country's elite programs is, instead, now the equivalency of a preseason invitational in the Bahamas.

It's down to Kansas vs. Marquette and Syracuse vs. Texas, which can only mean one thing: patsies such as East Carolina and Fordham couldn't get a flight in.

Yes, I'm bitter, I know you can tell. I wanted to see Kentucky, I wanted to see Arizona and I was willing to see Oklahoma.

I wanted the teams that had played the best during the bulk of the season to be there in New Orleans for the Final Four. I wanted no part of underdogs and Cinderella stories.

I wanted something for the ages.

But with the exception of Texas, a No. 1 seed that managed to buck the trend and win its regional Sunday, what we've got is a second- and third-string Final Four. And all because the favorites let up, eased off the pedal, however you want to put it.

They refused the gifts that were placed upon their door.

I'm convinced there's something mental about what happened, and I'll even localize it for you by going back to UNLV failing to beat Colorado State in the Mountain West Conference tournament final. After the Rebels saw CSU upset Brigham Young, they expected to waltz past the Rams in the championship game, but, instead, they came out flat, let what lead they had slip away, and were suitably dismissed.

Similar scenarios were evident in at least three of the four NCAA brackets.

In chronologic order, Kentucky was anticipating a rigorous game with Pittsburgh in the Midwest Region final -- Pitt, after all, was No. 4 in the final regular-season poll and was picked by Sports Illustrated to upset the Wildcats -- but when the Panthers lost to Marquette the regional final suddenly looked easy from where Kentucky was sitting.

Yet when the game was actually played, Saturday, a team with five regular-season losses and a mere Conference USA at-large representative not only beat the No. 1 team in the nation but one with a 26-game winning streak.

Arizona, the country's No. 2 team and the No. 1 seed in the West, saw that Kentucky had lost and suddenly those Wildcats pictured themselves breezing past not only regional finalist Kansas but Marquette in the national semifinal. But, lo and behold, Arizona comes out and plays terribly against Kansas and is eliminated.

OK? Now, on to Sunday afternoon and another No. 1 seed, Oklahoma, has to be feeling it is the best team left standing, what with Kentucky and Arizona already out. So what do the Sooners do? Crash and burn in the East final, losing to a Syracuse team that won despite shooting a dismal 31 percent.

Only Texas, playing before what amounted to a home crowd in the South final at San Antonio, was able to break the pattern, defeating Michigan State as bettors had expected.

Four big games over the weekend and only a single favorite won, let alone covered.

As a result, instead of a Final Four with teams ranked No. 1 (Kentucky), No. 2 (Arizona), No. 3 (Oklahoma) and No. 5 (Texas), what we have is Texas plus Kansas (No. 6), Marquette (No. 11) and Syracuse (No. 12).

The easier the scenarios appeared for each of the favorites, the worse they played.

Shoot, if it weren't for the Longhorns the tournament would have had its first Final Four without a regional No. 1 seed since 1980.

No sir, this isn't what was expected and I think today's college kids need to learn a lesson: Take what others are willing to give you and don't feel so guilty about it.